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[imcardle]

I wasn't sure which topic to post this in, so here will do for starters.  If I need to post it somewhere else, please feel free to suggest a better place!

I'm a bit confused about how the Windows Screensaver is meant to work when we are in Theatre Mode.  I unticked the box in the Theatre View options so that it doesn't disable the screensaver, but I never see the screensaver getting activated.  Obviously, I don't want it while I'm watching TV - but it would be nice to have the screensaver showing some of my family photos as a slideshow when MC is idle.

I set a short timeout of 1 minute for my screensaver - but it still doesn't show up.  Any ideas how to get it working?

[BradATIMA]

I can't really reproduce this problem, but what I suspect is the problem is that some sort of video is preventing the screen saver from activating. It can possibly do this while sending video to another networked device as well. Can you get the screen saver to start after just going into theater mode (without doing anything related to playing video, like playing music)?

[imcardle]

I'm not sure what I did, other than increase the timeout to 5 mins instead of 1 min, but the screensaver seems to be working now.  Thanks anyway!

[wer]

MC21 definitely interferes with the screensaver engaging, even if the disable screensaver option is off. 

Burn-in is a catastrophically serious problem, so I really wish JRiver would do something about it.  Searching the forums, it's been going on a long time, although the screensaver did work properly back in MC16.

The best thing to do is just to enhance the already existing "fade out" option, to give the option to totally black out the screen after 60 seconds, as long as a video is not playing.  It's a tiny change for them to make, and it will prevent damage to some very expensive televisions.

[BradATIMA]

If you're experiencing this issue, can you please provide me with more details relating to your setup and how you can reproduce this problem. I have never been able to reproduce this issue in Theater View. When I have the "Disable screen saver in Theater View" option unchecked, the only time the screen saver doesn't activate is when video is playing. There is an instance where it will take a little longer than designated for the screen saver to activate after switching view modes, but that is by design and it won't disable the screen saver.

[wer]

Brad, thanks for the interest.  I'm using an AMD Radeon HD5570, catalyst 15 drivers, and the TV is connected over HDMI.  I use the built-in windows screensavers (usually blank, but I have tried others for testing purposes - no difference).  Power settings on the PC are set to turn off the monitor never.  Windows7x64

I don't have to "reproduce" the problem.  It happens constantly with MC21.  (MC16 on the same system had no screensaver problems.)  MC21 doesn't even have to be in theater mode to interfere with the screensaver.

Since no action is required on my part other than launching JRiver, I can't really tell you any more about how to provoke it.  From searching the forums about this issue, it is obvious a lot of people have the problem, and a lot of people don't, and it's been that way for years, going back at least to MC19.  I therefore expect it will be difficult for you to track down a root cause.

The suggestion I made is much simpler: With the "fade to prevent burn in" option, JRiver has already implemented a timer that affects the screen after a certain period of inactivity if a video is not playing.  That's a screensaver, except not a good one because it only partially dims certain elements.  All we need is for you to add an option to that setting that makes the screen totally black after 60 seconds of inactivity, instead of partial dimming, if a video is not playing.  If you did that, there is no need to track down and fix the root cause, and no one would ever have to worry about this again.

This would also satisfy the people who have asked for a black screen during music playback, simply because they prefer that.  It's the simplest way out...

[BradATIMA]

This is probably a stupid question, but I need to ask to be 100% sure about it. Does the screen saver activate normally when Media Center is not running?

[wer]

Yes, absolutely.

[wer]

Any update on if this can be addressed? 

I don't mean to be a pest, but burn in is a serious problem, and this could be worked around with such an easy change...

Thanks!

[BradATIMA]

This is still an issue that completely baffles us. At this point, it does look like the best option is to run with your suggestion.

Just out of curiosity, do you have any third-party plugins installed into Media Center aside from the default plugins?

[wer]

Thank you Brad.  I REALLY appreciate you guys addressing this.

No, no plug-ins installed in MC21.

[RoderickGI]

I would be happier if the active components of Theatre View, such as menus, program descriptions, metadata, episode images, etc. faded completely to transparent, and the Theatre View slideshow was left playing on the screen, rather than having the screen go black. That way the screen is protected, I can see that it is on, and I can see the slideshow images properly.

Maybe completely black is one option, and just slideshow is another, or probably even better, just allow variable opacity of active components from 0 to 100% after a wait period. I believe this idea has been discussed before.

On why the screensaver isn't working:
Any active connection to the server, including DLNA clients somewhere on the network, whether defined in MC or not?
Any background process in MC, such as Thumbnail creation or audio analysis? Hard to check when waiting for a screen saver to kick in, but easy to check if all thumbnails and analysis is complete: "Help/System Info" or "Services & Plug-ins/Reporter". Check the "Background Tools Running" item as well.
If you put MC into Standard View and minimise it, does the screensaver work then? i.e. When MC isn't visible on screen.

BTW, screen burn-in was a serious problem with Plasma screens, but it really isn't with a good quality LCD/LED screen. Do you have a plasma?

PS: I just tried turning on the Windows screensaver on my HTPC, just to see if it would work. Yep, worked first time, every time. First with the Bubbles screensaver, then with a slideshow of images. I am using RO Std, no background activity, Hardware Acceleration and Video Clock on, Display Settings automatic change off, no cropping of video, no Bitstreaming, Windows Size at 100%, Windows Text Size at 125%, Theatre View size at 100%. Basically, pretty much default settings.

[Arindelle]

I would be happier if the active components of Theatre View, such as menus, program descriptions, metadata, episode images, etc. faded completely to transparent, and the Theatre View slideshow was left playing on the screen, rather than having the screen go black. That way the screen is protected, I can see that it is on, and I can see the slideshow images properly.

+1 on this.  the fact that the slideshow dims without the menus et al is sort of the opposite of what i would expect and maybe a bit worrying for burn in ... I set my TV to go off these days rather than rely on windows .. but dimming the menus descriptions is a good idea

[wer]

The information already dims.  I'm perfectly happy for anyone who wants dimming to have all the dimming they want, but dimming is not the same as black.  It's black that eliminates the possibility of burn in, so black is required for safety.

Again, you're welcome to have dimming as well, but please don't turn the request for black into a request for dimming.

I'll address the question of what happened once more:  Some people have screensaver issues, and no one can figure out why.  The problem happens with the current version of MC, but NOT with the older version of MC on the same machine.  No program other than MC21 inhibits the screensaver on the machine, and MC21 only in theater view, as described previously.  No difference between the MC21 configuration and the previous version, just running the install and migrating the library.

FYI, burn-in is also an issue with OLED televisions.

Since no one can figure it out, and since adding blackout functionality to the existing screensaver built into JRiver is such an easy thing to do, that's why it makes sense.  So again, and I'm sorry to sound like beating a dead horse, but we need black.  Brad was very kindly offering to add that option that it seemed, and I just don't want it derailed, since it is so important.  Thanks...

[RoderickGI]

Fair enough. I wasn't trying to derail your request, I was trying to improve it to meet the requirements of more people.

Brad, perhaps a couple of opacity sliders or settings for the dimming effect would be better, one for the foreground, and one for the background. Set opacity to zero for both, and you get a black screen. Set it to zero for the foreground and you get just a slideshow, with the option of dimming the slideshow as well. I would love that capability.

Wer, FYI the consensus on OLEDs is that they suffer from Image Retention due to voltage drift, rather than Burn-in. Settings can make a big difference whether it shows up at all, and apparently the first couple of hundred hours of use can make a difference. Image Retention isn't permanent, while burn-in is. But of course any Image Retention would be very annoying, so I get your point.

It is a shame that you can't get the Windows Screensaver to work, as the OP, imcardle did. Way back in the days of Windows XP I used to have problems with screensavers not kicking in, but I could always get it going by selecting a different screensaver and/or changing settings and saving the changes. Sometimes I had to look deeper at the background programs I was running, and I would find something that had flagged the screen to stay on. I don't know how far you have gone to try to solve the problem on your PC, but I think you should keep trying. It isn't MC by itself that is stopping the screensaver from working, since it works for many other people. Only you can figure out what is going on in your PC.

I do get a little flicker when the screen saver kicks in over the top of Theatre View when using the bubbles screensaver, which overlays rather than replaces the image on screen. So I suspect the problem is something to do with either exclusive mode on the screen, or colour settings/depth, maybe resolution, but some screen setting set by Theatre View that the screensaver can't override.

Anyway, get to work Brad!