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Question; Can Screensaver plugins trigger on missing media types


Azza

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I'm not sure how Screensavers are handled so apologies if this post is in the wrong area.

 

So can a screensaver distinguish missing media types? 

 

When nothing at all is happening, it's obvious to initiate 'the active screensaver plugin' but can you have an audio screensaver plugin that plays stuff from you library, (perhaps you're displaying a slideshow) when no audio is playing or perhaps you got music playing and the video screensaver plugin kicks in to display geiss-like visual joy?

Edited by Azza
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A screensaver for that would just be that a screensaver in general. It wouldn't really be a plugin or anything, not on the web client. That is just a web page. There is a built in one in MB Theater that is a little more advanced. MBC I believe uses the built in WMC one.

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I thought 'Screensavers' were installed via the 'plugin' interface and only 1 can be flagged as Active? or am I just thinking of MBC Configurator only?

 

I assume the Backdrop or Cover Screensavers don't distinguish missing media types and react accordingly?

Edited by Azza
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Yeah I believe there might be a built in screensaver in MBC too that uses the backdrops. Just like MBT does. But it doesn't actually install a screensaver. It is just built into the program.

 

Not sure what you mean by missing media types.

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Not sure what you mean by missing media types.

 

There must be an 'idle' time set that initiates the screensaver at an appropriate time, but I'm assuming that the 'idle' time ticks over when 'nothing' is using Video OR Audio, can it distinguish between 'No Video' activity in the last x seconds or 'No Audio' activity in the last x seconds and launch appropriate 'screensaver' accordingly?

 

ie:

-if no audio, start screensaver that plays some audio, like an awesome soundtrack to go with your holiday snapshots

-if no video, start screensaver that plays some video, like the old-school geiss visualizations in WinAmp 

Edited by Azza
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Yes that is what it does. If nothing is playing, it starts the screensaver. It doesn't go that deep though that if no audio, it plays audio. It is just a screensaver. If nothing is playing currently and it has been some time (say 10 minutes) it displays it.

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I suspected that the answer was 'no', how difficult would it be to implement? is it worth upgrading this to a feature request? (server or client?)

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This would be a client request (either MBT or MBC client). Up to you. Not sure what support it would see, but it doesn't hurt anything to put up the feature request and see.

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This would be a client request (either MBT or MBC client). Up to you. Not sure what support it would see, but it doesn't hurt anything to put up the feature request and see.

 

Fair response, though I'm not too sure how to move this thread to another area other than creating new posts, I'll sleep on it, perhaps some moderator might be nice and move things around for me :)

Edited by Azza
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I'm not sure I follow what you are asking for here.

 

Screensavers are triggered by the lack of input activity on the machine.  That is, no mouse or keyboard input.  

 

The screensavers build for MBC will not trigger if video is playing and there is no input activity but they can trigger if audio is playing and there is no activity.  So it is kind of the opposite of what you are asking for (I think).  If you are playing music through MB and don't touch any input device for the configured amount of time, then the screensaver will activate.

 

Additionally, if you play a slideshow of your pictures in MBC, you can put a windows playlist file in the folder with those pictures and that will play as a background to the slide show.

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