Pause play for like 10 minutes then black screen w/ only volume

[stevethebrain]

Pause play for like 10 minutes then black screen w/ only volume
Sometimes I forget to completely click off a program that has been on pause,
Like I pause and don’t click back to all recorded TV.

I believe this is a common issue w/ MC7, I have been resorting to restarting which is a major inconvenience.
Please recommend a fix if there is one.Thanks

[Space]

My advice is to search for "black screen" here on the forums. This can be related to HDMI, h.264, video drivers, other??

Although based on your symptoms, probably not the h.264 issue, sounds more like an HDMI (bad cable?) or video driver issue.

[stevethebrain]

searched black screen read a bunch of threads.

my situation is playback of recorded programs.

OK next black screen I’ll try the windows key first. How could the cable be bad are you saying the part of the cable where the pause/resume travels on are bad after a extended time because if I’m quick enough I don’t get the dreaded black screen I'm able to resume play. thanks

[Space]

If you are playing back DRM recordings, then it could be related to the HDMI cable, as it must maintain an HDCP handshake which is meant to insure that both sides are DRM compliant. If the cable or connection in general is disrupted in some way, this handshake can be broken and cause issues. Usually a cable problem that affects DRM recordings will not affect non-DRM recordings, so you could be playing back non-DRM recordings for months and not see an issue until you try to play back a DRM recording, and depending on what is wrong with the cable, it may only present a problem sporadically.

I don't know if there were any instances of this issue where it happens specifically when you pause the video, but if you are sure it is directly related to that, it sounds more like it is a driver or codec issue.

Was this working before and then just started doing this, or has it never worked? If it just started happening, have you made any recent changes or updates to your system?

[unclebun]

If were a betting man, I would bet it relates to screensaver/computer sleep issues.

[stevethebrain]

unclebun are you saying to extend the time the screen saver comes on it's currently set at 1 minute.
dam if I remember correctly the screen saver was causing other problems, I think sleep (mite have been this black screen issue I can't remember because it's been a very long time since BS has acted up).

I remember extending the screen saver to 15 minutes and it resolved the sleep.

apparently, these are 2 different issues but interact together.

how long should I extend the screen saver come on time to? thanks

space not exactly sure what drm recordings I have basically I record just regular over the air free tv.( also have a bunch of cable recorded programs that are archived. haven't watched much archived lately mainly watching antenna recordings.
can I test the cables like rearange swap the pc to avr w/ avr going to display?

edit:yes seams like it just started doing this maybe a few months ago.I haven't made any updates however the pc still turns on at around 5 pm and tries to find updates (even though win7 isn't surported anymore).thanks

[unclebun]

When a video is playing, the computer suspends screensaver and sleep from happening even though there is no mouse or keyboard activity. However, once you pause the video, Windows will go ahead and run the screensaver and allow sleep to happen.

Depending on your video driver and other factors, sometimes the display won't come back when you try to wake up the computer.

One thing you can try when it happens is to press Windows Key-CTRL-SHIFT-B which resets the display driver.

If that works, you can try updating the display driver, or make it so the computer doesn't go to sleep.

[StinkyImp]

Windows Key-CTRL-SHIFT-B which resets the display driver

This is why I love this forum!

[stevethebrain]

unclebun I hardly ever use the windows key usually click the windows icon, so I'm not farmiaril w/ windows key.
the only time I use the windows key is when I had sleep problems and wanted to turn to sleep w/out turning on the display like windows key cursor right cursor right then enter.

do I press & hold ctrl & shift & B all three keys? (kindof like a 3 fingered salute?) while the windows window is open? or press and hold all three keys w/in the windows type here tab.thanks

[Space]

Just as an FYI. I've had the system screen saver disabled from the beginning on my system.

I only use the built-in WMC screen saver and have it set to be enabled approximately 10 minutes after there is no WMC activity or playing of a video. I then have the system set to turn off the video feed 1 hour after inactivity and have the system set to sleep 70 minutes after inactivity. This way the black screen notifies me that the system is about to go to sleep and allows me to decide if I want to interrupt that.

[unclebun]

You press and hold, then release four keys: Windows Key-CTRL-SHIFT-B