Gigabeat: LCD doesn't shut off fully

[Nate!]

I didn't notice until around svn 12967.  I have caption backlight set to off.  LCD set to off.

At first I thought it was LCD burnin.  I use the Frostbox WPS often.  So I changed it to a few different ones.  I still see the WPS after the LCD is suppose to shut off.

Has anyone else noticed this?

Vitals: Gigabeat F60, svn r13040, Bootloader: March 12th, official build, pertinent settings that I can think of are posted above.

Thanks.

[Llorean]

Do you mean when you turn it off, or just when the backlight goes off?

There's a difference between "LCD" and "Backlight". They are NOT the same thing. An image will still be on screen when the backlight is off during normal use of the player, unless you've gone to the debug menu and set it to turn off the LCD screen as well. This option causes problems with using the remote though.

[Nate!]

I have the LCD Off option set to Yes.  I thought this option would shut the LCD off when the backlight goes off.  So am I thinking wrong?  I could have sworn it worked this way before.

[Llorean]

The one in the debug menu?

[Nate!]

Yes ... The one in the Debug menu.  Top Sub menu.  LCD Off options are only two, no(default) or yes.

[Llorean]

It's entirely possible the option doesn't work any more. Though I'd suggest waiting to see of the LCD fades with time.

Usually shutting off an LCD leaves the last image on it, as LCDs don't instantly clear when they're turned off, in most cases.

And LCD burn-in doesn't exist, just as a by the way.

[Nate!]

Thanks, I was wondering about the LCD burn-in.  That's good to know.  I'll keep an eye on the lcd tonight to see if/how long after the backlight goes out if the LCD actually shuts off, with the LCD Off option set to yes of course.

Will post tomorrow.

[Llorean]

Please, listen to what I'm saying: It may shut off immediately. That doesn't mean it's blank.

When you stop supplying power to an LCD, you don't end up with a blank screen. You end up with an LCD that doesn't have power holding the image on the screen. The image may then go quickly to the default state, or it may slowly fade to the default state (no-power state) depending on the LCD.

It's off the entire time, it just takes a while to *look* like it's off.

If the image fades, then it's off from probably the moment the backlight disappears. It's not taking a long time to shut off: It's taking a long time for the image to fade.

If it never fades, of course, that means it's not shutting off.

[Nate!]

Okay, that's interesting.  An LCD could be shut off, no power supplied, but an image still be faintly present.  Kind of like, your PC may still have a charge even after you pull the power plug?

Well with a little patience, I did finally see the image disappear totally.  I learned a couple of things during the discussion though, thanks.

[Llorean]

Basically, LCDs don't work quite how most people expect. Your best bet is to read on them at Wikipedia.

[Falco98]

is the model in question a color LCD?  i only ask because i have an iriver h10 and when the backlight goes out, the screen turns off.. seems like a bit of an annoying feature if I don't want to accidentally leave it on until the battery dies, but I can't seem to find a way to change this, as you guys (maybe?) seem to talk about here.  or does this one not work like that?  (sorry for slightly o/t but figured i'd ask since it's vaguely related)

[Nate!]

So are you saying you don't want the LCD to shut off when the backlight goes out?

If so: Main menu->System->Debug->LCD Power Off->No

This is the default option.  I did find that this option seems to get reset after a power cycle.

Wouldn't having this options' default set to LCD Power Off=Yes save battery consumption?  I vaguely remember reading a post stating that to turn the LCD back on may cause disk spinup also.  I could be totally wrong.  Not sure how one has to do with the other though.

[Llorean]

I already said that turning the LCD off when the backlight goes off on Gigabeats causes problems with the remote in an earlier post in this thread, and that's why it's in the debug menu (and consequently why it defaults to No). The battery life gained would be minimal anyway.

Many other players already have this option, and in some cases it's hard-coded to on because you can't read/see the screen anyway when the backlight is off.

[Nate!]

That's right, you did state that earlier.  That would make sense why it's not default to yes.

[GodEater]

Also - since it's in the debug menu, it most definitely gets reset every reboot. It's not saved anywhere.