Plasma screen, Tivo: screensaver to avoid Screen Burn?

[IainJH]

Hi

Just got a beautiful new Plasma, and my Mode0 hacked Tivo picture looks reasonably good on it. Problem is, I'm concerned we'll leave the Tivo/ TV on, forget it and come back to find the Tivo menu's retained or burnt into the screen. I've already done it once, (i.e. the tivo'd program timed out back to the Tivo menus) and while the 'retention' went after a minute or two I would like to know - is there any screensaver hack for the tivo? Or a way of forcing it to Black or live TV after a period of inactivity? I'm fairly sure it doesnt do it as standard..

As we've often come back to a menu screen on the old CRT, AND the new plasma has a built in freeview, unless we can be sure this won't happen I'm concerned we'll avoid tivo !

Wisdom, suggestions please? I've searched with no joy. MY DVD player has a screensaver, XMBC has.. tivo hasn't?..

cheers Iain

[Fred Smith]

A TiVoweb module, Bufferhack which is available as part of the Hackman module (may also be avaiable separately) has a "Time before Tivo Central returns to live TV" option which you can set by the minute.

[Rob Nespor Bellis]

The timeout to live TV is a settable option via TiVoWEB.

There is also at least two screensavers available which will blank the screen after a set amount of time on pause.

Rgds,

R.

[blindlemon]

Here's an updated version of one of the TiVo screensavers. (What's the other, Rob?)

For some reason IR commands sent while the screen is black are disturbed. The TiVo keeps retrying the channel change but the numbers can be garbled. When the screen is restored to the "paused" state, IR commands are sent correctly.

Therefore I have added a second parameter (maxblack) that controls how long in seconds the screen will stay black before reappearing in the "paused" state. This serves 2 purposes - a) reduces the likelihood that garbled IR commands sent while the screen is blacked will ruin a recording and b) reminds the viewer that the TV is still switched on :)

Both parameters are in seconds. The first is the number of seconds to maintain the "paused" state before blacking the screen; the second is maxblack. A sample command line to be included in rc.sysinit.author would be:-

/var/hack/bin/screensave -t 60 -m 300 &

I've been running this on both my TiVos since October 2005 with no issues other than the IR disturbance noted above.

[cyril]

I thought that the default settings for TiVo to return to the menu should prevent screen burn.

I have used TiVo EVERY DAY for 7 and a half years on my first Fujitsu plasma, and have no screen burn or retention ever, with no screensavers installed.

Or maybe the electronics on a Fujitsu are superior

I think the nine year old PDS4204 or earlier plasmas could suffer from screen burn, but later Fujitsus have anti-burn electronics ISTR.

[IainJH]

Smart info, well done and thank you guys

I've err, looked :) and found TimeoutToLiveTVSeconds in Tivoweb constants, now set to 180 which is plenty.

And I'll take a look at the screensaver proper, thanks Blindlemon. If Rob knows of the 2nd one, I'll take a good look at that as well.

(The plasma I just bought is a panasonic 37PX60 - also does a fine job on SD broadcasts, Tivo's much better than I'd hoped- and while I fully expect it to be fine resisting burn I don't want to tempt fate just yet, not least in its run-in time. Also I know there's a Sky HD coming soon to the household so don't want *any* excuse for Tivo to get relegated to a second room !)

Cheers again

[6022tivo]

I vote for the screensaver mod. I have been running this for many months now and it works ok. It also flashes the Green Power light on the tivo to remind you it is in screensaver mode.

[Rob Moss]

Of course, you could just get into the habit of turning off your tv...

[blindlemon]

I've err, looked :) and found TimeoutToLiveTVSeconds in Tivoweb constants, now set to 180 which is plenty.
The timeout to Live TV only happens if you leave the TiVo in a menu.

If somebody in your house pauses a recording it will stay there onscreen forever if left :eek: