Explain a Screen's playback selection

The Playback card explains which content Tilecast Server expects for a Screen. Expected now names the selected presentation and its source: Takeover, Show Now, Schedule, or Default. This is expected selection; it does not prove what appeared on the physical display.

Read the Playback card

1. Open Screens and select the Screen.
2. Open Overview and find Playback. Expected now shows the selected presentation, why it won, and the latest reported Player state.
3. Read Default content below it. That presentation plays when no takeover, Show Now presentation, or content schedule is active.

A Group-managed badge means the default belongs to a Display Group. Changing it updates every screen in that group, and Studio asks you to confirm that scope before it saves.

Read the Schedule card

The Schedule card lists the content schedules that affect the Screen. Active now names the schedule behind the current selection. Other schedules lists the rest with their presentations and enabled state. Add schedule opens the schedule editor with the Screen preselected.

Next is truthful. Studio asks the server what it selects at the next evaluation boundary and only claims a change when the answer differs. Otherwise it tells you the current selection is still expected, or shows the boundary alone when the prediction cannot load. A boundary alone never promises that the content changes. For example, a schedule can end while another schedule selects the same Playlist.

Explain why this content won

1. Select Why this? on the Playback card.
2. Read Selection precedence. Takeover, Show Now, schedule, and default candidates appear in stable priority order with status badges, server reasons, and schedule intervals.
3. Read Content path to trace the selected playlist or layout through its widgets and data sources.

Synchronization, downloads, renderer state, and Widget support live in Diagnostics on the Playback tab, not in the explanation panel. An unreported Player profile is Unknown. It is not a report that the Player lacks support. A component-only Widget can remain blocked until a profile is reported. These reports do not establish media readiness, decoder behavior, network access, or actual rendering.

Inspect another instant

1. Select Why this?, then expand Inspect another time.
2. Choose a date and time under Inspect an instant. The panel states the browser time zone used by the picker and displayed dates.
3. Select Inspect. A future request uses current configuration and the latest reported Player state. A past request reads recorded expectations.
4. Select Use server time to return to the automatically refreshed view.

The current view refreshes every ten seconds. The calendar offers dates through the next ten years. A historical gap remains visible; today’s assignment cannot fill missing historical evidence. Historical expectations preserve recorded IDs and revisions even when the content no longer exists. They do not borrow current content names or Player capability profiles.

To check observed playback, select View Player-confirmed Activity. Recorded expectation, observed playback, and a snapshot of the display answer different questions. An open recorded expectation is not proof of actual playback.

See the Playback Plan engineering contract for the exact evidence rules and API error codes.