[other] Away Mode capability (2 Viewers)

[usualsuspect]

Started on: 2009-11-08
last update: 2009-11-08

Summary:
Since Vista the "away mode" is usable independently of the used hardware, but hasn't been implemented in mp, as far as I could find out.

Area:
new feature/option for power-management

Description:
Summary from: Away Mode in Windows Vista:
"Away Mode is a Windows Vista feature that is designed for media PC scenarios. Away Mode enables the Windows Vista PC to appear off to the user, when the system is actually operational and processing background media tasks such as recording television content or streaming media to other devices. "
most of the info can be found on the ms-website
"appear off" means no audio, no video, probably less led action

-when away mode ist activated, any function that normally would cause as sleep state, will send the system to away mode.
-if then the away mode is deactivated/released, the windows timer (or other plugins) will send the system into an sleep state
-when the system wakes for scheduled task or WOL it will wake into away mode

Advantage:
-absolutely user friendly. the user can press the power button without knowing, if the pc is on, idle, away, sleeping... the pc will just do the right thing, as in this scenario:
pc in sleep -> user presses powerbutton [PB] -> pc wakes to mp ... active recording ... user leaves, presses PB -> system to away mode (user thinks, everything is fine, as the lights are out => no more use for popups, because of active recordings) ... recording ends -> sleep ... pc wakes for recording -> away mode, lights are out (no need for the user to wonder, why the pc is on) ... user enters, presses PB -> instant access to mp ... recording ends -> pc stays in user mode until the PB is pressed ...

-easy mapping of remote control and bower buttons... they are automatically mapped to "away mode" (or sleep, if the away mode is not requested)

-straight forward windows integration. mp just needs to request the away mode, no other blocking necessary
-compability to extern schedulers

first experiments have been made by goersch with the gmps scheduler and they are very promising. at the moment he uses a gmps-plugin is mp, which performs the "needed" parts. But the clean way would be an implementation in MP.

Problems:
-away mode is only fully supported since ms vista. in xp there is a functionality, but this requires special hardware

Needed:
-mp should listen on "away mode" power events
if away mode is requested by user, mp should pause playback, relaese active live tv-tuner and (perhaps) go to home
when coming back from away mode, the last active window should be activated and (perhaps) playback should be resumed

-tv server should activate away mode when necessary and release it when free.

 

[Goersch]

For information of the developers of MP:

I have implemented the Away Mode into GMPS and so far it works good (with Version 0.3.1.23) and is a major improvement to a HTPC concerning "User Friendly".

Because I have now some experiences with the Away Mode, it would be great if I can share it with you. I and usualsuspect tried to implement some of the requested functions into the GMPS MP PlugIn, but because I have too little knowledge of the MP software, it is more a less try and error.

 

[tourettes]

Something that we should consider for MPII. Althou S3 and MP's automatic (no user interaction is required) handling of entering and waking up sleep modes are almost the same thing (with a bit higher power usage and led flashing).

 

[usualsuspect]

Hi tourettes,
and thanks for your answer, but in fact it's better than today's solution, because it's much more intuitive. the user presses the button and (it seems as if) the pc turns off. no matter, if there is a recording or something else. the same behaviour as a good old vcr. so even people without pc-experience could use it. and you do not have to explain, that the system will sleep asap.

second, the automatic waking into away mode is very nice, because you have a quiet wake, without video and audio. in a perfect system, the pc could start the tv and audio system automatically as soon as the powerbutton is pressed.

for the meantime till MPII, is there a simple code which could be implemented into goersch's gmps-plugin, that would stop any playback (audio, video, tv, ...) as the "b" button does, or has this to be customized for each kind of player/plugin? this is needed because now, when the system is sent to away mode, the playback just continues...
edit: when you switch to sleep mode in mp, this is exactly what happens, isn't it?

 

[tourettes]

Hi tourettes,
and thanks for your answer, but in fact it's better than today's solution, because it's much more intuitive. the user presses the button and (it seems as if) the pc turns off. no matter, if there is a recording or something else. the same behaviour as a good old vcr. so even people without pc-experience could use it. and you do not have to explain, that the system will sleep asap.

second, the automatic waking into away mode is very nice, because you have a quiet wake, without video and audio. in a perfect system, the pc could start the tv and audio system automatically as soon as the powerbutton is pressed.

Both cases are pretty meaningless for my personal use cases Also MediaPortal 1 development from the team side will be stopped (when it comes to new features) in 1.1.0 release and we will focus the development on the MPII instead.

for the meantime till MPII, is there a simple code which could be implemented into goersch's gmps-plugin, that would stop any playback (audio, video, tv, ...) as the "b" button does, or has this to be customized for each kind of player/plugin? this is needed because now, when the system is sent to away mode, the playback just continues...
edit: when you switch to sleep mode in mp, this is exactly what happens, isn't it?

Should be possible as S3/S4 states are already doing such (and many plugins).

 

[ssjunior]

Tourettes,

First of all I want to say thank you for all work done in MP. You and the Team deserves all our respect. Very nice work.

Unfortunately I could not agree more with Goersh and Usualsuspect. After 3 months struggling with configurations, trials and sleeping issues within MP I tried WMC with DVBLink TVSource. It just works! Unfortunately for me there is no subtitles in all channels....

I think that the approach to make things easier to user are very welcome. WMC could give us very nice lessons of usability. Its simplicity is astonishing. After one week using WMC I could see how easy things could be. Imagine a regular user trying to shutdown his HTPC with his remote control... To work to me I bought a Harmony Remote and programmed the power button to send two ´B´ to stop and wait until PS put it to sleep. It is not user friendly. Period. I understand that this does not means anything to you, but, imagine thousands of (regular) users outside in this situation...

If we could have the freedom of MP and usability and design of WMC, that will be the best of the world.

To You, all of Team and Goersh and Usualsuspect, thank you for your great work.

kind regards

ssjunior

 

[Goersch]

tourettes:
Away Mode can not be compared with S3/S4 - it is in between a running System and S3/S4.

I understand that all developers are focused on MPII - which might be released next year: long time and then it might take several months till the Away Mode is realized. In the meantime I can offfer this function via GMPS: All I would need to get this function done are two - for a MP developer easy - functions:

1) static void EnterAwayMode()
a) MP saves the current status (current window, played music/video/tv channel/and so on)
b) MP stops player
c) MP switches to Home Dialog

2) static void EnterUserMode()
a) MP gets back to the saved situation of 1a)

I know how to to do
1b) g_Player.Pause() for non-TV playback, g_Player.Stop() for TV (to release the tuners; very important !).
1c) GUIWindowsManger.ActiveWindow (windowId)

But I have no idea how to realize 1a and 2a. If one of the developers can help - or may be - there is already such a function available, that would help very much.
I do not even need these functions within MP. CSharp Code with necessary calls are Ok as well. I will then implement this code into the GMPS MP PlugIn.

I do not know who I can contact of the developers. May be you are the right one to realize these functions !? if not, it would be great if you can forward this request to one of the developers who can help.

Thanks !
Georg

 

[jameson_uk]

I was doing some digging last week and was reading about "away mode". I did not to much into it but my understanding was that it basically left everything on but blanked the monitor (not quite but not far off). As far as I could tell there was nothing to reduce power to CPU, GPU etc so I am struggling to see why this is of use.... I get it makes things a little easier but by the same token you can prevent standby and just wake the monitor when there is any user interaction???

would be very interested in real world experience of it. Also would be interested if anyone has any statistic on whether away mode power consumption is any less than normal on.

 

[usualsuspect]

you are getting it wrong. away mode is not for saving energy. it's for comfort. (the energy part is just a little bit on top, because of the monitor savings)
as goersch said: "Away Mode can not be compared with S3/S4 - it is in between a running System and S3/S4. "

in fact, the pc is FULLY activated (just without video and audio), when away mode is activated, but only WHEN the pc is needed for any kind of background task (recording, streaming, ...) as soon, as this background task is no longer necessary, the pc will go to standby/hibernate/off.

please read this post from ssjunior (https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/newcomers-forum-240/mediaportal-can-shut-down-while-recording-69399/#post532091), as it explaines away mode's real world behaviour, as it is given by windows media center...

 

[Goersch]

well, as I said before "Away Mode" is no energy saver mode. Yes it might save some energy for the monitor. But, the major advantage is the plus for the user of the system. They do not have to deal with
- "Oh, my system is still on, because ....".
- "Oh, can I rundown my System or is it still doing something ?"
- "Oh, how do I tell xyz not to press that Off button if this system is doing a recording and how does xyz know why ?"
- "Oh, all messages are in english, but xyz only speakes French"
and so on and so on

Just let the buttons turn your system into "Away Mode" and let Windows do all other stuff. If the system is not blocked it will turn off, if it is blocked, it will be turned off later (usually by Windows - but that doesn't work good, so I implemented some workarounds into GMPS to handle this situation). It can be so easy with this function - and no additional PopUps are necessary of kind "Sorry, you cannot shutdown now because ..."