Going into sleep mode during streaming/looking live-TV

[Peter Nent 50]

I'm using an Intel NUC (i7-cpu/Windows 11/Emby Theater with WMC gui) and was able to use the remote control to go into S4 standby mode, turning the NUC into sleep mode and returning back by 'wkare up' from sleep mode into normal Emby Theater WMC gui mode: that works* OK, but doing so during viewing a movie of live-TV, frustrates the system....a fresh start of Emby Theater WMC gui is the solution....

Question: is there a solution for this matter ? (other then forcing users to first stop the movie of live-TV, return to the mainmenu and then pushing the Off/On button on the RC......?)

Note*: global setup:

• I'm using the original MCE RC+IR-receiver and drivers: works OK, except that several WMC gui buttons are not jet working (see my other postings about this matter here:the Emby community will work on this Emby core issue ASAP, via Luke and Softworkz) it.
• Wake-up mode: I enabled the BIOS setting in the NUC to boot on USB (and thus also USB IR-receiver), works great & fast
• Sleep mode: I experimented with the good-old tool: Mediacenter Standby Tool (from mst09091): pressing the power button on the RC, lets the NUC go into sleep (active > S4 sleep mode) within 2-3 seconds
• Via CEC driver, it turns my Sony TV and the Sony Receiver automatically on/off, most times.....(sometimes, the receiver doesn't wake-up....but I understand that the CEC seems to be not always reliable....I'm looking into this matter)

This way, the combination of Emby Theater WMC gui on NUC + TV + receiver works as it should and has a high WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor)   

Result sofar: a Remote Control wake-up time of approx. 12-14 seconds, a going into sleep time of approx. 2-3 seconds: great, isn't it ?

 

Question: is there a way, to further improve it, if going into sleep modus during streaming or live-TV and wake-up ?

 

Thanks & best regards, Peter

[softworkz 3349]

On 11/16/2023 at 9:37 AM, Peter Nent said:

Question: is there a way, to further improve it, if going into sleep modus during streaming or live-TV and wake-up ?

We had recently talked about that and it seems the reason why there's no explicit shutdown handling, is that all the mobile platforms are doing this so well - and far better than desktop platforms - that there hasn't been much need to do anything more. 
We're currently in the process of moving the Windows apps to a different platform which allows to handle those transitions better than with the current Electron App. I'm not quite sure what you are expecting to happen, though: Do you expect playback to continue playback right after waking up?

Personally, I don't think that's a good idea (for desktop/TV setups), for a number of reasons:

• Privacy: One might not want others to see what you were watching (e.g. when you invoked sleep, forgot about it, and somebody else switches on later)
• Getting shocked unexpectedly: One was watching an intensive and loud scene, and put it to sleep. Even for the one who did that could it be an inconvenient surprise which gets annoying when it happens repeatedly (had such setup at some time)
• Responsive wakeup: When the client would be trying to continue whatever has been playing before, you'll always get the feeling that it's slow and unresponsive: you wake it up and you see a spinning circle, which you cannot always dismiss and you don't even know what you're waiting for: Is it the network connection, is the Emby Server down or does it take a long time to start transcoding, etc.
• For quick stop and resume, there's Pause already. I think it's safe to assume that when one initiates sleep, they are at least planning to keep it off for a while.

For all those reasons I think it makes more sense to stop playback (not just pause) when entering sleep mode. This allows the server to tear down resources (for transcoding) and get into a clean state, and when you wake up again, you are still where you left off, and everything gets engaged quickly. Then it's your choice whether you want to continue or not. Wouldn't you agree that it happens less frequently that you want to resume than that you want to do something else?

[Peter Nent 50]

Dear Softworkz, first of all: many thnx for your very professional responses: great !

I personally build+used MCE already since Windos XP MCE (since 2003-2005?) systems with a high WAF (Wife (and family) Acceptance Factor) factor, and standby-sleep mode, etc. has always been a special point, mostly a combination od the right motherboard/BIOS and BOOT setup possibilities there, but also a tool which somebody made: 'Mediacenter Standby Tool (MST) mst09091' years ago...

Your solution seems to be a correct approach:

• Sleep: stopping playback and going into S4 sleep mode, using CEC to sleep your TV and audio devices as well
• Start: enabling BIOS to start, booting Windows, login (automatically with user+password if neccessary), startup Emby Theater WMC gui (automatically with user+password) and finally ending in the mainmenu
• Status: it's in my opinion not realistic to expect that Emby Theater WMC gui comes back on exactly the same point of the live-TV stream.....make it possible to choose a continue watching the same Live-TV channel (thus not the same live-TV program, which probably ended hours ago....). For Movies, TV-series, Video-audio, etc. which comes mostly from local storage, leave as it already is: return back to exactly the same point and continue.

Thanks & best regards, Peter

Edited November 19, 2023 by Peter Nent

[softworkz 3349]

8 hours ago, Peter Nent said:

WAF (Wife (and family) Acceptance Factor) factor,

WAFAF!  

9 hours ago, Peter Nent said:

Your solution seems to be a correct approach

I've added it to the internal list for the new Windows app for consideration.

Thanks a lot for the (good) suggestion.