Good idea to keep the screen on overnight?

[Guest BiggerH]

I'm trying to find the most automated way of getting my TV shows onto the Vega.

So my PC downloads my TV shows early in the morning.

I then have Android Manager to sync the shows with the Vega at about 6am, ready for me when I get up.

But, the Vega needs to be 'awake' for the wifi to be on, and the only way I can find is by using Astro to keep the Vega awake all night.

Am I doing any damage to the screen by doing this?

[Guest arad85]

But, the Vega needs to be 'awake' for the wifi to be on, and the only way I can find is by using Astro to keep the Vega awake all night.

You can keep the screen on by setting Settings->Application->Development->Stay Awake to be on and then powering it overnight from the charger. That way, the screen dims but wifi remains on.

And no, I don't think you'll do any damage to the screen...

[Guest BiggerH]

nice one - thanks

[Guest xathras]

You can keep the screen on by setting Settings->Application->Development->Stay Awake to be on and then powering it overnight from the charger. That way, the screen dims but wifi remains on.

If you want to keep your Vega on for a prolonged period without using the charger there is a simple little app called Caffeine (available in the Market) that will do this. It "lives" in the notification bar, from where you can click it to turn it on and off. I use it to make sure that that the wifi stays on when I'm downloading a large torrent.

[Guest simonta]

I don't agree that leaving the screen on for extended periods is without risk.

Despite popular opinion, some LCDs and TFTs suffer from image persistence. It's usually temporary but there have been instances where permanent shadows have resulted. At the very least, you will shorten the life of your screen, or more likely the backlight inverter, although what the average life of these screens is, who knows? Maybe it's 20 years and you have nothing to worry about. Maybe it's 5 years and you do!

My advice would be to wait to see what the kernel source release will bring (although it will might be impossible to keep wifi on in standby as, AFAIK, the power is removed from the chip). I don't think software could do this either because even if an app completely blanks the screen, the backlight would be on.

As an alternative, can you use USB host mode? Have the PC save to a stick then pop the stick into the Vega???

Sorry to be the party pooper, but there are my thoughts.

Edited January 20, 2011 by simonta

[Guest arad85]

Despite popular opinion, some LCDs and TFTs suffer from image persistence. It's usually temporary but there have been instances where permanent shadows have resulted. At the very least, you will shorten the life of your screen, or more likely the backlight inverter, although what the average life of these screens is, who knows? Maybe it's 20 years and you have nothing to worry about. Maybe it's 5 years and you do!

When you have it on charge and you have the screen enabled as I mention, the screen dims after 10 minutes to quite a low level so it's very unlikely to suffer screenburn.

As to backlight damage, yes, that's possible...

[Guest Sir Gash]

One idea I had was to set the brightness to zero which should disable the backlight completely. It can be done using the following code via ADB:

adb shell

sqlite3 /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db

update system set value=0 where name='screen_brightness';

.exit

reboot

The only problem with this is you need to reboot for it to work. If there any coders out there, they could probably write an app to set the brightness to zero without rebooting and have a huge button filling the screen to re-enable it. I have looked around but couldn't find anything suitable.

Alternatively, you could run the above script then remote to your Vega with the screen off using the info here:

http://android.modaco.com/content/advent-v...vega-from-a-pc/

NOTE: Modify the script above to have value=255 to set the brightness back to full.

If anyone can find a better solution, please let us know!

Edited January 20, 2011 by Sir Gash

[Guest Logseman]

There's an app called Screen Filter in the Market which allows you to override brightness settings at leisure. I use it for night reading.

[Guest TeaTimeSoon]

Is there a way to switch off the screen when playing videos through the HDMI?

I seem to recall reading the with the screen off, watching via the HDMI consumes quite a bit less power (although I guess the CPU/GPUs will be sucking down a fair bit of juice when playing an HD video...)

I am a little surprised that the built in screen does not automatically turn off when video is being sent down the HDMI...

It is always possible that I have missed a setting somewhere...

[Guest xathras]

There's an app called Screen Filter in the Market which allows you to override brightness settings at leisure. I use it for night reading.

If you only need to change the brightness for reading you may already have a dimmer installed. My Aldiko has one; you do a "scroll" gesture up and down the left hand margin (do it slowly, it's a bit laggy). I don't know about other e-book readers.

My thanks to Logesman for the reference to Screen Filter. When I went to look for it on the Market I came across a widget called Brightness Level. It has a number of presets from 0% to 100%. It's now installed and I love it.

[Guest Nemes1s]

Curvefish do a free Brightness widget on the Market that works perfectly.

[Guest worto03]

If you want to keep your Vega on for a prolonged period without using the charger there is a simple little app called Caffeine (available in the Market) that will do this. It "lives" in the notification bar, from where you can click it to turn it on and off. I use it to make sure that that the wifi stays on when I'm downloading a large torrent.

nice one - that's exactly what I've been looking for (I hope) to keep the vega awake when using tunein radio to listen to the footie!

Cheers - I'll give it a go later,

worto.

[Guest BiggerH]

nice one - that's exactly what I've been looking for (I hope) to keep the vega awake when using tunein radio to listen to the footie!

Cheers - I'll give it a go later,

worto.

yeah - tried it last night and it works great (in conjunction with Screen Filter to keep brightness down)

thanks all