New version won't stop lock & screen saver

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stberyl
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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby stberyl » 15 Dec 2018 02:53

I'm not sure why Rémi Denis-Courmont just wants to shout down the OP and continuously ignore his question, and offer solutions that have nothing to do with his question, but it's a valid question when something that was previously very helpful about a particular program is suddenly changed/removed. Could this be implemented as a selectable option?

Furthermore, under Video there is a "Disable Screensaver" option, but why is there not one for audio? All I want is for Windows (7) to not go to sleep while VLC is playing either Audio or Video, but even with the "Disable Screensaver" option selected, in version 3.0.4, Windows will still go to sleep after whatever the selected sleep time is,which is a pain when you're trying to watch/listen to something while doing something else around the house.

Can this at least be fixed? If "Disable Screensaver" is an option, it should at least work, correct? And if the screensaver is disabled, shouldn't this also prevent Windows from going to sleep?

Thanks. :D

Early Riser
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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby Early Riser » 08 Jan 2019 17:15

VLC media player, in my opinion, is the very best free one out there hands down. That being said, it seems to me that some people actually liked the so-called bug and saw it as a desired feature. Maybe "Rémi Denis-Courmont" and the development team should take the hint and make it so. Bring back the "BUG" as an "OPTION" because people "WANT" it. Personally I don't care one way or the other because I don't use the OS's screen saver or sleep mode ever. If I want the screen off, I turn it off, same with the computer. What does make want to puke is the extreme narrow tunnel vision of a few developers.

Rémi Denis-Courmont
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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby Rémi Denis-Courmont » 08 Jan 2019 17:23

What makes we want to puke are the trolls like you, and the non-paying yet entitled users.
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unidan
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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby unidan » 08 Jan 2019 17:23

It's even worse with TV, for which you usually don't want the same image to be display for a long period of time. It's exactly the same reason for audio.

You should try power management tool that check if there is a fullscreen window instead. If your setup needs keyword/fingerprint so as to unlock while watching videos, you should change your setup and have something like a timer before lock after screensaver triggers.

> Furthermore, under Video there is a "Disable Screensaver" option, but why is there not one for audio?
in version 3.0.4, Windows will still go to sleep after whatever the selected sleep time is,which is a pain when you're trying to watch/listen to something while doing something else around the house.

This looks like a different problem to me (sleep vs screensaving vs lock). I'll check in Windows if there's something you can do. Otherwise, the solution might be something like disable screensaver + screen fading or pinging microsoft to have a solution for this. It looks like something with the audio API would be a better fit if possible.

> That being said, it seems to me that some people actually liked the so-called bug and saw it as a desired feature.

You know, some people asked video hardware decoding glitches to be available as an option so as to produce artistic images. The developer are spending their time writing a media player. If you want a different software, feel free to fork and do it, it's the magic of open source software. ;) Having a lot of option used by 0.1% of the users clutters the base code with special cases that you have to test.

> What does make want to puke is the extreme narrow tunnel vision of a few developers.

You can (borderlinely), you're completely free as long as you respect the code of conduct, but AFAIK you're not paying them and I don't think it's a good way to talk to them and ask them to spend time on features you want.

steffenrh
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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby steffenrh » 03 Feb 2019 21:23

To prevent any screensaver or timeout from sending my Windows computer into standby, I'm using https://www.softwareok.com/?seite=Microsoft/DontSleep since years successfully. Small, no installation, free.

The only annoying thing with VLC and standby is, that after it ends to e.g. play a video, the Windows PC immediately goes to sleep (if Don't Sleep hasn't been used). E.g. I'm watching a film (maybe for 90 mins), then VLC reaches the end and stops. After only a few seconds the Windows PC goes into sleep mode. I'd expect VLC to reset the idle counter once when it stops after playing. At least to have this as "configurable option" would be nice, it'd allow the user to interact with the PC after the movie / audio has finished.

cu, Steffen

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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby arra » 04 Apr 2019 20:17

Indeed, why don't you listen to the users' opinion? Aren't you developing VLC for users, not for yourselves?
What you call a bug I (as many many others here) used to use for years as a feature. Why not to introduce an option if users want it? What is a supposed harm of it?
With all due respect to your developer's vision, as users we see it as you have taken away a useful feature with no reason but some vague arguable technical imperfection.
I look forward anxiously to installing next release, will VLC still play video at all?

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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby Rémi Denis-Courmont » 04 Apr 2019 20:36

Indeed, why don't you listen to the users' opinion?
We did listen. We did not agree.
Aren't you developing VLC for users, not for yourselves?
Both. And?
What you call a bug I (as many many others here) used to use for years as a feature.
What we call a bug was a bug. In fact, it was even a regression, and some users correctly reported it as such.

VLC is a media player, not a tool to break power management.
Why not to introduce an option if users want it?
Some people also want to drink and drive. And yet the government does not allow it.
What is a supposed harm of it?
It increases energy consumption. It damages some monitors. It breaks the screen lock security and violates IT policies. And so on.
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arra
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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby arra » 04 Apr 2019 21:48

But isn't it just about pleasing the corporate customers segment?
If we don't violate the built-in IT policies we won't be treated as potentially malicious or dual-purpose software by IT giants and other big companies, right?
Well, it's understood, but what about the normal users then? VLC has always been a community-inspired project, won't they be your priority target any longer?
You can't be good to everyone all the times, does the benefit from striving for formal harmlessness (or even technical excellence) really worth it?

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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby Juancomco » 05 Apr 2019 10:20

Well, I did enjoy the usefulness of no Screensaver while paused. Anyway, I looked for this forum because Screensaver is kicking in while video playing. I have one monitor and one TV connected, normally full-screen on TV. Is there a workaround?

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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby unidan » 05 Apr 2019 10:34

But isn't it just about pleasing the corporate customers segment?
If we don't violate the built-in IT policies we won't be treated as potentially malicious or dual-purpose software by IT giants and other big companies, right?
Well, it's understood, but what about the normal users then? VLC has always been a community-inspired project, won't they be your priority target any longer?
You can't be good to everyone all the times, does the benefit from striving for formal harmlessness (or even technical excellence) really worth it?
As said above, it was a bug reported by users, and as you said, you can't be good to everyone all the times. So, what would you choose between new versions being forbidden by IT department because there is an option for this, keeping old broken version with security flaws, and user reporting the bugs saying it's damaging their screen or violating their lock security, and your case which is a workaround instead of using a correct and far better software for power management?

Accusing developers for not listening the very community that reported the bug isn't helping anything except upsetting people that actually worked to find and fix the bug. If you don't agree with this, feel free to apply a revert of these patches on your own version, it won't harm everyone else. VLC is not meant to solve everyone's problem, it is only meant to be a multimedia player.
Well, I did enjoy the usefulness of no Screensaver while paused. Anyway, I looked for this forum because Screensaver is kicking in while video playing. I have one monitor and one TV connected, normally full-screen on TV. Is there a workaround?
Some other users seems to report it, could you open a ticket on https://trac.videolan.org with full verbose logs for it?
To help you, we need messages, to completely understand what your problems is.
To fix this, please be sure before you start the playback to:
  1. Open: Tools -> Messages.
  2. Set Verbosity to 2
  3. Start playback to reproduce your issue
  4. Save text in a file or copy into clipboard
  5. Then paste the full resulting log here between [​code]and[​/code] (or use Pastebin.com if it's too long)
Also don't forget to name your Operating System and provide the VLC media player version.

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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby nippit » 22 Jun 2019 15:55

"Disable Screen Saver" setting
The sleep, NO sleep, problem has another side effect, while external renderer is used
Whether it is considered a bug or regression or by design, I also think it is NOT working in my usage either.

I use menu>playback>rendrerer > a non LOCAL device.
I am using Chromecast(s)

Expected behavior, as a user:
when VLC is playing a video, rendering on a remote renderer, PC should stay awake, since it is actually doing something useful, although there is no mouse or keyboard input.

VLC behavior:
PC goes to sleep mode after set time in the windows power settings. while VLC is rendering on the chromecast.

Before anyone is bothered to write, NO I do not find it logical, nor practical to change my power settings anytime I am using VLC.
When I use other apps, if it is streaming data for any reason, unless I exit from the app, app would keep my PC awake. how come VLC does not do it.

just my 2 cents as a user

OS: windows 10 1903
VLC: 3.0.7

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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby nippit » 23 Jun 2019 08:52

Below supposed to a part of the above message:

I am NOT part of VLC development team however, I do know how difficult and time consuming these projects are.
I would like to thank everyone involved in the development, testing and even the users reporting bugs or their likes and dislikes to VLC project. There is a lot of effort, and time involved and we are all thankful to all contributors.

hulala243
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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby hulala243 » 21 Aug 2019 19:58

Hey guys,
you can use caffeine app while waiting for dev team to find a solution for this.
caffeine is a great tool that keeps the screen on as long as you wanted.

https://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/caffeine/index.html#download

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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby gigaplex » 25 Dec 2020 10:41

VLC is supposed to inhibit the screensaver when playing video. It is by design not inhibiting it when playing audio only, paused or stopped.
I found my way to this thread because it's not inhibiting the screensaver when playing video. Part way through video playback the screen blacks out if I don't keep wiggling the mouse to keep it awake.

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Re: New version won't stop lock & screen saver

Postby Hitchhiker » 25 Dec 2020 11:31

Reset prefs and then check again: https://wiki.videolan.org/VSG:ResetPrefs


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