Driving more than one display
One player can drive up to four screens, showing the same content on each. How many depends on the device, and the outputs it exposes.
A single player can drive more than one screen. How many depends on the device.
What it does
Every output shows the same picture, mirrored. That is the point of the mode: one player, one playlist, several screens showing it.
[!IMPORTANT] This is not a way to run different content on each screen. Independent playlists per output are not what this mode does. If you need two screens showing different things, use two screens in your dashboard.
How many displays
| Device | Displays |
|---|---|
| Player Max Mk2 and Mk3 | 4 |
| Player Max Mk1 | 2 |
| Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 | 2 |
| Raspberry Pi 3 | 1 |
The outputs
Player Max Mk2 and Mk3 expose four video outputs you can use at once: two HDMI, and two USB-C carrying video over DisplayPort Alt Mode. The USB-C outputs need a suitable USB-C to display cable or adapter.
Raspberry Pi 4 and 5 expose two micro HDMI outputs.
Connect each output to its own screen. All of them show the same mirrored image.
Resolution on each display
The player reads the displays that are connected, and each one runs at its own preferred resolution. A second display mirrors the first whichever order they were plugged in, and 2 displays with different resolutions both show the whole picture. This needs ScreenlyOS 26.8.0 or newer.
A Raspberry Pi 4 runs a display at up to 1080p, even when the display is 4K. That covers the Pi 4 Model B, the Pi 400, and the Compute Module 4. A Raspberry Pi 5 and a Player Max run a 4K display at 4K. Content on any Raspberry Pi stays at up to 1080p either way, so only a Player Max shows 4K content.
From ScreenlyOS 26.6.0, a player can also keep a resolution and a rotation for a particular display rather than for a port, and the setting follows that display to another port. A resolution set this way overrides the 1080p limit on a Raspberry Pi 4. These settings cannot be changed from the dashboard yet.
On Screenly Anywhere
Multiple displays work on Screenly Anywhere too, but nothing about it is configured in Screenly.
In a browser, it is entirely the host operating system's business. How many displays you get depends on how many monitors are attached to that machine and how the system is set up. There are no display settings inside Anywhere.
On Android, behavior varies by device and by Android version, because multi-display support differs between manufacturers.
A joined surface
Driving several outputs as one continuous canvas, a video wall, is a different thing from mirroring, and it is not a released feature. It is proven on our hardware, but the layout still has to be configured by hand.
If you need a video wall rather than mirrored screens, talk to us rather than planning around it.