New: There is no API for the backlight and display

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

The is no unified API to control the backlight and the low-power display mode. Each OEM implement backlight control differently. And OEM are not required to provide backlight control to the applications.

This is a real problem for apps like video players and video games.

On the Red-e smartphone we found a way to keep the backlight on when it is on, but we don't know how to turn the light on when it is off.

We don't know how to prevent the Red-e smartphone from getting into the low-power display mode, and when it is in low-power display mode (paletized, low refresh rate), we don't know how to bring it back to normal display mode.

With the SPV, we don't know how to prevent the backlight from turning off.

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

Moved to development

[Guest midnight]

use registry settings for backlight permanently on/off (HKCUControlPanelBacklightBatteryTimeout and ACTimeout, set them to 99999 for never)

as for brightness, talk to the creator of pocketMVP, cos theres a brightness control in that.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

We told PocketMVP how to do it... so that won't work!

And all this do not answer our questions:

1) On the Red-e smartphone we don't know how to turn the light on when it is off.

2) We don't know how to prevent a smartphone from getting into the low-power display mode, and when it is in low-power display mode (paletized, low refresh rate), we don't know how to bring it back to normal display mode.

[Guest Richie M]

1) On the Red-e smartphone we don't know how to turn the light on when it is off.

:? are you trying to say that the Red-E has a different registry to the SPV?

If not why dont you just use the registry change posted above. (also Red-e is only a development phone so why put so much emphasise on it? :?)

2) We don't know how to prevent a smartphone from getting into the low-power display mode, and when it is in low-power display mode (paletized, low refresh rate), we don't know how to bring it back to normal display mode.

Surely the whole point is to keep the display on when your app launches, therefore why worry about getting it from low-power to normal?

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

1) sorry, you just don't get it...

we know how to keep the backlight on when it is ALREADY on, but we don't

know how to turn it on when it is off.

that goes for all smartphones. and the way to turn the backlight on (when it is currently off) is OEM-dependent, and i'm not even sure the OEM will provide an API for the apps to do that.

2) again, sorry to say, but you don't seem to get it.

because if the user has set the phone so that it goes in low power after 1 min, it would be very ennoying when this happens after one minute of playing a 30 min video...

please, if you don't understand exactly what we are talking about, why try to give an answer that does not help... ;)

sorry if you feel i'm rude, but these days i get too much of that sort of answers that you gave.

[Guest Richie M]

Er first off

please, if you don't understand exactly what we are talking about, why try to give an answer that does not help

I'm sorry if you dont understand the answers you are given, and you think they are not relevant to your problem, but if you tried to explain what you are doing more clearly we may understand you, only trying to help.

Secondly

sorry if you feel i'm rude, but these days i get too much of that sort of answers that you gave

Er yes you are being rude, not exactly the way to help now is it?

Thirdly

these days i get too much of that sort of answers that you gave

Dont that tell you something? Maybe everyone else is right and giving you the correct answer, and you are wrong.

Forthly

1) sorry, you just don't get it...

we know how to keep the backlight on when it is ALREADY on, but we don't

know how to turn it on when it is off.

that goes for all smartphones.  and the way to turn the backlight on (when it is currently off) is OEM-dependent, and i'm not even sure the OEM will provide an API for the apps to do that

I'm sorry but you obviously dont get it :roll: i'll go through it nice and simply for you.......you assign a key to change the registry value in HKCUControlPanelBacklightBatteryTimeout to be 999999 so that when this key is pressed the light will go on and stay on, pretty simple really.

Finally

2) again, sorry to say, but you don't seem to get it.

because if the user has set the phone so that it goes in low power after 1 min, it would be very ennoying when this happens after one minute of playing a 30 min video...

again, sorry to say, but you don't seem to get it.

slowly read my fourth reply and you may realise that the registry change will override what the user has set :roll:

PS dont forget to change the registry value back once your app is exited

PPS in future if you don't like answers you get there is no need to be rude, otherwise no-one will be willing to help you

PPPS take a deep breath and think about what you are trying to do and think about how you could apply what you have been told before jumping back in

PPPPS loads of people have used the above solution, so there must be something in it

PPPPPS if the smartphone is so bad (re all your other posts) maybe you should give up and go back to PocketPC's

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

Sorry, you still don't get it, but i think you should stop trying.

Setting HKCUControlPanelBacklightBatteryTimeout to 99999

when the light is OFF does not bring the light ON.

Try it, you'll see.

I am talking about bringing the light ON programatically, i.e. without having to ask the user to touch a key...

For the second point, you don't get it either.

You can set whatever you want in the registry, if the display is in low power mode, it will stay there (again, this is without touching the buttons).

You'll get some idea of what i mean when you'll play video with PocketTV, next week.

> PS dont forget to change the registry value back once your app is exited

oh yes? can you explain why ?

We don't think the Smartphone is totally bad, but there are a lot of things that are not perfect and could be improved. That's the first phone OS made by MS.

Look at the Pocket PC, it took a long time for MS to finally get it "right". It's about the same for Smartphone.

Nothing wrong with helping MS correcting their mistakes. We want the smartphone to be a good platform, and we want our apps to run on many of them.

If you also want the smartphone to be successfull, then you should be critical of all the defaults and problems and bad things in it, so that MS will fix them in the next version. Not only it's your free speach right, but it's your duty to speak up.

[Guest ClintEastman]

We don't think the Smartphone is totally bad, but there are a lot of things that are not perfect and could be improved.  That's the first phone OS made by MS.

Look at the Pocket PC, it took a long time for MS to finally get it "right".  It's about the same for Smartphone.

Nothing wrong with helping MS correcting their mistakes.  We want the smartphone to be a good platform, and we want our apps to run on many of them.

If you also want the smartphone to be successfull, then you should be critical of all the defaults and problems and bad things in it, so that MS will fix them in the next version.  Not only it's your free speach right, but it's your duty to speak up.

Good Point!!! Keep it up i say. ;)

[Guest ajb3000]

if you automatically set that registry value when the program loads, the backlight will always be on at this point as a key has just been pressed to load the program.

if the user has said they don't want the backlight on at all in the options, then one would presume they don't want it on for pocket tv either so it doesn't matter.

[Guest Richie M]

can i refer you this this thread http://www.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=55168

In the developers newsgroup, it disscuss your problem and comes up with our solution :roll:

If you also want the smartphone to be successfull, then you should be critical of all the defaults and problems and bad things in it, so that MS will fix them in the next version. Not only it's your free speach right, but it's your duty to speak up.

Yes but have you noticed it's only you having this problem, we have given you a solution but you are not happy with it, fair enough, but there is no need to be hostile to people trying to help you. You could always moan to Microsoft instead.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

if you automatically set that registry value when the program loads, the backlight will always be on at this point as a key has just been pressed to load the program.

if the user has said they don't want the backlight on at all in the options, then one would presume they don't want it on for pocket tv either so it doesn't matter.

yes, of course, but that's not what we want to do, because that's a bad idea.

We want the backlight to time out normally when the video is not playing, or is paused, in order to save the battery.

Moreover, we don't want to overwrite (and loose) the current user settings. What you suggest would really cause problems, if you think about it.

[Guest ajb3000]

so change the registry value to 99999 when the user presses play, and change it back to the users original setting when they press pause/stop or exit the program, wheres the problem with that?

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

can i refer you this this thread http://www.modaco.com/viewtopic.php?t=55168

In the developers newsgroup, it disscuss your problem and comes up with our solution :roll:

Yes but have you noticed it's only you having this problem, we have given you a solution but you are not happy with it, fair enough, but there is no need to be hostile to people trying to help you. You could always moan to Microsoft instead.

Yes, and it has often been the case in the past, because we have an application that is very different from most. A video player has lots of specific requirements that are not of any concern for other applications.

All the problem we have, other video applications have the same (e.g. PocketMVP/PocketDivX on Pocket PC), and we work together with them to solve those problems.

Thanks for your suggestion, but really, have you tried to turn the backlight on programatically ?

The solution that you have suggested does not solve this particular problem, we know that, we tried that before you suggested it, actually. It does solve the problem of keeping the light on, and this we knew already. The only thing we did not realize is that on the Smartphone 99999 ms means "forever", as far as backlight timouts are concerned. Thanks for your help, if that's we you want to hear.

If you find a way to turn the backlight on without touching a key, please let us know.

[Guest midnight]

well, this is how i see it, load the app, dont change any backlight settings, as soon as the user presses play, you store the current registry value, and then change the reg so the backlight stays on, this will work fine now for the duration of the movie, now, if the user presses pause or stop you restore the old value and write it back to the reg, if the user presses play then change the reg again etc. the simple fact that the user has to press the play/pause/stop buttons would cause the backlight to comeon and give you the oportunity to change the reg values, and cos you are always restoring the old reg value that isnt a problem either, it will always set the reg back if you exit the app.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

so change the registry value to 99999 when the user presses play, and change it back to the users original setting when they press pause/stop or exit the program, wheres the problem with that?

We already do that, and this works.

But that is not the problems we are discussing here.

The questions are:

1) do you know how to turn the backlight on (when it's currently off) without pressing a key ?

2) do you know how to exit the low-power display mode without pressing a key ?

Until now, no-one has provided a solution to those two problems.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

well, this is how i see it, load the app, dont change any backlight settings, as soon as the user presses play, you store the current registry value, and then change the reg so the backlight stays on, this will work fine now for the duration of the movie, now, if the user presses pause or stop you restore the old value and write it back to the reg, if the user presses play then change the reg again etc. the simple fact that the user has to press the play/pause/stop buttons would cause the backlight to comeon and give you the oportunity to change the reg values, and cos you are always restoring the old reg value that isnt a problem either, it will always set the reg back if you exit the app.

In our case, there are situations where playing does not involve pressing a key.

For example, another application can start PocketTV with a file name as a parameter, and PocketTV starts playing the file, and this may not involves pressing a key, so the backlight may be off when this happens

This is why we are trying to resolve the problem of turning the backlight on programatically, because in general we want it on while playing video (of course it's a user-selectable option in PocketTV).

Now maybe you understand better why we have this problem and why we want to solve it ?

Now i'm sorry i ever brought that up on this forum, it's obviously not the right place for this sort of very technical discussion. We'll get the info directly from MS and/or from the OEM.

[Guest ajb3000]

then map the * key to change the registry back and forth aswell, what if people don't want the backlight on?

[Guest midnight]

ahhh, now if you'd mentioned this in the beginning then maybe the answer would have been..... i dont know :wink:

the thing is, we gave a solution to the problem, not the correct solution but A solution, and you never said why that wouldnt work, you never mentioned what you where trying to do. If this had been said then i would have not replied to this thread, and would never have mentioned the obviously daft solution of changing the registy.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

then map the * key to change the registry back and forth aswell, what if people don't want the backlight on?

Yes, there is already an option in PocketTV to select if you want the backlight always on while playing.

But if the option is set to "yes, i want the backlight on", we want to guarantee that it is on in all circonstances, including the scenario that we describe in our previous posting.

[Guest Richie M]

ahhh, now if you'd mentioned this in the beginning then maybe the answer would have been..... i dont know :wink:

the thing is, we gave a solution to the problem, not the correct solution but A solution, and you never said why that wouldnt work, you never mentioned what you where trying to do. If this had been said then i would have not replied to this thread, and would never have mentioned the obviously daft solution of changing the registy.

Same here :roll:

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

ahhh, now if you'd mentioned this in the beginning then maybe the answer would have been..... i dont know :wink:

the thing is, we gave a solution to the problem, not the correct solution but A solution, and you never said why that wouldnt work, you never mentioned what you where trying to do. If this had been said then i would have not replied to this thread, and would never have mentioned the obviously daft solution of changing the registy.

I did mention it. Here is a quote from my initial posting in this thread:

<>

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

This forum is increadibly slow, or is it just me ?

[Guest midnight]

nope,its definitely you thats slow :roll:

hehe, what i meant was you didnt specify WHY you wanted to turn the backlight on, most people press a keyt to turn the backlight on therefore you could change the registry, but, now you have made it clear (finally) why this single keypress wouldnt be acceptable.

[Guest The PocketTV Team]

nope,its definitely you thats slow :roll:

hehe, what i meant was you didnt specify WHY you wanted to turn the backlight on, most people press a keyt to turn the backlight on therefore you could change the registry, but, now you have made it clear (finally) why this single keypress wouldnt be acceptable.

Ok, i should add the word "programatically" in each of my sentences, sorry, i though that was implied since this is the Development forum ;)