Plenty of small computers have more than one video port. It is tempting to use them: one box, a TV over the counter and a monitor by the till, both running from the same player.
Screens to Signs does not do that. Every screen gets its own player. That is a deliberate rule, not a missing feature, and this article explains why.
The short answer
One Screens to Signs player drives one screen. If a business wants three screens, it gets three players. Jeff McDaniel, who built the system, settled this on November 8, 2026, after seeing the same problem on two different signage platforms: a player with a monitor on one port and a TV on the other, and the mix of the two confusing the system. One player per screen takes that whole class of problem away.
What goes wrong with two screens on one player
When you plug two displays into one computer, the computer does not see “two signs”. It sees one desktop that has to be shared across two displays, and it has to make decisions: which display is the main one, how big each one is, where one ends and the other begins.
Each display tells the computer what it is and what it can show, down the cable. A computer monitor and a TV usually give different answers. They can differ in resolution, in how they handle the edges of the picture and in how they behave when they go to sleep.
The trouble starts when one of them changes state. A TV gets switched off at the end of the day, or someone presses the input button and moves it to another source. Many TVs then stop answering the computer, and to the computer that can look the same as the TV being unplugged. The desktop gets rearranged around the display that is left. When the TV comes back, things do not always go back where they were. The content meant for the TV can end up on the monitor, or stretched across both, or the TV comes back blank.
None of that is unusual. It is how desktop computers are designed to behave, because on a desk it is usually what you want. On a sign it is not. A sign should show the same thing in the same place every day, whatever happened to the TV next to it.
Why one player per screen is the better design
With one screen on each player, there is nothing for the player to work out. There is one display, and everything goes on it. If that TV is switched off and on again, there is no second display for the picture to move to.
It also makes everything else in the system simpler to reason about, for the business and for whoever is looking after it.
- Each screen has its own layout and its own schedule. The breakfast menu on one screen and the specials on another do not have to share a computer.
- Each screen has its own weather. The weather panel is for the town the screen is in, so a business with screens in more than one town sees each town’s own forecast.
- Each screen reports in. If one stops reporting, there is an alert for that screen.
- Each screen can be looked at and fixed on its own. There is a live view of any screen from the office, and a screen can be restarted or its machine rebooted without touching the others in the building.
- A fault stays in one place. If a player has a problem, one screen is affected, not two.
The full list of what each screen can show is on the What it does page.
What this means when you ask for a quote
When you ask for a quote, the question is simply how many screens you want and where they go. Each screen will need a player, power and an internet connection where it will sit. The player arrives set up and tested, so on a wired connection installing it is a matter of plugging in the power and the screen.
If you already have TVs you would like to use, say so on the form and that gets talked through. If you need screens, they can be supplied as part of the quote. The steps from first call to a running screen are on the How it works page.
One screen or many, at one location or several: a message raised from the dashboard still goes out to every screen at once.
A limit worth having
It would be easy to advertise “drive two screens from one box” as a feature. It sounds like less equipment. But a sign that comes back on the wrong display after somebody switches a TV off is not less trouble for anyone.
The point of Screens to Signs is a screen that keeps working without anybody standing at it. One player per screen is part of how that gets done.
Talk it through
If you are planning more than one screen, or you already have screens and are wondering how they would fit, call Jeff on 662-422-1809 or tell us about your space on the quote form.