Troubleshoot a screen
Work out why a screen is blank, offline or out of date using connection, device, storage, capture and mirror diagnostics.
When a screen goes dark, falls behind or drops offline, the screen panel holds the answer. Open the screen, read the status rows from the top, and act on the first row that is not calm. For a screen that never paired at all, read connect a screen first.
What you can do
- Check the connection — See whether Brix reaches the screen right now.
- Diagnose a blank screen — Work through the likely causes for a screen with no picture.
- Read the device — Check the hardware, the two version numbers and the network.
- Check the downloads — See what the screen keeps for offline playback.
- Watch the screen live — Mirror the glass into your browser.
- Capture a frame — Take a picture of what plays right now.
- Send details to support — Copy the whole diagnostic report to the clipboard.
Open the status rows
- Go to Screens in the sidebar.
- Select the screen you want in the list.
- Scroll the panel down to the summary rows.
- Read the value on the right of each row.
- Select a row to expand the detail under it.
Check whether Brix reaches the screen
- Expand the Connection row.
- Read the headline value: Live, Slow updates or Offline.
- Read how long the screen stays in that state.
- Read the Last heartbeat line for the moment the screen last called home.
- Open Diagnostics for support for the round-trip time and the packet loss.
️ Offline means Brix heard nothing from the screen for ten minutes or more. The picture on the glass probably stays there. The screen only gets nothing new.
️ Slow updates means the live channel is closed. The screen still calls home about every five minutes, so cached content keeps playing. A change you make can take a few minutes to land.
️ A round-trip time under about 80 ms is excellent. Up to about 300 ms is normal.
Work out why a screen looks blank
- Expand the Connection row.
- Select What might be wrong?.
- Read the likely cause at the top of the block.
- Work down the Check, in order list at the TV itself.
- Start with the TV power and the input source.
️ The Check, in order list is a guided guess, not a measurement. Brix cannot see the TV, the cable or the input, and the block says so.
️ Possibly frozen and May be blank come from picture sampling. Static content raises both signals, so treat each one as a hint.
If the screen plays nothing because nothing reaches it, read put content on a screen. If the display turns itself off, read screen settings and display power.
Check the device and its player version
- Expand the Device row.
- Read Platform for the product name.
- Read Player core and Shell app for the two version numbers.
- Read the Wi-Fi or Ethernet block for the network the screen uses.
- Read the Display block for the resolution and the CEC control.
️ Player core is the part an over-the-air update replaces. Shell app is the Android or Windows app around the core. An older shell reports one number only, so the panel then shows a single Player app row.
Push a pending player update
- Expand the Device row.
- Scroll to the Updates section.
- Check the row reads Player app with the new version number.
- Select Update now.
- Wait for the button to report Done.
️ The player looks for a new bundle every six hours. A screen sits on an old core until somebody selects Update now.
️ Update now appears only for a pending player app update. The device manages its own operating-system updates, so those show a Pending status with no button.
Check what the screen keeps for offline playback
- Expand the Content storage row.
- Read the used and free figures on the meter.
- Scan Cached assets for any item marked Missing.
- Read Needs internet for content that stops when the connection drops.
- Select Force re-fetch to make the screen download everything again.
️ Content storage is the player's cache allowance. Device storage under Device is the real disk. The two figures disagree, and the panel names them apart for that reason.
️ Clear cache removes every local copy. The screen downloads the content again and can show its splash in the meantime.
️ A browser screen reports Managed by the browser here, because the browser owns its own storage.
️ Storage critical means the player stopped pre-staging new content. Storage tight means the player pauses emergency pre-staging.
Watch the screen live
- Open the screen panel.
- Select the … button beside Cast.
- Choose Mirror live.
- Wait for the header to move from Requesting session… to Live.
- Select the X in the mirror header to end the session.
️ The mirror ends on its own when the dialog closes. The player also ends a mirror after a long idle period.
️ Without a peer-to-peer video path the mirror falls back to about 2 frames per second. The header then reads Live · ~2 fps preview.
Capture a picture of the glass
- Expand the Activity row.
- Select Capture now in Captured frames.
- Wait for the fresh frame to arrive.
- Select Download or Copy to keep the image.
️ A browser screen cannot capture a frame at all. Every other screen can.
️ The device drains a capture request at its next check-in. After about 30 seconds the viewer gives up and tells you so.
️ A capture from a display-locked TV arrives sideways, and Brix turns the picture upright for you. The raw file therefore differs from what you see.
Understand why the screen plays what it plays
- Expand the Playing row.
- Read the Decision chain from the top.
- Find the highlighted step: deactivated, emergency, cast or scheduled.
Send the details to support
- Select the ID pill at the top of the panel to copy the screen ID.
- Expand the Activity row.
- Select Copy diagnostics to put the whole report on the clipboard.
- Read Player logs for the last 24 hours.
- Paste the report and the screen ID into your support ticket.
️ Player logs cover a rolling 24 hours only. The logs stop refreshing while the browser tab sits in the background.
To act on what you find across a whole fleet, read manage your screens.
Ready to get started?
Open Brix Portal