Screen Saver for Oasys

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:38 am

I've had my unit for a couple of months now and I'm wondering if a screensaver would be a good thing to wish for. I have the brightness turned down about as far as it will go and the screen still seems to blaze brightly all the time in my studio while my computer screen goes dark when not in use. I don't know much about the robustness of the touch screen but am concerned that it may have the life shortened by being on all the time. I could turn the O off when doing other things for a while but have heard that cycling a hard drive on and off can shorten it's life so I would rather minimize the on-off cycles. Plus there's the long boot time whenever you turn it on. Does anyone from Korg have an opinion on the necessity for a screensaver? I assume it was not considered important since the operating system does not have one.

Howard

Kontrol49 · Post by **Kontrol49** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 7:39 am

I mentioned this on another thread,The Roland MV8800 has a screensaver,and you can user define it like you can on typical PC so you can have your own personal images display,would be cool if you could do this with the Oasys too,and it would be good if Korg would integrate a Password for Bootup too,incase it got stole or someone tried to tamper with it.

As for screen longevity and robustness,Not sure how long the Oasys screen would last,I have mine on for at least 18 hours a day most days,and sometimes even been left on for several days at a time,Never really worried about it,(Although I do take heed over the On/Off cycles of the H/Drive)as my laptop Hdrive Burnt out really Quickly,as it was always on/Off a lot of the time,so tend to think about the O drive too,would this be the same after all its a standard H/drive

Still it should last a couple of years or longer providing it doesn't get gigged or moved around alot,I'd be more concerned about Vibration from Playing/Gigging than On/off cycles.No H/drive is 100% Reliable,so make sure you always have backups of everything,I always back up periodically,(Just a matter of routine)I'd rather have several copies of stuff than none at all,(Better Safe than sorry scenario)

if the screen is as reliable as the Touchscreens fitted to the Trinity/Triton series,It will last for a very long time yet,My Trinity is now 12 years old and still functions as bright and as responsive as the day It was bought..if the Oasys is the same,then you've years of trouble free usage!

Just wondered even though its a Touchscreen would it would suffer from Image Burn if left on for too long?if it would surely Korg would have seen fit to utilise a S/Saver?

Post by **Sharp** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 11:37 am

LCD technology does not suffer from burn-in so a screen saver is of no advantage. All they do now days is look pretty. There's no actual reason for them

Screensavers only benefit CTR and Plasma technology.
CTR and Plasma both suffer from burn in if an image is left on the screen long enough, and the more black area, the less screen is lighting up.

Where LCD technology is not like this at all. You cannot save the bulb by placing a dark image on the screen. The bulb is always on, it's the pixels that block the light from coming though.

As for burn-in, LCD technology doesn't suffer from that.

So really, the only benefit of having a screen saver on the OASYS would be that it would look cool, nothing more.

The only way you can increase the life of the screen is to turn down it's brightness.

Regards.
Sharp.

tcornishmn · Post by **tcornishmn** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 2:02 pm

Sharp is right in that LCD screens don't burn in, but the backlights do wear out. They don't pop like an incandescent light bulb, but over time they get dimmer and dimmer.

My day job is as an IT guy, and I have seen this happen, but it takes several years of being on. I think most backlights are rated for something like 50,000 hours, which is a pretty long time.

The modern version of a screensaver is where the screen is turned off by software, and you wiggle the mouse to wake it back up. The primary reason for this is electrical power savings, with a secondary benefit of having the backlight last longer.

I think this is probably not too huge of an issue for the Oasys.

kenackr · Post by **kenackr** » Sun Mar 02, 2008 5:59 pm

There are higher stresses when starting any rotating electrical equipment. Those stresses are generally focused on 2 things: inrush current to the windings when the motor is at rest, and drag/bump against the shaft bearings of the motor.

In the "old days" when all equipment was larger, there were more frequent breakdowns when rotating equipment was stopped & started on a daily basis. As equipment mass has been reduced (2.5" hard drive) and bearing technology has gotten better, inrush current properly accounted for, far fewer failures occur now.

Further, electronic equipment in use in military applications was always left on to prevent condensation within the equipment when it was turned off and way back when to avoid tube warm up. That also avoided thermal cycles on the discreet components. That fact alone somehow mushroomed out to civilian life where lots of former military techs go around telling people to keep everything running.

What is the reality in all this? It certainly can be argued either way.

My opinion (having been both a tech and an engineer) is that since equipment now has far less mass and far lower operating temperatures, it probably doesn't impact hard drive life either way, at least in a way that can be definitively measured.

It's probably better to turn it off, IMO, to save the electricity, carbon foot print, etc. if you are no longer going to be using it that day. Yes, hard drives do still crash but not because you turn them on & off 365 times (cycles) a year.

Ken

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 3:18 am

Thanks for the information concerning the LCD screens. It seems to be the consensus that it should not matter for an LCD screen whether it is left on for a long time or not. But I am concerned about the electrical power since we have to start thinking about ways to conserve it. So in that sense it would be a good idea to be able to blank out the screen.

Also, I have heard that cycling hard disks can shorten the life but I think it's more detrimental when you add heat to the mix. The hard disks on my main computer have been cycled on and off every day for the last 5 years and are still doing fine (knock on wood). However, I do IT consulting as a side business and have seen several network backup units with similar drives to my computer die after less than a year. These units did not have forced air cooling and were spun down after every bakcup cycle. The drives on my computer have a lot of air flowing past them and I don't turn them off when not in use.

Regards,

Howard

ryan42 · Post by **ryan42** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:22 am

i would just die for a powersave mode. Oasys takes a long time to boot.

I would leave it on but I can't stand the screen being on all the time (and it uses 135 W). The only problem with Korg implementing a power save mode on the Oasys is that from what I can figure, there is nothing attached to the PS/2 or USB bus on the motherboard of the OASYS... so nothing could wake it up that's part of the keyboard.... and there is no actual ACPI power button (the OASYS BIOS is setup to restart automatically after any power failure, so there isn't any accessible soft power button).

dhjdhj · Post by **dhjdhj** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:38 am

Sharp is NOT correct. LCD screens do burn.....anyone who has left a Macintosh on for long periods of time will find that there is a white streak across the top of the monitor where the Applie menu bar lives.

I've seen it several times.

D

tcornishmn wrote:Sharp is right in that LCD screens don't burn in, but the backlights do wear out. They don't pop like an incandescent light bulb, but over time they get dimmer and dimmer.

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:57 am

Then let's lobby Korg to include a screensaver in their next release of the operating system. There seems to be some controversy as to whether the screeen will burn or not. Better safe than sorry!

Howard

dhjdhj · Post by **dhjdhj** » Fri Mar 07, 2008 3:53 am

What controversy? It's a fact. For example, here are some instructions from Apple's own website on ways to deal with burn-in on their own LCDs
(http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=88343)

Howard wrote: There seems to be some controversy as to whether the screeen will burn or not.

ryan42 · Post by **ryan42** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:07 pm

Honestly I don't think LCD burn-in happens in *most* applications. I have had several computers with LCDs, the oldest that I still have being a '98 PowerBook G3... no burnin. I have seen burnin on the old Apple Cinema Displays ... the LCDs that they had with PowerMac G4 towers... but those had the damn near hottest backlights ever so it didn't surprise me.

My big thing is that I want to be able to turn the backlight off, for its sake.

tcornishmn · Post by **tcornishmn** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:58 am

Persistence is not the same as burn-in. Burn in only happens in CRTs where the electron gun overheats the phosphorus and permanently damages it.

Persistence is where the LCD crystals get a little bit of a memory from being in the same position for a long period of time. Persistance is reversable by simply displaying something else for a while. It is not permanent.

I repeat: LCDs don't get permanently damaged by "burn-in".

There is no need for a screen saver on the Oasys. Turning off the back light will extend the life of the backlight bulb, but that's it.

Howard · Post by **Howard** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:06 pm

There is no need for a screen saver on the Oasys. Turning off the back light will extend the life of the backlight bulb, but that's it.

I didn't realize the Oasys had a backlight. Where is it and how do you turn it on or off?

Howard

Daz · Post by **Daz** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 2:54 pm

dhjdhj wrote:.anyone who has left a Macintosh on for long periods of time will find that there is a white streak across the top of the monitor where the Applie menu bar lives.

I've seen it several times.

Me too.