"Info Display Time" aka "OSD Timeout" timeout stuck at 30s

[/df]

I've noticed that the Info-bar timeout doesn't appear to respect any timeout value (Off, 1-20s) set in Menu>Settings>Preferences>Screen Display>Info Display Time. Rather, it's always ~30s.

Is this happening for anyone else? I could swear that quite recently the Info-bar used to disappear too quickly, before one could press Back to go to the previously selected channel.

 

[Luke]

It has also changed on 1.02.20 to always being 30 seconds. I'm not 100% certain but I also believe that it changed quite recently.

 

[Black Hole]

My timeout is set to 5s but it takes 30. I don't know how long it's been like it for, but surely that must have been at least as long as the last firmware update? I'm amazed nobody noticed until now.

 

[/df]

You'd think so, but my unsupported recollection says otherwise. But I'm not sure what "recent" change might be responsible. Maybe some CF package, eg, one that hooks the Humax blob? @xyz321?

I see the same thing on the HDR too.

The name INFO_DISPLAY_TIME is used in the blob and looks like the only reasonable name containing TIME. There's no suitable name containing OSD. The values of INFO_DISPLAY_TIME in the setup.db match what's seen in the TV UI. As with other setting names, the name is found in 2 well separated places, presumably one for the UI and one for fetching and using its value (no global constant folding in the Humax toolchain). So some of the process is there, but for whatever reason the value isn't being used as set.

Some hacking rules out the all-too-likely hypothesis that the "use" side is expecting a value in seconds (or sec as the UI has it, never mind SI) while the setting is in milliseconds.

I wonder if stock firmware without CF packages behaves the same.

It has also changed on 1.02.20 ...

But yours is a CF setup?

 

[bottletop]

On my HDR the timeout (that I'd set) seems to work fine for the progress/timeline during recording playback, buffer playback and during channel change. But as others have said using it for program info seems to show it as 30 secs. I think this behaviour has been the same for a number of years.

On the manual:
Setting Info Display Time
You can set the duration the information box is displayed every time the channel is switched.

 

[Luke]

On my HDR the timeout (that I'd set) seems to work fine for the progress/timeline during recording playback, buffer playback and during channel change. But as others have said using it for program info seems to show it as 30 secs. I think this behaviour has been the same for a number of years.

Re-thinking it, I think you are right. Possibly every 2 years, I copy one of the programme descriptions from the screen by hand, and if the display had been as short as my timeout setting before needing to be redisplayed, then I would have used a camera and copied from the photo.

 

[/df]

So, this behaviour is in fact (would it be unfair to say "surprisingly"?) just as documented and indeed what I can observe.

Two edge cases:

• the timeout accumulates, so that after quickly changing channel up, then down, say, with timeout 15s, the info bar is shown for ~30s
• invoking the info bar with Info starts the fixed 30s timeout; switching to the previous channel with Back during that period adds the configurable timeout.

 

[Black Hole]

How can invoking the info bar (i plate) by pressing the i button be described as an edge case? What do you have in mind as not an edge case?

 

[/df]

Combining the undocumented 30s timeout for the I-plate invoked from Info combined with the documented configurable timeout for channel switching makes it edgy. These could have been separate timers, one overriding the other, rather than accumulating. This case is also interesting because Info, Back is the only way to toggle between channels AFAIK.

 

[Black Hole]

the timeout accumulates, so that after quickly changing channel up, then down, say, with timeout 15s, the info bar is shown for ~30s

I am unable to reproduce that, neither on HD-FOX nor HDR-FOX. If you changed changed channel again after 14s, the info bar would be on-screen for 29s anyway. The OSD remains for the set timeout after the last operation.

invoking the info bar with Info starts the fixed 30s timeout; switching to the previous channel with Back during that period adds the configurable timeout.

I am unable to reproduce that, neither on HD-FOX nor HDR-FOX.

I have my HD-FOX set to the 5s default, and the channel change banner does indeed come up for 5s – although it took me a while to realise it is as long as that, because it precedes the new channel appearing and even the old channel disappearing! I would not describe it as "cumulative", it simply restarts if you change channel again within the timeout (cumulative would be if it adds another n seconds on top of the current countdown).

Equally the i button timeout is (I agree) 30s, that timer restarting at each command input (i for more info, or cursor for info on subsequent programmes or adjacent channels).

The OK button produces a channel list, also with a 30s restarting timeout.

The Menu button has a 3 minute timeout (actually a couple of seconds less than 3m), ditto Media and Guide. It's all rather a mess of arbitrary choices made by committee without providing customisation options, although one can see the rationale for Menu, Media, Guide – further user input is expected once presented information has been digested.

I wondered what else might respect the user setting. V-Format and Wide produce 3s pop-ups... so it seems nothing else does.

Curiously, the menu options for "Screen Display" are from "OFF" to 20s in 1s increments. I can't imagine anyone would be that bothered: "14s is just right, but 13s is too short"!

In the manual, it's clear what the scope of this user-configurable timeout is:

You can set the duration the information box is displayed every time the channel is switched.

...so "there's nothing to see here" (except perhaps lack of clarity in the settings menu wording).