What size should my content be?

Supply your content at the resolution and orientation of the screen it runs on: 1920x1080 for a Full HD screen, 3840x2160 for a 4K screen, and rotated (1080x1920 or 2160x3840) for a portrait screen. Images larger than 4K are allowed, but Screenbird warns you that not all hardware handles them smoothly. Video can be at most 3840x2160.

Finding the resolution of your screen

1. Go to Screens in the sidebar.
2. In a wide window, the list shows a Resolution column with what the device itself reports as width x height.
3. If you don't see that column, open the screen: the same resolution sits at the top of the resolution picker under Preview.

Orientation shows how the picture is rotated: landscape, Rotate 90°, Rotate 180° or Rotate 270°. Supply your content in the same orientation. There is more about these settings in Screen settings.

Upload limits

• Up to 20 files at a time.
• Up to 1 GB per file.
• Video up to 3840x2160 (4K), landscape or portrait. The uploader refuses wider video, such as 4096x2160: sticks and TVs cannot play it with their video chip. Only strips at least four times as wide as they are tall (such as an LED banner) may be wider, up to 3840x2160 pixels in total; those play well on a PC player.
• Video up to a bitrate of 150 Mbit/s.
• Images up to 59 megapixels and 12,000 pixels per side. Above that, the uploader refuses the file with the message Resolution too high.
• Above 4K (more than 3840x2160 pixels in total) you get a warning for images, but the upload still goes through.

The full upload steps are in Uploading files.

Which files work

• Images: .jpg, .jpeg, .jfif, .png, .gif, .bmp, .webp
• Video: .mp4, .m4v, .mov, .mkv, .webm, .3gp, .3g2
• Documents: .pdf, .xlsx and .xls. When you upload an Excel file, it is converted to images, one per page, so you get a fixed snapshot. If you want live figures, use the Excel Online app instead.

HEIC photos, the iPhone's default format, are converted to JPEG automatically during upload. For video, Screenbird also checks the codec inside the file: if an .mp4 is refused anyway, export it again as MP4 with H.264. The older .avi, .wmv and .flv formats can no longer be uploaded.

What happens when the size doesn't match

The player scales the picture according to the scaling setting. There are four options:

• Fill: fills the screen, so the edges can get cropped.
• Fit: the whole picture fits on the screen, with bars if needed. This is the default for new playlists and schedules.
• Stretch: stretches the picture to the screen, so the proportions change.
• Original: shows the picture at its own size, without scaling.

You set Scale per playlist or schedule, and each time you send a single item to a screen. See Playlist settings.

Designs from the Designer

When you create a design, pick the same size as your screen: under Resolution choose Full HD or 4K, and under Orientation choose Landscape or Portrait. A design is not an image: the player renders it live and scales the canvas to the screen. See Designer.

When content stutters

On lighter devices, heavy content can stutter between items, load slowly or make the player restart. Supply your content at the resolution of the screen and no higher, or move to a more powerful device. If a video that is too heavy is already in use, export it again and replace it via Replace file in the file's menu; it then stays in the same place in your playlists. For Raspberry Pi, Screenbird supports model 4 or 5, with 4 GB or more recommended.