To avoid burn in, you may have to code up a quick userspace app that takes over the display and simply clears it until the next button press. Or hack hijack to do the same.

You cannot power off the screen easily, though. We tried that once, and it had serious issues.

EDIT: Oh wait, you can still use the screen blanker.
Here is what you need to do instead,
to prevent it from putting the player into standby:

In the config.ini file:

[hijack]
standby_minutes=0