2015-03-06, 20:41
I'm just re-posting this question http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=220468 here as suggested, so I hope that's OK. Someone is welcome to delete whichever thread is in the wrong place.
I was wondering if Kodi makes the RPi send out pings to the server whenever it's running?
The problem I have is that my server PC (running MediaPortal) will go to sleep almost instantly when I pause video playback, due to the fact that MediaPortal's PowerScheduler only prevents Windows going to sleep whilst it's seeing activity on the network but doesn't reset the Windows sleep timer whilst doing so, so as soon as the network activity stops, Windows goes to sleep. I could switch it from monitoring network activity to monitoring pings instead but then it will never go to sleep if Kodi is constantly sending out pings whilst it's on. If it could be made to only ping whilst media is playing or paused, that might help but I think PowerScheduler would still have the problem of letting the server go to sleep as soon as media playback is stopped if the Sleep timeout (say 30mins) has expired in the meantime.
As a workaround, I've had to set the timeout to something longer than any movie I might watch, like 3hrs but then of course the PC stays awake when it doesn't need to, wasting power. Another workaround is to set PowerScheduler to not allow sleep whilst a process is active, so I can set that to monitor for Notepad++ and open that before watching a movie but that's a bit clunky and inconvenient.
Maybe someone knows of an alternative program for the PC that will listen for pings and reset the Sleep timer when it receives them? Then, even if Kodi does ping constantly, I could connect a hub between the RPi and the server and just switch that off when I'm not using the Pi, or even automate this by using a Master/Slave powerplug connected to the TV, so that the hub powers on/off with the TV, so that I can leave the RPi running.
I was wondering if Kodi makes the RPi send out pings to the server whenever it's running?
The problem I have is that my server PC (running MediaPortal) will go to sleep almost instantly when I pause video playback, due to the fact that MediaPortal's PowerScheduler only prevents Windows going to sleep whilst it's seeing activity on the network but doesn't reset the Windows sleep timer whilst doing so, so as soon as the network activity stops, Windows goes to sleep. I could switch it from monitoring network activity to monitoring pings instead but then it will never go to sleep if Kodi is constantly sending out pings whilst it's on. If it could be made to only ping whilst media is playing or paused, that might help but I think PowerScheduler would still have the problem of letting the server go to sleep as soon as media playback is stopped if the Sleep timeout (say 30mins) has expired in the meantime.
As a workaround, I've had to set the timeout to something longer than any movie I might watch, like 3hrs but then of course the PC stays awake when it doesn't need to, wasting power. Another workaround is to set PowerScheduler to not allow sleep whilst a process is active, so I can set that to monitor for Notepad++ and open that before watching a movie but that's a bit clunky and inconvenient.
Maybe someone knows of an alternative program for the PC that will listen for pings and reset the Sleep timer when it receives them? Then, even if Kodi does ping constantly, I could connect a hub between the RPi and the server and just switch that off when I'm not using the Pi, or even automate this by using a Master/Slave powerplug connected to the TV, so that the hub powers on/off with the TV, so that I can leave the RPi running.
