Not able to switch on TV after "Put display to sleep when idle"

    I recently migrated to LibreELEC after using Kodi Standalone on Linux for 15 years now. The setup and migration was super smooth and LibreELEC is working very well.

    I have only one minor issue left with the display idle functionality.

    Short Story:

    The sleep functionality in "System->Power Saving -> Put display to sleep when idle" results in a disconnected HDMI signal and I am not able to resurrect the connection via the remote control. The TV shows "searching for input"

    Restarting the Kodi service via SSH works and also start playing something via the app remote control brings back the display.

    Long Story:

    System Setup:

    • AVR: Denon X2800H
    • TV: LG OLED
    • LE box: x86-based hardware with Pulse Eight CEC adapter

    The dedicated screensaver functionality on the other hand works as expected in combination with the CEC config. Once the screensaver kicks in, TV and AVR are switched off and switched on again once a button on the remote control is pressed. Because it is configured to behave like that at the moment. I would rather like to use the screenscaver as an actual screensaver and use the idle functionality which is not working for me at the moment.

    In my old Kodi 20 setup, the idle functionality also disconnected the HDMI signal and the TV was looking for a source, but I could easily bring it back by pressing a button on the remote.

    I have not changed any of the CEC config in KODI, the AVR, or the TV compared to my previous setup.

    Logs: https://paste.libreelec.tv/smiling-mongoose.log

    Is this a known thing with the current LE / kodi build or maybe someone has any ideas what the issue can be?


    Cheers

    Chris

    After numerous trial and error attempts, I have some more information

    • A couple of seconds after sending the display to sleep, it can be resurrected via any button of the remote
    • if the display was sent to sleep (disconnected HMDI) and no button seems to work, the remote is actually operating Kodi in the background and you can blindly operate Kodi. Once you play a movie, or start TV, the display is signalled again
    • A connected USB keyboard behaves exactly the same. Also, the keyboard is not able to resurrect the connection

    => Conclusion: It seems not an issue of CEC, the TV, or the AVR, but rather by Kodi not resurrecting the display if any button is pressed received from the remote or an attached keyboard

    Especially the part with the keyboard makes me think that others should have the same issue, if it actually is a broader issue.

    I'm having similar problems just using the screensaver.

    For whatever reason, when I first tried, waking the TV worked if I pressed the OK button twice and it would open to the screensaver, turn off the TV again, and the second time I pressed OK twice, it turned on and stayed on. Then it never did it again. I'm on HDMI port 1 on my TV and using a Nvidia Shield remote on a RPI4. Rebooting did nothing.

    That was with the Aerial screensaver...

    Powering on the RPi powers on the TV. Going idle for a minute turns the screensaver on and powers the TV off.

    What screensaver are you using? Using Aerial, I can't get the screensaver to come on if I have a movie paused, but I can if I use the black screensaver, which for whatever reason flickers between a light and a dark black, but that one doesn't turn off the TV at all if I'm in a movie. If I'm not in a movie, the black screensaver does turn off the TV. A single press of the remote does turn on the TV now.

    So, results are:

    -Not in a movie, with Aerial, screensaver turns off the TV but can't turn it back on

    -Not in a movie, with black, screensaver turns off the TV and I can turn it back on

    -In a movie, with Aerial, can't get the screensaver to turn on at all

    -In a movie, with black, can get the screensaver, but it never turns off the TV.

    I'm using the CEC settings to turn the display on and off with the screensaver btw. Maybe it's relevant, but in Settings/System/Input/Periperals, I have two CEC items and for the sake of consistency I set the values to be the same on both. I don't know why they're there or if they're conflicting, but maybe that plays into things somehow. After I set the settings on both, the second one shows up in yellow which I assume means it's active.

    So yeah, something seems off in Kodi. I can't reproduce your issues , but I've got something similar where I can't get it to wake from Aerial in the circumstance where I'm able to get Aerial to turn the TV off. And I'm not able to get the screensaver to turn the TV off when I'm in a movie and the screensaver comes on.

    So I tried your settings a little bit.

    I tried setting the black screensaver to 6 mins and turning off the display after 5 min idle. The result I got was no signal displayed on the TV and not turning it off. I waited till the 6th minute to see if the screensaver activating in Kodi would then turn off the TV and it didn't. A single button press on the remote woke Kodi up.

    Then I tried disabling the setting in the CEC config that turns off the display with the screensaver and like you, tried getting a black screensaver after a minute and turning off the display after 5. After a minute, I got a flickery black screensaver and 4 minutes later, Kodi killed the display signal but didn't power off the TV. Back to the "no signal" message on the TV.

    Something is very inconsistent. I don't know if verbose CEC logging would turn up anything. It's particularly noisy and it's not like Kodi is failing to send the signal properly, it's just not sending it at all.

    Anyway, hopefully this helps someone. Maybe it's time we attach some logs...

    At 13h58, black screensaver, paused movie, a minute later black screensaver came on and did not power off TV

    Immediately after at 13h59, in a Kodi menu, a minute later, black screensaver powered off TV, button presses on remote woke TV up

    Changed to Aerial

    At 14h01, aerial, paused movie, a minute later, nothing happened - no screensaver

    Waited till 14h03, aerial, in a Kodi menu, a minute later at 14h04, screensaver turned off TV, button presses on remote did not wake TV up

    https://paste.libreelec.tv/trusting-yak.log

    Quote from kyle11leo

    What screensaver are you using? Using Aerial, I can't get the screensaver to come on if I have a movie paused, but I can if I use the black screensaver, which for whatever reason flickers between a light and a dark black, but that one doesn't turn off the TV at all if I'm in a movie. If I'm not in a movie, the black screensaver does turn off the TV. A single press of the remote does turn on the TV now.

    For screensaver issues look into this thread: Paused video shows scrensaver, but does not turn off via CEC.

    I don't have Aerial as a screensaver, only black and dim, but what you describe is basically confirmed in the other thread as well. My issues are not with the screensaver, but the idle functionality for the display.

    Quote from kyle11leo

    Maybe it's relevant, but in Settings/System/Input/Periperals, I have two CEC items

    I don't have an RPi, but I only have one entry. Are you using an external CEC adapter with the RPi?

    Quote from kyle11leo

    and 4 minutes later, Kodi killed the display signal but didn't power off the TV. Back to the "no signal" message on the TV.

    Which is the same behaviour here, only that I cannot resurrect the TV easily afterwards (~1 min later)

    Not using an external CEC adapter with the Pi. Just keeping it simple and using the built in one.

    So yeah, reading that other thread, it looks like the same issue is happening whether its an external CEC or the onboard one from the Pi.

    I wonder how these issues are treated in the forums. I went on the github https://github.com/LibreELEC/LibreELEC.tv/issues and opened 3 bugs:

    Black screensaver does not turn off TV via CEC during movie playback

    Aerial does not activate during movie playback

    Aerial can't turn on TV via CEC upon exiting screensaver after having entered screensaver from waiting in a menu

    If you've got the time, maybe try getting some debug logs and opening an issue for your problem or I might get around to it on Monday as I'm able to reproduce it too. Maybe you can comment on mine with your logs and vice versa and get some more eyes on it?