How can I blank my screen when Vaio Zone is playing music?

[markanstead]

Please can anyone help? I have a VGC-V2M.

Believe it or not I want to blank my screen when Vaio Zone is playing music. This is because I have more than one Vaio around the house and in the lounge, which is out TV-free zone, I am using one as a hi-fi replacement.

When we play music we don't want a picture on the screen - otherwise everyone looks at it and it distracts from conversation. During the day the kids can use it for homework but in the evenings we just want it playing by itself with a black screen.

I have tried putting a plain black picture in the pictures folder and pausing the screensaver but there's a lot of light given out when Vaio is displaying a picture and it's not pure black (you can see a lot of luminescence when the lights are low - it looks silly).

I have also tried using third party software to turn the monitor off with a keystroke. This works fine when it's functioning as a PC but when Vaio Zone software is running it just won't work - it always turns on again after a minute (this isn't mouse wander - I switch both mouse and keyboard off and it still happens). Must be something to do with the software.

If only Sony had put a simple monitor switch on the case!

Any help appreciated.

Mark

[Igloocharlie]

It should work because the opwer options work if ther is no input into your computer there fore if you do not move the mouse or use the keyboard the monitor should still switch off. Mine does anyway.

[jammold]

The problem is not all VAIO's will switch off the display properly, and using the Blank Screen Saver is not really an option.

This is because an LCD is so bright anyway that it is more than likely that you can still see it on with the screensaver active. The screen appears more dark grey than black.

If I remember correctly the GRX laptops don't work with the LCD Off feature. Some other VAIO's may also be affected.

The best way is to only have the essential applications running, and set the power properties to switch off the display after say 1 minute of idle time.

If this doesn't work, and its a real problem for you, then speak to VAIO-Link.

[markanstead]

I've spoken to VAIO Link and they can't think of anything, which is why I tried this forum.

It's so frustrating that there is third party software that switches the monitor off if you are in Windows (regardless of whether an application is running) but in Vaio Zone if you have music playing it just comes back on again.

It must be something to do with the way Vaio Zone is coded - that is classes some actions of the software as 'input' somehow.

It is the only application running but the machine never considers itself idle when playing music so power options never kick in.

Mark

[jammold]

DAMN!

I think then you find it the same as SonicStage and RealPlayer as both of these forbid hibernation or standby mode when they are running.

Is all of your music in ATRAC3 format? You may wish to consider converting it to MP3 in this case and using a program like WinAMP for music playback, not as glamourous, but you will be able to achieve pure black (IRE 0) as opposed to the silly looking Video-Black of the VAIO (IRE 7.5 or IRE10).

[kee-lo_]

It is glamerous - depends on the skin you use.

[jammold]

Yeah some skins are nice, a subtle visualisation works well too.

[kee-lo_]

The new Amityville Horror is quite cool

[jammold]

Thanks will have a look in a mo.