[cybergrunge]

The ability to blank one's computer screen when Kodi runs on TV is a cool feature when in "watch movie and chew pop-corn" mode, but it's less convenient when testing nightlies or debugging features, as we need to use the computer a lot during those kinds of sessions. I often need to stop a movie seconds after launch, because I forgot to turn the option on again, after a debugging session.

That would be great if the "blank" option could be activated only when a video is played.

[Memphiz]

You are talking about osx do you?

[cybergrunge]

Yes, I thought it was a multi-platform feature, isn't it ?

[Memphiz]

Mhh yeah seems so. Well you are debugging in Xcode or what exactly do you do on the second monitor?

[cybergrunge]

No, I'm not an applicative developper (only web). When testing Kodi features my hardest work is to make screenshots and copy-paste log files.
I found myself checking and unchecking the "blank" option many times, that's why I thought it would be an even better feature if active only while playing video.

Also, sometimes I have to pause the movie I am watching and need to make web search or anything on my computer, I would prefer not to shut down Kodi for that. And having the light of the screen showing up when one pauses a video would be cool to help find the f***ing piece of chocolate that just fell on the couch.

So, nobody follows me on this idea ?

[Memphiz]

Well i don't tbh - but maybe someone else convinces me that this is not a very special use case here

[stourwalk]

Well i don't tbh - but maybe someone else convinces me that this is not a very special use case here

It might not be a very special use case, but I also like to listen to music with Kodi and by default I've got Kodi setup to Blank the other display, would be nice to leave that on for Video playback but not for music playback so I could carry on using the computer without having to minimize kodi..

Now I know it's not quite the same, but it's related :-)

Having said that I do agree with the OP, the blank screen makes sense when I'm watching something, but if I'm not, then I'd still like to be able to use the computer..

[Memphiz]

And i am pretty sure that there are users which want it blanked all the time because they use an old macbook dedicated as htpc and want the display to be blanked. This is hard to get right for everyone. Minimizing Kodi is something i would call acceptable from a user POV for your music use case. (iirc there is a shortcut for this?).

So we have 2 major use cases covered atm.

1. Old macbook used as dedicated HTPC attached to a TV - blanking turned on
2. Macbook not dedicated as HTPC connected to a second screen (or any other mac connected to more then 1 screen) - having kodi on one screen and keep working on the other (blanking turned off - aka "the usual kodi developer setup" ).

We don't have a generic solution for the intermediate use cases which want both at the same time (constraints differ from task to task - at some point int might be good to have it blanked only during playback - at others it might be the right thing to have it vice versa) and i think it would need some more settings.

More settings is something which we want to prevent for making Kodi not even more complex at least if we feel its not a killer feature that a lot of users benefit.

I became careful over the time with those sort of "easy" requests. They are easy. I did those similar changes and it sometimes just came back to me because after adding something like that other users spoke up that something they did before works different now. (and thats where it gets annoying for me because i didn't even care about the change in the first place and don't want to spend even more time on cleaning up the rats tail it results in).

[stourwalk]

Hey Memphiz,

I know you (Kodi) can't please all the people all the time - it's a difficult balancing act with any bit of software. As soon as you add an option to do one thing someone will find a way to try and use it differently - just like the bikeshedding over new features!

In my case I certainly could just run Kodi in a window rather than full-screen and carry on, although that leads back to a request I've seen elsewhere about not allowing random resizing of said windowed application - but again there are ways around that too.. Maybe that is also the solution for our OP, pause and flick into a window to get your other screen back - you only have to press space and then \ after all.

The more I think about it, I'm sure there are just as practical workarounds for both the OP and myself that wouldn't warrant the time taken for you to get this working on all necessary platforms with all the permutation of options. I'd far rather you worked on something that would benefit more of us end-users (and was something that *you* wanted too! :-) )

Some of us users really appreciate the stuff you do!! (so don't hate us all ;-) )

[da-anda]

I'd say only blank screens when in fullscreen mode and don't when windowed. So if you're using Kodi in a desktop way you usually keep it windowed, and when relaxing on the couch it'll be fullscreen and other screens blanked.

[stourwalk]

I'd say only blank screens when in fullscreen mode and don't when windowed. So if you're using Kodi in a desktop way you usually keep it windowed, and when relaxing on the couch it'll be fullscreen and other screens blanked.

Thats the way 'Blank secondary displays' works (at least on the Mac), when Kodi is windowed it doesn't blank the other displays - so as I said it's actually a better solution (for me at least!). The daft thing is that I didn't even know the 'Blank secondary displays' option existed until I saw this thread - up until now I've been semi-closing the MacBook to avoid the distraction of the screen glare!

[Ned Scott]

I bet a service add-on could toggle fullscreen mode upon video playback and stop.