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ape-ma · 2019-02-19, 18:34

Whenever I start music playback with Kodi 18.1 it sooner or later switches to the Now Playing screen but that one turns black after a few seconds. How can I disable this? The info shall be displayed as long as music is played.

System: Nvidia Shield (2015), Kodi 18.1

**Hitcher** · 2019-02-19, 19:14

Sounds like the screensaver kicking in.

ape-ma · 2019-02-19, 21:20

I just checked: I configured the Screensaver now to dim the screen only only with a timeout of 5 minutes (2 minutes were originally set). Nevertheless the Now Playing screen turns within seconds to black.

**Hitcher** · 2019-02-19, 22:33

Shield screensaver?

**jjd-uk** · 2019-02-20, 06:06

What skin are you using?

**ronie** · 2019-02-20, 10:54

just in case it is not screensaver related,
hit 'i' on keyboard / 'info' on remote to make it re-appear. it should stay onscreen from then on.

ape-ma · 2019-02-20, 12:16

(2019-02-19, 22:33)Hitcher Wrote: Shield screensaver?

Unlikely. Every other screen stays on, only Now Playing turns black. In fact just the information elements are hiding.

ape-ma · 2019-02-20, 12:18

(2019-02-20, 06:06)jjd-uk Wrote: What skin are you using?

Confluence skin.

ape-ma · 2019-02-20, 12:58

(2019-02-20, 10:54)ronie Wrote: just in case it is not screensaver related,
hit 'i' on keyboard / 'info' on remote to make it re-appear. it should stay onscreen from then on.

The button that does the trick on my remote is the OK / Enter button but yes, that does the trick!

However, I don't really understand the behavior of Kodi here. Why can't the screen stay on by default? Why can't I control this via the Shield controller? Instead I have to use my remote?!

One more question: How can I go back (eg. To the main menu or to the music library) without stopping the music? If it hit B on the controller the music stops and I'm back in the main menu.

ape-ma · 2019-02-22, 19:06

Kodi 18.2 RC 1 behavior is still the same

bluemartian · 2019-02-22, 19:46

Add this to your advancedsettings.xml file:

Code:
<!-- Stop Music OSD from disappearing for 2 hours -->

<songinfoduration>7200</songinfoduration>

That's 7200 seconds, which equates to 2 hours, so depending on how long you listen, the OSD may eventually disappear. This is kind of a kludge. I prefer 60 seconds myself, as that gives me time to take in the info on the OSD and then gets out of the way so I can enjoy my fanart.

You can also do this:

Code:
<!-- Stop Music OSD from disappearing -->

<songinfoduration>0</songinfoduration>

But that will only work after the first OSD disappearance. You bring it back with OK/Enter and then it will stay on the screen until dismissed manually or end of playback.

There are some skins, like Titan, that have an option built into their settings to do this as well.

ape-ma · 2019-02-22, 21:19

Thanks, I'll try that.

**jjd-uk** · (This post was last modified: 2019-02-23, 07:39 by jjd-uk.)

Many of us who switch to music full screen have music visualisations enabled so we don't want the info laid over the top of the visualation, so default behaviour is to not permanently to overlay. As mentioned if you manually bring up the info OSD again then it will remain there, even if you stop music, the last know state of hide or overlay permanently should be remembered for next time you start to play music.

As for that advanced setting, the info will always pop up briefly on track change, so all you should need is to specify a value longer than the longest track in your collection.

**jjd-uk** · 2019-02-23, 08:30

For Controllers look at gamepad keymap see https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/blob/90c774...#L132-L148

B button is mapped to Stop change this to Back

White button will bring up info

ape-ma · 2019-02-23, 17:35

(2019-02-23, 07:38)jjd-uk Wrote: Many of us who switch to music full screen have music visualisations enabled so we don't want the info laid over the top of the visualation, so default behaviour is to not permanently to overlay. As mentioned if you manually bring up the info OSD again then it will remain there, even if you stop music, the last know state of hide or overlay permanently should be remembered for next time you start to play music.

As for that advanced setting, the info will always pop up briefly on track change, so all you should need is to specify a value longer than the longest track in your collection.

Thanks for the clarification!