music playing, while saving the juice

[surfash]

hi all, i own a windows phone, ipod touch and sp2.
The ipod and nokia when you touch the top power button as you all know will turn off the screen but continue playing audio.

is there a way i can do with my sp2? ive been using it as my music player at home and in the car and most of the time its not convenient to have it plugged into power source. so it drains the battery(i dim the screen as much as possible) when im using it like this, when i think its unnecessary power usage.

any thoughts?

cheers!

ash

 

[jrapdx]

hi all, i own a windows phone, ipod touch and sp2.
The ipod and nokia when you touch the top power button as you all know will turn off the screen but continue playing audio.

is there a way i can do with my sp2? ive been using it as my music player at home and in the car and most of the time its not convenient to have it plugged into power source. so it drains the battery(i dim the screen as much as possible) when im using it like this, when i think its unnecessary power usage.

any thoughts?

cheers!

ash

That's a really good question. I don't know if it is possible to turn off the display while playing music. Such power saving might also be useful when doing CPU intensive tasks like compiling programs. AFAIK we can reduce the screen brightness to minimum which does have benefit re: maximizing battery life. Of coursed you've been doing that. How much difference does it make in your experience?

Bears looking into--I might have missed something...

 

[surfash]

Hi jrapdx thanks for prompt reply, i guess it does do alright at the saving battery. but if i leave it going by accident then ill come back and its flat, so its no where near as efficient as the phone or touch, granted its a gruntier device but its also got the battery to match it.

Another thing I've thought of is enabling it to download my store purchases while the screen is off (maybe it is? dunno). i don't necessarily want to shut it down, just reduce the power usage.

So i think a one touch on the power button to turn off the screen but let everything else run would be ideal, and a one second hold to put it to sleep would be cool.

Actually, what I've noticed, plugged or not, and changing the power settings that i can get to. when i'm watching a movie or listening to music, and i have the screen set to turn off after 10 minutes, it does so, and kills the sound output and also the screen mirroring with Samsung TV. (brilliant by the way!)

Off subject i know, but while i'm writing this reply with my touch cover, all going well as expected, i touch the screen to do some edits, and the screen keyboard pops up? it's a nuisance, i don't want to turn it off, because i often use as a tablet and want to use the screen keyboard, but when the touch cover is being used surely the screen keyboard should be locked off? it locks my screen orientation due to "being used as a laptop" surely it can sort out the screen keyboard?

I think that's everything, time to get ready for an open home! anyone want to buy my house in Temuka, New Zealand?

Cheers,

Ash

 

[jrapdx]

Taking it one thing at a time:

Hi jrapdx thanks for prompt reply, i guess it does do alright at the saving battery. but if i leave it going by accident then ill come back and its flat, so its no where near as efficient as the phone or touch, granted its a gruntier device but its also got the battery to match it.

True, the SP2 is more powerful in raw CPU/RAM capability, but it doesn't have all the hardware features of other devices, e.g., the SP2 lacks connected standby. With "light" use, I've had the SP2 running >10 hr before the battery goes below 10%, but naturally, duration varies with load.

Regarding your situation, some specifics would help: how long is your SP2 running before it goes "flat"? What's the CPU utilization (per Task Manager/Performance)?

Another thing I've thought of is enabling it to download my store purchases while the screen is off (maybe it is? dunno). i don't necessarily want to shut it down, just reduce the power usage.

So i think a one touch on the power button to turn off the screen but let everything else run would be ideal, and a one second hold to put it to sleep would be cool.

The power button can be configured to do nothing, put the SP2 to sleep, hibernate or shut down. AFAIK the power button can only do one of these things for each of the conditions: on battery or plugged in. But just turning off the display is not one of the options.

Actually, what I've noticed, plugged or not, and changing the power settings that i can get to. when i'm watching a movie or listening to music, and i have the screen set to turn off after 10 minutes, it does so, and kills the sound output and also the screen mirroring with Samsung TV. (brilliant by the way!)

Of course, the time before sleeping is independently configurable when on battery and plugged in. One idea is to create a new power plan (duplicating an existing plan), and set parameters accordingly. Pretty easy to do: go to Control Panel/Power Options. Then click on Create a power plan. Turn on the new Power plan, hit Change plan settings, and click on Change advanced power settings. In the dialog click Change settings currently unavailable. You can change Sleep settings to taste.

BTW, this could be a way to turn off the display as you wanted to do. You could set sleep/hibernate to long intervals, and under Display, set Turn off display to a short interval. Worth trying to see if it does what you want. (I'm not sure, haven't experimented enough with it yet.)

Off subject i know, but while i'm writing this reply with my touch cover, all going well as expected, i touch the screen to do some edits, and the screen keyboard pops up? it's a nuisance, i don't want to turn it off, because i often use as a tablet and want to use the screen keyboard, but when the touch cover is being used surely the screen keyboard should be locked off? it locks my screen orientation due to "being used as a laptop" surely it can sort out the screen keyboard?

Strange indeed. I have the Type Cover 2, though used the Touch Cover 2 for a while. The on-screen keyboard doesn't show up with the Cover attached, unless I specifically activate the screen keyboard. I suppose it's possible there's a bug somewhere. Have you installed the SP2 FW and driver updates? I don't know any particular settings that affect keyboard popup, but there might be one...

I think that's everything, time to get ready for an open home! anyone want to buy my house in Temuka, New Zealand?

Cheers,

Ash

That's a long way from my location (Upper Left Coast of N. America) about as far south as I'm north. Wherever it is, selling a house can be laborious. I'll wish you good luck with it!

 

[the_new_normal]

Taking it one thing at a time:
...
BTW, this could be a way to turn off the display as you wanted to do. You could set sleep/hibernate to long intervals, and under Display, set Turn off display to a short interval. Worth trying to see if it does what you want. (I'm not sure, haven't experimented enough with it yet.)

I use this method when downloading (totally legitimate) torrents and it works well.

Just tested with music (briefly) and that also works. I use 'media monkey' to play tunes, presumably would work just as well with any other program.

I'm across the ditch in Tassie: will buy your house for mates rates

 

[jrapdx]

I use this method when downloading (totally legitimate) torrents and it works well.

Just tested with music (briefly) and that also works. I use 'media monkey' to play tunes, presumably would work just as well with any other program.

I'm across the ditch in Tassie: will buy your house for mates rates

Thanks, glad to know that works as it logically should!

BTW, the house belongs to surfash (above). Don't know what kind of neighborhood he lives in, but likely enough looking for offers...

 

[the_new_normal]

Was only joking about the house
Tasmania and New Zealand are still a fair way apart (though much closer than North America!)

 

[surfash]

Thank you for you're assistance, i will play with advanced power settings and see how that goes for me.

Much appreciated.

Ash

 

[Cenotaph]

Hey guys,

There is a very cool and easy way to turn the display off while music keeps playing, downloads keep going etc. Check out Touchme Gesture Studio in the MS store. It has an option to create a gesture of your choice the will turn the display off (along with many other useful gestures you can choose). A great tool.

 

[Tsurugaya]

Can't you just use a black (blank) screen saver?

 

[amk.]

Hi jrapdx thanks for prompt reply, i guess it does do alright at the saving battery. but if i leave it going by accident then ill come back and its flat, so its no where near as efficient as the phone or touch, granted its a gruntier device but its also got the battery to match it.

Another thing I've thought of is enabling it to download my store purchases while the screen is off (maybe it is? dunno). i don't necessarily want to shut it down, just reduce the power usage.

So i think a one touch on the power button to turn off the screen but let everything else run would be ideal, and a one second hold to put it to sleep would be cool.

Actually, what I've noticed, plugged or not, and changing the power settings that i can get to. when i'm watching a movie or listening to music, and i have the screen set to turn off after 10 minutes, it does so, and kills the sound output and also the screen mirroring with Samsung TV. (brilliant by the way!)

Off subject i know, but while i'm writing this reply with my touch cover, all going well as expected, i touch the screen to do some edits, and the screen keyboard pops up? it's a nuisance, i don't want to turn it off, because i often use as a tablet and want to use the screen keyboard, but when the touch cover is being used surely the screen keyboard should be locked off? it locks my screen orientation due to "being used as a laptop" surely it can sort out the screen keyboard?

I think that's everything, time to get ready for an open home! anyone want to buy my house in Temuka, New Zealand?

Cheers,

Ash

Yeah, it is possible to turn the display off and just use it like that. Just beware that as soon as you touch the screen it will turn on again. It still works wonders when downloding stuff, listening music or just waiting for something to complete.

Listening music with the screen off will give you something like 24hr+ of runtime

Heres what you need:

- NirCMD (direct download here, webpage here

All you have to do now, is unzip it somewhere, and create a shortcut to the nircmd.exe and pass some arguments to it.
To do this, you can for example right click on your desktop, then new shortcut. Search for the nircmd.exe file and then add "monitor off" after the file name (without quotes) it will look something like "C:/pathToFile/nircmd.exe monitor off". And you are good to go.

(you might have to give NirCMD admin permissions and uncheck the "ask everytime I open this file" warning for it to work perfectly)

A more elegant way of doing it would be with OblyTile, it will allow you to create a Metro tile with this command so you can turn off the screen directly from the Start screen.
- Download OblyTile
- Create a new tile: on Path to program select the nirccmd.exe file, then add in arguments "monitor off" select a nice tile icon, a name and click create.

Here a screenshot of how it looks with OblyTile, pretty cool if you ask me



Hope it helps~