Player Compatibility

Which player should I pick?

Every player runs the same content from the same admin panel. Some are better at certain things — production workflows, portrait orientation, TV power scheduling. Use this page to match the player to the room.

Quick picks

Three common deployments and the player that fits them best.

Best bang for buck

Raspberry Pi 4 / 5

A $45–$60 board (Pi 4 4 GB or Pi 5 4 GB) that handles 1080p signage, 4K stills, hardware H.264 decode, CEC power scheduling, and portrait orientation. The default DisplayCache player — what you'll see in most lobbies, classrooms, and youth rooms.

Pair it with: any HDMI TV. Power over USB-C. Bootable SD-card image.
Setup guide →
Production booth / sanctuary

Intel NUC

When you need NDI source output into ProPresenter, vMix, or OBS — or when you're driving a 4K display with heavy live-stream content. The only player that publishes itself as an NDI source on the network.

Pair it with: Pulse-Eight USB-CEC adapter for TV power. Ethernet required for NDI.
Setup guide →
Apple-only environments

Apple TV 4K

Schools and offices already on Apple infrastructure. Best-in-class 4K HDR video, AirPlay-style provisioning, and Mobile Device Management support if you have it. Landscape only — Apple TV doesn't expose orientation APIs.

Pair it with: any 4K TV. Recommend wired ethernet for live streams.
Setup guide →
Plug-and-play stick

Fire TV Stick 4K Max

A $60 stick that runs the native Android player with offline caching, kiosk mode, and a built-in self-updater. The 4K Max ships with 16 GB storage (twice the base 4K Stick) and Wi-Fi 6 — the right choice for image- and video-heavy schedules. Not the right pick for YouTube/Vimeo iframes (use Pi or Apple TV for those).

Pair it with: any HDMI TV. WiFi or Ethernet adapter. Sideload-ready APK.
Setup guide →

Full feature compatibility

All integrations (Planning Center, TouchPoint, eSPACE, BoxCast, Google Drive, OneDrive, YouTube, Vimeo, TRMNL) work on every player — they're served from the cloud. The rows below are the player-specific differences.

Feature Raspberry Pi 4/5 Intel NUC Apple TV 4K iPad / iPhone Mac Fire TV Stick 4K Max
Image slideshows ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
1080p video (hardware decode) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓Native ExoPlayer
4K video ✓ ✓ ✓ ◑iPad Pro only ✓ ◑Fire TV 4K models
Live streams (HLS / BoxCast) ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓Native ExoPlayer
YouTube / Vimeo / web embeds5 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗Not recommended
Display rotation (90° / 180° / 270°)1 ✓ ✓ ✗Landscape only ✓ ✗Landscape only ◑Images yes, video no
NDI source output2 ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
CEC TV power scheduling3 ✓Native HDMI-CEC ◑USB-CEC dongle ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗System-only on Fire OS
Offline cache playback ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
Auto-boot to kiosk (headless) ✓ ✓ ◑Single App via MDM ◑Guided Access ✓ ✓Optional Device Owner kiosk
Touch & interactive content4 ✗ ✗ ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗
OTA updates ✓Auto, no IT touch ✓ ✓App Store ✓App Store ✓App Store ✓Self-updater + Appstore
✓ Full support ◑ Partial / with caveats ✗ Not supported

Notes & caveats

  1. Display rotation — Pi, NUC, and iPad rotate content at the OS level so video, images, and overlays all rotate correctly. Fire TV's hardware video pipeline ignores CSS rotation, so videos play in their original orientation while images and UI rotate; for full rotation on Fire TV deployments, mount the TV in portrait and upload pre-rotated content. Apple TV and Mac render landscape only — Apple's platform doesn't expose an orientation API.
  2. NDI source output — The NUC publishes itself as an NDI source on the local network so ProPresenter, vMix, OBS, or TriCaster can pull the slideshow into a production switch in real time. Other players don't have the codec horsepower or network bandwidth headroom to do this reliably; if you need NDI, plan on a NUC for that screen.
  3. CEC TV power scheduling — Pi has HDMI-CEC native, so it can turn the TV on at 9 AM and off at 1 PM with no extra hardware. NUC needs a Pulse-Eight USB-CEC adapter (~$50) to gain the same capability. Apple TV doesn't expose CEC to apps. Fire TV exposes CEC partially — it can wake the TV but power-off behavior depends on the TV brand.
  4. Touch & interactive content — iPad and iPhone support touch-based browsing of the content library (think wayfinding kiosks or self-serve event boards). TVs and TV-class devices are output-only by design.
  5. YouTube / Vimeo / web embeds on Fire TV — not recommended. The iframe-based YouTube and Vimeo players struggle on Fire TV Stick hardware: the WebView's MSE buffer is tight, the renderer thread is shared with playback, and high-motion content routinely freezes mid-segment. BoxCast / HLS streams and uploaded MP4s play natively through ExoPlayer and work fine. If YouTube or web embeds are central to a playlist, deploy that screen on a Raspberry Pi 4/5, Intel NUC, or Apple TV instead — full-desktop Chromium and Safari handle iframes smoothly.

TRMNL e-ink displays

The wood-framed TRMNL e-ink display is a player in a different category — no video, no audio, batteries instead of HDMI. DisplayCache serves it as a private plugin: server-rendered PNGs that update every 15 minutes with birthdays, anniversaries, events, weather, or any TouchPoint / Planning Center / eSPACE feed. Perfect for desks, hallways, and the staff break room.

Not sure which fits?

Tell us about your room and we'll recommend a player. Most deployments end up on a Raspberry Pi — we'll let you know if yours is the exception.

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