Support for Scala Media Players goes through your regular Scala support channels. See Services & Support for more information.

The type of content you can display depends on the Player license. The Scala Media Player–L is normally paired with the Lite player license, which supports playback of:

• Video
• Static/dynamic images
• HTML5

The intensity of content you can display depends on the Player hardware capabilities, number of screen zones, and so on. The Scala Media Player–L is a value-oriented device, good for a range of light to moderate-intensity content. It is a best practice to always test your content on the intended media players before deploying the content. For more information about the Lite player license see License Functionality Matrix.

The Scala Media Player–L has about 8.7 GB available on its D: drive for content and related files.

How much content you can use depends on how often the content files actually change. This is because the:

• Player continues to play the content from the current plan until all the files for the new plan are fully downloaded
• Player cleans up unneeded content nightly

As a rule of thumb, a total content size of 1/2 to 1/3 the total available is fine, meaning 2.9 GB to 4.3 GB is a safe amount of content. The actual limit can be a lot higher or lower in cases of extreme content update patterns. Here are some examples:

A media player is a very dynamic system. Although Scala designs and tests these systems to run for many weeks with complex content, there is always a small probability of degradation over time. To keep systems running smoothly, it is a best practice on the Scala Media Player–L to schedule a nightly reboot. To do this from the player, see Scheduling Regular System Restarts for SMP-L.

Since UWF protects important files and registry values, any maintenance jobs that are designed to modify protected files should take this into account. Please follow the procedure described in Remote Maintenance on Players That Use Write Filters.

Unlike most versions of Windows 10, Windows 10 IoT allows rich control over whether and when Windows Updates are applied. On Scala Media Players, Windows Update is disabled by default because:

• Many Windows updates, including security updates, are of no benefit to the player and can compromise system behavior.
• The administrator may want to control the timing of the bandwidth and the system restart that is needed.

For instructions on how to remotely apply a specific Windows Update using Scala Enterprise Content Manager, see Remote Installation of Microsoft Hotfixes on a Player.

You can configure Player to require a numeric password after hitting <Escape> in order to exit playback. In your MMOS.INI file, set

INPUTMGR_EscapeKey=0
INPUTMGR_EscapePassword=12345

To exit, you must then type <Esc> 12345 <Enter>. The password can be any number from 1 to approximately 4.2 billion.

Typically, you should also disable the Window close function (Alt+F4):

INPUTMGR_WindowClose=0

Storage devices only: To prevent Windows from accessing USB storage devices, use the registry editor, as follows:

1. Run RegEdit.
2. Navigate to the registry location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\UsbStor
3. Select the Start registry-value, and change its value-data to 4

To reverse this, change the registry value-data back to 3.

All devices: Using the Windows Group Policy feature, it is possible to blacklist all devices (including keyboards and mice), and even whitelist specific input devices from specific vendors.

Generally, you can expect higher performance and stability if you use the Scala Player Configuration tool to set the display mode for 90 or 270 degree rotation, compared to using the device driver display rotation feature.

The way Solid State Drive (SSD) storage works, each data cell can be re-written thousands of times, but there is a limit. By reserving some space, the drive can perform "wear-leveling", which means that the drive intelligently moves data around to maximize the overall working life of the drive and to replace any cell that has reached its limit. In the partition manager, this reserved space appears as unallocated.

The Windows UWF feature requires that the paging file (virtual memory storage) be on a partition that does not have UWF protection. Therefore, a second partition is needed. On Scala Media Players, we also place the content and configuration folders for the Scala Player application, as well as various temporary files, on this second partition.

Please contact your Scala representative for more information.

The Scala Media Player–L has many BIOS settings. Specific settings to note include:

• On the BIOS Advanced tab, under CPU Configuration:
  • Scala recommends that Intel Virtualization Technology be set to Disabled.
• On the BIOS Chipset tab:
  • Scala recommends that AC Power Loss be set to Power On.