On 10/24/14 20:57, frantisek holop wrote: > Christian Weisgerber, 24 Oct 2014 21:46: >> On 2014-10-24, frantisek holop <min...@obiit.org> wrote: >> >> > ok, it seems a paused mplayer could be the reason. >> > is that expected? >> >> Yes. MPlayer disables screen blanking. When you watch a movie, >> you usually don't press keys or move the mouse, but you still don't >> want your screen to switch off. > > i agree, but usually the screen moves :) > i think the state should be restored also upon pausing > the movie, at least it makes sense to me.
I'd say this falls very much under the category of "personal preference". Sounds like you are assuming if you pause the movie, that no one cares what is on the screen -- i.e., bathroom trip, answer the phone, etc. While often the case, there's a whole different reason: Because you wish to see and examine what is on the screen at that moment. You really don't want a display in the middle of a discussion of the fine points of composition of the scene to suddenly go blank because the computer decided you are having a long stop at the bathroom, right? That's somewhat of a long-standing tradition: I have a 60+ year old movie projector which does much the same thing -- when you "pause" the movie, a heat filter is put in between the projector bulb and the film to keep the bulb from melting the film, and if I recall properly, the fan kicks up in speed a bit to keep the air moving past the film and the filter from over heating. You COULD just power down the projector, too...but that's the "off" switch, not the "pause" lever. Personally, I'm slowly losing interest in screen blanking. LCD screens draw little power when on, they don't burn like CRTs did. I do often let the blanker turn the screens off for me, but that's mostly because I know it will, if I'm not lazy, I'll hit the power switches on the monitors. A laptop plugged into the wall...why power down the screen at all? A laptop running on batteries...if you aren't going to use it, why not just suspend it? No, I don't fully embrace what I'm advocating there, but I'm having trouble explaining to myself why I don't. I find myself annoyed by blanking far more often than I say, "I'm so glad my screen just blanked", and I'm inclined to think that means I'm doing it wrong. Nick.
