NovoDS Release Notes

V4.3.0

Features

• Added “NovoDS Studio Express”
• Added “Singlewire” support, an emergency mass notification service

V4.2.6

Features

• Below models supported Facebook login via Access ID
  • DS100, DS200, DS300, DS301, DK3, EK2, EK3

Enhancements & Changes

• Twitter widget
  • Updated to support service changes by Twitter(now “X”).
  • DS100, DS200, DS300 no longer supports Twitter.
• YouTube widget – updated to support security changes by Google

V4.2.5

Enhancements & Changes

• [Device] DS110, 210, 310 support full-package firmware upgrade.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed serveral major issues found in the following widgets:
  • Social Media widget: Facebook
  • Social Media widget: Instagram
  • Calendar widget(when using iCal)
  • Text widget: Remote text via FTP
• Fixed playback issue when using Daily schedule.

V4.2.4

Features

• [Device] Supported Facebook via its Access ID on DS100, DS200, DS300
• [Cloud] Playlist sharing
  • Allowing users to share their playlists with any members of the same organization.
  • A shared playlist can be edited by multiple users. However, to ensure content integrity, the shared playlist can only be edited by one user at a time, in other words, when a shared playlist is edited by someone, other users will not be able to edit it at the same time.

  • Note: The existing function “Followed Playlists” is replaced by “Shared Playlists”.

Enhancements & Changes

• [Device] Optimized the animation effect of image transition
• [Device] Changed the time format in Calendar widget to follow System Time format (12h or 24h)

Bug Fixes

• [Device] NovoDS displaying a blue screen or returning to the home screen when switching schedule.
• [Device] NovoDS displaying a black screen when showing the image from some URLs in Twitter post.
• [Device] Webpage widget displaying a black screen when multiple Webpage widgets showing the same URL.
• [Device] Media RSS (MRSS) not displaying images.
• [Device] Corrected a translation error in French.
• [Device] The weekly schedule not working when the upload time of a schedule is within the scheduled time range.
• [Cloud] NovoDS Cloud did not show the default background color (black) after top-layer content is removed.
• [Cloud] Media widget – Modifying video playback duration could make playlists not play-able.
• [Cloud] RSS widget – Bullet-point formatting was mistakenly used when configuring RSS widget in slideshow mode.
• [Cloud] RSS widget – When Display Mode was set as “Slideshow”, MRSS was not shown. 
• [Cloud] Occasionally, content files could be missing after playlists/schedules were published to NovoDS devices.
• [Cloud] Occasionally, “Save” button didn’t work when editing playlists.
• [Cloud] Occasionally, a playlist containing multiple PDF files in one Media widget didn’t play.

V4.2.3

Bug Fixes

• [Studio] RSS – incorrect scrolling direction
• [Studio] Text – stuck in horizontal scrolling even if “static” or “vertical scrolling” was chosen
• [Studio] The default playlist was missing when importing a playback schedule from an NDSS file
• [Studio] The URL (web page address string) was incorrect when importing a playlist from an NPL2 file
• [Studio] The background color of weather widget was incorrect when importing a playlist from an NPL2 file
• [Device] Fixed YouTube not launching properly during/after GMS update for DS100, DS200, DS300
• [Device] Fixed classic style not displaying content in Twitter widget

V4.2.1

Bug Fixes

• [Studio] Fixed the issue when user uses RS232 command to change newline
• [Studio] Fixed correct the parameter of showType 

V4.2.0

New Features

• [DS cloud] Support new model: NovoDisplay DK3
• [DS cloud] RSS widget adds add vertical scrolling styles
• [DS cloud] Social media widget supports public links (of public Facebook)
• [DS cloud] Social media widget removes the column of Facebook’s user name
• [DS cloud] Webpage widget adds font-scaling configuration
• [Studio] Suppor new model: NovoDisplay DK3

Bug Fixes

• [Studio] Improve the stability of Remote Snapshot by eliminating redundant communications
• [Studio] Correct the layer ordering in preview mode
• [Cloud] Correct the layer ordering in preview mode

Known Issues about NovoDisplay DK3

• 4K video clips are not supported when DK3 is in Portrait mode.
• Remote Snapshot will return black screen when 4K video or YouTube is played

V4.1.2

New Features

• [DS Cloud] Support new models: Novo DS 301
• [DS Cloud] Implement feature “Save playlist as template” (without content)
• [Studio] Support new models: Novo DS 301
• [Device] Re-designed homepage
• [Device] Support external storage (microSD card) 
• [Device] Use new browser engine

Bug Fixes

• [Device] Fixed the issue of no audio output after NovoDS4K switched to HDMI-in.
• [Device] Fixed an issue where playlist content on the device was not synced with the remote site after deleting a file from OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Samba, and FTP.
• [Device] Fixed the playlist restart issue caused by the playlist content processing timeout.
• [Device] Fixed the issue of “Escape characters (such as “\r”, “\n”) in RS232 commands are not supported properly (when configuring them via NovoDS Cloud)”

V4.1.1

New Features

• [Device/Studio/DS Cloud] DS100 4K output.
• [Studio/DS Cloud] “Save As” support.
• [Device/Studio/DS Cloud] Media widget to play PDF with specified number of pages.
• [Device/Studio/DS Cloud] Support M3U & PLS & MP3 format.

Bug Fixes

• [Studio] Fixed page ID and page label mismatch when linking pages.
• [Studio] Fixed page clutter when changing page order with 10 or more pages.
• [Device] Fixed an issue of abnormal display of remote text/UTF-8/UTF-16/Unicode
• [Device] Fixed an issue of showing black screen when playing 10+ YouTube videos in a row.
• [Device] Fixed an issue of showing “loading” when long time playing YouTube video.
• [Device] Fixed an issue of crash when long time (39hr) playing PDF widget.
• [Device] Fixed YouTube widget stopping playing after 1 hour of playlist “resto bois”.
• [Device] Fixed YouTube widget crash after playing 4 hours playlist “resto bois”.
• [Device] Fixed the issue that DS devices could not be registered to NovoDS.com when the cloud service was enabled after software upgrade.
• [Device] Fixed an issue where the playback speed slowed down over time after playing a PDF for a long time.
• [DS Cloud] Fixed an issue where announcements/playlists were posted too slowly.
• [DS Cloud] Fixed an issue where sometimes playlists could not be published.
• [DS Cloud] Fixed the issue of abnormal display of “Last play”
• [DS Cloud] Fixed an issue where the “page number out of range” message was displayed instead of playing the PDF when the user ignored the “pdfPageRange” property.

Changes & Optimizations

• [Studio] Optimization of “NovoDS Cloud Manager”.
• [DS Cloud] FAQs #2 optimization for typesetting.

V4.0.0

New features

• [Device] Password protection for remote access to all Novo DS devices
• [Device] Support for displaying “weekly” events in the calendar with blue and green theme colors and two options:

• • Option 1: 7 days a week,
  • Option 2: 5 working days per week,

• [Device] Support DS audio announcement: upload audio files (wav, mp3) or record in real time.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the issue of showing “Next Run” after a single (one-time) schedule.
• Fixed the problem of abnormal display after synchronizing playback controls.
• [Device] Fixed the problem that the NTP Server time sometimes jumped to 2032

Changes & Optimizations

• Copyright updated to 2022
• [Device] NovoDS 100/200/300 no longer supports Facebook/Instagram widgets. The device shows “This Novo device no longer supports Facebook/Instagram Widgets”.
• Changed login from Facebook Widgets Widget to from Cloud (NovoConnect NC-X series and NovoTouch and NovoDisplay).
• Added “Publish to Device” hotkey in DS scheduler.
• Added hour: minute (“23:59”) time format to clock widget.

V3.9.2

Improvements

• Optimization and stability improvement

V3.9.1

New features

• [Device/Studio] Configurable TCP server on the device side. The user can enable/disable the TCP server for all data transmission between the device and NovoDS Studio from the “Preferences” setting. The default is “Disabled”.
• [Device/Studio] Configurable TCP port for FTP passive mode. The user can set a fixed TCP port/ports for FTP passive mode in the “Preferences” settings. The default port range is between 1024 and 65535.
• [Device] Support SMB 2.0 for Remote Media Widget.

Changes & Optimizations

• [Device] Optimized HDMI ON/OFF schedule.
• [Device] Optimized Watch Dogs.
• [Studio] Optimized Preview Engine
• [Studio] Optimized the teaching window of DS Cloud.

Bug Fixes

• [Device] Fixed the issue of YouTube frozen when YouTube is playing for more than 8 hours.
• [Device] Fixed a display error on network information (Ethernet displayed as Wi-Fi) in Homepage.
• [Studio] Fixed the issue of “Failed to transfer playlist content to NovoDS devices”
• [Studio] Fixed the issue of not being able to upload playlist for each device in the group.
• [Studio] Fixed the issue of not playing playlist after device unexceptional shutdown.
• [Studio] Fixed the issue of duplicate IP addresses in the group.

V3.9.0

New features

• [Studio] Use a fixed port in FTP passive mode for data transfer between Studio and device, and the default value is 20302.
  • Note: The port number can be changed in NovoDS_Setting.ini (for example, change the port to 20310, FTP_PASV_PORT_NUM=20310).

• [Device] Auto Time Zone Detection
• [Cloud] Upload playlist from PC to Cloud

Changes & Optimizations

• [Studio/Cloud] Optimized Facebook widget process and display text.
• [Cloud] Added “Region” field to the registration form
• [Studio/Cloud] Optimized the prompt text of offline DS devices.
• [Studio] Added quick switching function of playlist.
• [Device] Made the BSP compatible with the new/old WiFi module.
• [Device] The Android system settings will be maintained after the changing WiFi settings and restarting the system.
• [Device/Studio] Optimized DS scheduling check and execution time.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the issue of displaying extra “.” in the time field of Dutch weather.
• Fixed the access issue of multiple playlists accessing the same Google Drive Path.

V3.8.3

Improvements

• [Device] Support Google Drive security level for public link sharing in Sept 13th.

V3.8.2

Bug Fixes

• [Device] Fixed the issue of “Access issues with Google driver”

V3.8.0

New Features

• [Cloud] Thumbnail preview for playlist
• [DS Studio/Cloud] Support custom background color
• [DS Studio/Cloud/Device] Support Hikvision GLDL2PC-V counting camera

Bug Fixes

• [Device] Fixed the issue of “ No sound in Marvin Birthday playlist ”

Changes & Optimizations

• [DS Studio] Added about page in “HomeScreen”
• [DS Studio/Cloud] Added prompt message in “DS schedules”
  • When time overlap happens in playback schedules, the last schedule has a priority

• [DS Studio/Cloud/Device] Optimized the weather widget, use ” ° ” for temperature (for example, 65°).
• [Device] Updated Player library

V3.7.1

New Features

• [DS Studio] Renew www.novods.com AWS Server S3 key
  • To upload a playlist to www.novods.com by using NovoDS Cloud Manager, the following Software are required

• NovoDS Studio with version V3.7.1 or above.
• Cloud with version V3.0.0 or above.

V3.7.0

New Features

• Support NovoDS individual OTA update on NovoTouch EK-2 and LK-1 (NovoDS V3.7.0 above is required)
• [DS Studio] Support create an external Auto-start playlist for USB sticker or microSD card (NovoDS V3.7.0 above is required) (DS Studio > DS Playlist > Export > Auto-start playlist for external storage (clean up and duplicate a new one))
• [DS Studio] Support portrait mode in create playlist in NovoDisplay DK551P
• [NovoDS Cloud] Support delete account feature
• [NovoDS Cloud] Enable/ disable Email notification for publish playlist
• [NovoDS Mobile] Add send feedback
• [NovoDS Mobile] Add How to buy license
• [DS Studio] Support key Enter to “\n” on RS232 command

Improvements 

• [DS Studio] Preview engine enhancement
• [NovoDS Cloud] Auto save on edit playlist
• [NovoDS Cloud] Schedule display ON/OFF UI improvement

V3.6.3

Key Features

• Support HDMI-IN on NovoDisplay (Model name: DK431, DK551P, DK651, DK751) V4.2.1 above

Bug Fixes

• Fixed NovoDS4K HDMI-IN without sound issue

V3.6.1

Bug Fixes

• [Studio] Fixed the issue of “failure to configure Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)”

V3.6.0

New Features

• Add Factory Reset
• Add “NovoDS Remote” into NovoDS Studio installation package

Improvements

• Enhance communication security between NovoDS Studio and NovoDS devices
• [NovoDS Studio] Display total file size of playlists
• [NovoDS Studio] Add link to allow users to open the playlist’s folder
• [Device] Update Instagram & Facebook API
• [Device] Remote Media: support multiple GoogleDrive URLs
• [Device] Remote Text: support UTF-8
• [Device] Clock widget: update with new graphics
• [NovoTouch LK1] Enable RESTful APIs

Bug Fixes

• [Device] Fixed the issue of “failure to play 4K portrait video clips”

V3.5.2

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some translation (Spanish) issues in widget People Counting
• Fixed the issue of “Instagram log-in failure” (due to Instagram’s API updates.)

V3.5.1

Improvements

• Add option “Enhanced Rendering” to Webpage widget to enable user have more control on browser engine

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the issue of “some websites are not displayed properly by disabling Enhanced-Rendering” (E.g. https://www.sps.org/)

V3.5.0

New Features

• Add Store Traffic widget for users to manage store occupancy
  • Work with Vivotek “people-counting” camera (SC813x)
• Add “remote volume control” capability for NC-X700, NC-X900, NovoDisplay and NovoTouch

Improvements

• A number of GUI optimization for better user experience
• Simplify audio source configuration for NovoDSmini, NovoDS, and NovoDS4k

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the issue of “NovoDS crashes when decoding high-resolution images in Media widget”
• Fixed the issue of “RESTful API is not properly enabled in NovoTouch EK-2 series”
• Fixed the issue of “Caption is not shown in Clock widget when the display region becomes too small”
• Fixed the issue of “Images with a resolution of 1080p or above cannot be displayed properly in Webpage widget”
• [Bug] Fixed the issue of “automatic content refresh fails when using Remote-media’ FTP method”

V3.4.0

New Features

• Widget updates
  • Media – Support media files stored on Removable Storage
  • Text – Support URL in File Protocol
  • Twitter – Add “Classic” style
  • Clock – Add time zone and caption
  • Weather – Add “Contemporary” theme
  • Webpage – Add the option of button “Go Back”
  • Media widget – Add specify the playback timeslot for Video
  • Background Design – Add the option of picking color
  • Background Music – support audio streaming from the Internet (Internet Radio)
• Support synchronized playback for NC-X700, NC-X900
• Add Devices Setting for NC-X700, NC-X900 and NovoDisplay
• Support HDMI-in for X900

Improvements

• Preview Now –
  • Support multi-page PDF documents
  • Support Background Image
• DS Schedules – Add playlist names in “Description” field
• [Device] Show status messages when downloading content from Cloud storage the very first time
• USB webcam widget – Add the display area is full screen option
• Continued background music when background music can be setting for “Apply To All Pages”

Bug Fixes

• [NovoDS Studio] Fixed the issue of “playlist exporting/importing issue when the playlist contains non-English file/folder names”
• Fixed the issue of “Pictures in some Twitter feeds doesn’t show up” (The solution is to select “Classic” style in Twitter widget)
• [NovoDS4k Device] Fixed the issue of “media widgets are always covered by HDMI-IN video source”

V3.3.2

Bug Fixes

• [Device] Fixed Google Drive loading issue in Remote Media upon device reboot without Internet access.
• [Device] Fixed the issue of “failed to receive data from the server” upon logging into Google Calendar
• [Device] Fixed the issue of “black background left behind by video playback in Media widget”

V3.3.1

Improvements

• Update Instagram widget using their latest APIs to ensure future compatibility

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a certificate issue of Browser widget found in NovoDSmini, NovoDS, and NovoDS4k

V3.3.0

New Features

• [NovoDS Studio] Support new product models, including
  • NovoDisplay series
  • NovoConnect NC-X700 and NC-X900
• Support multi-video decoding on NC-X700, NC-X900, NovoDisplay, and NovoTouch LK series
• Display Settings – Add 1080p@50Hz, 720p@50Hz, and 4K@25Hz

Improvements

• [NovoDS Studio] Weather widget – add “Verify Location” to validate location information is entered properly.
• [NovoDS Studio] Clock widget – provide two new Analog-Clock designs

Bug Fixes

• [NovoDS Studio] Fixed the issue of “Filenames become garbled when exporting/importing playlists”
• Fixed the issue of “FTP Access is Blocked”
• Fixed the issue of “NovoDS doesn’t support flexible playlist”
• Fixed the issue of “blank Remote Snapshot” found in NovoDS Studio V3.3.0

V3.2.2

Bug Fixes

•  [Device Firmware] Fixed the issue of “showing Google Play services error”

V3.2.1

New Features

• Fixed the issue of “FTP Access is Blocked” only

V3.2.0

New Features

• [NovoDS Studio] Add the support of Local media, Webpage, Local Text, RSS, Weather, Clock, mp3, PDF, YouTube and IP Streaming widgets in the preview engine (“Preview Now”)
• Enable NovoDS devices (model DS200) to support playlists created with flexible layout
• Enable Media widget to support MP3 files
• [NovoDS Studio] Add “Display On/Off schedule” to device groups

V3.1.2

Improvements

• Add the support of text encoding “iso-8859-1” in addition to US-ASCII, Big5, GBK, UTF-8, and UTF-16

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the issue of “Twitter not working” (due to API changes at Twitter.)

V3.1.1

Improvements

• [Media widget] function: Add PDF format support
• [Preview] function: Add the support to show background picture and PDF files
• NovoDS Mobile: Add the option of disable/enable auto-launch upon power-up (Note: some Android tablets may not support this feature.)
• Clean up system logs every 24 hours (to avoid occupying too much storage space)
• Bundle two DLL files to avoid installation failure found in some versions of Windows (Home Edition).

Bug Fixes

• Fixed “RS232 failure” in previous release (V3.1.0)
• Fixed “Users can’t use custom background color in Text widget”
• Fixed “Newly-created playlist not showed up in DS Schedules and DS Devices”
• Fixed “YouTube playback stops after long-term continuous playback (more than 8 hours)”
• Fixed “Instagram log-in failure (due to Instagram API changes)”

V3.1.0

New Features

• [NovoDS Studio] Newly Redesigned User Interface
• [NovoDS Studio] Preview Now Feature
• Auto Reboot Feature
• Remote Volume Control
• Manual NTP Server Option

Improvements

• Hide Android drop down menu
• Display error message when unable to connect to Remote Media
• Auto-Start NovoDS Application Feature (only for NovoTouch and NovoDS Mobile)

Bug Fixes

• Update Weather API
• HDMI In will automatically resize to accommodate 16:9 Region
• When network connection is dropped, NovoDS returns to homescreen

V3.0.4

New Features

• [Clock Widget] – Countdown Timer Feature
• [Calendar] – Microsoft Office 365 Calendar support
• [microSD AutoConfig] – 802.1X and Time Zone Configuration
• [Web Widget] – “Hide Page Loading Progress” checkbox
• Apply to all pages feature for Background Music
• [Playlist] Background music to “Apply to all pages” feature

Improvements

• [Media Widget] Improved Picture Transition Effects
• [NovoDS Cloud] Limited file size to 2GB to improve user experience
• [NovoDS Studio] Improved transition speed from DS Playlists tab to DS Device tab
• [NovoDS4K Only] Improved HDMI In Performance

Bug Fixes

• Fixed Import Region Issue
• Fixed the Schedule with multiple playlists issue

V3.0.3

New Features

• Launch NovoDS Cloud Service
• Facebook and Instagram Support
• 8 Picture Transition Effects – Including Ken Burns Effect, Card Flip, Zoom In, Fade In, Fly In, Float In, Fly Out, and Rotate
• Calendar – iCalendar and Google Calendar Support
• Google Drive – Remote Media / Remote Text Public Link Support
• Flexible Layout for NovoDS4K Playlists

Improvements

•  [Twitter] Added Twitter Hashtag Support
•  [Text] Vertical Scrolling Text – Added Speed Control
• [Logs] Log Download (System Log & App Log)
• [Studio] Added Play and Stop Buttons in Settings/Playlist Tab
• Display On/Off Configuration for Device Groups

Bug Fixes

• Fixed “Close this application, and install “PowerPoint” from Microsoft Office first” Issue when user tries to add PowerPoint file as Media
• Fixed the Inability to play media from Dropbox folder public link
• [MAC] Fixed the inability to use grid layout for NovoDS4K only
• [MAC] Fixed the exporting and importing of playlists between MAC and PCs.

Known issues

• [Remote Media] Single File Public Links for Google Drive and Dropbox currently not supported
• [Flexible layout] When HDMI-IN and Google Calendar overlap, user cannot input his account info

V3.0.2

New Features

• Add Instagram/Facebook widget
• Enable the support of NovoDS Cloud service •Device firmware supports future NovoDS Cloud service •Cloud Upload Manager is added to NovoDS Studio software

Improvements

• Optimize “DS Schedule” GUI, making it more intuitive
• Improve “Import/Export” operation flow
• Bug-fix: Remote text supports both ASCII and Unicode strings

V3.0.0

New Features

• The list of supported device models
• Supported flexible layout
• New picture transition effects

Improvements

• Improve RS-232 and HDMI UI

V2.4.2

New Features

• Rename NovoDS Simulator to NovoDS Mobile for Android devices.
• The latest features of NovoDS for PC & Mac, now available on Android. Click here for more details

Improvements for NovoDS Studio PC/Mac users

• Web engine HTML5 performance is improved by 40%
• Stability of web rendering engine and YouTube long-term playback
• Reduced the duration of transitions between the consecutive video clips

Bug Fixes for NovoDS Studio PC/Mac users

• Fixed HDMI compatibility issue with Panasonic LCD panels
• Fixed file name issue when accessing Dropbox folder (Remote Media)

V2.4.0

New Features

• Rename NovoDS Software to Novo Studio for PC/MAC operation
• Launch NovoDS Remote App
• HDMI input for background or front page playlist content design (available in NovoDS4k)

Improvements

• Support Multi-Playlist & Multi-Players Synchronization
• 8 Pre-defined Overlay Messages

Bug Fixes

• MicroSD card auto play issue