Display TV

[HCHTech]

I'm in the market for a 42" or 50" wall-mounted TV to use as a dashboard display for my monitoring system. I currently have a low-budget Vizio, but it refuses to stay on - there is a sleep mode hard-wired into the darned thing that cannot be disabled, so it works ok for a couple of hours, then it goes into sleep mode and the display cuts off and you have to power it up again by the remote. Maddening.

I have this run currently with a SFF Win7 box, connected by HDMI. So, my pre-requisites are:

- auto-on and auto-off by time of day
- display has to stay on without keyboard or mouse input
- HDMI in

It's difficult to determine whether the kind of sleep mode I'm trying to avoid is included in any particular model by reading it's specs, so I'm hoping someone has one that works and can recommend a particular make/model.

I have thought about using a chromecast or other device to get rid of the Win7 box, but it works and I haven't had the time to investigate other options. I bought a beaglebone towards that idea, but it's gathering dust in the box waiting for me to get to it, haha.

Also, annoyingly, the startup entry that auto-loads the dashboard just recently starting required a manual confirmation - probably a security update - ugh. So, now I have to have a mouse handy to make that confirmation - this might be the impetus to go another direction.

 

[MichaelEC]

You mean to say if you were using this as a television this thing would shut itself off in the middle of a movie?

Check your settings. Sleep mode shouldn't be hardwired into any set without being able to disable it.

 

[HCHTech]

Check your settings. Sleep mode shouldn't be hardwired into any set without being able to disable it.

Checked, rechecked & checked again. I've had this thing for about a year and have never tried to use it as a television. Only as a wall display. I have tried it on two different computers, though - got the same effect each time. Tried both VGA and HDMI connections. Different display drivers, Win 7 and Win8, tinkering with every power setting provided in Windows and on the TV's configuration pages. When the computer used to do this is connected to a regular monitor, it will stay on all day. As soon as I connect it to the TV, the TV goes into sleep mode after a couple of hours. After all of this effort, I'm certain the problem is in the TV - it cost me all of about $239, so I'm done sinking time into it.

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

As far as I know the vizio shouldn't cut off as long as its receiving hdmi signal but if it supports HDMI CEC in theory I suppose it should be possible to setup a usb hdmi cec adapter and have that turn on the tv but I don't know any of the details behind that I simply know people have been using that to cut tv on automatically when kodi launches.

 

[Moltuae]

there is a sleep mode hard-wired into the darned thing that cannot be disabled, so it works ok for a couple of hours, then it goes into sleep mode and the display cuts off and you have to power it up again by the remote.

I have a TV made by Sharp, does the same. I think it's one of those save-the-planet features. Not so bad when you're using it as a TV since you're likely to press the remote occasionally to keep it awake but when you're using it as a CCTV monitor (as I attempted to do) bit annoying to have to keep turning it back on every few hours.

Is there any reason it has to be a TV? I mean, couldn't you use a monitor and either install a TV tuner in the connected PC or use a HDHomeRun network tuner?

 

[SmittenmittenS]

Just from the TV's that I own they have the normal sleep function. There is also another "Eco Mode" area in the menus that has an Auto-Power Off. It turns the Display off after 4 hours with no user input. This can be disabled though. Both of my TV's are Samsung so I know that would work after turning that option off. You said you checked all the settings and couldn't find any other sleep mode. Maybe its just under Eco Settings?

Other than that, the Samsung's I have aren't anything special so I think any Samsung TV would have the feature you are needing. I think there is a wake timer but I am not sure. I will look tonight and repost tomorrow.

Chromecast just replicates what you cast to it so you would still need some sort of box to mirror onto the Chromecast unless you have an app that has Chromecast support for what you are needing. So it would really just get rid of the HDMI cord but would still need the same box you are running now. Best to just stick with the cable.