I just discovered today that Roon has a so-called “Screensaver” mode. I note a few things about this:
For a “screensaver” mode, every element on the screen is fixed in Roon. A true screensaver (such as other players have) move the elements about the screen every now and then. Even LCDs suffer from ghosting, so moving album art, the track bar and textual information would help.
It seems to be invoked only via an explicit keyboard command (Ctrl-S). Usually screensavers kick in when no user interaction is observed for a specified period of time. Please add this (probably as a user-selectable option in the Settings).
The Roon “screensaver” seems to be more akin to a “now playing” information screen. That’s all well and good, but I think it could be further improved by the addition of “next up” information.
I’d respectfully disagree with this. If I’m in shuffle mode, I want to be (potentially) surprised or intrigued at the next track, rather than know what it is in advance. Perhaps this could be presented as an on/off option. Actually, I’d like to customize the screen further; specifically the ability to show/hide a field, move it to a certain location (i.e. what’s displayed at the top, middle, or bottom of the info ‘pile’), and adjust the font size of a field.
Something like the Windows Media Center now playing screen works very well as a music based screen saver - especially on a TV where you want to avoid any risk of “burn in”.
Key attributes that MCE now playing used were:
background images, showing your album covers were always slowly scrolling
now playing info (album cover and song/artist info) would swap sides often (w animation) to avoid burn in
I would so love to have a Screensaver that was actually a screensaver, and came on automatically. Nothing fancy, just what they already have, moving around a bit.
Yes, an AUTOMATIC Screen server based on a TImer setting would be ideal…and is something that I think would add to the overall “attractiveness” of Roon
I also have one wish concerning the screensaver. I use my iMac from distance with wireless mouse. It would be great to have a possibility to scale up the screesaver’s fonts as it is convenient to observe the details without forcing my eyes to focus. And an additional wish: mouse pointer auto-hide in the screen saver mode! Good example of screen saver - Apple Tv, very convenient and simple with flipping cover and text.
One problem with a server-stored music library is that you can’t easily browse visually. So how about an ever-changing album artwork mosaic screensaver ala what Apple Music already provides when nothing it playing (or even in the background when it is playing)? For those who have a Roon NUC or Nucleus connected to a TV, this would be a pretty compelling feature.
