[DanielSB]

Hey

I was getting really frustrated that Kodi on Windows, when I paused a video and its screen saver shortly after kicked in, that eventually screen output would be suspended, causing my TV to automatically turn off. This had me — if I needed to take care of something in the middle of watching some video — periodically try to tap some button to keep Kodi "alive," to prevent my TV from turning off.

I tried switching from the "black screen" screen saver to a slide show one and fiddling with other related settings in Kodi (including the setting to disable screen output), but to no avail. I read some posts, including this one — https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=351138 — and went hunting for Windows and GPU settings. Eventually I found out that the culprit was the native Windows power settings, telling the display to turn off after five minutes of inactivity.

Disabling that makes Kodi behave like I want it to. It has its own screen saver, and this is what I want to be enabled after the configured timeout when Kodi is running. Of course, this means that Windows no longer turns off the display when Kodi is not running, which is not what I want...

So, this leaves me a bit puzzled, because it really doesn't seem like logical behavior. I mean, if Kodi is intended to be "just another player," then it shouldn't have any power saver or screen saver settings at all, and just follow Windows' dictum. But, if it's intended to be a full-fledged piece of home theater software, it shouldn't honor any external power or screen saver settings — as indeed it doesn't while playing media. IMHO, of course.

Clearly, it's not just another player, and it does have all the implementations for both power saving and screen savers. To me, it would seem logical that it would therefore follow that the running Kodi application would therefore always (not just while playing content or being directly interacted with) be presented to Windows as "being active" and thus preventing any system-level power saving features when their Kodi equivalents have already been configured and are active.

But perhaps the consideration here is that many people will come to Kodi expecting the former behavior? That their Windows-level screen saver and power saving settings remain the same because they see Kodi as something similar to VLC or MPC? If so, I humbly suggest providing an option in the settings to have Kodi always "remain active" as per previously described — not sure how else to word it

Or perhaps it's just me?

Cheers
Daniel

[Karellen]

You need to remember that Kodi is cross-platform and operates on seven other platforms, so most times coding and features are designed so they work equally across all platforms. You cannot say that Android and Windows work the same way for example.

I have a dedicated Windows 10 HTPC in my lounge room. It runs 24/7 and I have configured the Kodi fanart screensaver. All of the Windows power setting modes are disabled. Except for the HDD's nothing goes to sleep and it works exactly as expected. When we finish watching tv for the night, we pick up the remote and press TV-Off. Kodi still runs in the background.

Of course, this means that Windows no longer turns off the display when Kodi is not running, which is not what I want...

I don't know how Kodi is supposed to control anything if it is not running?

[DanielSB]

Of course, this means that Windows no longer turns off the display when Kodi is not running, which is not what I want...

I don't know how Kodi is supposed to control anything if it is not running?

Hi Karellen

I think I must have been unclear. I don't expect Kodi to control anything when it's not running. What I'm arguing for, is that when it is running, its power saving and screen saver settings should probably replace those of the host OS — otherwise they don't seem to make much sense to have inside Kodi (except for when running exclusively, like for example with LibreELEC). What I tried to say in the context of your quote above, is that because the Windows power saving settings are still in effect when Kodi is running (except when Kodi is actually playing back media, and in essence is reporting as "active" and thus preventing power saver timers from triggering in Windows), and because I then have to disable them in Windows for Kodi's equivalent settings to take precedence, I end up having to have no display power saving settings enabled in Windows when Kodi isn't running, and the display never sleeps.

I can either enable display sleep in Windows and ensure I won't get OLED burn-in, but have to endure either tapping away inside Kodi periodically to prevent the display from sleeping (and incidentally also break the playback so that I cannot resume playback without having to restart, but that's possibly an issue for a different thread), or I can disable it in Windows, and have Kodi's screen saver work as configured, but risk OLED burn-in when Kodi isn't running. 

I'm arguing that it would make sense to either have Kodi's power saving and screen saver setting override those configured in Windows when it runs, by default, to remove them from the UI if it's actually the intended behavior that the OS settings overrule those configured, or to offer a settings options to allow the user to control it (e.g., "Suspend Windows Power Saving and Screen Saver Settings while Kodi Runs").

I don't know if that made it any more clear. My first language is Danish, so my English can get a bit convoluted Hope it makes sense now  

Cheers