Do you need a media player for a screen in your shop?

What a player is for

A player is a small computer that sits behind the screen and does the work: downloads what to show, plays it and keeps it up to date. It exists because, for a long time, TVs couldn’t do any of that themselves. See how digital signage usually works for where it fits in the usual setup.

Most TVs sold today are computers already. They have Wi-Fi, a processor and a web browser. A moon is a web page made to run in exactly that browser.

Option 1: the TV on its own

1. On the TV, open the web browser. On LG it’s called Web Browser; on Samsung, Internet.
2. Go to moonsuite.live/tv/. The TV shows a six-character code.
3. On your phone, sign in at moonsuite.live, open Screens, and type the code.

That’s Marisol’s setup: no box, no extra cable, no extra socket. It works on LG and Samsung TVs from 2018 or later, and on many commercial displays that have a browser.

Option 2: a streaming stick

An Android TV or Fire TV stick plugs into the TV’s HDMI port and draws power from USB or a small adaptor. Our app for both can be installed on the stick by hand today, and it starts the moon by itself when the stick powers on. This is the tidy choice for:

• Older TVs without a browser, or with one too old to run a moon.
• Screens that must come back on their own after a power cut, with nobody touching them.
• Monitors that have no smarts at all.

Option 3: a computer you already have

An old laptop or mini PC on HDMI works too: open moonsuite.live/tv/ in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, go full-screen, and pair it. It’s the most flexible and the most to look after: set it not to sleep, and not to restart for updates during opening hours.

Which one?

About the story. The people and businesses in these guides are made up. They show how we expect a moon to be used, not the experience of real customers.