NovoDS Release Notes - Novo Support

V4.4.0

Features

[Cloud] Implemented “Interactive Settings” in Playlist Editor to create interactive playlists for model DS310
[Device] Implement “Studio Express” for editing playlists and managing devices via mobile phones
[Device Firmware] Implemented “TCP/IP Control” to enable users to control device behavior, such as power on, sleep, etc

Enhancement & Changes

[Device Firmware] Improved UI resolution to true 4K
[Device Firmware] Improved rendering clarity of 4K-resolution images

Bug Fixes

Fixed several issues to improve software stability, including Calendar widget, Singlewire feature

V4.3.1

Enhancement & Changes

[Studio] Optimized user interface of Singlewire

V4.3.0

Features

[Device/Cloud/Studio] Supported new models of NovoDS series – DS110, DS210, DS310
[Device] Added “NovoDS Studio Express”
[Device/Cloud/Studio] Added “Singlewire” support, an emergency mass notification service
[Cloud] Added two-factor authentication to enhance log-in security
[Stidop] Auto Discover: Allowed users to define the IP range (not limited to the current subnet) for device discovery

Enhancement & Changes

[Device/Cloud/Studio] Removed Twitter (now X) widget. Namely, Twitter is no longer supported.

Bug Fixes

Fixdc several major issues found in the following widgets
- Text widget: font size couldn’t be changed when selecting “Static” style
- Social Media widget: “refresh period” didn’t work for Instagram

V4.2.7

Features

[Device/Cloud/Studio] Social Media widget: added Instagram login via Access ID

Enhancement & Changes

[Cloud/Studio] Twitter (now X) widget: Removed setting “Style” when using “Who to follow” (due to changes at X)
[Cloud/Studio] YouTube widget: remove setting “Display mode” (because it is obsolete)

Bug Fixes

Fixed several issues found widgets YouTube, Calendar, Text, Media, Webpage, Social media widget(Instagram)
Fixed layout issue when using Grid layout: when customizing layout grid using a mouse, the newly-built region was off by one row and one column

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