Everything you need to know about streaming your photos and videos to any TV with Ztalio.
Ztalio is a personal media streaming platform that lets you upload, organize, and stream your photos and videos to any TV. It works on Roku, LG Smart TVs, Android phones and tablets, Google TV, iOS devices, and web browsers, making it perfect for family photo slideshows, digital signage, business presentations, and more.
Getting started is easy: 1) Sign up for a free account at ztalio.com, 2) Upload your photos and videos, 3) Create playlists for your content, 4) Connect your TV using our Roku app, LG TV app, Google TV app, or device pairing, 5) Start streaming! No credit card required for the free plan.
Yes. The free plan includes 1 GB of storage, one screen and one user, and it does not expire — no card required. Paid plans are Starter at $9.99/month (3 screens, 10 GB, 3 users), Pro at $29.99/month (10 screens, 100 GB, 10 users) and Network at $49.99/month (25 screens, 250 GB, unlimited users); every paid plan includes screen analytics, proof of play, offline alerts and Studio. Annual billing includes two months free.
Ztalio currently supports: Roku TVs and devices (available in the Roku Channel Store), LG Smart TVs running webOS 5.0 and newer (available in the LG Content Store), Android phones and tablets (available on Google Play), Google TV and Android TV devices (available on Google Play), Amazon Fire TV sticks, Cube and Fire TV Edition TVs, including the Vega OS sticks (Fire TV Stick HD and Fire TV Stick 4K Select) with a native Vega OS app (all from the same Amazon Appstore listing), iOS devices (iPhone and iPad via the App Store), and any web browser at ztalio.com. Samsung TV and more platforms are coming soon.
The latest Ztalio apps for Google TV, Fire TV, Apple TV, LG and Samsung keep the TV awake for as long as something is playing, so update the app if you see it happen there. Roku does not let any app do that, so on a Roku set it once in the Roku's own settings: Settings → Theme → Screensaver → Wait time → Disabled, and Settings → System → Power → Auto power savings → uncheck both options. After that a Roku menu board or slideshow stays up all day. Whichever TV you use, also check the TV's own sleep timer and any 'auto off' or eco setting, because those act on the whole TV, not the app.
Yes. Those sticks run Amazon's new Vega OS instead of Fire OS, and Ztalio has a native Vega version of the app in the same Amazon Appstore listing, so you install it the same way. It plays video with the picture, supports the 10-second skip, long-press to skip to the next video, the Info screen and screen lock. If you installed Ztalio on one of these sticks before the native version was available, the stick updates on its own and shows the pairing code once; link it again from the TVs page and it picks up its playlist.
That is Fire OS's 'Still Watching' check, not Ztalio. After a few hours without a remote button press, some Fire TV sticks (Fire OS 7 especially) ask whether anyone is still watching and then turn the TV off. To keep a Fire TV screen on all day, turn it off once on the stick: Settings → Preferences → Data Usage Monitoring → Still Watching → Off. Thanks to one of our customers for tracking this down.
To stream photos to your TV: 1) Install the Ztalio app from the Roku Channel Store, LG Content Store, Amazon Appstore, or Google Play Store, 2) Open the app and note the pairing code displayed, 3) Log into ztalio.com on your phone or computer, 4) Enter the pairing code to connect your TV, 5) Select a playlist and it will begin playing on your TV.
Push to TV is a feature that lets you instantly send any photo or video from your phone or computer directly to your TV. Content uploaded on the web or mobile app now appears on your TV in under 2 seconds (previously up to 15 seconds), powered by a live WebSocket connection on supported TVs.
Yes. Every playlist has its own slideshow speed in Settings › Playback: pick 3, 5, 10, 15 or 30 seconds, or type any number from 2 seconds to an hour (menu boards often sit at a minute or more). Leave it on Default and the TV uses its standard 5 seconds. The remote can still change the speed for the current session, and Stop parks the slide. Videos always play to the end. The same Settings › Playback tab holds the play-order list and a Shuffle toggle (Fisher-Yates randomization), and you can add a per-playlist background music track — either one of your own audio uploads or a track from our built-in music library.
The order you arrange items in IS the order your TVs play them — Ztalio never re-sorts a playlist by filename, date or upload time. Open the playlist's three-dot (•••) menu, choose Settings, and use the Playback tab: drag a row by its handle, or use the up/down arrows (which also work on touch and with a keyboard). Press Save and every linked TV picks up the new order the next time the playlist starts. It works the same way in the iOS and Android apps.
Almost always because Shuffle is on. Shuffle tells the TV to randomise the order each time the playlist starts, so your arranged order is ignored while it is enabled. Turn it off in Settings › Playback and your order takes effect again — it was never lost, just overridden. If Shuffle is off and the order still looks wrong, make sure you pressed Save, and note that newly added items are appended to the END of the list until you move them.
At the end. Use Manage Media to choose WHICH items are in the playlist, then Settings › Playback to choose WHAT ORDER they play in. That separation means adding a photo never quietly reshuffles the sequence you already arranged.
Yes. Upload a .vtt caption file alongside your video (matching the video's base filename, e.g. vacation.mp4 + vacation.vtt) and captions display automatically on Roku, Google TV, Fire TV, and LG. The TV honors your system-level Closed Captioning setting, so users see captions when CC is enabled in their accessibility settings.
Yes. Ztalio supports MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG, FLAC, and Opus audio files. They appear in your library with a music-note icon, can be mixed into playlists alongside photos and videos, and play with a clean now-playing display on TV.
Photos: JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP, HEIC, AVIF, BMP. Videos: MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, M4V, AVI, MPG, MPEG, TS, M2TS. Audio: MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC, OGG, FLAC, Opus. Captions: WebVTT (.vtt) sidecars. Larger files are uploaded via resumable multipart so a connection drop won't lose your progress.
Yes. The search bar at the top of your library does a live filter across folder names and file titles — works in the main library, Push-to-TV picker, and Manage Playlist screens. Useful once you have hundreds or thousands of items.
Yes. Ztalio saves your resume position every few seconds while you watch on iOS, Android, or web. Open the same video on a different device and it offers to pick up where you stopped. Auto-clears when you finish.
Shared folders let you invite family members or coworkers to a specific folder by email. They can view your photos and videos on their own TVs, and (if you give them contribute permission) drop their own photos into the shared folder which appears on all linked TVs in seconds. Permission tiers include view, contribute, admin, and owner. Recipients accept invitations from a notification badge in their account.
A magic link is a public share URL you can send via text, email, or any messaging app — anyone who clicks it can drop photos or videos into your shared folder without signing up for an account. Perfect for grandparents, casual friends, or anyone who wants to contribute memories without the friction of a signup. The same page has 'View the slideshow', so the people you sent it to can watch what has been gathered. Links last 7 days unless you pick another expiry, you can cap the number of uploads or leave it unlimited, and if a contributor later creates an account, the upload is promoted to a permanent shared-folder grant.
Every upload link doubles as a viewing page: the 'View the slideshow' button on it shows the folder as a grid and plays it as a full-screen slideshow in the browser, and any photo or video can be downloaded from the viewer. If you only want people to look, not add, create the link with the 'View' permission instead; it opens straight to the slideshow.
Yes, three levels deep. Open a folder and click 'New folder' to create one inside it, for example a folder per location, a folder per family, client or event inside it, and 'Pictures' or 'Tribute video' inside that. Files can live at any level. Inside a folder the newest folder is listed first, and the search box finds folders by name wherever they are. Drag a folder or a file onto another folder to move it, or use 'Move to…' in the ⋯ menu; a folder moves with everything inside it. Any folder can be shared: a link or an invitation covers that folder's own files, so give each inner folder its own link when a family should see only theirs. A folder that has folders inside it cannot be deleted while they are there. TVs show the same tree once their next app update is installed; until then they reach the first two levels.
Archive, in the folder's ⋯ menu, takes the folder and its files off every TV and phone while keeping them in your library. Archived folders appear under the 'Archived' button in the folder list, dimmed, and 'Unarchive' brings one back. Share links and upload links to an archived folder keep working, so a family can still open theirs months later. Archived files still count toward your storage; Delete is what frees space.
A one-click way to turn a folder into a playlist. Choose it in the folder's ⋯ menu, keep or change the name, and the playlist is created with the folder's photos and videos in the order they were added. Leave 'Keep it in sync with this folder' on and the playlist follows the folder from then on: files added to the folder, including those sent through a share link, join the playlist automatically, and files removed from the folder leave it. TVs showing the playlist update on their own. You can pause the link under the playlist's Settings → Playback → 'Follow folder'.
Yes. Choose 'Share link…' in the playlist's ⋯ menu. The link opens a page with the playlist's slideshow video, rendered with the speed, transition and background music you set, which anyone can watch there and download. No account is needed, and nothing else from your library is shown on that page. A QR code is shown next to each link, and a link stays live until you turn it off or delete the playlist.
When you share a playlist by link, Ztalio also renders it as one video: a 1920×1080 MP4 with each photo held for the playlist's seconds-per-photo, cross-dissolves when a transition is set, portrait photos on a soft blurred background, videos played in full with their own sound, and the playlist's music underneath. It is usually ready within a minute, the share dialog shows when it is, and the link page plays it and offers 'Download video'; until then the page says the video is being prepared and refreshes by itself. It is rebuilt whenever the playlist changes, so late additions are always in it. Renders stop at 30 minutes of output, and the video counts toward your storage.
Yes. Under the playlist's Settings → Schedule, set Auto-archive to a number of days after the last change: 1 week, 2 weeks, 30, 60, 90 days or 6 months. When the day comes, the playlist leaves every TV it was pushed to, moves under 'Archived' on the Playlists page, and, if it follows a folder, archives that folder too. Its share link and slideshow video keep working. 'Archive' in the ⋯ menu does the same immediately, and 'Unarchive' reverses it.
Yes. From the Sharing page or the folder's options menu, you can revoke your own grant, which removes the folder from your library. The owner is not notified, and you can be re-invited at any time.
Yes. A notification bell in the header shows pending folder invitations. From there you can accept or decline. Accepted shared folders appear mixed into your main library with a 'shared' marker so you can tell them apart from folders you own.
Plans are priced by the number of screens you need, and storage and users scale with them. Free gives you 1 screen and 1 GB forever. Starter is $9.99/month for 3 screens, 10 GB and 3 users. Pro is $29.99/month for 10 screens, 100 GB and 10 users. Network is $49.99/month for 25 screens, 250 GB and unlimited users. Every paid plan includes analytics, proof of play, offline alerts and Studio. Paying annually costs ten months for twelve. You can change plan in either direction at any time.
The prices on ztalio.com/pricing. Ztalio's plans changed on October 5, 2026 (release 2.2): the former Home ($4.99/month, 3 screens) and Venue ($9.99/month, 10 screens) plans were retired and replaced by Starter at $9.99/month (3 screens, 10 GB, 3 users), Pro at $29.99/month (10 screens, 100 GB, 10 users) and Network at $49.99/month (25 screens, 250 GB, unlimited users), each also available annually at ten months for twelve. Free (1 screen, 1 GB) is unchanged. Any page, app-store listing or AI answer that still quotes Home or Venue is out of date. Existing Home and Venue subscribers keep their price for 60 days and then move to the matching new plan.
Yes. Every paid plan includes multiple users — 3 on Starter, 10 on Pro and unlimited on Network. Secondary users can upload content and manage playlists while you stay the primary account holder. Invite them from Settings › Users.
Open Settings and choose a different plan, in either direction, at any time — there are no cancellation fees. Cancelling returns you to the free plan at the end of the period you already paid for, and nothing is deleted: your media stays, you just cannot upload beyond the free limit until you upgrade again. Important: cancel wherever you subscribed. If you subscribed through the App Store or Google Play, we cannot cancel it for you — the apps link you straight to the right place.
We accept all major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover) through our secure Stripe payment processor on web. On iOS, payments are handled via the App Store. On Android, payments are handled via Google Play. All transactions are encrypted and secure.
Which of your screens are on right now, when each one was last seen, and how many hours each was on per hour and per day over the last 7, 14 or 30 days — overall and per playlist. It is built from the heartbeat every TV app sends while it is open, so it reflects what the TV actually did, not what was scheduled.
No. Analytics is usage only: hours on, plays and screen status. It never shows thumbnails or the names of the files on a screen, so a manager can see that the lobby TV was on for 11 hours without seeing your content.
Yes. Ztalio learns each screen's usual hours and emails you when a TV that should be on stops reporting, and again when it recovers. Turn the alerts on or off from the Analytics page. A Roku that is dark during its usual hours is often just its screensaver — the Roku guide shows how to disable it.
Studio is a slide designer built into your account. Start from a blank 16:9 canvas or a template, drop in your own photos and logos, add text, prices and menu sections, and the AI assistant lays the slide out for you — ask it for a lunch menu board, a welcome screen or a promo and it builds it from your details. Saving exports a full-resolution PNG into a Studio folder in your library, ready to drop into any playlist.
Only the files you place on the slide. It reads the text and items you give it to lay out the design; it does not browse your library, and nothing you make in Studio is shared with anyone else.
Screen lock keeps a playing playlist on the TV until someone enters a pattern you choose, so staff or visitors can't pause, skip or stop it. On ztalio.com go to TVs, open the ⋯ menu on a screen and choose Screen lock, then press a pattern of four to six remote keys (Up, Down, Left, Right, OK) twice. The TV picks it up within seconds. From then on, while a playlist plays the TV ignores every button except Back; Back asks for the pattern, the right one opens the home screen, anything else keeps playing. It is included with the Pro and Network plans.
Open ztalio.com, go to TVs, open the ⋯ menu on that screen and choose Remove screen lock. The TV unlocks at its next check-in, within about 15 seconds, and keeps playing in the meantime. The remote's Home button always leaves the app regardless of the lock; it opens the TV's own menu, not Ztalio's.
On the TV's home screen choose Info, next to Music and Unlink. It shows the linked account, the screen's name and plan, the app version and build, the device model and OS, and how long ago the TV last checked in with Ztalio. Have it on screen when you write to support and we can see exactly what you see.
Both are included on every paid plan — Starter, Pro and Network. Existing Home and Venue subscribers have them already; their plans become Starter and Pro at the new price 60 days after the launch notice, with annual terms honoured to renewal. On the Free plan the Analytics and Studio pages are visible but locked; upgrade from Settings to unlock them. Studio's assistant has a fair-use allowance of 60 turns a day and 100 a month on Starter, 300 on Pro and 600 on Network.
Absolutely! Ztalio is perfect for business digital signage including restaurant menu boards, retail store displays, hotel lobby screens, corporate presentations, and waiting room content. Manage multiple displays from one dashboard.
Your plan sets the number of screens: 1 on Free, 3 on Starter, 10 on Pro and 25 on Network. Each screen can show different content, or you can push the same playlist to all of them at once. If you need more than 25 screens, or several locations under one bill, email support@ztalio.com about Enterprise.
Yes — Ztalio supports dayparting. Each playlist has a schedule with start/end hours and days-of-week, so you can configure breakfast / lunch / dinner playlists that switch automatically. Storefronts use the same feature for morning promos, daytime hero content, and after-hours decoration. The TV picks the right playlist based on its local clock.
Yes! Ztalio is ideal for restaurant digital menu boards. Upload your menu images, create playlists for different meal times, and display them on any TV. Update prices or specials instantly from your phone or computer.
No. The TV runs the free Ztalio app itself on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, LG webOS, Google TV / Android TV and Apple TV. For a TV without apps, a Roku Express or Fire TV Stick (about $25 to $30) is the only thing you add. There is no proprietary player box, no cabling and no installer visit.
Three steps: install the free Ztalio app on the TV from its app store, enter the 6-digit pairing code at ztalio.com to link the screen, then upload your menu (a JPG or PNG at 1920×1080, or an MP4 video) and push it to the screen. Changes from your phone reach the TV within seconds. The Guides page walks through it for Roku step by step.
No. The free plan shows only your content: one screen, 1 GB of storage and one user, with no card, no time limit and no Ztalio logo on the TV.
Plans are priced by the number of screens rather than per-screen licences: Starter is $9.99/month for 3 screens, Pro $29.99/month for 10 screens and Network $49.99/month for 25 screens, with storage and team seats scaling to match, and analytics, proof of play and Studio on every paid plan. Annual billing includes two months free. One screen is free forever.
Yes. Upload, reorder or swap content from the web dashboard or the iPhone and Android apps wherever you are, then push it to one screen or all of them. Screens refresh within seconds with no reboot and no USB stick.
Yes. Each plan includes team seats (3 on Starter, 10 on Pro, unlimited on Network), and folders can be shared so a manager or a designer can add content without touching billing.
Yes. Schools use it for hallway and classroom announcement boards, churches for lobby slides and event promotion, offices and clinics for reception and waiting-room screens. Any TV that already hangs on the wall works once the free app is installed; Starter covers 3 screens, Pro 10 and Network 25.
Yes. MP4 and MOV videos are optimised automatically for TV playback, slideshows can loop with a background music track, and closed captions (.vtt) load automatically for silent rooms.
Any Roku TV or Fire TV Edition TV (TCL, Hisense, Insignia, Toshiba and others) works out of the box, as do LG webOS and Google TV sets. If you already own a TV, a Roku Express or Fire TV Stick is the cheapest route. There is no need for a commercial signage display or a media player.
Yes. The Ztalio REST API at https://api.ztalio.com/v1 covers screens (list, rename, push, analytics), playlists (create, edit, items, speed, transition, shuffle, music, schedule), the library (media, folders, music), uploads and slides. It is plain JSON over HTTPS with an OpenAPI document at https://api.ztalio.com/v1/openapi.json. The open-source ztalio command-line tool (npm install -g ztalio) is a thin client over the same API, so anything you can do on ztalio.com you can do from a script, a terminal or an AI assistant. The full reference is at ztalio.com/developers.
API keys are included with the Pro and Network plans at no extra cost. There is nothing to enable: upgrade in Settings, then create a key. A key on a plan without API access gets a 402 UPGRADE_REQUIRED answer, so a script can tell you exactly why it stopped.
Sign in at ztalio.com, open Settings → API access and click Create API key. Choose the scopes it needs: read (list screens, playlists and media), write (edit playlists, folders and uploads) and push (change what a TV shows). The key, which starts with ztk_, is shown once, so copy it then. Each key allows 120 requests a minute and can be revoked from the same page at any time. Then either call the API with Authorization: Bearer ztk_… or run ztalio login and paste the key.
Yes, two ways. Over MCP: Ztalio has an MCP server with 16 tools (list screens, create and edit playlists, push a playlist, list media, create a slide from text, screen analytics). Run it locally with ztalio mcp for Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor or Codex (for Claude Code: claude mcp add ztalio -- ztalio mcp), or use the hosted server at https://api.ztalio.com/v1/mcp with your API key as a bearer token, which claude.ai can add as a custom connector where request-header authentication is available. Or over the CLI: any assistant with a shell, such as Claude Code or ChatGPT with a terminal, installs ztalio with npm, signs in with your key, and runs ztalio agent to read how the tool is meant to be used. Then you just say what you want on which TV: 'Put the lunch menu on the lobby TV at 8 and the dinner menu at 4.'
Yes. The slides endpoints and the ztalio slide command render a 1920×1080 slide on the server from text with the Studio engine, using one of eight templates: menu board, price list, promo, announcement, hours, welcome, event or portrait menu. For example: ztalio slide --template promo --title "Happy hour" --badge "$5 margaritas" --push Lobby. The picture is saved to the Studio folder of your library and, if you ask, added to a playlist and pushed to a screen in the same command. ztalio slide --prompt "…" lets the Studio assistant lay it out from a sentence, and --preview renders it without saving. An AI assistant connected over MCP uses the same create_slide tool, and a preview comes back as a picture inline.
Keys are scoped, so a read-only key cannot change a TV, and a key without push cannot change what a screen shows. Every key can be revoked in Settings → API access the moment you want it gone, each is limited to 120 requests a minute, and every call is audited against the key that made it. Assistants following the ztalio agent guide confirm which screen and which playlist before pushing, and never push to all screens unless you said all screens. The API cannot delete media from your library, and errors come back as JSON with a code so an assistant knows whether to ask you to sign in, wait a minute or upgrade.
Yes, security is a top priority. Ztalio uses AWS infrastructure with encrypted storage, secure HTTPS transfers, and cryptographically signed URLs for media access. Your content is protected with enterprise-grade security.
Individual files can be up to 5 GB for videos, 500 MB for audio and 50 MB for images. Total storage depends on your plan: 1 GB on Free, 10 GB on Starter, 100 GB on Pro and 250 GB on Network.
Ztalio requires an internet connection to stream content to your TV. However, once content is loaded on your TV device, it can continue playing even if there's a brief connection interruption.
1) Search for 'Ztalio' in the Roku Channel Store and install the app, 2) Open Ztalio on your Roku - a pairing code will display, 3) Go to ztalio.com and sign in, 4) Enter the pairing code in your account settings, 5) Your Roku is now connected and ready to stream.
1) Search for 'Ztalio' in the LG Content Store and install the app (requires webOS 5.0 or newer), 2) Open Ztalio on your LG TV - a pairing code will display, 3) Go to ztalio.com and sign in, 4) Enter the pairing code in your account settings, 5) Your LG TV is now connected and ready to stream.
Ztalio is available on LG Smart TVs running webOS 5.0 through webOS 25. This generally includes LG Smart TVs from 2020 and newer. You can find the app by searching for 'Ztalio' in the LG Content Store on your TV.
1) Search for 'Ztalio' in the Google Play Store and install the app, 2) Open Ztalio on your Android device and sign in to your account, 3) Upload photos and videos, create playlists, and use Push to TV to stream content directly to any paired TV display.
1) Search for 'Ztalio' in the Google Play Store on your Google TV or Android TV device and install the app, 2) Open Ztalio - a pairing code will display on screen, 3) Go to ztalio.com and sign in, 4) Enter the pairing code in your account settings, 5) Your Google TV is now connected and ready to stream your playlists.
1) Search for 'Ztalio' in the Amazon Appstore on your Fire TV Stick (Fire OS or Vega OS, the store installs the right build), Cube or Fire TV Edition TV and install the app, 2) Open Ztalio - a pairing code will display on screen, 3) Go to ztalio.com and sign in, 4) Enter the pairing code in your account settings, 5) Your Fire TV is now connected and ready to stream your playlists.
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