[MurrayW]

I use a Mitsubishi Megaview XC-3717C as my "TV" for my HTPC. It's basically just a big computer monitor. I've got everything controlled with girder and USB-UIRT EXCEPT I cannot find discrete power on and off IR codes for my monitor.


Would there be any harm in leaving it on all the time? I could set the screen saver to "blank", so instead of turning the monitor off, it would display a blank screen when it is not doing anything.


It could be set to go into screen saver mode in 1 minute (unless I can figure out how to get windows XP to let me do a shorter time period). Or better yet, if I can get girder to send a "preview" command for the screen saver to make the monitor go immediately into screen saver mode that would be best.


Opinions and advice will be appreciated.


thanks,


Murray

 

[MurrayW]

It looks like I could run this command from girder to display my blank screen when the TV should be turned off:


Run C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\scrnsave.scr


So my only remaining question is would I be causing any undue wear or premature aging to my monitor by leaving it "on" with a blank screen rather than using the power toggle button on the remote which puts it into standby.


thanks,


Murray

 

[IVB]

No idea on the wear&tear, but if you're good with Girder and UIRT, is there a reason they're not picking up whatever code the power toggle button on the remote is sending? I presume this is what you mean by "not able to find discrete power codes".


Or do you mean that it's a toggle, and not seperate on vs off? In that case, I wonder [and really, no idea about this], if you could use girder in combo with some silly batch programming to either set a file or a process in wait-state, the existence of which would indicate TV=off. In this case, the "screen saver" wouldn't have to kick in. If the file or process doesn't exist, it could send the power toggle command to the TV.


Sounds ugly, must be a better hack out there, but I'm not that smart.

 

[MurrayW]

IVB,


Thanks for the reply. I have no problem getting girder to pick up the power toggle command, but right now, 50% of the time the monitor is being turned off when it should be on and vice versa.


Using the existence of another file or process may be a work around I could live with. Unless others have some other ideas, I think I will give that a try. Thanks for the suggestion.


Murray

 

[Warren_G]

There are two type of monitor power switch, either a momentary button, or a push button that stays on or off. If it is an older monitor with the second type, get an X10 appliance module that you can turn power to the monitor on and off. If it is a newer monitor that has the momentary button, then hack that bad boy. Get something like an X10 powerflash module, and get the contacts hooked up to the monitor power button contacts. It would take some soldering, but it would give you a remote controllable power switch for the monitor. There is a little more to it than what I have described, but if you are brave enough to open you rmonitor up and solder onto the switch contacts, then the rest is fairly easy.

 

[MurrayW]

Warren_G,

The monitor has the momentary or standby button. I did open up my monitor once to replace a noisy fan, but in general, I am "mechanically challenged" -- soldering and I don't get along real well. However, I do have some friends who are a much better at these things than I am, so I could get them to help me. If I can't find other ways to do it, and I am desperate enough I'll give it a try.


Thanks for the idea.


Murray