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:
-
Use this Chrome Extension to export your session cookies to JSON.
-
Open a new Incognito Window in Chrome.
-
Log in to your dashboard (and nothing else).
-
Run the extension and choose Export Cookies as JSON.
-
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
-
Go to Stream Manager in the Playlister Settings.
-
Choose “Add New Stream URL” from the content options.
-
Paste in your URL and (optionally) upload a cookies.json file for login support.
-
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
-
Since the webpage is loaded on our servers, it must be on the public internet. For private webpages, use the image upload feature instead.
-
Any login method that uses cookies (most do) is session-based—some expire quickly depending on the provider.
-
Some extensions won’t work due to a Chrome bug. Use this one instead and set the export format to JSON:
🎯 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.
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.