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renojim
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Screensaver behavior has changed

If you're speaking of the screensaver that appears when you pause a video then it's never been the user's screensaver (at least not in the last decade or so; before that I'm not sure).  Playing a video takes up too many resources and doesn't leave enough for many bloated screensavers to use.  Now if you're speaking of the screensaver that activates while in a channel's UI, that's a different matter.

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Jonathanr
Binge Watcher

Re: Screensaver behavior has changed

No, I'm speaking of the screensaver via a channel's UI. Roku's channels shouldn't be able to override the Roku user's preferences, and select the horrid Logo Rain screensaver.  There are plenty of other low bandwidth screensavers that are completely viable, such as the clock. In fact, the clock works fine in all cases except when inside a channel (in my case Prime Video) that overrides my preferences and activates the horrid Logo Rain screen saver. I have an issue with the Logo Rain screensaver and color and being unable to control that on my end and make sure that screensaver doesn't appear is ridiculous. Otherwise I am a big Roku fan but, this is a fixable situation and I'm hardly the only one that has brought it up. 

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Strega
Roku Guru

Re: Screensaver behavior has changed

Here's a complaint from last year:

https://community.roku.com/t5/Channel-Issues-Questions/TCL-Roku-TV-Amazon-Prime-Screensaver/m-p/6828...

At that time, Amazon was just blanking the screen causing some people to think their TV was off which in turn caused them to actually turn their TV off. Smiley Happy

Roku suggested letting Amazon know how they feel about that.  Apparently, someone did because now Amazon does this other thing.  So, I suppose Roku's response would be to let Amazon know that you don't like that either.

I think once an app is running, it can pretty much do what it wants.  Some of the things an app can do may happen to look like a screen saver.  I suppose Roku could create a UI rule that any app that does something like that won't be certified, but if I were Roku, I don't think I'd want to get into a fight with Amazon over something like that - because the enforcement/threat is to remove Prime until they comply, and in my guestimation that would annoy the other 99.7% of Amazon users.

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Jonathanr
Binge Watcher

Re: Screensaver behavior has changed

Well, I did contact Amazon and will continue to do so. 

However: 

"I think once an app is running, it can pretty much do what it wants."

That's incorrect. If you disable all screensavers in Roku, then Amazon Prime is not able to override that and start the Logo Rain screensaver. Therefore, at least in the case of Prime, and likely other channels, Roku could change their code to require the channel to revert to the user's preferred screensaver. Now, where you are correct is if Amazon, or another provider, has their OWN screen saver within Prime, than Roku would not be able to control that, but that is not currently the case with Prime Video. 

"Some of the things an app can do may happen to look like a screen saver."

Perhaps, but this is actually the Roku Logo Rain screensaver, being pulled by Prime Video without regard to the preferences I have set in Roku. 

I find it interesting that a number of commenters seem to really be making an effort to get Roku off the hook for any responsibility for this. Roku can clearly fix the issue I have described, and it's in their best interests to do so given they actually sell screensavers which do not display. Now, Roku can choose NOT to fix this for whatever reason, including other priorities they deem as more important, but they certainly can. Putting this all on the channels, and sending Roku customers off to those channels to complain, is not all there is to this. This is a Roku customer support forum, I'm airing out a request which Roku can choose or not choose to implement. I'm not sure why other comments are working so hard to let Roku off the hook, but my job is done here, the problem has been identified and the request has been made. 

renojim
Community Streaming Expert

Re: Screensaver behavior has changed

I don't think the user's screensaver is being overridden, per se.  Like the "video screen", there are other screens that that don't support a user's screensaver.  They are usually used for games, but don't have to be.  I'm guessing somehow the UI is using one of those screens or otherwise uses so many resources that the user's choice can't be used..  The "Logo rain" screensaver isn't something the developer is choosing - it's Roku.  I'd say your beef is with Roku.  It used to just display a black screensaver, but not too long ago "Logo rain" appeared.  A developer can't choose one of the standard screensavers to use, but can develop one of his own.  Think about an audio channel that displays album art when the screensaver should activate - that's a good thing in my opinion.  The developer can either override the screensaver with one of his own or leave it up to Roku to display one and it's not a choice that can be made on the fly.  In other words, the audio channel, for example, either has its own or uses Roku's - there's no way to give the user the choice.  It's baked into the channel/app.

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Strega
Roku Guru

Re: Screensaver behavior has changed


@Jonathanr wrote:

Well, I did contact Amazon and will continue to do so. 

That's incorrect. If you disable all screensavers in Roku, then Amazon Prime is not able to override that and start the Logo Rain screensaver.


So, for my amusement, I decided to play around with some screen saver settings.  When the screen saver is set to never go off, you are correct that it never goes off in Prime.  But does this mean that Amazon is not able to override this setting?  Read on…

I set my screen saver to 1 minute.  Sure enough in one minute within Amazon, I got the purple Roku screen saver.  In most other channels I tried, after one minute, I got my selected screen saver.

But here's the interesting bit:  in two of the apps I tried, even after multiple minutes, my screen saver (or any other screen saver) never came up.  Two channels are able to override the setting for when the screen saver comes up. (Either by design or inadvertently, I don't know.) So, it appears to me that it's not that Amazon is unable to, but more like they don't.

I do agree that it would be good practice for all apps to respect the user's Roku settings.

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