screensaver no longer activates while music is playing

[jgidi1]

In either 0.10.1 or 0.10.2, the behavior of this screensaver changed.

Previously, the screensaver would start while music was playing, as expected. Now, the screensaver doesn't activate and the display remains powered on. This happens both when the configured activation time has elapsed and when I choose "Preview" in the screensaver settings.

I'd really prefer that the old behavior be restored if possible.

[dagwieers]

This was done on purpose, but I can see why you would want this.
I never considered this use-case. We can restore this behaviour (and document the use-case).

dagwieers@395d861#diff-878caff499ba6c39d1071c0d7e8c736bR289-R292

[jgidi1]

Hi Dag,

Thank you for replying so quickly. In my use case, I am delivering video to the television over HDMI and audio directly to external speakers via the speaker jack, so it's desirable to let the screensaver activate and turn off the television while audio continues to play.

I assume many users are sending both audio and video to the television, in which case you would not want the screensaver to activate during music playback. So maybe this should be a configuration option?

Thanks again,
Joe

[dagwieers]

Well, it depends if you're playing audio or video content. I guess with video content there is no need to activate the screensaver (and I don't even know if that is possible). But for playing audio apparently there is. And when playing audio some people may want/need audio while screensaver is on, while others don't because e.g. they use some sort of visualization option.

So there is a bit of complexity in how we would present this in the preferences.

• When idle
  • Activate screensaver: yes
    • Mute audio: yes
• When playing audio
  • Activate screensaver: yes
    • Mute audio: no
• When playing video ← not sure if this is an option, really
  • Activate screensaver: no
    • Mute audio: yes

[dagwieers]

BTW I have a projector connected to an A/V receiver connected to Kodi. So my audio is also diverted. When the screensaver kicks in (when it is idle) I do want to mute the audio, because Kodi from time to time has notifications (addon-updates, etc.) and I don't want loud noises in the living room during the night :-)

And by muting the audio, the A/V receiver also goes into standby mode.

[rikri]

Hello Dag,
I would also appreciate the change you are offering. We use Kodi mainly for playing of internet audio streams and this would help significantly as the TV is in fact just a monitor. I like When idle and When playing audio, but I'm a little bit afraid of muting audio during When playing video - is it just muting of audio at the TV?)
Till the change I'll switch of TV by remote controller... ;-)
Thank you for the screensaver!

[dagwieers]

As I already explained, the muting is necessary if you have both an A/V-receiver (for audio) and a screen (TV or projector). In that case turning off the screen will not turn off the audio, and if you have Kodi running, any notification of Kodi (updates, events) make sounds.

So in the middle of the night, your surround system may be making GUI sounds for no good reason.

But if you don't need it, you can change the setting.

[arnodirlam]

I'd be very happy to have these options as well! 🙌
Any chance this could be implemented next?
Personally, I just need to be able to turn off the screen while music is playing. No muting. No video.

[dagwieers]

@arnodirlam We accept contributions 😉

[grrdvnk]

I would suggest to simply add one extra switch on/off option under the 'Options' dialog in the settings menu with something like 'Force display off during audio playback', because:

- When idle:
This is already the general behavior, with or without audio mute
- When playing audio:
refer to 'Force display off during audio playback'
- When playing video:
Indeed, I can not think of any use for this option, so not needed

I have simply adjusted the conditional in the run function to:

if getCondVisibility("Player.HasMedia") and not getCondVisibility("Player.HasAudio"):

locally. But this is taking the dirt road (I only need video off as I do not use GUI sounds at all) and far from an actual solution/contribution which considers all other options (mute, power off, log off, etc).

[zedrdave]

May I chime in to say that an additional "dim when audio playing" option would be great:

• if audio is playing (through the TV), turning display off would cut the sound off

• at the same time, we don't necessarily want the full brightness the whole time, so having a dim (possibly configurable all the way to a blank screen) would solve that