Sirius stream stops on screen dim

[djsinco]

Hmmm,

I stream Sirius radio through my HTPC (using Chrome browser) and when the display dims (I have it set at 5 minutes, FWIW,) the music stops until I make the display active.

I don't want to burn about 360 watts, nor put the wear and tear on my plasma, to stream music.

This worked as desired with my previous HTPC, and I have been all through the menus and am unable to remedy this...

Any suggestions?

[tzr916]

I'm not clear on how is dimming the monitor via PC is saving wattage? Are you powering off the Tv?
Maybe you want to set a screensaver of black screen jpg?

What OS?
What GPU?
What Tv model?
More than one display connected?
What type of connection(s) to the display(s)?
Using an AVR? model?
After the Tv "comes back on", what do you see? Does playback resume on it's own? do you have to refresh? are there error messages?

[nathagt]

I'm using this SiriusXM addin for MCE by Niveus and it works pretty well. I had trouble finding the install file so I put it on dropbox if anyone is interested. I use Chrome/relaunch for a lot of things but prefer native addins when possible.

http://www.niveus.com/software/SiriusXM ... elease.zip

http://niveus.com/tv/company-news/siriu ... -windows-7

Update: found the link on the niveus website so I posted that instead

[barnabas1969]

Plasma displays use more power on brighter scenes than on darker ones, but I'm not sure it will save very much to dim the screen as described by the OP (except that dimming will reduce screen burn). This is exactly why I don't use Media Center for music. I bought an internet-connected AVR for this purpose. It can play Sirius, Pandora, several other services, and any radio station that streams on the Internet. It does not require the PC nor TV to be turned on.

[djsinco]

I'm not clear on how is dimming the monitor via PC is saving wattage? Are you powering off the Tv?
Maybe you want to set a screensaver of black screen jpg?

What OS? Win 7 Enterprise
What GPU? Intel HD4000
What Tv model? Pioneer PDP6020-FD
More than one display connected? No
What type of connection(s) to the display(s)? HDMI only
Using an AVR? model? Yamaha RX-V683
After the Tv "comes back on", what do you see? Does playback resume on it's own? do you have to refresh? are there error messages? Playback only fails to continue to play through the speakers, any keypress or mouse movement and music streams properly and immediately.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

[djsinco]

I'm using this SiriusXM addin for WMC by Niveus and it works pretty well. I had trouble finding the install file so I put it on dropbox if anyone is interested. I use Chrome/relaunch for a lot of things but prefer native addins when possible.

http://www.niveus.com/software/SiriusXM ... elease.zip

http://niveus.com/tv/company-news/siriu ... -windows-7

Update: found the link on the niveus website so I posted that instead

Very intriguing. Thanks for pointing this out to me, I will check into it. First I need to test if the display off issue is common to WMC or only manifests on streaming through Chrome browser.

Again, I appreciate the heads up...

Dave

[djsinco]

Plasma displays use more power on brighter scenes than on darker ones, but I'm not sure it will save very much to dim the screen as described by the OP (except that dimming will reduce screen burn). This is exactly why I don't use Media Center for music. I bought an internet-connected AVR for this purpose. It can play Sirius, Pandora, several other services, and any radio station that streams on the Internet. It does not require the PC nor TV to be turned on.

A jet black desktop does reduce power consumption, but nowhere near as much as the idle screen. This Pioneer draws a whopping 360 watts with minimal video load, and over 500 watts at peak. Not to mention that i would like to see the panel last as many years as possible, as I still have seen no equal (even the 4K LED's fall short, assuming "FullHD," not 4K content.)

I lust for a networked AVR, but just cannot bear to retire my Yamaha 683.

I have captured screenshots of all my power settings for my office computer, which allows Sirius to stream with display off. I will be sure every setting is identical on the HTPC, which I believe it is. IF this does no good, I will keep working on it. I expect the Niveus plug-in as described in an earlier post will yield the same issue related to the music stopping when the screen dims.

It does work on the computer here in my office, so there is hope that I can tweak this yet!

Thanks again, barnabus, as always!

Dave

[barnabas1969]

My 64" Samsung plasma draws about the same amount of power. I would never want it running for just listening to music.

My AVR is a Yamaha RX-A2010. Internet radio stations and Pandora make it a great choice for music. I had Sirius for many years in the car, but finally let the subscription go in favor of Pandora (using a smartphone through the Aux input on the radio in the car). The ability to control the AVR from a smartphone, tablet, or iPod makes it a no-brainer for multi-zone audio around the house. I don't think you'd miss your old Yamaha if you bought a new one.

[tzr916]

After the Tv "comes back on", what do you see? Does playback resume on it's own? do you have to refresh? are there error messages? Playback only fails to continue to play through the speakers, any keypress or mouse movement and music streams properly and immediately.

Thanks in advance.

Dave

So is the stream still actually playing and the AVR speakers just go silent or does the browser/player pause the playback?
When the AVR speakers go silent, does the front panel of the AVR change? Can you press INFO or something on the AVR remote and see if the audio signal and format is still there?

[djsinco]

tzr: The music resumes so quickly that I am sure it is still output from the HTPC even when not playing. I noticed today that the HDMI indicator goes out when the display dims, and of course, returns immediately when the music starts playing again.

When I get a chance, I will look at HDMI pass through settings on the AVR and display. BTW, WMC apparently does not allow the screen to dim, so it keeps playing when I stream music from the library...

Thanks!
Dave

[djsinco]

I'm using this SiriusXM addin for WMC by Niveus and it works pretty well. I had trouble finding the install file so I put it on dropbox if anyone is interested. I use Chrome/relaunch for a lot of things but prefer native addins when possible.

http://www.niveus.com/software/SiriusXM ... elease.zip

http://niveus.com/tv/company-news/siriu ... -windows-7

Update: found the link on the niveus website so I posted that instead

nathagt: I installed the Niveus WMC Sirius plugin. It is great to use with my extenders, very nice to have Sirius available in those areas! Usability in my primary theater area falls short of streaming from the Sirius website, as Niveus doesn't provide the DVR like capabilities nor customization features available on the web player.

However, it is a nice looking app, quick to install, and easy to use. So, again, thanks!

Dave

[djsinco]

After troubleshooting the display dimming/streaming interrupt issue about as far as I wanted to go, I decided to take the easy way out and set the Windows desktop screen saver to "blank" instead. Kill-A-Watt shows only about a 12w difference in the screen saver versus the power control panel display dim setting, and I can live with that. The other downside is the black screen saver IS putting (although minimal) some load on the life of the display. However, as much as I love my 60" Kuro, there will be a bigger, better, more energy efficient, and less expensive set available to replace it when the plasma dies.


After my thorough system tuning, I have become quite satisfied with the native video and audio qualities of the Intel processor and chipset. The only issues I am left with are a lack of stability in the WMC program. I get random crashes, and sometimes the audio goes into an epileptic fit of sorts. It will loop a few seconds of audio until killed, while the video continues to play correctly. I think these WMC issues are becoming more stable over time...

Thanks for the assistance, all!

Have a great Christmas and New Year!

Dave