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Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital
boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Mar 20, 9:49 am, "Ed" wrote:
SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. Just Sky+ boxes then ? I hope so, it'll cause chaos for communal systems etc if it's introduced to standard boxes. Of course, as regular readers of this group will know, there is virtually no difference in power consumption between a digibox that's on, and one in standby. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Mar 20, 10:18 am, "Mark Carver" wrote:
On Mar 20, 9:49 am, "Ed" wrote: SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. Just Sky+ boxes then ? I hope so, it'll cause chaos for communal systems etc if it's introduced to standard boxes. Of course, as regular readers of this group will know, there is virtually no difference in power consumption between a digibox that's on, and one in standby. I dont think there is much benefit turning off a regular box. It uses almost no power. It is the hard disk in the plus and HD boxes that is constantly turning as it buffers that uses the power. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Mar 20, 10:20 am, "Ed" wrote:
I dont think there is much benefit turning off a regular box. It uses almost no power. It is the hard disk in the plus and HD boxes that is constantly turning as it buffers that uses the power. No *less* power in standby I think you mean :-) ISTR when I had Sky+ the HDD spun continuously whether the box was on or standby, I assume that's now changed ? |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
In article . com, Ed
writes SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. It can be turned off in the menu, so that's what I'll be doing, I'll decide when I want my box switched off. I don't want it ****ing up my recordings, by firstly having an onscreen warning for three minutes, before switching itself off. -- Sean Black |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"Ed" wrote in message ups.com... SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. Great idea. The amount of difference between on and standby may not be much, but collectively with all the thousands of boxes it will make a difference. Hope they brace themselves for zillions of support calls from people saying their sky is shutting off overnight though. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
Sean Black wrote:
In article . com, Ed writes SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. It can be turned off in the menu, so that's what I'll be doing, I'll decide when I want my box switched off. I don't want it ****ing up my recordings, by firstly having an onscreen warning for three minutes, before switching itself off. You think it'll warn of shutdown DURING a recording ? Surely recording counts as user-activity ? Can't do any harm, as a spinning HDD is noisy and wasteful. Lower electricity bills can't be so bad - albeit 50p. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"Ed" wrote in message ups.com... SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. TVDrive / V+ boxes have been doing this since launch a year ago. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Mar 20, 9:49 am, "Ed" wrote:
The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. In principle I agree with this change [1], but I'd like to know how it copes with the situation of watching a long(ish) film (i.e. longer than 2 hours) that ends after 11pm. I would hope for, but don't expect to get, software clever enough to go into standby after the last selected programme finishes. Steve [1] I tend to put the box into standby before I go to bed anyway (maybe 5 days out of 7). |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Mar 20, 11:39 am, "Steve Bosman" wrote:
[1] I tend to put the box into standby before I go to bed anyway (maybe 5 days out of 7). You only go to bed 5 days out of 7 ? |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"Steve Bosman" wrote in message oups.com... On Mar 20, 9:49 am, "Ed" wrote: The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. In principle I agree with this change [1], but I'd like to know how it copes with the situation of watching a long(ish) film (i.e. longer than 2 hours) that ends after 11pm. I would hope for, but don't expect to get, software clever enough to go into standby after the last selected programme finishes. I don't know how Sky works it, but what the Virgin V+ box does is that after midnight if the box isn't being used it shuts down the hard drive and various other bits, but it doesn't shut off the picture it just puts "Resting" on the screen at the bottom left. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On 20 Mar 2007 02:49:50 -0700, "Ed" wrote:
SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. How on earth can a broadcaster detect whether a home receiver is being "used" or not? When I'm "using" a receiver, either to watch a programme directly, or to make a timed recording from it, I'm not pushing any buttons or doing anything to it that could possibly be sensed by the electronics. Is it perhaps just a crude auto-off timer within the box, based on the assumption that nobody watches anything longer than two hours, and always indulges in channel-hopping between programmes? If so, I think they'll just end up wasting even more time fending off complaints from their customers who think their receivers have gone faulty, and explaining to them how to switch this anoying feature off. Rod. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"Steve Bosman" wrote in message oups.com... On Mar 20, 9:49 am, "Ed" wrote: The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. In principle I agree with this change [1], but I'd like to know how it copes with the situation of watching a long(ish) film (i.e. longer than 2 hours) that ends after 11pm. I would hope for, but don't expect to get, software clever enough to go into standby after the last selected programme finishes. Steve [1] I tend to put the box into standby before I go to bed anyway (maybe 5 days out of 7). The box still records if you put it in standby, don't see it making any difference that way. The only thing that worries me is another software update, I'm sure this is what causes my recordings to sometimes disappear! -- RobertJM |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message
... On 20 Mar 2007 02:49:50 -0700, "Ed" wrote: SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. How on earth can a broadcaster detect whether a home receiver is being "used" or not? When I'm "using" a receiver, either to watch a programme directly, or to make a timed recording from it, I'm not pushing any buttons or doing anything to it that could possibly be sensed by the electronics. It's not that the broadcaster is sensing whether the receier is being used after 11PM. I imagine that they will be broadcasting updated firmware over teh next few weeks which all the boxes will use to reprogram themselves so they have the auto-shutdown facility. Auto-shutdown probably relies on i) is the box in full-on mode and ii) is it recording a timed event. If it's on and recording, I'd sincerely hope it will continue working as normal. If it's on but not recording (eg because you are watching but not recording) then I'd expect it to flash a message "about to shutdown" which you can override from your remote to give you another hour or so "stay of execution". But if you are not using the box, either to record or to watch live, why leave it fully on? Why not shut it down, as you would with a VCR or a TV? Are Sky boxes different in that they will make a timed recording even when they are left fully on, unlike VCRs which will only do so from standby mode? |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Mar 20, 12:46 pm, "Martin Underwood" wrote:
"Roderick Stewart" wrote in message ... On 20 Mar 2007 02:49:50 -0700, "Ed" wrote: SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. How on earth can a broadcaster detect whether a home receiver is being "used" or not? When I'm "using" a receiver, either to watch a programme directly, or to make a timed recording from it, I'm not pushing any buttons or doing anything to it that could possibly be sensed by the electronics. It's not that the broadcaster is sensing whether the receier is being used after 11PM. I imagine that they will be broadcasting updated firmware over teh next few weeks which all the boxes will use to reprogram themselves so they have the auto-shutdown facility. Auto-shutdown probably relies on i) is the box in full-on mode and ii) is it recording a timed event. If it's on and recording, I'd sincerely hope it will continue working as normal. If it's on but not recording (eg because you are watching but not recording) then I'd expect it to flash a message "about to shutdown" which you can override from your remote to give you another hour or so "stay of execution". But if you are not using the box, either to record or to watch live, why leave it fully on? Why not shut it down, as you would with a VCR or a TV? Are Sky boxes different in that they will make a timed recording even when they are left fully on, unlike VCRs which will only do so from standby mode? It will surely not try to shut down if the same programme is being watched. i.e. it will have to satisfy the following criteria before shutting down Is it past 11pm Has two hours elapsed since last interaction (e.g. button being pressed on remote) Has the programme being broadcast changed in the last two hours Obviously many sports events and movies last over 2 hours and viewers will not want a banner popping up in the middle saying the box is going to go to sleep. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
Ed wrote:
On Mar 20, 12:46 pm, "Martin Underwood" wrote: "Roderick Stewart" wrote in message ... On 20 Mar 2007 02:49:50 -0700, "Ed" wrote: SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. How on earth can a broadcaster detect whether a home receiver is being "used" or not? When I'm "using" a receiver, either to watch a programme directly, or to make a timed recording from it, I'm not pushing any buttons or doing anything to it that could possibly be sensed by the electronics. It's not that the broadcaster is sensing whether the receier is being used after 11PM. I imagine that they will be broadcasting updated firmware over teh next few weeks which all the boxes will use to reprogram themselves so they have the auto-shutdown facility. Auto-shutdown probably relies on i) is the box in full-on mode and ii) is it recording a timed event. If it's on and recording, I'd sincerely hope it will continue working as normal. If it's on but not recording (eg because you are watching but not recording) then I'd expect it to flash a message "about to shutdown" which you can override from your remote to give you another hour or so "stay of execution". But if you are not using the box, either to record or to watch live, why leave it fully on? Why not shut it down, as you would with a VCR or a TV? Are Sky boxes different in that they will make a timed recording even when they are left fully on, unlike VCRs which will only do so from standby mode? It will surely not try to shut down if the same programme is being watched. i.e. it will have to satisfy the following criteria before shutting down Is it past 11pm Has two hours elapsed since last interaction (e.g. button being pressed on remote) Has the programme being broadcast changed in the last two hours Obviously many sports events and movies last over 2 hours and viewers will not want a banner popping up in the middle saying the box is going to go to sleep. Also it's not unheard of for people to watch consecutive programmes on the same channel. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
What brings it out of Standby? And what's the problem with it being in
Standby until required all day? Surely most box's only ever get used during the evening, other than weekends. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:03:10 -0000, "Adrian A"
wrote: It will surely not try to shut down if the same programme is being watched. i.e. it will have to satisfy the following criteria before shutting down Is it past 11pm Has two hours elapsed since last interaction (e.g. button being pressed on remote) Has the programme being broadcast changed in the last two hours Obviously many sports events and movies last over 2 hours and viewers will not want a banner popping up in the middle saying the box is going to go to sleep. Also it's not unheard of for people to watch consecutive programmes on the same channel. I already have various bits of equipment such as computers, digital cameras, phones, and yes TV recording machines - disk and tape - with "auto-off" or "power save" features, but they're all just simple timers. If this is all that Sky are proposing, then it's not exactly new, and in all existing cases I can set the time interval myself or switch it off. I'm glad I'm not a Sky customer. Rod. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 13:27:09 -0000, "John Russell"
wrote: What brings it out of Standby? Presumably the user or a scheduled recording. And what's the problem with it being in Standby until required all day? Nothing. Surely most box's only ever get used during the evening, other than weekends. Yes, but a lot of people probably keep them running during the day anyway. -- Andrew, contact via http://interpleb.googlepages.com Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards, please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text. Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
Yes, but a lot of people probably keep them running during the day anyway. You mean some people just turn the TV off (sorry put it in standby) and forget about the digibox? So it's of no benefit to those of us who already put the box in standby whenever we stop watching? Why make such a big thing of this when the problem is the fact that even in standby some power is still consummed? The Goverment has asked the industry to look and minimisng the power thats' required in standby, not just introducing Auto Standby. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
In article , "For example:
John Smith" writes Sean Black wrote: In article . com, Ed writes SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. It can be turned off in the menu, so that's what I'll be doing, I'll decide when I want my box switched off. I don't want it ****ing up my recordings, by firstly having an onscreen warning for three minutes, before switching itself off. You think it'll warn of shutdown DURING a recording ? Surely recording counts as user-activity ? Can't do any harm, as a spinning HDD is noisy and wasteful. Lower electricity bills can't be so bad - albeit 50p. I doubt it'd shut down if it's recording itself (although I suppose you can never be sure with any new Sky software :-) ) I was thinking more when I am recording to an external device, TiVo, DVD Recorder etc... -- Sean Black |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Mar 20, 11:52 am, "Mark Carver" wrote:
On Mar 20, 11:39 am, "Steve Bosman" wrote: [1] I tend to put the box into standby before I go to bed anyway (maybe 5 days out of 7). You only go to bed 5 days out of 7 ? I think you know what I mean :) |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"Ed" wrote in message ups.com... SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. A lot of bull**** if you ask me ! |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"Ed" wrote in message ups.com... SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. Its about time they slashed their subscription charges, the robbing ba**ards! |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Mar 20, 12:39 pm, "RobertJM"
wrote: The box still records if you put it in standby, don't see it making any difference that way. I'm not worrying about recording. Films are one of the few types of programmes I find myself watching late at night and I usually don't record them. Around 10 I see something interesting is coming on and switch over to it. If the autostandby becomes an issue I'll just have to ensure I start films recording and start watching them through the sky+ planner after a short delay. The only thing that worries me is another software update, I'm sure this is what causes my recordings to sometimes disappear! fortunately that has never happened to me. I have had some scrambled programmes before (the contents of some programmes got mixed together), but I don't think they were update related. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"Mark Carver" wrote in message ps.com... On Mar 20, 10:20 am, "Ed" wrote: I dont think there is much benefit turning off a regular box. It uses almost no power. It is the hard disk in the plus and HD boxes that is constantly turning as it buffers that uses the power. No *less* power in standby I think you mean :-) ISTR when I had Sky+ the HDD spun continuously whether the box was on or standby, I assume that's now changed ? Quite. It saves very little power on a standard dogibox. Plus standby would **** with the auto-switch planner. Makes sense for sky+ as they are designed to work in standby. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"Beck" wrote in message ... "Ed" wrote in message ups.com... SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. Great idea. The amount of difference between on and standby may not be much, but collectively with all the thousands of boxes it will make a difference. Hope they brace themselves for zillions of support calls from people saying their sky is shutting off overnight though. Actually on a + box it cuts the power significantly, turning off the HDD and the fan. I remember someone hooking it up to a meter and posting the results. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"RobertJM" wrote in message ... "Steve Bosman" wrote in message oups.com... On Mar 20, 9:49 am, "Ed" wrote: The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. In principle I agree with this change [1], but I'd like to know how it copes with the situation of watching a long(ish) film (i.e. longer than 2 hours) that ends after 11pm. I would hope for, but don't expect to get, software clever enough to go into standby after the last selected programme finishes. Steve [1] I tend to put the box into standby before I go to bed anyway (maybe 5 days out of 7). The box still records if you put it in standby, don't see it making any difference that way. The only thing that worries me is another software update, I'm sure this is what causes my recordings to sometimes disappear! Well it is likely to be part of the major update when anytime launches. (even non-PVR3 boxes will need an update to tell it to ignore anytime flags). |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:52:36 GMT, "steeler" wrote:
|! |!"Mark Carver" wrote in message oups.com... |! On Mar 20, 10:20 am, "Ed" wrote: |! |! I dont think there is much benefit turning off a regular box. It uses |! almost no power. It is the hard disk in the plus and HD boxes that is |! constantly turning as it buffers that uses the power. |! |! No *less* power in standby I think you mean :-) |! |! ISTR when I had Sky+ the HDD spun continuously whether the box was on |! or standby, I assume that's now changed ? |! |! |!Quite. It saves very little power on a standard dogibox. Plus standby |!would **** with the auto-switch planner. Makes sense for sky+ as they are |!designed to work in standby. If there were rules to say that " the standby current taken by any device using Infra Red controls must be less than 1 watt", that would cure the problem and not be difficult or expensive to do. -- Dave Fawthrop sf hyphenologist.co.uk 165 *Free* SF ebooks. 165 Sci Fi books on CDROM, from Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page Completely Free to any address in the UK. Contact me on the *above* email address. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"John Russell" wrote in message ... Yes, but a lot of people probably keep them running during the day anyway. You mean some people just turn the TV off (sorry put it in standby) and forget about the digibox? So it's of no benefit to those of us who already put the box in standby whenever we stop watching? Why make such a big thing of this when the problem is the fact that even in standby some power is still consummed? The Goverment has asked the industry to look and minimisng the power thats' required in standby, not just introducing Auto Standby. The power saving even in standby is worthwhile. It is true though that it is only useful in stopping the idiots who never switch the box off (it is not just that they are too lazy to press a button, more that it never occurs to them). As for the TV - I never switch min off - but then it only uses 3W in standby. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"Terry" wrote in message ... "Ed" wrote in message ups.com... SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. A lot of bull**** if you ask me ! If you can't back it up then nobody will. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
In article . com, Ed
says... SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. How does that work? I can be watching a film over two hours long or simply a string of programmes without needing to change channel. Does this now mean my viewing is to be interrupted? -- Conor Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak......... |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Mar 20, 2:58 pm, Dave Fawthrop
wrote: If there were rules to say that " the standby current taken by any device using Infra Red controls must be less than 1 watt", that would cure the problem and not be difficult or expensive to do. It would require (for Sky) a complete rethink on how their ongoing subscription key authentication, and OTA software updating functions. Both of those rely heavily on the assumption that the digibox is listening 24/7 to a Sky Platform transponder. In other words the box should have continuous access to the BSkyB SI stream. That requires the tuner and LNB to be permanently active, hence, to within a watt, the same power consumption 'on' or 'standby'. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On Mar 20, 3:12 pm, Conor wrote:
How does that work? I can be watching a film over two hours long or simply a string of programmes without needing to change channel. Does this now mean my viewing is to be interrupted? There's only one way it can work. It will sense whether you have operated any remote control buttons in the last two hours. Remember, these medja-studies zombies that manage broadcasting now, imagine our attention span is the same as theirs, about 20 seconds. That's why we have all those DOGs, end credit violations, and continuity announcers shouting at us. The idea that anybody should sit for two hours and not touch their remote is totally alien to them. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
On 20 Mar 2007 08:58:31 -0700, "Mark Carver" wrote:
|!On Mar 20, 2:58 pm, Dave Fawthrop wrote: |! |! If there were rules to say that " the standby current taken by any device |! using Infra Red controls must be less than 1 watt", that would cure the |! problem and not be difficult or expensive to do. |! |!It would require (for Sky) a complete rethink on how their ongoing |!subscription key authentication, and OTA software updating functions. |!Both of those rely heavily on the assumption that the digibox is |!listening 24/7 to a Sky Platform transponder. In other words the box |!should have continuous access to the BSkyB SI stream. That requires |!the tuner and LNB to be permanently active, hence, to within a watt, |!the same power consumption 'on' or 'standby'. More fool $ky for not looking ahead. -- Dave Fawthrop sf hyphenologist.co.uk 165 *Free* SF ebooks. 165 Sci Fi books on CDROM, from Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page Completely Free to any address in the UK. Contact me on the *above* email address. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
Rick Marks wrote:
On 20 Mar 2007 02:49:50 -0700, "Ed" wrote: The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. They have electricity in Wolverhampton? They will now. -- Mark Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"steeler" wrote in message .. . "Beck" wrote in message ... "Ed" wrote in message ups.com... SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. Great idea. The amount of difference between on and standby may not be much, but collectively with all the thousands of boxes it will make a difference. Hope they brace themselves for zillions of support calls from people saying their sky is shutting off overnight though. Actually on a + box it cuts the power significantly, turning off the HDD and the fan. I remember someone hooking it up to a meter and posting the results. I have just down an experiment on my 500 VA UPS power supply system with my setup which includes a Pentium IV 2.4 processor and 3 hard disks. My UPS has a remote power meter management application. With just the main hard drive running, the load was 17%. Spin up drive 2 (+1), the load was 18%. Spin up drive 3 (+1 and 2), the load was 19%. Turn on the 15 watt low energy light bulb (also on my UPS) the load goes to 22%. Ergo very subjectively and approximately 1% = about 5 watts which sounds about right for my disk drives each. I've had all 3 drives on for 3 years, LOL, but I've recently enabled the power management to spin down unused drives after 10 minutes of inactivity really to reduce heat and that awful whining noise one of the drives makes. Anyway, nice to know I am saving a whopping 10 watts of energy even though I doubt it covers the cost of my UPSs. ;-) Hope this adds / helps. |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
In uk.tech.tv.sky on Tue, 20 Mar 2007, Mark Carver wrote :
On Mar 20, 9:49 am, "Ed" wrote: SKY is to introduce technology that automatically switches digital boxes to standby mode overnight - slashing energy bills by £7.5MILLION a year. The boxes will go to "sleep" after 11pm if they detect they have not been used for two hours. The technology will be transmitted to Sky HD boxes from today and to all Sky+ boxes from April - a total of more than two million. Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. It could also cut UK carbon emissions by 32,000 tons a year. Just Sky+ boxes then ? I hope so, it'll cause chaos for communal systems etc if it's introduced to standard boxes. Not to mention I often record several hours of the music channels overnight - the above will screw that up! :( -- Paul 'Charts Fan' Hyett |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
"Ed" wrote in message ups.com... Sky said Auto Standby could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton for a year. But they already have lights in Wolverhampton. Bill |
Sky 'auto standby' to roll out from today
Mike Henry wrote:
In , "Beck" wrote: Hope they brace themselves for zillions of support calls from people saying their sky is shutting off overnight though. They'll be pleased - remember, they made a PROFIT from their 0870 numbers. Every incoming call is more money for them. No doubt that's why they do it! -- Enzo I wear the cheese. It does not wear me. |
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