Why should the sage screen saver only work in full screen mode?

[carlgar]

I have not seen the sage saver work as I expected on the server or my laptop. Today, I found out from support that it is because I am not using full screen mode. I do not understand why the size of the Sage display should have any effect on how the Sage screen saver would work. I almost never use full screen mode because the image is too big for me when I am that close to the screen. The main issue I have with the Sage screen saver not working properly is that Sage continues to require that the display remain on which prevents the system screen saver from kicking in. This seems just plain wrong to me.

Any comments about why the logic should be this way? Is this right or wrong?

[JParedis]

I guess that the SageTV screensaver is not a windows screensaver but SageTV displaying its screensaver like image within its controlled display window. When SageTV is on full screen display, one does not notice the difference between this SageTV simulation of a windows screensaver and an actual windows screensaver. If it would activate when not on full screen display, it would show its screensaver image only within its window. That would be pointless, and that's maybe why it's only set to work when on full screen display.

If above is correct, than there may be a way to do this.
- SageTV is able to block the windows screensaver. That's an option you normally enable in SageTV, this to prevent the windows screensaver to start while you are watching SageTV.
- So when SageTV is not on full screen display, instead of starting its own screensaver it should stop blocking the windows screensaver to start. Not sure if that requires a lot of recoding.

As a result, the windows screensaver (you must have that one activated of course) will start after its set delay time. So if you are gone for a while, eventually this screensaver will do the job it's supposed to do.

Mind you, above is based on my best guess with limited technical insight knowledge - more assumptions. Maybe somebody with more SageTV technical knowledge can confirm or correct.

Jan

[carlgar]

Thank you for your comments. It appears that very few people seem to care about this issue.

I did determine that I was incorrect about it preventing the system screen saver working properly. It just confuses things. I did not expect the system saver from kicking in until I saw the Sage screen saver kick in. While Sage does not kick in as I would like, it does change the flag so that the system screen saver will kick in. Of course the only way a user knows this is to look at the log and know how to read it. With logic like this I can only assume that Sage is not interested in becoming a mass market product, it must be aimed at technical users only.

[JParedis]

Hm, as I very seldom watch SageTV on my HTPC - I do all via my MVP - I never got that far that it went into screensaver mode.

So if I understand correctly, when viewing SageTV in a window (not full screen), the system screensaver does get activated. Isn't that the behaviour you want. Judging by your comment it isn't behaving as you expect/want it, so I must be misreading something.

Jan

[paulbeers]

Originally Posted by JParedis

Hm, as I very seldom watch SageTV on my HTPC - I do all via my MVP - I never got that far that it went into screensaver mode.

So if I understand correctly, when viewing SageTV in a window (not full screen), the system screensaver does get activated. Isn't that the behaviour you want. Judging by your comment it isn't behaving as you expect/want it, so I must be misreading something.

Jan

I am with you Jan.....I wouldn't want just the Sage screeen saver to kick in if running in a window. I either use placeshifter on my laptop (full screen) or Sage Media Center on my server (this I use windowed). Otherwise I use all extenders (which IS the mass market route by the way). On my server, I would be annoyed if only the Sage screen server kicked in as it would only work in the window and my computer screen saver would never kick in to protect my old school CRT from burn in.......

Any software has to pick a way to do things, and I personally prefer the way Sage does it currently.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by carlgar

Of course the only way a user knows this is to look at the log and know how to read it. With logic like this I can only assume that Sage is not interested in becoming a mass market product, it must be aimed at technical users only.

My question is, what's the point of the SageTV screensaver if Sage is in a window? The point of a screensaver is to "save" the screen. If only the Sage screensaver kicked in, you'd still have the rest of the desktop static and potentially burning into your screen. The current behavior seems to be better from a "screen saving" standpoint.

[carlgar]

Originally Posted by JParedis

So if I understand correctly, when viewing SageTV in a window (not full screen), the system screensaver does get activated. Isn't that the behaviour you want. Judging by your comment it isn't behaving as you expect/want it, so I must be misreading something.

That is the behaviour I saw when using the client on my laptop. While that may be correct, I do not expect to see the system screen saver kick in when Sage is displaying a screen. If the Sage screen saver would kick in as I expected then I would know that the System screen saver would probably kick in. After I thought I understood the logic, I had my server up and expected the same behaviour. I did not see the same behaviour, but I have not bothered to look at the log to try to understand what happened. Another strange behaviour I have observed with the server, is that if I sleep (sage icon go to the notification area) the system screen saver work as expected. If I just minimize the server (this is usually an accident) the The system screen saver does not kick in as it should.

Originally Posted by paulbeers

I am with you Jan.....I wouldn't want just the Sage screeen saver to kick in if running in a window. I either use placeshifter on my laptop (full screen) or Sage Media Center on my server (this I use windowed). Otherwise I use all extenders (which IS the mass market route by the way). On my server, I would be annoyed if only the Sage screen server kicked in as it would only work in the window and my computer screen saver would never kick in to protect my old school CRT from burn in.......

Any software has to pick a way to do things, and I personally prefer the way Sage does it currently.

While the above is true that the Sage screen saver would only protect the area in use by Sage. The user user should expect the system sceen saver to protect the rest of the screen. This morning I encountered the exact behaviour that I would always like to see. I have a dual monitor system. I use the primary monitor to do work. I use the second monitor to run the Sage client (usually full screen). This morning I start the client but I did not start viewing as soon as I normally do. So the Sage screen kicked in in as it should and protected the seconday monitor, while I continue to do what I wanted to on the main monitor. However, if the client had been seet to a smaller size, I would not have seen this behaviour.

Currently my only intent is to try to understand the intent of the screen saver, not whether it is right or wrong. Once, I know the intent I can determine if it is acting as it should or not. Currently, I do not see enough consistency to know what is going on.

Originally Posted by stanger89

My question is, what's the point of the SageTV screensaver if Sage is in a window? The point of a screensaver is to "save" the screen. If only the Sage screensaver kicked in, you'd still have the rest of the desktop static and potentially burning into your screen. The current behavior seems to be better from a "screen saving" standpoint.

I did consider the above, but I still fell that the sage screen saver should kick in regardless of the screen size. When a screen screen is visible there are very little that will change on the screen over time. The Sage screen saver should only protect the area being used by Sage. The rest of the screen should be protected by the system screen saver which I consider to be correct.

[paulbeers]

I understand your complaint, but I guess where we all are coming from is that we see no need for a change as the opinion is a 3-1 in favor of the current logic (based on the opinions currently expressed in this thread). I don't see the screen saver issue (in only windowed mode) to be an issue and certainly not a reason for your comment of "With logic like this I can only assume that Sage is not interested in becoming a mass market product". Most of the software I have purchased in my life has come with features/functions that I didn't necessarily agree with. On a scale of 1-10 of feature "issues" (if this even is a true issue), this rates about a -3.

[Razillian]

I think the mass market of Sage would be sage client running in full screen mode, not windowed. Just my $0.02

[Tiki]

The purpose of a screen saver is to protect the screen from burn-in which can happen if displaying a relatively static image for a long period of time. This is primarily a problem with older CRT monitors and TVs, Plasma displays and CRT projection TVs. It generally isn't considered enough of a problem to worry about with LCD displays (like those used on laptops).

The screen saver works by either blanking the screen completely or making sure that the images being displayed are constantly changing. Some screen savers actually don't do much to save the screen since they have parts of the image that remain static (like many of the aquarium screen savers where the sand at the bottom never moves).

If you were to run a screen saver inside a window on the desktop it would serve no purpose whatsoever.

Now, if you are actively watching a movie (not on pause) there should be no need for a screen saver and it would be really annoying if Sage's or Windows' screen saver turned on while you were trying to watch something.