Parole sets screen saver timeout and cycle to 600 on exit. It does not matter what the vaules are before starting the program. Also, it does not matter whether the option to prevent the screen saver is on or off in parole preferences. xset q before running parole media player: Screen Saver: prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes timeout: 0 cycle: 0 xset q while runing parole: Screen Saver: prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes timeout: 0 cycle: 0 xset q after exit: Screen Saver: prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes timeout: 600 cycle: 600 Downstream bugreport: https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1363540
Actually this is a bug in xdg-screensaver (or simply put: the functionality of restoring the previous setting of screenblanking isn't implemented there) and not a bug in Parole. Obviously this should be tackled in xdg-screensaver (if at all, since I haven't heard anybody complaining about this issue before ever).
*** Bug 12610 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***