Videos Will Not Play or Stutter | easyCMS Digital Signage

A video that plays on your laptop is black, skipped or juddering on the screen, because each device decodes video with its own hardware.

Check in Studio first

In My screens, “Downloading new content…” or “Still missing some files” means the video has not fully arrived. Details on the screen shows free Storage, and What happened lists any “Problem reported: …” from the player.

The format that plays everywhere

H.264 in MP4 is recommended on every platform we sell; the rest is our conservative starting point.

Setting	Use
Container	MP4, faststart on
Video	H.264, Main profile. Avoid H.265/HEVC, VP9 and AV1 unless tested on that device
Resolution	1920 × 1080, no larger than the area it plays in
Bitrate	2–6 Mbps: very high bitrates cause judder
Frame rate	25 or 30 fps, constant: variable rates confuse low-power decoders
Audio	AAC, 128 kbps stereo, even on a silent video: an unusual track can fail the whole file

Fixes, quickest first

Symptom	Likely cause	Fix
Previews fine, black or skipped on screen	Codec the device cannot decode	1
Black video in a 4K layout on Android	Layout too large	2
Black video, audio plays	Android decoder setting	3
Judders	Bitrate, or too much at once	1, 4
Never starts	Download unfinished, or storage full	5

Re-encode the file to the format above. HandBrake is free, and faster than diagnosing. Swap the new file in ( Playlists and the Media Library). On Android, the status window lists undecodable files under Faultlist as Unsupported Video until the player restarts, so restart after the fix; Windows does not list them. On Windows, a codec pack added to force a file through can destabilise the machine.
Build Android layouts at 1920 × 1080. Android renders everything except video at 1080p and upscales, so a 3840 × 2160 layout gains nothing and often shows a black video. Put the 4K video in a 1080p layout: see Screen Resolution and Orientation.
Change an Android decoder setting. Only we can change these display settings: send us a support request with the screen’s name and the setting, for one screen or all. We change one at a time.
- Video Engine: ExoPlayer or Android Media Player; older SoC panels, and Philips on Android 7 or earlier, often need the latter.
- Use Multiple Video Decoders: off on low-cost hardware that shows black for the second video.
- Use a SurfaceView for Video Rendering?: when the video is black but the audio plays.
- Hardware Accelerate web content: only for video inside an embedded page.
Ask less of the device. An LG webOS or other SoC panel has far less headroom than a dedicated player: treat 1080p at a modest bitrate as the ceiling. Two videos at once, a heavy overlay or a webpage all cost headroom. On Android, the storage location is set in the player’s own settings: if internal storage stutters try SD, and the other way round; a worn card judders on its own.
Let it download, or clear space. A partial video plays as nothing (Content Never Changes). A full device never finishes: ask us to clear its cached data, a display setting only we can change. Never delete a player’s files by hand. Account library full? See Storage Quota and Media Uploads.

Whole screen black, not just the video? See Black Screens and Player Crashes.

Still stuck? Send a support request

If a re-encoded 1080p file will not play alone in an empty layout, send a support request with the file and the screen’s name.