[ndeshmukh]

Motivation: I want the tv turned off when screen saver turns on, and the tv turned on when the screen saver turns off.

Possible Solution #1
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Now I have two actions setup in Eventghost which can turn the tv on and off. I want two events to pair with them. I want some way to receive screensaver turned on and screen saver turned off.

Now I have no clue if XBMC broadcasts those events in anyway and if there is a way to receive them in eventghost via an eventghost plugin.

Possible Solution #2
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I though now with the addon system, screensaver code must be an addon, especially for the slideshow screensaver, but the corresponding folder does not have python file. Only an xml. So where is the screen saver code? I was hoping I could add python commands to that script to turn on and off my tv using pyserial and sending commands over rs232.

I don't want to make changes in xbmc code and compile.


Is there some way to do this? Can somebody shed some light? Especially on event broadcasts from XBMC and how to maybe capture them in Eventghost.

Thanks

[ndeshmukh]

Already made a trac ticket requesting for adding two more announcements in JSON for screen saver activation & deactivation.

Once that is done I should be able to listen for them and do the needful.

[Myth]

Really good id! Might look into this myself too.

[timdog82001]

I thought this was essentially the purpose of the "put display to sleep when idle" option under system > Power saving

[ndeshmukh]

Well it does not really turn it off... nor does it remove the vsync, so that there is no signal and the tv can detect that and switch off.

[imnotknow]

It works on my TV. The TV says "Input signal not detected" and switches into low power mode (Screen and backlight off). It comes back on in under 1 second when I press any button on the XBMC remote or send it an http command.

I am using a VGA connection if that tells you anything.

[Hitcher]

DVI to HDMI adapter here and "put display to sleep when idle" doesn't work.

[CASHMON3Y]

Doesnt work for me over HDMI either. However my Panasonic turns itself off it the screen is black for like 5 minutes, so no big deal

[jitterjames]

I have a brand new samsung connected via hdmi. When my computer puts the display into sleep mode, the samsung displays a message saying "no input signal". There is a setting for this to set how long it will wait before turning off, but the lowest setting is 15 minutes, which I find way too long. To add insult to injury, when it displays the "no input signal" it actually switches the tv into a higher energy state (higher backlight to display a mostly black screen - duh'OH!) I realize it's really not a big deal for 15 minutes but it still really bothers me. You spend $1000 on a tv and there are still always several stupid problems you have to deal with, usually just caused by bad design.

I would love to be able to detect when windows puts the display to sleep, so that I can turn my TV off using an ir blaster.

Can someone explain to me how the system.idle event works?

[ndeshmukh]

I believe the json evetns to notifiy when screensaver is activated and deactivated have been added. I guess you can use those?

[spazlon]

I don't see the screensaver attribute in the JSON API. Am I missing something? I'm looking in the following locations:

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=JSON-RPC_API
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=JSON-RPC_API/v2
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=JSON-RPC_API/v3

I would really like to be able to get the status of the screensaver.

Thanks.

[k0rny]

Any progress on this one? I'd like to power off my TV too when XBMC enters the screensaver-mode.

[spazlon]

Any progress on this one? I'd like to power off my TV too when XBMC enters the screensaver-mode.

I finally got something working, although it is an ugly hack.

Basically you need to go into XMBC settings and tell it to close after x minutes (I set it to 5).

Then you can use EventGhost to monitor XBMC. Create an EventGhost macro so when XBMC closes, it launches the screensaver (C:\Windows\system32\Mystify.scr or something like that). There is also an EventGhost event to start the screensaver.

Then create another macro where it monitors the Mystify.scr application. When Mystify starts, blast the IR for TV power. When Mystify stops, blast the IR for TV power and launch XBMC.

Using this method is a complete hack, but it works for me. If you are confused by any of it just let me know and I will give you the exact instructions.