2 Suggestions

Good ideas.

A screensaver would also be good for those of us with plasma tvs.

As for the right side pic. They should get rid of the recommendations at the top and put the right side pic/info up there.

As it is they are trying to put too much onto the screen.

 

This isn't a computer and a screensaver isn't necessary for normal TiVo functionality. If you leave the TiVo on menus, (or paused) it will automatically change to live TV after a set amount of time. Live TV is the screen saver...

I really wonder how people perceive a screen saver would work.. Do I have to interact with the TiVo every few minutes to keep it from coming on? How is the tivo supposed to know if I do or don't want to see something?

I do have a caviate - today I came home and I noticed my daughter had paused a Netflix show so she could go take a shower and get dressed.

That is an easy fix, if she ever does it again she will never use my tv again.

 

Not sure if you are aware, but you can disable the categories on the left if it becomes too much of an issue.

 

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It isn't "necessary." But you can say the same thing for many Tivo features so that is a moot point.

A Tivo isn't a computer but not sure what that has to do with plasma burn-in and general energy savings. I mean my WMC setup always dimmed the screen after so long when it wasn't being used. It didn't happen when watching a show. But if you paused it for a long time that is what happened.

LIve tv is a screen saver of sorts. Except one of the things the idea is supposed to prevent (the point of the original post) is coming back and suddenly seeing spoilers because the tv is playing back a later portion of what you were watching when you paused.

Also live tv doesn't save energy as a screen saver and there are constant logos on many stations. Granted my plasmas pixel shift so not a huge problem.

 

Except she said that and her point was that she likes the categories but can't read the full name of shows which is a problem when she has 4 categories of shows that all start with "House Hunters ...."

 

Not to mention that in another thread someone complained that the show titles stayed the same truncated length even when you disable the categories .

 

How does the TiVo know it isn't being used? Some have talked about using the HDMI handshake to put the TiVo into standby mode when the TV is off - but when would the screen saver kick in?

Again, how does the TiVo know that you have been away and what is playing on the TV would be considered a spoiler versus the tv sitting on a marathon of every Simpsons ever produced??

I definitely don't want to to be forced to interact with the tv to keep it on - and we have a perfect example in the TiVo mini where this went very wrong.

TiVo set a dialog asking if you wanted to keep using the mini after 90 minutes and the community practically lynched them!

 

Keep it simple... the OP's obvious case is if he left it on the menus... so go to a screensaver if you left it on the menus, or if it has been left paused.
Actually that'd be nice if you leave it paused on live tv and it's nearing the end of the pause time, too... so you aren't forced to suddenly have TV going when you were expecting silence.

I have said many times, I wish you could select an app as TiVo's screensaver to launch... give us HME developers another "in" to the users and give users some cool options. (could even just launch the selected app and send it an "idle" event immediately so most apps could handle it already)

Until then... just turn off the TV when you walk away... then hit TiVo before you turn it back on. No spoilers.

 

TiVo buffer (live TV) only lasts 30 minutes... So then what happens?

Doesn't matter - TiVo won't add it. And I don't mean that as an indictment against TiVo. The first time somebody were to be using their TiVo and a screen saver popped up all hell would break loose.

No, this is not a computer - no screen saver.

 

Of course if they had a $#@! "off" button on the things, it would be easy to tell no one is watching, but instead they have to be uber-clever and decide off isn't necessary so instead they wind up doing things like popup questions at random times warning they may have to switch the tuner to a different channel, etc. and asking if that is OK.

 

Screen saver would be absolutely be needed for Plasma screens. Like your example said, what if someone was watching netflix and then paused it. You are screwed. Like another post had said, Tivo can easily figure out if the screen saver should turn on. Either I am in Menu mode after hitting the Tivo button or if I have hit pause.. What is so hard about this?? Unless the Tivo developers are complete bone heads and have programmed their UI in such a way where they cannot even figure this out.. I mean come on.. If I am in menu or paused, go to screen saver after 15 minutes. THen click any button to resume. What is so hard?? It is not like the screen saver is suddenly going to turn on while you are watching something...

It is also so not the point of the Tivo being a computer or not. My old Verizon DVR would go into screen saver mode if I did not press any buttons for a while in their on-demand menu.. I think I even remember my even older Time Warner DVR having this while I was in their on-demand menu. My Western Digital media player will go into screen saver mode if I don't press any buttons while in their menus area. Heck, even my non smart DVD player has a screen saver if no video was playing or if the player was 'PAUSED'. This is a simple thing. Yes, the Tivo is not a computer. It is a media device which works on the TV. TVs are expensive and some of them have this little problem called burn-in. All of these are not computers and yet all them are considerate enough to have a screen saver to save your TV screen...

And the Tivo Mini already has some way to figure out if you are idle or not. don't know how they do it but it will release the tuner back to the main DVR once it figures out that it is idle for a few hours. It can be done... Unless once again, if the Tivo guys completely screwed themselves because they programmed their UI in such a way where it is not expandable. Then it is on them...

I recommend posting to the forums.tivo.com.. They also have a link:

http://advisors.tivo.com/wix5/p2272893819.aspx

which will allow you to 'wish' certain features from their UI.. Maybe will they will listen, maybe they won't..

 

If you are on menus or paused for too long, tivo moves to live tv - that is the screen saver for those scenarios. For Netflix, that isn't controlled by TiVo, that is the netflix app and since Netflix hasn't added a screensaver for any other implementation, I think we are pretty safe that they aren't going to add one for TiVo.

The TiVo mini idle time tuner release has been a major topic of anger around this forum! Too long, too short - meh, not a great example.

Bottom line it seems TiVo agrees with me, so I don't have much to worry about.

 

Simple. Screen savers/energy savings kick in after x amount of time when the screen is paused or left on the menus.

 

Sigh - I am repeating myself...

In that scenerio TiVo switches to live TV. Screen savers do not save energy.

 

Yes you are repeating yourself. I can only guess that is because you don't get that Livetv is the very problem the OP's screen saver suggestion wants to get rid of?

Obviously an energy saving screen saver would have to dim the screen or shut off the signal to the tv.

 

So now the TiVo is supposed to make an assumption that I don't want to watch TV?

Doesn't matter, won't happen.

 

No assumption needed. If your screen is paused or is in the menus for x amount of time you aren't watching TV.

 

Let me help Tivo Design this screen saver since you keep on saying that is just too hard for them to do so.

If state == menu or state == pause
start timer.

if timer > timeout_time
go to screen saver

This can be run as a background thread. It is not netflix's job to install a screen saver. It is the job of the OS or the device that app is running on. On an iPad, screen saver is launched from the OS when there is no activity. It is not the app that does it. This is not rocket science.

The goal here is to save the TV Screen..

 

It does that after 30 minutes by switching to live TV. Your TV screen is just fine...

I find it interesting that I am still arguing over this. TiVo has no intention on offering a screen saver - they obviously feel that they already handle the issue VERY gracefully. TiVo has a very specific design philosophy, they are never going to provide a highly customizable interface - No Custom Foldering. And they will never treat the TiVo like a computer - No screen saver.

Your arguments aren't even that good - "I don't want to see a spoiler"

Do I think it is needed - No. Do I think it is even remotely a good idea - NO, NO, NO, NO!