[mythtv-users] viewer falls asleep with the EPG open - plasma burn in concerns

[Michael T. Dean]

On 03/29/2010 10:45 AM, Johnny Walker wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 7:15 PM, Johnny Walker wrote:
>    
>> On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 9:01 PM, Daniel Kristjansson wrote:
>>      
>>> On Thu, 2010-03-11 at 19:30 -0600, Johnny Walker wrote:
>>>        
>>>> So the only way I can think to protect my Plasma from EPG burn-in
>>>> (aside from never falling asleep) would be to re-enable it when the
>>>> EPG is loaded on the screen, even if I'm still in LIVETV mode.
>>>>
>>>> Does this sound correct?
>>>>          
>>> Yes, sounds reasonable.
>>>
>>> In working on this I found the following in the code
>>>        
>> libmythui/screensaver-x11.cpp:
>>
>> if (m_timeoutInterval == -1)
>>          {
>>              m_timeoutInterval = GetMythDB()->GetNumSettingOnHost(
>>                  "xscreensaverInterval", GetMythDB()->GetHostName(), 50) *
>> 1000;
>>          }
>>
>>          if (m_timeoutInterval>  0)
>>              StartTimer();
>>
>> I don't seem to have 'xscreensaverInterval' in my settings table.
>>
>> I grepped my working copy of .22 and I don't see it mentioned anywhere
>> else.
>>
>> The reason I'm asking is - I've put 'xset s 60 60' in my .xsessionrc file
>> and somehow it's getting changed to 0 which is making my screensaver not
>> happen when I'm paused.
>>
>> I added a call to EnableScreensaver to the NuppelVideoPlayer::Pause method
>> but since 'xset q' shows it's back at 0 it does me no good. When I manually
>> 'xset s 60 60' again however, it starts working as expected.
>>
>> Do any of you know what gives
> Ok - I've grepped through the code for .22 lookiung for 'xset' and I don't
> see where the code would be disabling the screen saver.
>    

MythTV never does anything with xset.  It only tests to see if 
xscreensaver or gnome-screensaver is running.  If so, it will "poke" the 
screensaver once every 50sec (the default value of the hidden 
xscreensaverInterval setting you mentioned above) to prevent the 
screensaver from activating during playback.

Note, however, that many screensaver programs will enable/disable things 
like DPMS.

> When I'm in Media Library -->  Watch Videos - and a video ends and returns me
> to that screen, the display just sits there, waiting to burn in on my Plasma
> television.
>
> If I ssh in to the frontend and run 'xset s 60 60' it starts working and
> protecting my screen.
>
> I'm really concerned about this - it seems like an odd oversight in the
> functionality. Am I the only one having this issue?
>    

Any reason you're not running one of the supported screensaver programs?

I have a plan (very low on my TODO list--especially since I don't use 
screensavers on MythTV) to add xdg-screensaver ( 
http://portland.freedesktop.org/xdg-utils-1.0beta3/xdg-screensaver.html 
) support to MythTV (see http://portland.freedesktop.org/wiki/ ).  By 
default, MythTV would use xdg-screensaver, if available.  If not, it 
would fall back to the current xscreensaver/gnome-screensaver support.

Since xdg-screensaver works on a completely different principle from 
xscreensaver/gnome-screensaver, we can't just stick xdg-screensaver in 
place of the xscreensaver/gnome-screensaver commands in the current 
code.  The current code never deactivates (or activates) the screensaver 
program, but just sends it messages periodically that it should not 
activate.  This way, if mythfrontend crashes, it doesn't leave the 
screensaver deactivated.

xdg-screensaver, on the other hand, uses a suspend/resume approach.  
mythfrontend would ask xdg-screensaver to suspend the screensaver and 
provide a mythfrontend window ID.  Then, when the screensaver should 
resume, mythfrontend would tell xdg-screensaver.  If mythfrontend 
crashes, xdg-screensaver would notice the window with the given ID 
disappearing and would let the screensaver resume normal operations.

If you'd like to work on this, I'd love to be able to mark it off my 
TODO list.  :)

And, as you and Daniel are aware, the current code doesn't really handle 
transitions from "suspend" to "resume" very well.  We keep poking the 
screensaver when the EPG is displayed, and there may be other parts of 
Myth where we should disable the screensaver and we don't.  So, even 
just fixing these up would be nice.

Mike