Screensaver broken in WebOS app (LG OLED Smart TV CX)

[SamInSpace]

The newest update of Spotify WebOS app on in LG OLED Smart TV CX does not go into screensaver mode (the general LG screensaver with "fireworks") any more.

Plan

Premium

Country

Finland

Device

LG OLED Smart TV 48CX

Operating System

WebOS 5.3.0-19

My Question or Issue

The newest update of Spotify WebOS app on in LG OLED Smart TV CX does not go into screen saver mode (the general LG screensaver with "fireworks") any more. The screen saver works well with other apps.

[Pu55YDestr0y3r]

Same problem.

• OLED55BX3LB
• webOS version: 5.3.0-21 (jhericurl-jasper)
• Spotify version: 2021.12.13_3-8de5b30 H 4.22.0

[Alex]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for your posts and the reports you've submitted.

We've received word from the internal teams at Spotify and we can confirm that this is expected behavior. If the music is paused, the screensaver will be activated.

We understand that this might not seem ideal and we've passed your feedback on to the teams working on improving the Spotify experience on TV.

Hope you find this information helpful.

[JoBro1807]

Well, the App therefore is pretty unusable with an OLED TV. Very bright static images for a long time, square Album-covers on the same spot, guaranteed burn-in. Whoever had this idea clearly did not think this through. Might wait a few weeks, but then I will cancel my Spotify account for sure and go to another streaming Service. 

I also don't see the issue with allowing the screensaver to kick in optionally with a manual setting or something like this. Not that hard to program.

[Eric_W]

Glad to know we aren't imagining this. Definitely need to find a different solution for LG OLED TVs though. Either the old standard LG Fireworks or a black screen with album art slowly moving around to random places on the screen. Solid static colors and images are literally incompatible with OLED display technology. I guess LG has other TVs such as LCD models running WebOS too which would not have problems with this. Unfortunately this is the price we pay for wanting the best picture quality with OLED. It'd be great if they could find a solution compatible with OLED displays

[hypotc]

"black screen with album art slowly moving around to random places on the screen"

That would be great, and it would look great on both LCD and OLED panels.

[robert_olivier]

Spotify wants the experience to be the same across all versions of their app so we aren't gonna get floating images or anything like that.

I suspect they don't want screensavers because they plan to roll out video ads and there would be little value to advertisers if everyone's screensaver was running.

[robert_olivier]

Spotify has become totally anti-consumer and it's time to switch to Apple Music I guess.

What a shame.

[JoBro1807]

Yeah, however. I have a prime-account and I think we can expect a minimum amount of Service for paying. If they want to float my TV with Video Ads though I pay monthly fee and furthermore risk permanent damage to my TV by doing that, I am out for sure.

More to that: they could also reactivate the TV if a ad is showing.

[Eric_W]

Not sure if the concern about ads is speculation or if it's the real reason for breaking the screensaver. Either way it would benefit from a separate thread. Let's keep this focused on the issue at hand and trying to find a solution for OLED owners

[robert_olivier]

I just wonder how many people use it on TVs without premium accounts. I suspect many.  I'm just pontificating that video ads are the reason, but its the only logical reason I can think of for them to intentionally disable the screensaver.  The fact that the tvOS app also prevents the screensaver from running contributes to my suspicion. Would be interesting to know if they have also disabled it in the Samsung app.

[Kacper309]

It would be perfect if they could implement the screen saver during normal playback and wake up the app during video ads.

[zappe]

So you disable a feature and then call it expected behavior?

This is really bad. 

[MafeG]

Hi folks,

Thank you for your replies.

We understand that this expected behavior is not ideal while having an OLED TV. So in this case, we strongly encourage you to submit an idea that requests to have this changed, in this article you can find the steps to submit it.

If it reaches the necessary amount of votes, Spotify will consider it.

We'll be on the lookout.

[zappe]

I’ve done that, https://community.spotify.com/t5/Idea-Submissions/Desktop-Other-Bring-back-the-screensaver-in-Webos/... 

[mhmilo24]

People here should be aware that even if an idea reaches a great number of votes, often times well over 200, developers will just ignore the users wishes. Here is a regularly used text that I've copied from other ideas that found great responses from the community:

Hey everyone,

Thanks for coming to the Spotify Idea Exchange.

We've discussed this idea and while it is interesting, we don't have any immediate plans to implement this.

If we do have any new information to share, rest assured we'll check back in here with a new status.

[robert_olivier]

It is perfectly obvious that they don't care. They know perfectly well that people own OLED TVs, and they chose to do this anyway.  Last night I started reconstructing my playlists in Apple Music, even though I hate its UI.

I'm just tired of Spotify doing anti-consumer stuff like this.

[5E8]

Same problem here

LG OLED55CX9LA

SOFTWARE 04.30.55

WEB OS 5.3.0-22

Spotify Version 2021.12.13_3-8de5b30 H 4.22.0

[Matty]

I do not understand how you can remove a feature that prevents OLED TVs from being damaged, and then turn around and say it is expected behaviour?

Will you pay to replace the TVs that your app damages, now that you have intentionally removed a critical safety feature?

I expected more from Spotify

[Kiril]

Hey there folks,

Thanks for your responses on this topic.

We understand your frustration with the change in your user experience and the concerns you have for your hardware equipment. We'd like to ensure you, that we're passing all this feedback on to the right folks on our backend and that they're aware of this situation. Nevertheless, we recommend to reach out to LG as well, as any changes will likely need to be worked on by both parties.

In the meantime, you can also show your support and leave your valuable feedback on the idea submission here, that was suggested by @zappe a week ago and was mentioned in this thread earlier. You'll also find all the relevant info about our Idea Exchange and how the Community feedback gets implemented here if you'd like to know more about the topic.

Hope this gets sorted out soon. If you need anything else, the Community is here for you.

[zappe]

I talked to LG again and they said that it’s up to you, Spotify, to do the update.
They can’t do anything.