Monitor won't shut off during conversion??

[holt9106]

I have been trying to convert some DivX files I've made from DVDs I own into SVCDs just to see if I can do it on my G4 iMac. I've been using ffmpegX with the engines included with Forty-Two. Everything works great except my monitor won't shut off during the conversion process. I don't want to shorten the life of my LCD monitor by doing this. Is there some way to force a monitor to shut off when it is ignoring the Energy Savings settings? I've tried the shareware program, Lights Off, but it doesn't work either. Thanks!!

David

[galactica]

um, why not just hit the power button???

it should poweroff during the conversion with the energy settings, unless you have somethign connected via usb that is sending a signal to your copmuter (tablet for example)

if my tablet is connected then the machine will never sleep when the time limit is hit.

try that

[holt9106]

I wish I could just simply turn the monitor off but unfortuntely it doesn't seem to be that simple. My Energy Saving settings work properly when I am not running ffmpegx so it must be that that is keeping my monitor from shutting off. I've even tried to "renice" the mpeg2enc process to a lower priority to see if that would do it but I am still getting a monitor that won't shut off.

David

[galactica]

strange!

so, im confused. You cant just push the physical powerbutton on the monitor itself and turn it off that way instead of letting it "sleep"

[tgpo]

The power button on my monitor won't work like that. It acts like the power button for the computer. If I hit it it'll put the computer to sleep, not the monitor.

[galactica]

Oh I get it now. THis must he what an Apple Cinema Display?

Im using a ViewSonic 17" LCD so mine just powers the monitor when I hit the power key.

[holt9106]

Yeah, with an iMac you of course only have the one power button on the back. I've tried to find the plist file for the Energy Saving settings but I can't find it. I really do not want to leave my nice new LCD monitor on all night while it converts a mpeg2 file.

[tgpo]

Why not have it go to a black screen saver?

[spiff41398]

Yeah, with an iMac you of course only have the one power button on the back. I've tried to find the plist file for the Energy Saving settings but I can't find it. I really do not want to leave my nice new LCD monitor on all night while it converts a mpeg2 file.

For Energy Safer prefs: Finder > Go to Folder > /var/db/SystemConfiguration/

Delete: com.apple.PowerManagement.xml

[holt9106]

Thank you!!! That fixed it. Deleting the xml file restored my system's ability to turn the monitor off while ffmpegX is running. Very weird. But I'm happy, nonetheless.