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Turning the display off out of hours

A screen has two power controls: a manual Display power (CEC) switch, and a power schedule that sets the hours the display should be lit. Both live on the screen — its Settings tab, under Playback & display, and its menu.

What “off” means depends on the platform

A display is genuinely powered down only on Linux and Raspberry Pi, where the player sends the TV an HDMI-CEC standby — it needs cec-utils installed and CEC enabled on the TV — and falls back to blanking the video output. On macOS, Windows and the web player there is no CEC: the player covers the screen in black and the backlight stays on. The panel goes dark, but it is not asleep and it saves very little power. The switch is labelled Display power (CEC) everywhere, which makes it look universal. It isn't.

Set operating hours

  1. 1
    Open the screen and choose Power schedule.It's in the screen's menu, and on the Settings tab under Playback & display.
  2. 2
    Click Add hours and choose Weekly or Date.Weekly repeats on the Days you pick; Date is a one-off on a specific day.
  3. 3
    Set On and Off, then click Save power schedule.These are the hours the display is on. Outside every window it sleeps.

This is not the content schedule

The content schedule decides which sequence plays; the power schedule decides whether the display is lit at all. They share the screen's timezone and the same midnight rule: a window can't cross it, so overnight hours need two (22:00–23:59 and 00:00–02:00). Setting one when you meant the other is the usual way a screen ends up dark. See Schedules & playlists.

Which control wins

With no hours saved, the manual Display power (CEC) switch governs and stays where you leave it. Save even one window and the schedule takes over: the display is on inside a window, off everywhere else.

While the display is off

  • Playback carries on underneath. The sequence keeps running and the screen keeps reporting it, so plays made while the panel was dark still count in proof of play.
  • It survives a reboot. The player re-asserts the server's power state on boot, so a scheduled overnight-off outlives a power cut.
  • It's recorded. The screen's Activity tab logs “Display power turned off” and “Power schedule updated” under Events.

If a display genuinely has to power down, run that screen on a Raspberry Pi or another Linux machine with cec-utils installed. See Set up a Raspberry Pi.

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