How do I stop xscreensaver during movies play?

video screensaver video-player xscreensaver

7,805

Solution 1

You may try similar script to this one. Watch for player state through DBUS.

I lower delay to 55 sec, work better with 1min screen saver idle time.

Example VLC:

BTW, VLC in Ubuntu 14.04 has DBUS interface enabled by default. Where in Ubuntu 12.04 is not. Check it from:

Tools → Preferences → Advanced (or All) → Interface → Control Interfaces → D-Bus control interface. (Apply then Restart VLC)

Create a file heartbeat.sh in ~/Desktop/:

#!/bin/bash

while sleep 55
do
    if [ "$(pgrep vlc)" != "" ]
    then
        state=$(bash -c 'gdbus call --session \
            --dest org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc \
            --object-path /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
            --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
            "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player" \
            "PlaybackStatus"')
        if [ "$state" = "(<'Playing'>,)" ]
        then
            #xscreensaver-command -deactivate
            xset s reset
        fi
    fi
done

Open terminal Ctrl+Alt+t
Add run permissions:
```
chmod +x ~/Desktop/heartbeat.sh
```
Run script:
```
~/Desktop/heartbeat.sh
```
Try VLC player.

For Gnome MPlayer (D-Bus enabled by default), use:

"$(pgrep gnome-mplayer)" and --dest org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.gnome-mplayer
For (Totem) Videos player (D-Bus plugin disabled by default),

Edit → Plugins → Check D-Bus service. (Restart totem)

Use:

"$(pgrep totem)" and --dest org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.totem

This is modified with to work with any player that provide MPRIS. It gets the list dynamically (drawback, it doesn't distinguish between audio only play and video play). The best way I think is to put manually the list of players you like:

#!/bin/bash

players_list=$(gdbus call --session --dest org.freedesktop.DBus \
    --object-path / --method org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames | \
    awk 'BEGIN { RS=","; } /org.mpris.MediaPlayer2./ { gsub(/[\[\]()\x27]/, ""); print $1; }')

while sleep 55
do
    for player in $players_list
    do
        state=$(gdbus call --session \
            --dest $player \
            --object-path /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 \
            --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get \
            "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player" \
            "PlaybackStatus")
        if [ "$state" = "(<'Playing'>,)" ]
        then
            echo $player $state send signal
            #xscreensaver-command -deactivate
            #use xset to work with all screensaver tools and avoid dimming display ... 
            xset s reset
            break
        else
            echo $player $state
        fi
    done
done

Debug hints:

Watch X idle time

watch -n1 xprintidle

or:

while sleep 1; do xprintidle; done;

Check if disabling screensaver works (while running this script, xscreensave should not pop up)

    #!/bin/bash

    while sleep 55
    do
        #xscreensaver-command -deactivate
        #xdg-screensaver reset
        xset s reset
    done

Check for DBUS list for MPRIS player interface, example with VLC running:

    gdbus call --session --dest org.freedesktop.DBus \
    --object-path / --method org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames | \
    awk 'BEGIN { RS=","; } /org.mpris.MediaPlayer2./ { gsub(/[\[\]()\x27]/, ""); print $1; }'

Output:

    org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc
    org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc.instance3939

Or using dbus-send command

    dbus-send --session \
    --dest=org.freedesktop.DBus \
    --type=method_call \
    --print-reply \
    /org/freedesktop/DBus \
    org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames \
    | grep org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.

Output:

    string "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc"
    string "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc.instance3939"

References:

How to set up DBus query to get play state of VLC? original script by JB0x2D1
MPRIS D-Bus Interface Specification
Use qdbusviewer to check the correct destination name or to use other player you like.

Solution 2

For MPV, and mplayer, the heartbeat functionality is built in.

1) Locate your mpv configuration file. locate mpv.conf

2) Open it up. sudo nano /path/to/mpv.conf

3) Add this line at the bottom. heartbeat-cmd="/usr/bin/xscreensaver-command -deactivate > /dev/null"

4) Close, and save. Ctrl+X if using nano.

Find out where to find your mpv.conf file here (configuration is identical on Arch Linux), https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mpv#Configuration

If the environment variable XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set, user configuration files will be read from the ~/.config/mpv directory. System-wide configuration files are read from the /etc/mpv directory.

Solution 3

I noticed all the answers here seemed unnecessarily complex; you don't really need to do this based on a specific media player - all you need to do is detect if any audio is playing. I'm actually surprised this isn't a feature built into xscreensaver. Here's a super simple bash script:

#!/bin/bash

while true
do
    state=$(pacmd list-sinks | grep -A 4 "*" | grep "state: " | cut -c 9-)  
    if [[ $state == SUSPENDED || $state == IDLE ]]
    then
        echo "State: $state. Not pausing screensaver."
        sleep 2m
    else
        echo "State: $state. Pausing screensaver."
        xscreensaver-command -deactivate > /dev/null
        sleep 4m
    fi
done

7,805

Chris26284

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Chris26284 over 1 year

I'm running Ubuntu 12.04. I installed xscreensaver in place of gnome.screensaver.

My problem is that I cannot get the screensaver to stop popping up when I'm watching a movie on Movie Player. I have Movie Player set to disable screensavers but it's not working on xscreensaver.

How do I change the program files to disable xscreensaver while Movie Player is running?
- joe about 10 years
  
  The XScreenSaver page has this to say about it.
- Chris26284 about 10 years
  
  Thank you for that. Unfortunately MPlayer doesn't work and I can't find MPV.
- Chris26284 about 10 years
  
  Thank you again. I'll definitely look into MPV and PPAs.
- Evan Carroll about 6 years
  
  This question should be closed and deleted as it doesn't even specify a program. It's like asking "How do I shutdown my computer" without specifying an operating system.
user.dz about 10 years

@Chris26284, I have updated answer. I confirmed, it works in 12.04 as I tested it in a VirtualBox. So did you get any error on terminal when you run the script?
Chris26284 about 10 years

This still doesn't work at all. I've tried both ways. I've deleted previous attempts and tried again from scratch. This does nothing.
user.dz about 10 years

@Chris26284, I feel difficult to debug or to expect the cause. Only if you have patient to do so. I will try to add some debugging hints
Chris26284 almost 10 years

I recently updated my system to Ubuntu 14.04? Should the above fix work any better now?
klaar about 2 years

Does this work for video that's not played fullscreen though?
klaar about 2 years

Does this exclude audio-only playback like Spotify? Because only video should prevent the screensaver to engage, not pure audio.
Alter Lagos about 2 years

@klaar no idea TBH and it has been a while since I used Ubuntu so I don't have a way to try it now. Anyway, try the script and you tell us if works :)