Blank screen for nightime music

[MavRic]

Hi All,

We like to play music as we go to bed and Sage and the SageMC interface is doing an awesome job for this.

I would like to be able to have a total black screen somehow. Right now get rid of most of the blue stuff by going to 'visualization' which reults in some white text moving around.

Is there a way to have everything off but still hear the music?

[Yendor]

Silly question, but, are you using a stereo receiver? Couldn't you just turn the tv/monitor off, and just let the audio play through the stereo? That is how I would do it.

[real_per]

You could use NirCmd and make a bat file containing "nircmd.exe monitor off", and put in as a shortcut in SageMC. In my VGA screen it makes the screen go black, but not completely off. (because it's a tv, not a monitor i think)

[gplasky]

Just put a black photo or.jpg in one of the photo directories and play that as a slideshow while you listen to music.

Gerry

[MavRic]

I guess i should have been more clear.

I'm playing the music trough the TV (not via external amp) and the TV is hooked up with S-video to a HD extender (I know, it's a crime to hook a HD extender via S-video, but it's temporary).

While it sounds like the responses proposed so far would possibly work i was looking for a bit more of an elegant solution (e.g. a menu option in SageMC to just turn the screen off untill i press anything on the remote again OR a visualization that contains nothing).

Do many of you play music at night?

[QueOnda]

You can always either disconnect the s-video or make a box which has a switch to disconnect the s-video.

[gplasky]

So in the SageMC slideshow option set the slideshow filter so that it only plays that black.jpg that I mentioned above. Turn off the music visualizations so after 5 minutes the Sage screensaver should kick in with a slideshow of a single black jpg. That should work I would think.

Gerry

[MeInMaui]

If you don't mind changing your logo screen saver to a blank screen, you could locate and change the name of the graphic file it uses. I think it is ...\SageTV\STVs\SageTV3\sagelogo256.png. It might require a restart of your UI to clear the image cache.

Aloha,
Mike

[MavRic]

ok..i didnt realize the screensaver would kick in after x minutes when in music playing mode...indeed a black screensave/slideshow would be fine then...

Still under normal conditions i suppose I would want a normal picture slideshow...(fam on vacation, etc).

[briands]

Originally Posted by QueOnda

You can always either disconnect the s-video or make a box which has a switch to disconnect the s-video.

This one won't work on my Sony tv... it insists on showing a green "INPUT" in the upper corner whenever there is no input...
Harmony remote solved my problem (single remote) but would not work for OP...

[MavRic]

Originally Posted by gplasky

So in the SageMC slideshow option set the slideshow filter so that it only plays that black.jpg that I mentioned above. Turn off the music visualizations so after 5 minutes the Sage screensaver should kick in with a slideshow of a single black jpg. That should work I would think.

Gerry

I don't seem to be able to locate where in SageMC you can set a slideshow filter of sort to limit the pictures being shown as the screen saver. Can somebody clue me in? Also where do i set how the duration before the screensaver kicks in?

Not sure if this already exists, but a filter based on 'tags' (with exclusion setting) within the picture would be pretty cool. That way one can have some pictures tagged as 'private' and not show as the screensaver when the inlaws are over.

[gplasky]

Go to Settings-SageMC-Enhancments and your first option should be screensaver. In there is where you would set a filter.

Gerry

[bsung]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Go to Settings-SageMC-Enhancments and your first option should be screensaver. In there is where you would set a filter.

Gerry

Is there any way to do this in the standard SageTV interface? I know a lot of people seem to like SageMC and while it looks nice, I actually like the layout of shows/music/etc on the standard interface better. Maybe I just need to learn how to use SageMC better.

Also, in the standard interface, the screensaver doesn't seem to start when I'm playing music. I have a plasma TV and a wife so want the screensaver to start automatically. I don't want to get any burn-in or complaints about too many steps to listen to music.