Glossary A–ZLetter W
Watchdog
A watchdog is a protective function that monitors a program or device and restarts it automatically if it stops reporting within a set time or hangs.
It exists both as a hardware component and as software.
A player is supposed to run unattended for months. If the playback app hangs, the picture freezes or the app crashes, the watchdog restarts it without anyone having to step in. A hardware watchdog even restarts the whole device if the operating system itself stops responding. In this way a screen usually recovers on its own after a fault, before anyone notices the outage.
A watchdog hides faults that keep recurring, so every restart should be logged with its reason and be visible in the management software. Frequent restarts point to a deeper problem, such as a faulty file, too little memory or overheating. A watchdog set too sensitively can cause a restart loop. It replaces neither monitoring nor updates. Anyone deliberately stopping a player for maintenance needs to know how to suspend the watchdog while doing so.