# What you actually need before you put anything on a screen > The real shopping list for digital signage is four things, and three of them are already in the building. Here is the list, what a media player box genuinely buys you, and whether the TV from the stockroom will do. Source: https://channelos.tv/academy/what-you-need-to-start Published: 2026-10-29 Track: Get something on the screen today Lesson 2 of 4 Plan: Free plan Time: about 5 minutes Author: The ChannelOS team **To run digital signage you need four things: a screen that can open a web page, a connection it can reach, a plug that stays on, and something you want the room to read. Three of those four are usually already in the building, because with ChannelOS the TV's own browser is the player, so there is no media player box to buy. A media player box is still the right purchase for sites with no reliable network, outdoor installs, and panels with no usable browser.** --- ## The short version, in 4 steps 1. Open the TV's own browser, load play.channelos.tv, and look for a six-character code. 2. Check the TV is on the wifi you will actually use day to day, not a phone hotspot you are holding at the time. 3. Find the TV's power-on setting so the screen comes back by itself after a power cut. 4. Write the one sentence the room has to read, because that is the only item on the list nobody can hand you. --- You searched for how to set up digital signage and the first page of results handed you a basket: a media player for every screen, a commercial-grade panel, a mount, a licence per device, and a number to ring for a site survey. None of that is wrong, exactly. It is the list for a different job than the one most people are actually doing, which is getting this week's prices onto the TV above the counter without a project. **The real list is four things: a screen that can open a web page, a connection it can reach, a plug that stays on, and something you want the room to read.** Three of those four are almost certainly already in the building. ## What do I actually need for digital signage? Four items, and nothing waiting further down the page. 1. **A screen that can open a web page.** Android TV, Google TV, LG webOS, Fire TV, a Chromebox, a mini-PC, or a laptop in kiosk mode. The test is not a brand, it is whether the device will load a URL, because in ChannelOS the TV's own browser is the player and there is nothing to install on the set. If the TV is not smart, any streaming stick already in a drawer makes it one. 2. **A connection.** The same wifi the TV already uses. No separate network drop, and nothing to open on the firewall beyond ordinary web access. 3. **A plug that stays on.** Mains power, plus the TV's own setting for what it does when power comes back. Worth finding in the picture menu before the screen goes up rather than after the first power cut. 4. **Something to say.** Six prices, four classes a day, this week's specials. This is the item nobody budgets for, and the only one of the four that takes real work. Everything else that usually appears on a signage starter list (a player box, a licence per device, a graphic designer, an installer) is optional, and we do not sell any of them. For one screen the software costs nothing. The ChannelOS free plan is one screen, no card, and it does not expire. It is not a trial, and a free screen does carry a ChannelOS banner, described in full below. ## Do I need a digital signage player? In the ordinary case, no, and it is checkable in two minutes rather than argued about. Open `play.channelos.tv` in the TV's own browser. If it loads and shows a six-character code with a QR code beside it, that TV is already the player, and all that is left is to scan the code with your phone. What a dedicated player box genuinely buys you, stated plainly, because all three are real: - **Local storage.** The content sits on the device, so playback keeps going through a long outage and through a cold start with no network. - **A hardened device that boots to one app.** No launcher, no notifications, no ads, no OS update changing the rules on a Tuesday. - **A commercial warranty and a support path**, and on the better hardware, GPIO, CEC or RS-232 so the panel itself switches on at open and off at close. ![A paired TV playing a ChannelOS slide, with nothing plugged in behind it](/shots/player.webp) Buy one anyway for a 4K video wall or screens that must stay frame-synced, a site with no network you would trust, an outdoor or industrial install, or a panel whose own browser is too old or too locked down to render a web page. Those four cases, and how to buy well inside them, are in [do you actually need a digital signage player](/blog/digital-signage-player-do-you-need-one). ## Do I need a commercial display, or will the TV from the stockroom do? A consumer TV works, and it is the cheaper answer. Three things decide whether to spend more, and only one of them is about picture quality. - **Hours a day.** Commercial panels carry a duty-cycle rating on the spec sheet, usually 16 or 18 hours a day, with 24/7 at the top end. A consumer set is built around domestic evening viewing. If your screen is lit 7am to 11pm, seven days a week, that rating is most of what the extra money buys. - **How much daylight hits the glass.** Brightness is quoted in nits. An indoor board over a counter reads fine at consumer brightness. A screen facing a shop window in direct sun does not, and no amount of design fixes a reflection. Stand where the customer stands, at the brightest hour, before you decide. - **The warranty wording.** Plenty of consumer warranties exclude commercial or continuous use. That clause does not bite on day one, it bites eleven months later. A board that holds the same layout for months is also the worst case for image retention, and OLED is the panel type that cares most: for a static price list, an ordinary LCD or LED set is the safer buy. The pixel numbers and the safe area to design inside are in the [digital signage size guide](/blog/digital-signage-size-guide). ## Is there a free digital signage app, and what does free include? Yes, with one thing you should see before you commit to it. **A free ChannelOS screen shows a ChannelOS banner along the bottom, and about every two minutes that banner opens into a full ChannelOS slide for about 30 seconds naming what ChannelOS is and the channelos.tv address, then folds back.** That is what pays for the free screen. Any paid plan removes both the banner and the slide. If the screen faces customers and that is not acceptable, the free plan is the wrong place to stop: Solo is 5 dollars per screen per month billed annually, 60 dollars a year, or 6 dollars billed monthly, with current rates on the [pricing page](/pricing). The free plan stops short in a few other places. It holds 2 shows at 3 slides each, plus one custom image up to 500 KB and one custom video up to 20 MB or 10 seconds. Free Pexels photos and video do not count against that, and neither do AI-generated images. Channels and scheduling, which is what puts a breakfast board and a dinner board on one screen by the clock, start on Solo. Brand kits start on Pro. And if all you want today is one finished board as an image, the free [menu board maker](/tools/menu-board-maker) needs no account, no email and no watermark, and downloads a 1920x1080 PNG. ## When is this the wrong answer? Three cases where you should close this page and spend money somewhere else. **A connection you cannot trust.** A screen that is already playing keeps playing when the wifi drops, and it keeps the show's pictures and clips in the browser's own storage so they are not re-downloaded every loop. What it needs the connection back for is a cold start: after a power cut the page and the show are fetched fresh. If a screen has to survive hours of outage entirely on its own, a vendor who sells a media player with local storage is the better answer, and that is a real reason to buy hardware. **Outdoor, forecourt, drive-thru.** A rated enclosure, a wide operating-temperature range and a high-brightness panel are a category of hardware, not a preference. A consumer TV does not go there. **Nothing on the screen ever changes.** If the thing you need to say is the same in March as it was in January, a printed poster is cheaper than all of this. A screen earns its place on the parts that move. ## So what do I do next? The four checks sit at the top of this page, and the first one settles it: if `play.channelos.tv` shows a code on that TV, the hardware shopping is finished. The fourth check is the one that actually stops people, and it is not a hardware problem. Write the one sentence the room has to read. If you cannot, a screen is not the next thing to buy. Next is [pair your first screen](/academy/pair-your-first-screen), the two minute version of the scan and the last step before anything is on the glass. ## Frequently asked questions ### What do I need for digital signage? Four things. A screen that can open a web page, a connection it can reach, a plug that stays on, and something you want the room to read. With ChannelOS the TV's own browser is the player, so there is no media player box to buy and nothing to install on the set. The first screen is free, and the only item on the list that takes real work is the fourth one. ### What is a digital signage player? A small dedicated computer that plugs into a screen's HDMI port, downloads your content, stores it locally and plays it on a loop. One box per screen, usually with its own licence. It exists so the screen keeps playing whether or not the network is up. That local storage is a real advantage on an unreliable site, and it is the one thing a browser-based screen cannot match. ### Is there a free digital signage app? ChannelOS has a free plan: one screen, no card, and it does not expire. A free screen shows a ChannelOS banner along the bottom, and about every two minutes that banner opens into a full ChannelOS slide for about 30 seconds naming what ChannelOS is and the channelos.tv address, then folds back. Any paid plan removes both. The three browser tools on this site need no account at all. ### How much is digital signage software? ChannelOS is priced per screen per month, in US dollars. The free plan is one screen at no cost. Solo is 5 dollars per screen per month billed annually, which is 60 dollars a year, or 6 dollars billed monthly. Pro is 8 dollars per screen per month billed annually. Every tier is priced per screen per month, so the bill follows how many screens you run. Check the pricing page for current rates. ### Do I need a commercial display? Not to start. A consumer TV works. Three things decide whether to spend more: the hours a day the screen is on, how much daylight hits the glass, and the warranty wording, because plenty of consumer warranties exclude commercial or continuous use. A board that holds one static layout for months is also the worst case for image retention, so an ordinary LCD or LED set is a safer buy there than OLED. ## Next lesson [Pair your first screen: the two minute version, and the four TVs that take longer](https://channelos.tv/academy/pair-your-first-screen) ## Further reading - https://channelos.tv/blog/digital-signage-player-do-you-need-one - https://channelos.tv/blog/no-media-player-required - https://channelos.tv/blog/digital-signage-size-guide - https://channelos.tv/blog/android-tv-digital-signage-app The whole curriculum: https://channelos.tv/academy and https://channelos.tv/academy.md