Cfxtrjtrk

You may try similar script to this one. Watch for player state through DBUS.

I lower delay to 55 sec, work better with 1min screen saver idle time.

• 
  

  Example VLC:

  
  
  

  BTW, VLC in Ubuntu 14.04 has DBUS interface enabled by default. Where in Ubuntu 12.04 is not. Check it from:

  
  
  

  Tools → Preferences → Advanced (or All) → Interface → Control Interfaces → D-Bus control interface. (Apply then Restart VLC)

  
  
  
  
  
  1. 
     

     Create a file heartbeat.sh in ~/Desktop/:

     
     
     

     #!/bin/bash
     
     
     
     while sleep 55
     
     do
     
         if [ "$(pgrep vlc)" != "" ]
     
         then
     
             state=$(bash -c 'gdbus call --session 
     
                 --dest org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc 
     
                 --object-path /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 
     
                 --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get 
     
                 "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player" 
     
                 "PlaybackStatus"')
     
             if [ "$state" = "(<'Playing'>,)" ]
     
             then
     
                 #xscreensaver-command -deactivate
     
                 xset s reset
     
             fi
     
         fi
     
     done
     
     

     
     
  
  

  2. Open terminal Ctrl+Alt+t

  
  
  3. 
     

     Add run permissions:

     
     
     

     chmod +x ~/Desktop/heartbeat.sh
     
     

     
     
  
  
  4. 
     

     Run script:

     
     
     

     ~/Desktop/heartbeat.sh
     
     

     
     
  
  

  5. Try VLC player.

  
  
  
  


• 
  

  For Gnome MPlayer (D-Bus enabled by default), use:

  
  
  

  "$(pgrep gnome-mplayer)" and
  --dest org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.gnome-mplayer

  
  


• 
  

  For (Totem) Videos player (D-Bus plugin disabled by default),

  
  
  

  Edit → Plugins → Check D-Bus service. (Restart totem)

  
  
  

  Use:

  
  
  

  "$(pgrep totem)" and
  --dest org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.totem

  
  


• 
  

  This is modified with to work with any player that provide MPRIS. It gets the list dynamically (drawback, it doesn't distinguish between audio only play and video play). The best way I think is to put manually the list of players you like:

  
  
  

  #!/bin/bash
  
  
  
  players_list=$(gdbus call --session --dest org.freedesktop.DBus 
  
      --object-path / --method org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames | 
  
      awk 'BEGIN { RS=","; } /org.mpris.MediaPlayer2./ { gsub(/[[]()x27]/, ""); print $1; }')
  
  
  
  while sleep 55
  
  do
  
      for player in $players_list
  
      do
  
          state=$(gdbus call --session 
  
              --dest $player 
  
              --object-path /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 
  
              --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get 
  
              "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player" 
  
              "PlaybackStatus")
  
          if [ "$state" = "(<'Playing'>,)" ]
  
          then
  
              echo $player $state send signal
  
              #xscreensaver-command -deactivate
  
              #use xset to work with all screensaver tools and avoid dimming display ... 
  
              xset s reset
  
              break
  
          else
  
              echo $player $state
  
          fi
  
      done
  
  done
  
  

  
  

Debug hints:

1. 
   

   Watch X idle time

   
   
   

   watch -n1 xprintidle
   
   

   
   
   

   or:

   
   
   

   while sleep 1; do xprintidle; done;
   
   

   
   


2. 
   

   Check if disabling screensaver works (while running this script, xscreensave should not pop up)

   
   
   

       #!/bin/bash
   
   
   
       while sleep 55
   
       do
   
           #xscreensaver-command -deactivate
   
           #xdg-screensaver reset
   
           xset s reset
   
       done
   
   

   
   


3. 
   

   Check for DBUS list for MPRIS player interface, example with VLC running:

   
   
   

       gdbus call --session --dest org.freedesktop.DBus 
   
       --object-path / --method org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames | 
   
       awk 'BEGIN { RS=","; } /org.mpris.MediaPlayer2./ { gsub(/[[]()x27]/, ""); print $1; }'
   
   

   
   
   

   Output:

   
   
   

       org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc
   
       org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc.instance3939
   
   

   
   
   

   Or using dbus-send command

   
   
   

       dbus-send --session 
   
       --dest=org.freedesktop.DBus 
   
       --type=method_call 
   
       --print-reply 
   
       /org/freedesktop/DBus 
   
       org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames 
   
       | grep org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.
   
   

   
   
   

   Output:

   
   
   

       string "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc"
   
       string "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.vlc.instance3939"
   
   

   
   

References:

• 
  How to set up DBus query to get play state of VLC? original script by JB0x2D1
  


• MPRIS D-Bus Interface Specification


• Use qdbusviewer to check the correct destination name or to use other player you like.

For MPV, and mplayer, the heartbeat functionality is built in.

1) Locate your mpv configuration file. locate mpv.conf

2) Open it up. sudo nano /path/to/mpv.conf

3) Add this line at the bottom. heartbeat-cmd="/usr/bin/xscreensaver-command -deactivate > /dev/null"


4) Close, and save. Ctrl+X if using nano.

Find out where to find your mpv.conf file here (configuration is identical on Arch Linux), https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Mpv#Configuration

If the environment variable XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set, user configuration files will be read from the ~/.config/mpv directory. System-wide configuration files are read from the /etc/mpv directory.

Here is my own version from Chris' code:

#!/bin/bash

while sleep 55

do

    players_list=$(gdbus call --session --dest org.freedesktop.DBus 

        --object-path / --method org.freedesktop.DBus.ListNames | 

        awk 'BEGIN { RS=","; } /org.mpris.MediaPlayer2./ { gsub(/[[]()x27]/, ""); print $1; }')



    for player in $players_list

    do

        state=$(gdbus call --session 

            --dest $player 

            --object-path /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 

            --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get 

            "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player" 

            "PlaybackStatus")



        fullscreen=$(gdbus call --session 

            --dest $player 

            --object-path /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 

            --method org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get 

            "org.mpris.MediaPlayer2" 

            "Fullscreen")



        if [ "$state" = "(<'Playing'>,)" -a "$fullscreen" = "(<true>,)" ]

        then

            echo $player $state $fullscreen send signal

            xscreensaver-command -deactivate

            break

        else

            echo $player $state $fullscreen

        fi

    done

done

It checks at each iteration if the list of players has been changed.

It also deactivates the screensaver only if the player is fullscreen which is normally the case for video.

I just put this script in the autostart and don't bother anymore with xscreensaver while watching video.

I noticed all the answers here seemed unnecessarily complex; you don't really need to do this based on a specific media player - all you need to do is detect if any audio is playing. I'm actually surprised this isn't a feature built into xscreensaver. Here's a super simple bash script:

#!/bin/bash



while true

do

    state=$(pacmd list-sinks | grep -A 4 "*" | grep "state: " | cut -c 9-)  

    if [[ $state == SUSPENDED || $state == IDLE ]]

    then

        echo "State: $state. Not pausing screensaver."

        sleep 2m

    else

        echo "State: $state. Pausing screensaver."

        xscreensaver-command -deactivate > /dev/null

        sleep 4m

    fi

done

This worked for me on Xubuntu 17.10 with xscreensaver

#!/bin/bash



while true; do

    sleep 10

    cat /proc/asound/card*/pcm*/sub*/status | grep RUNNING && xscreensaver-command -deactivate

done

This worked for me with Xubuntu 18.10 and with VLC, youtube videos, etc... wiithout the need to disable xscreensaver.
Just add the following script when you system start:

#!/bin/bash

# enumerate all the attached screens

displays=""

while read id

do

    displays="$displays $id"

done< <(xvinfo | sed -n 's/^screen #([0-9]+)$/1/p')



checkFullscreen()

{



    # loop through every display looking for a fullscreen window

    for display in $displays

    do

        #get id of active window and clean output

        activ_win_id=`DISPLAY=:0.${display} xprop -root _NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW`

        activ_win_id=${activ_win_id:40:9}



        # Check if Active Window (the foremost window) is in fullscreen state

        isActivWinFullscreen=`DISPLAY=:0.${display} xprop -id $activ_win_id | grep _NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN`

        if [[ "$isActivWinFullscreen" == *NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN* ]];then

            xscreensaver-command -deactivate

        fi

    done

}



while sleep $((30)); do

    checkFullscreen

done



exit 0