NovaStar TB60: spreading 2.3 Mpx across four Gigabit ports

The NovaStar TB60 is the highest-capacity multimedia player in the third-generation Taurus series. It keeps the TB30 and TB50 platform — quad-core ARM A55 at 1.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM, 32 GB storage, Android 11, 4K 60 Hz decoding — but doubles the TB50 capacity and moves from two to four Ethernet output ports.

That configuration changes how a wall is wired. With 2,300,000 pixels across four ports you can split the screen into four balanced zones, or into two zones backed by full redundancy. This is the player for large retail façades, airport concourse walls and smart-city installations where the operator does not want a video processor in the rack.

This tutorial covers what really differs on a TB60 commissioning job: splitting the load across four ports, the redundancy strategy, handling custom resolutions up to a 153 MHz pixel clock, then publishing and monitoring.

1. The TB60 within the Taurus range

The third-generation Taurus series comes in three capacity tiers: 0.65 Mpx for the TB30, 1.3 Mpx for the TB50 and 2.3 Mpx for the TB60. The TB60 is the only one with four Ethernet output ports, two of which can be declared as backup for the other two.

It also carries an HDMI 1.3 input and output, both capped at 1920 × 1200 at 60 Hz with HDCP 1.4. That is one standard generation behind the TB50's HDMI 1.4, but enough for every common office and control-room source. Certification-wise, the TB60 adds SIRIM over the TB30 and TB50, which matters for South-East Asian markets.

• Loading capacity: 2,300,000 pixels, maximum width and height 4096 px.
• Four Gigabit Ethernet outputs, two of which can be set as backup.
• HDMI 1.3 input and output, 1920 × 1200 at 60 Hz maximum, HDCP 1.4.
• Custom resolutions accepted up to a 153 MHz pixel clock.
• Same chassis as the TB30 and TB50: 274.3 × 139.0 × 40.0 mm, 1230.4 g.

2. Official technical specifications

The figures below come from the NovaStar TB60 specifications sheet. They are consistent across revisions V1.1.0 and V1.2.1 and with the official series comparison page.

3. Splitting the load across four ports

A Gigabit Ethernet port carries roughly 650,000 pixels at most in 8-bit. Four ports therefore offer a theoretical 2.6 Mpx, capped at 2.3 Mpx by the player itself. The practical rule is to balance the load: on a 2,048,000 pixel wall, aim for four zones of about 512,000 pixels each rather than three saturated ports and one nearly empty.

Balance has a direct effect on stability. A port close to its maximum load copes badly with a later wall extension, a move to 10-bit — which halves the load — or the addition of pixel-level calibration that consumes bandwidth.

Document the split on a paper diagram taped inside the service enclosure. The technician replacing a cabinet in three years will have neither your file nor your memory, and an undocumented mapping turns a ten-minute swap into half a day.

4. Choosing between capacity and redundancy

The four TB60 ports can be used two ways. In capacity mode all four drive part of the wall: this is the only way to reach 2.3 Mpx. In redundancy mode two ports drive the wall while the other two stay on standby, ready to take over if a cable is cut or a receiving card fails.

The choice follows criticality, not size. A municipal information screen can stay dark for a night; an airport flight display or a control-room wall cannot. In those cases redundancy beats maximum capacity, and the wall must be sized to stay under 1.3 Mpx.

• Capacity mode: four active ports, up to 2.3 Mpx, no automatic failover.
• Redundancy mode: two active ports, two backup ports, reduced usable capacity.
• Redundancy protects against a cut cable and a failed receiving card.
• It does not protect against a player failure: keep a spare unit on hand.

Port redundancy is not controller redundancy. If availability is contractual, keep a second pre-configured player in stock on site, with the mapping already written to the receiving cards.

5. Wiring and power-up

The sequence matches the other Taurus players, with extra care on port order. Physically label every cable with its port number and wall zone before connecting anything: across four outputs, swapping two cables produces a very confusing mosaic image.

• Label the four Cat6 cables before connecting, at both player and cabinet ends.
• Connect LED outputs 1 to 4 following the approved split diagram.
• Connect the HDMI 1.3 input to the live source if synchronous mode is planned.
• Put the control port on the management network, not the data network.
• Power up on 100–240 V and check the indicators before closing the enclosure.

6. Configuring a wall split into four zones

Configuration uses ViPlex Express, with NovaLCT when low-level receiving card parameters need adjusting. Load the cabinet configuration file, declare the number of cabinets and wiring direction for each of the four ports, then enter the final wall resolution.

The tricky part is consistency between the logical split declared in software and the physical wiring. Checking zone by zone with a numbered test pattern, before moving to real content, saves considerable time. Always finish by saving the configuration to the receiving cards.

• Load the cabinet file supplied by the panel manufacturer.
• Declare, per port, the cabinet count and daisy-chain direction.
• Enter the final wall resolution in pixels.
• Check each zone with a numbered test pattern before playing content.
• Save the configuration to the receiving cards and test with a power cut.

7. Custom resolutions and pixel clock

LED walls rarely have a standard resolution. The TB60 accepts custom resolutions within a 153 MHz pixel clock, which allows the very elongated formats typical of ribbon boards and architectural cladding.

In practice two constraints must be checked before approving a bespoke format: stay under 4096 pixels in both width and height, and stay under the pixel clock limit once the refresh rate is chosen. A very wide ribbon at 30 Hz passes where the same ribbon at 60 Hz is rejected.

On extreme formats, test the custom resolution in the workshop with two cabinets before delivery. Discovering on site that a resolution is refused by the pixel clock costs a full day of crew downtime.

8. Content publishing and cloud

The publishing chain is the same as the rest of the Taurus series: ViPlex Express on Windows, ViPlex Handy on mobile, VNNOX for remote control. The player binds to the cloud with its serial number, then receives content and schedules with no site visit.

On a 2.3 Mpx wall, encoding becomes a real subject. Hardware decoding accepts up to two 4K streams, but the smoothest playback comes from a single file encoded at the exact wall resolution, in H.265 to keep the bitrate down.

• Encode a single file at the exact wall resolution, preferably in H.265.
• Avoid montages made of dozens of small files in a short loop.
• Schedule publications from VNNOX rather than on site.
• Enable offline alerts and follow the temperature reported by the sensors.

9. Troubleshooting a four-port installation

On a TB60, half the interventions concern mapping and wiring rather than the player itself. The table lists the typical symptoms of a multi-port installation and the first action to take.

10. When the TB60 is no longer enough

Above 2.3 Mpx, or as soon as the project needs several simultaneous sources, overlay layers, Genlock or an SDI input, you leave the multimedia player world for the controller world. The MCTRL660 PRO covers installations up to six Ethernet ports with SDI, HDMI and DVI inputs; the MCTRL4K reaches sixteen ports and 8.8 Mpx.

The reverse reasoning matters just as much: do not move up the range without reason. A standalone 1.8 Mpx wall playing a video loop needs no controller, and the TB60 saves it a playback PC and its point of failure.

Commissioning procedure

1. Approve the wall split

   Divide the total resolution into four balanced zones of roughly 500,000 to 600,000 pixels, keeping ten per cent of headroom per port.

2. Label and wire the four outputs

   Mark each Cat6 cable at both player and cabinet ends, then connect LED outputs 1 to 4 following the approved diagram.

3. Choose capacity or redundancy

   Declare all four ports active to reach 2.3 Mpx, or two active and two backup ports on a critical installation.

4. Configure the screen

   Load the cabinet file, declare cabinet count and wiring direction per port, enter the final wall resolution.

5. Check zone by zone

   Display a numbered test pattern and confirm each zone matches the declared port before moving to real content.

6. Save and test recovery

   Write the configuration to the receiving cards, then deliberately cut power to verify automatic recovery.

7. Publish and monitor

   Send a single file encoded in H.265 at wall resolution, bind the player to VNNOX and enable offline alerts.

Frequently asked questions

Official documentation

• TB60 Multimedia Player Specifications V1.2.1 (official PDF) — Datasheet
• Taurus Series TB60 Specifications V1.1.0 (official PDF) — Datasheet
• Official Taurus series comparison (NovaStar) — Manufacturer page
• ViPlex Express / ViPlex Handy — NovaStar downloads — Software

Related tutorials

• NovaStar TB50 tutorial: synchronous and asynchronous modes
• NovaStar MCTRL660 PRO tutorial: 6-port controller
• NovaStar MCTRL4K tutorial: 16 ports and 8.8 Mpx
• NovaLCT tutorial: LED screen configuration

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