Turning off monitor while recording with WinTV2000?

[cchen921]

I have a dell laptop, and everytime I record with my WinTV-PVR USB2, the monitor or screen saver does not turn off. I think it would be bad for my monitor, does anyone know how to turn off the monitor? Thanks.

[jagabo]

Press the || button on the little recording pulldown. This does not pause the recording but rather disables the display of the picture that's beeing recorded. The monitor will go to sleep as usual when the time comes.

[cchen921]

Just tried it, but it didn't work. Do you know why? Perhaps a different version of win2k? Anyways, thanks...

[gadgetguy]

Most laptops have a button to switch the video output to the VGA connector (for use with a normal monitor). It normally has 3 options - LCD, CRT, or Both. Try switching it to CRT. Should have no effect on the recording process.

[jagabo]

cchen, you're right that doesn't work. Sorry. I thought it would because it's similar to something else which does work:

There is a registry patch which disables the display of the video in WinTV2000. When you use it the TV windows will always be black although recording works as normal. In this mode the monitor will go to sleep after the proscribed time.

Go to this web site (lots of good stuff there):

http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/htpc.html

Go to the Tips and Tricks page and download the reg files in the section entitled "TV-out only on PVR 350 / Disable Software Mpeg decoding". The name is misleading, I believe it works with all of the Hauppauge PVR devices. It does on my PVR-250. Use the PlayOnLocal_off.reg file to disable the video display (and enable monitor sleep mode), PlayOnLocal_on.reg to enable the video display. WinTV2000 only checks that registry setting when it starts up so you have to restart WinTV2000 after changing the registry.

The problem with this setting is that you can't see what you're going to record when you start WinTV2000 manually. But it works really well for unattended timer recordings.

[greymalkin]

the FN + CRT/LCD is the easiest way to do it. You can toggle between having the screen on or off.