Live Web Snapshot – Display a Web Dashboard or Info Page on Apple TV

Live Web Snapshot lets you display real-time web-based dashboards, status pages, or announcement boards on your Apple TV—even though Apple TVs can’t display live websites like a normal browser.

Instead of attempting to render the full webpage (which Apple TV doesn’t support), this feature captures a snapshot of the site every 60 seconds and pushes the latest image to your screen—giving you a near-live view of web content.

✅ What You Can Do With Live Web Snapshot

Live Web Snapshot opens the door to some powerful signage use cases, especially in operations-heavy, multi-room environments:

🚦 Display Internal Dashboards

• Show your Tableau, Geckoboard, or New Relic dashboards in lobbies, volunteer check-in areas, or tech rooms.

• Keep your operations team or volunteers aware of system health, usage stats, or live event check-ins.

🌤️ Show Weather or Room Info

• Display weather from a simple weather widget or webpage on-screen in your lobby or classrooms.

• Use it to combine room-specific info, like announcements, leader instructions, or service start times.

📢 Broadcast Announcements or Events

• Show a Google Sheet, internal webpage, or image-based board with weekly events, staff notes, or visitor instructions.

• Keep your on-site teams aligned—without printing paper signs!

🛠️ How It Works

Live Web Snapshot is available on Apple TVs managed in Playlister.

• You provide a webpage URL.

• Playlister’s system opens that URL in a secure, automated browser (aka headless browser).

• Every 60 seconds, it captures a snapshot (screenshot) of that page.

• The latest snapshot is then displayed as an image on your Apple TV screen.

• This means the Apple TV doesn’t open or render the webpage—it just displays the image.

🧪 What to Expect (and Not Expect)

While incredibly useful, Live Web Snapshot is not a full browser. That means:

✅ Works Best With

• Webpages that load content without user interaction

• Simple authentication (see cookie-based login below)

• Dashboards or public-facing status pages

• Static pages, Google Sheets, or iframe dashboards

• Weather widgets or internal signage pages

⚠️ Does Not Work Well With

• Pages that require login through popup windows

• Pages that load content based on mouse clicks or hovers

• Pages that are extremely large, animated, or built with complex JS

• Sites requiring two-factor or interactive login flows

🔐 Accessing Secure Sites

If your dashboard requires a login (like Tableau or Geckoboard), you can pass along authentication via cookies.

Here’s how:

1. Use this Chrome Extension to export your session cookies to JSON.

2. Open a new Incognito Window in Chrome.

3. Log in to your dashboard (and nothing else).

4. Run the extension and choose Export Cookies as JSON.

5. Send the cookies.json file to the Playlister team.

💡 Note: Using an Incognito window ensures you only capture the cookies needed for your dashboard, not for every site you’re logged into.

🚨 Error Handling: What if the Site Fails to Load?

If Playlister’s browser fails to load the page (due to expired credentials, site timeout, or bad URL), the TV will show a friendly error screen.

✍️ How to Add a Live Web Snapshot

1. Go to Stream Manager in the Playlister Settings.

2. Choose “Add New Stream URL” from the content options.

3. Paste in your URL and (optionally) upload a cookies.json file for login support.

4. Preview & Save.

That’s it! Your Apple TV will now display that webpage as an image, refreshing every 60 seconds.

🔍 Tips for Success

• Start simple. Test with a public-facing or non-authenticated dashboard first.

• Use incognito for cookies. Keeps your exported session clean.

• Don’t use password-protected pages with complex redirects. These won’t work yet.

• Give the page a custom name. This helps in screen management later.

🙋 FAQs

Q: Can I scroll the webpage on the Apple TV?

Nope—it’s a static image updated every 60 seconds.

Q: Can I make the snapshot interval faster than 60 seconds?

Not yet. This is fixed to balance performance and cost.

Q: Can I pull in a Google Sheet or Slides page?

Yes! Just make sure it’s publicly viewable or authenticated via cookie.

📌 PS from our CTO

1. Since the webpage is loaded on our servers, it must be on the public internet. For private webpages, use the image upload feature instead.

2. Any login method that uses cookies (most do) is session-based—some expire quickly depending on the provider.

3. Some extensions won’t work due to a Chrome bug. Use this one instead and set the export format to JSON:

   Get cookies.txt LOCALLY

🎯 Dashboard Tools We Recommend

• Dashmaster2k — Build your own team dashboards with YouTube support.

• DAKboard — Display weather, photos, calendars, and notes in beautiful layouts.

Have questions? Need help formatting your dashboard?

📧 Reach out to our support team anytime—we’re here to help.