Basic Understanding
The Dynamic App Playlist is about proportional display time of content, while Advanced Playlists focus on zoned content displayed in scheduled order.
Dynamic App Playlist controls the percentage that a particular app is displayed. It helps to ensure proportional playback time for apps assigned to a Display Group(s). It’s recommended to use the Dynamic App Playlist when you’d like to balance how often an app appears and/or you’re using data triggers or Priority Play.
Advanced Playlists control what content is displayed, in what order, at what time. Along with this, Advanced Playlists control where on your display content appears. It is more specific to content than apps assigned to a Display Group(s). It’s recommended to use Advanced Playlists when you'd like content shown in a set order at a certain time and/or in a specific zone of a display.
Key Features
- Dynamic Layout Switching: Dynamic App Playlists enforce a choice between zoned or fullscreen layouts, while Advanced Playlists let you schedule both to the same Display Group and automatically switch between them.
- Unrestricted App & Playlist Zoning: Dynamic App Playlists limit secondary zones to a single widget from a pre-selected list. Advanced Playlists allow scheduling of apps or full playlist into any zone.
- Custom Playback Ordering: Dynamic App Playlists only allow asset ordering within a single app, while Advanced Playlists give control over playback order of content across multiple different apps.
See the chart below for a further breakdown of differences:
| Dynamic App Playlist | Advanced Playlists | |
| Items Displayed | Selected app (EX: Weather, Art, etc.) | Individual content items and playlists |
| Playback Cadence | Percentage of time per app (EX: Four apps at 25% = 15 min each per hour) | User-defined playback order |
| Dashboard Location | Dynamic App Playlist in the Display Group menu | Under Account in the left side menu as Playlists |
| How to Use | The slider/toggle sets each app's percentage. The lock icon pins an app's percentage so it won't shift when other apps are added or adjusted. | Playlist builder with per-item Duration, Repeat, Shuffle, Tags. |
| Scheduling | An ongoing proportional split across apps, and content within the apps can be scheduled for specific days and times. |
Full scheduling engine: schedules → schedule blocks → time periods, All Day, and weekly recurrence.
Allows for a calendar-based scheduling view if multiple playlists are scheduled into a single schedule. |
| Zoning and Layout | A zoning layout is applied to all App content. Users can’t change from full screen to zoned content. | With Layouts and Presentations users can split the screen into zones, mix fullscreen and zoned content. Full screen and zoned layouts are interchangeable. |
| Permissions Needed | Standard Display Group access | Role-based and per-playlist access (view-only by default) |
Additional Information
- When using YouTube, you can enter a specific duration that you'd like a video to play. If you’d like only the first minute of a video to play, enter 60s. If you’d like the entire video to play, enter the entire duration.YouTube allows users to generate a custom URL with the specific time frame you wish to play.
- When using Templates, if a length has been assigned to the template, that is the length that will cycle on your display.
- Ad Scheduler, HDMI Passthrough, IPTV Live Stream, RMN Gateway, Screencast, and Zoom aren’t supported for use with Advanced Playlists.
- Use of the Web Page app isn’t supported for the Android CorePlayer.
- Priority Play isn’t supported for use with Advanced Playlists. If you need content triggers, a Dynamic App Playlist should be used.
- Data and timing trigger set for content don’t apply when placed into an Advanced Playlist. When wanting to use a trigger on content, it’s recommended to use a Dynamic App Playlist.
- Scheduling limitations (Schedule for Later, Limit Time, Limit Days) don’t apply to content in an Advanced Playlist. Scheduling blocks can be used when building an Advanced Playlist to ensure content displays at a specific time/day(s).
For questions or concerns, please reach out to our Support Team at support@spectrio.com.