Menu Boards

[kritikos]

If you were interested in digital menus, with couple hundred bucks you could get decent size TV’s. Doesn’t have to be smart or anything fancy.
Then you could get an amazon fire tv box (1 per tv) to use as media players, and set it up for free at digitalsignage.com.
So with lets say $250 - $300 per tv (x4 = $1200), $80 per media player (x4 = $320), and $50 for brackets per tv (x4 = $200), you could have a digital menu board setup of 4 tvs with less than $2000.

I can even help you thru some basic steps to get setup if you want too.
Feel free to ask if you have any questions!

Happy new year

Steve,
Question for you. I’m want to try to setup the digital menus like you described. But if I already have the menus , could I just put each file on a flash drive instead if the fire box?

                                                                Bobby

 

[Steve.L]

Steve,
Question for you. I’m want to try to setup the digital menus like you described. But if I already have the menus , could I just put each file on a flash drive instead if the fire box?

                                                                Bobby

Hi Bobby,
Quick answer is yes you could. You’ll have to add the files as pictures (jpeg format), and select the source/input USB at your TVs.
The only problem you could have by doing that is that you could eventually start burning pixels on your TV due to the still image.

 

[durbancic]

Hi Bobby,
Quick answer is yes you could. You’ll have to add the files as pictures (jpeg format), and select the source/input USB at your TVs.
The only problem you could have by doing that is that you could eventually start burning pixels on your TV due to the still image.

You have to make sure your TV will support it the way you want it to. We have 2 Samsung TV’s that will hold a still image on them. We then leave them on overnight with a WHITE picture to reverse the pixels. They have held up for 6 years now, no problems.
We also bought an LG TV to do the same thing, however it will not hold a still image. So we are forced to use this for a slideshow.
See picture below. We simply use USB drives with the pictures on them. Edit in photoshop. Have considered moving other routes, but other things are more important.

 

[Steve.L]

You have to make sure your TV will support it the way you want it to. We have 2 Samsung TV’s that will hold a still image on them. We then leave them on overnight with a WHITE picture to reverse the pixels. They have held up for 6 years now, no problems.
We also bought an LG TV to do the same thing, however it will not hold a still image. So we are forced to use this for a slideshow.
See picture below. We simply use USB drives with the pictures on them. Edit in photoshop. Have considered moving other routes, but other things are more important.

That looks a really nice setup
Not just the TVs, but the shop from what I can see in that picture.
Is your menu that small or you just didn’t include everything?

I used to do USB setups for customers, and I still do for some who are still using it. Just emailing them the updated files so they can upload them whenever they need changes. If the USB is supported, is good and worth it and the cost of setting it up is minimal.

Personally I prefer the Amazon Fire TV setup which for me is very convenient and reliable, low cost, and it’s easy to update when you need to, using photoshop.
The only downside to that is that you need to do a lot of workarounds to make it work. It takes me around 45 minutes per one to set it up the way I want to, but using Amazon Fire TVs, I have remote access to the TVs just in case anything happens. Plus you can add videos, slideshows etc.