Arch Linux

Klemvor

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2012-09-29

Posts: 20

[UPDATE] Deactivate HDMI timeout when idle

Dear all, I am using a Mac Pro Late 2013 as a media centre running kodi-standalone-service. This PC has a AMD Pitcairn GPU, and I am using the radeon open drivers. The PC is connected to my TV through a HDMI cable. I noticed that if I don't give any input for some time (approximately 15 minutes) the HDMI detaches and resumes only after I give some input (e.g. moving the mouse or hitting some keys on the keyboard). As this PC is supposed to be used a media centre this behaviour is pretty annoying. I was wondering if there is some way to change it, but I found no information on the wiki, nor scrolling through the posts in the forum.

Last edited by Klemvor (2019-03-30 03:49:44)

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“Violence,” came the retort, “is the last refuge of the incompetent.”
- I. Asimov -

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,657

Re: [UPDATE] Deactivate HDMI timeout when idle

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Di … _Signaling

In general, look through your Kodi settings, it is quite likely to have a setting for that to inhibit this (it will during media playback, from what I'm gathering it used to do that even while not playing anything back in previous versions), there is likely to be a setting somewhere.

Edit: for example https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/System/ … _when_idle

Last edited by V1del (2019-03-25 13:21:05)

Klemvor

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2012-09-29

Posts: 20

Re: [UPDATE] Deactivate HDMI timeout when idle

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Di … _Signaling

Thanks, I found that topic about one hour after writing the post and added the DPMS rule to 10-monitor.conf. Currently I'm testing it, but I'm confident it should work.

In general, look through your Kodi settings, it is quite likely to have a setting for that to inhibit this (it will during media playback, from what I'm gathering it used to do that even while not playing anything back in previous versions), there is likely to be a setting somewhere.

Edit: for example https://kodi.wiki/view/Settings/System/ … _when_idle

Yeah, I agree. I recently installed Arch on this machine with a newer version of Kodi and I wasn't expecting this behaviour. Actually I noticed that when playing videos the behaviour is correct, i.e. no screen timeout, but when playing music is not. To be honest I preferred the old way, which is more suitable for a media centre in my opinion.

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“Violence,” came the retort, “is the last refuge of the incompetent.”
- I. Asimov -

TheSgtBilko

Member

Registered: 2013-08-13

Posts: 87

Re: [UPDATE] Deactivate HDMI timeout when idle

On my system the update to KODI 18 Leia disabled the builtin "screensaver" in KODI. After that the TV (conected over HDMI) would go into sleep when KODI was idling (not playing content). After enabling the "dim" screensaver add-on in KODI settings all was working as before update.

Klemvor

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2012-09-29

Posts: 20

Re: [UPDATE] Deactivate HDMI timeout when idle

On my system the update to KODI 18 Leia disabled the builtin "screensaver" in KODI. After that the TV (conected over HDMI) would go into sleep when KODI was idling (not playing content). After enabling the "dim" screensaver add-on in KODI settings all was working as before update.

I noticed that the screensaver was missing, and yesterday I tried to enable it, but the final result did not changed. Actually my problem is that the TV connected through HDMI disconnects if Kodi is playing music files. With video there is no problem. I guess because it senses some "full screen" application running.

I tried the following DPMS configuration (file: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitor.conf):

Section "Extensions"
    Option      "DPMS" "Disable"
EndSection

but it sorted no effect. I guess that the section is actually broken as suggested by the disclaimer. I'm trying this configuration:

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "Displayport-9" #display port identified through xrandr
    Option "DPMS" "false"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "ServerLayout0"
    Option "StandbyTime" "0"
    Option "SuspendTime" "0"
    Option "OffTime"     "0"
    Option "BlankTime"   "0"
EndSection

and I will tell soon you if it is working (each test requires some idle time, so I'm not able to them very often).

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“Violence,” came the retort, “is the last refuge of the incompetent.”
- I. Asimov -

Klemvor

Member

From: Italy

Registered: 2012-09-29

Posts: 20

Re: [UPDATE] Deactivate HDMI timeout when idle

I finally managed to test the above solution and unfortunately the problem is far from solved and actually it even worsened. I checked that even when running full screen applications the  system after about 20 minutes detaches the HDMI screen. With the DPMS off the screen goes blank for a second then resumes, but the X terminal get stuck and becomes unusable. Trying to kill and resume kodi from SSH get stuck to, so the only option is reboot. I guess that this kind of behaviour originates from some hardware option. If someone has some idea on how to solve this I will be grateful, as I don't know any more what to do.

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“Violence,” came the retort, “is the last refuge of the incompetent.”
- I. Asimov -