1. Overview

What is BRAVIA Signage Free?

BRAVIA Signage Free (hereinafter referred to as “BSF”) is a software that allows you to play contents on the BRAVIA when you copy video, still images, and HTML content files to USB flash memory and insert it to a USB port on the BRAVIA.

BSF supports the following three playback modes:

[1] Slideshow playback

When you copy contents such as videos and images to a USB flash memory and insert it to a USB port on the BRAVIA, the BRAVIA automatically starts to play these files. If there are multiple files, they will be played in order of file name.

[2] Playlist playback

You can create playlists with contents that are saved to the USB flash memory inserted to a USB port on the BRAVIA.

Playlists are lists that specify the playback order of contents such as videos, still images, and HTML. For example, if you want to play content in the order of video A, still image B, and video C, the playlist will be in the order of video A, still image B, and video C.

You can create playlists with the remote control of the BRAVIA. If you create playlists beforehand, you can change playback contents just by switching playlists during signage operation.

[3] Scheduled playback

You can create playback schedules and set playback schedules to your created playlists.

You can create schedules and set playlists with the remote control of the BRAVIA. Schedules can be set by setting “Select day of the week”/”Select date and time”, “Starting time”, and “Ending time”. You can also set it to playback in the same way every day by not setting the day of the week or the date and time.

Feature Overview

In addition to the playback modes above, there are other playback configurations in BSF, and you can configure them all with the remote control of the BRAVIA. Changed configurations are saved at BRAVIA internal storage.

[1] BGM and on-screen text

You can specify BGM and on-screen text to go with playback contents. In on-screen text, you can also specify font color, text background color, and text crawl in. Text background color configuration allows you to select from “none”, “plain”, and “opaque”, but the background color can be fixed or transmitted depending on your selected font color. If the text is long, you can make it scroll from the right side to the left side of the screen using “crawl”.

[2] Transition effects and duration

You can select fade-out and fade-in as transition effects between playback contents, and playback duration for still images and HTML. This duration is never applied to videos. Videos play for their full durations.

[3] Playlists

You can create playlists with contents that are saved to the USB flash memory inserted to a USB port on the BRAVIA. A playlist is composed of a content file, playback duration, on-screen text, and BGM. There is also preview feature to check the playlist while creating it.

[4] Playback schedules

You can create playback schedules and set playback schedules to your created playlists. This allows you to start and stop playlists in accordance with the schedules.

[5] Presentation mode

Normally, playback contents are automatically switched, but you can manually switch them with presentation mode. This allows you to switch contents with the left and right buttons of the remote control after playback has started in all playback modes: slideshow, playlist, and scheduled playback.

Supported media formats

BSF supports playback of videos, still images, audio (BGM), and HTML. There is a separate document about recommended content formats. Refer to Appendix I. Recommended Media Format as needed when preparing contents.

Video

Supported video formats are as follows:

(1) MP4 formated video with the following codecs:

• Video codecs: AVC
• Audio codecs: AAC-LC/HE-AAC

(2) MPEG TS formated video with the following codecs:

• Video codec: AVC/MPEG-2
• Audio codecs: AAC-LC/HE-AAC/MP1L2

(3) MP4 formated 4K video with the following codecs (Available only on a BRAVIA 4K model. The maximum frame rate is 3840x2160@60p):

• Video codecs: AVC/HEVC
• Audio codecs: AAC-LC/HE-AAC

Image

Supported image formats are as follows:

• PNG, GIF, JPEG, BMP
• JPEG with 4K resolution (Available only on a BRAVIA 4K model)

Audio

Supported audio formats are as follows:

(1) MP4 formated audio with the following codecs:

• Audio codecs: AAC-LC/HE-AAC

(2) MP3 formated audio with the following codecs:

• Audio codecs: MP3

HTML

BRAVIA also supports playback of HTML contents. Refer to “BRAVIA B2B HTML5 Solution Technical Manual” for more details.

Codec specifications

Specifications of codecs compatible with the above video and audio formats are as follows.

Codec	Specifications
MPEG-4 Part 10 (AVC/H.264)	BP@L3, MP@L4, HP@L4, 3D in top-and-bottom, side-by-side is supported.
MPEG-4 Part 10 (4K)	BP@L4.2, MP@L4.2, HP@L4.2, 3D is not supported.
HEVC (4K)	MP@L5.1, M10@L5.1, 3D is not supported.
AAC-LC	32k, 44.1k, 48k/384 kbps (max.)/up to 5.1ch
HE-AAC	32k, 44.1k, 48k/(ISO/IEC 14496-3 compliant/profile level 3)/up to 2ch

Seamless Playback

Seamless playback is a feature to transition content seamlessly without interruption.
BSF supports seamless playback for specific contents.
Refer to Appendix II. Seamless Playback Specifications as needed when preparing contents.