The VideoLAN Forums

It would be awesome if VLC could have some more complex "disable screensaver options". Up until now, my VLC will only activate the screensaver when material I'm playing is stopped - it would be helpful if the screensaver was enabled during pause as well.

Also, I use dual monitors, and I hate how one monitor stays fixed on the same image without refreshing while the other one plays the videos. Can we have a screensaver overlay feature - where the program stays on top of the screensaver only while video is playing?

Thanks

Just a follow-up on this request:

I noticed today when using Windows Media Center that when content is paused, the screensaver will run! Not just while content is stopped, but when it is paused as well. This is exactly what I'm looking for in VLC Media Player! So that if I pause something, and don't come back in the room for a few hours, the still-frame won't be burnt into my screen. Please, please, please find a way to add this feature...so that VLC can put Windows Media Center to shame, as it should be.

And is there anyway for VLC to run on top of an active screensaver (for those of us that use dual monitors)? For example, with my MS Outlook, even through the screensaver is running, New Desktop Alerts/Reminders will still appear, overlayed on top of the running screensaver. If VLC had an option that allowed this, it would be very helpful for dual monitor systems. I output HDMI to my LCD TV as a secondary monitor, so there are times when my main monitor sits idle while hours worth of contents are played back from the TV. I'd like to have a screensaver running to protect my main monitor, and still being able to watch my VLC player on the secondary monitor. Am I the only one here using dual monitors? Has anyone else developed some kind of work-around for this?

I hate the way VLC currently negotiates screensaver settings with Windows 7. While VLC x86 would turn the screen saver back on when the stop-state was reached, x64 experimental won't give me back my screensaver until the program is completely shut down.

From what I understand, things happen in this order: start the program, registry edit turning screen saver off, watch video, video ends (x86) or close the program (x64), and then registry edit turns screensaver back on.

My suggestion/request is to also turn the screen saver on and off when play/pause are pressed, so that when there is no live-video, the screen saver is reactivated and begins running after the appropriate timedown period. (The x64 bug I noted above, I will report elsewhere.) If my suggestion about play/pause are impractical or somehow would impede upon the performance of the program, I have an alternate suggestion:

First, make the disable screensaver checkbox multi-functional again (hasn't worked in years, stuck permanently disabling). And then adjust Visual-Basic values of full-screen Direct3D output so that the always-on-top flag is enabled, even during screensaver. Voila. One monitor plays the video and all the others play the screensaver. Easier said than done, but one can dream, can't he?