Understanding Portrait support across our media players

Overview

The way that we achieve media playback in portrait orientation can be vastly different across our supported media player platforms.

This article is intended to give an overview of the key differences between the approaches, the differences in portrait support across the media player types and will ultimately make recommendations about which approaches should be used for the best results dependent on the media player platform being used.

Native portrait video playback vs pre-rotated portrait video playback

Two different methods can be used to render videos in portrait orientation:

1. Native portrait video playback
2. Pre-rotated portrait video playback

In this section, we will cover the difference between the two methods as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Native portrait video playback

When we use the term native portrait video playback we are referring to a media player’s ability to render correctly a video that is encoded in portrait orientation (such as 1080x1920).

To be able to render a video encoded this way the media player must be able to rotate the video during the rendering process and it is important to understand that not all of our players can do this.

The diagram below shows the key steps required to render a video encoded in a portrait orientation correctly.

The key benefit to this approach is really for content creators as it is more natural to encode the content in the orientation that it will ultimately be displayed. The extra rotation step in the rendering pipeline does add additional overhead, which could negatively impact playback performance but generally, most media players that support native video portrait playback have been optimised to ensure that this is not noticeable.

Pre-rotated Video Playback

The alternative method is to pre-rotate videos during the encoding process. This approach works universally as there is no requirement for the media player to support video rotation. In this case, the media player is simply playing a landscape video but the display itself has been physically rotated.

The diagram below shows how this works.

The key advantages to this method are:

1. It works universally across all of our supported media player platforms
2. There is no performance overhead as a result of requiring the device to apply the rotation

The big disadvantage to this approach is that it generally adds additional steps in the content creation pipeline to pre-rotate the videos before they are published to the media players.

Which method should I use?

If your media playback device supports native portrait video playback then it is generally recommended to take advantage of it because it can save significant time in content creation and preparation.

If your media playback device does not support native portrait video playback then you will need to pre-rotate your videos. You may also choose to do this if you create content to display across multiple device types where one or more support native portrait video playback but one or more do not. This ensures you can maintain one consistent content creation workflow and output content that renders correctly across your entire estate of players.

Which media players support native portrait video playback?

Most but not all Signagelive media players support native portrait video playback. Note that the way this is configured is different for each device.

The following table lists the Signagelive media player types that support native portrait video playback with links to the relevant articles for configuring each. 

Media Player	Help Center Article	Notes
SSSP E Range	Link	Not supported on C and D range displays
SSSP Tizen (all generations)	Link	You should use the native portrait app when you want to embed interactive widgets and/or webpages
LG webOS 3.0+	Link	Not supported on webOS 1 and webOS 2 displays
BrightSign 3 and 4 series	Link	When content is below FHD resolution
BrightSign 5 series
ChromeOS	Link
Philips	Link	Although supported, playback performance is poor due to hardware and software limitations. We strongly recommend using the standard client using prerotated content.
IAdea	Link
Electron (Windows & Mac)	Link (Windows) Link (Mac OS)

Which media players require pre-rotated videos

The following media players do not support native portrait video playback and require videos to be pre-rotated to display in portrait orientation:

1. LG webOS 1 and 2 displays
2. SSSP C and D series displays
3. Amazon devices
4. Brightsign 3 and 4 series, when content is above FHD resolution

How can I find out more?

You can always search for answers with the Signagelive Help Centre, but rest assured we have a dedicated Support Team that is ready to assist you with any questions you may have. We are always here to help as best we can, so just contact us for any help you require.