Sky Auto Standby and other 'innovations'

Heracles Pollux wrote:
"Ed" wrote in message
ups.com...

Heracles Pollux wrote:
"Ed" wrote in message
oups.com...

Heracles Pollux wrote:
"Cardinal Chunder" wrote in message
...
Ed wrote:
Heard today that Sky boxes will have a new feature enabled in the
next
software package to make them automatically go into standby, as
apparently they use half as much electricity when in standby mode.

I wonder what other exciting stuff is lined up!!

Sounds like a damned good idea. I wonder if EU law should mandate
that
that all consumer AV devices go into standby by default if not used
for
some reasonable period of time, e.g. 5 hours.





define "used"?

Which devices are not "used" and left powered on, apart from possibly
street
lights.

VCRs, cookers, microwaves, tv decoder boxes, tvs...



All of which are in constant use.

No, all of which should power off completely when not being used. There
is no need for a cooker or a microwave to have a clock. A timer, yes,
but that can come on at zero when the unit is powered up.

Devices that need clocks like PVRs need to remain on at a very low
power so that the time isnt lost and recordings can be made. TVs can
and should be switched off completely when not in use, i.e. about 12
hours a day, 20 in some houses.



Ok, so now we want on to semantics.

But do you not agree that if a user wants their TV set receiving and
responding to Infra Red commands, the TV set needs power to that part of the
system?

If you want to stipulate that microwaves no longer have clocks, timers, and
memory, then that is all very well, and you should make your argument for
it. I doubt that would be popular with consumers though.

You know full well that if the E.U. abandoned the TV stand by function,
Europeans would do what Americans do instead, and simply leave the TV on all
day.



Or are you arguing for better transparency and improvements in stand by
circuitry?

Personally I take tony blairs stance, such as he re-iterated when
challenged about whether he should cut down on his holiday flights
recently
"I personally think these things are a bit impractical actually to
expect people to do that"

i.e. I don't give a ****

I was just making the point that lots of things are powered on for
convenience rather than need.

"Ed" wrote

Personally I take tony blairs stance, such as he re-iterated when
challenged about whether he should cut down on his holiday flights
recently
"I personally think these things are a bit impractical actually to
expect people to do that"

i.e. I don't give a ****

I was just making the point that lots of things are powered on for
convenience rather than need.

Given that I'm asleep or at work between 3am and 6pm - I have
mains timer switches on the 4 multiway extensions to turn off alot
of those devices between those hours.

No need to remember to switch anything off or on at the plug,
which I'd stop bothering to do after a week anyway.

This also helps to reset digiboxes which tend to freeze if not
rebooted every week, this way they get a daily reboot.
--
Mike

"Mike Redrobe" wrote in message
.uk...

"Ed" wrote

Personally I take tony blairs stance, such as he re-iterated when
challenged about whether he should cut down on his holiday flights
recently
"I personally think these things are a bit impractical actually to
expect people to do that"

i.e. I don't give a ****

I was just making the point that lots of things are powered on for
convenience rather than need.

Given that I'm asleep or at work between 3am and 6pm - I have
mains timer switches on the 4 multiway extensions to turn off alot
of those devices between those hours.

No need to remember to switch anything off or on at the plug,
which I'd stop bothering to do after a week anyway.

This also helps to reset digiboxes which tend to freeze if not
rebooted every week, this way they get a daily reboot.
--
Mike


And just watch those capacitors/PSUs pop when they have been powered off and
on for a couple of years.

ABC wrote:
"Mike Redrobe" wrote in message
.uk...

"Ed" wrote

Personally I take tony blairs stance, such as he re-iterated when
challenged about whether he should cut down on his holiday flights
recently
"I personally think these things are a bit impractical actually to
expect people to do that"

i.e. I don't give a ****

I was just making the point that lots of things are powered on for
convenience rather than need.

Given that I'm asleep or at work between 3am and 6pm - I have
mains timer switches on the 4 multiway extensions to turn off alot
of those devices between those hours.

No need to remember to switch anything off or on at the plug,
which I'd stop bothering to do after a week anyway.

This also helps to reset digiboxes which tend to freeze if not
rebooted every week, this way they get a daily reboot.
--
Mike


And just watch those capacitors/PSUs pop when they have been powered off and
on for a couple of years.

That is what stand-by was invented for of course, electrical components
fail more often if started from cold. Lights pop when you turn them on,
for example, not while they are running.

"Ed" wrote in message
ups.com...

ABC wrote:
"Mike Redrobe" wrote in message
.uk...

"Ed" wrote

Personally I take tony blairs stance, such as he re-iterated when
challenged about whether he should cut down on his holiday flights
recently
"I personally think these things are a bit impractical actually to
expect people to do that"

i.e. I don't give a ****

I was just making the point that lots of things are powered on for
convenience rather than need.

Given that I'm asleep or at work between 3am and 6pm - I have
mains timer switches on the 4 multiway extensions to turn off alot
of those devices between those hours.

No need to remember to switch anything off or on at the plug,
which I'd stop bothering to do after a week anyway.

This also helps to reset digiboxes which tend to freeze if not
rebooted every week, this way they get a daily reboot.
--
Mike


And just watch those capacitors/PSUs pop when they have been powered off
and
on for a couple of years.

That is what stand-by was invented for of course, electrical components
fail more often if started from cold. Lights pop when you turn them on,
for example, not while they are running.



So an E.U. plan that causes non-user-serviceable electrical systems to fail
more often will require more energy to be wasted in the cost of replacing,
transporting, and scraping those systems.

Heracles Pollux wrote:
"Ed" wrote in message
ups.com...

ABC wrote:
"Mike Redrobe" wrote in message
.uk...

"Ed" wrote

Personally I take tony blairs stance, such as he re-iterated when
challenged about whether he should cut down on his holiday flights
recently
"I personally think these things are a bit impractical actually to
expect people to do that"

i.e. I don't give a ****

I was just making the point that lots of things are powered on for
convenience rather than need.

Given that I'm asleep or at work between 3am and 6pm - I have
mains timer switches on the 4 multiway extensions to turn off alot
of those devices between those hours.

No need to remember to switch anything off or on at the plug,
which I'd stop bothering to do after a week anyway.

This also helps to reset digiboxes which tend to freeze if not
rebooted every week, this way they get a daily reboot.
--
Mike


And just watch those capacitors/PSUs pop when they have been powered off
and
on for a couple of years.

That is what stand-by was invented for of course, electrical components
fail more often if started from cold. Lights pop when you turn them on,
for example, not while they are running.



So an E.U. plan that causes non-user-serviceable electrical systems to fail
more often will require more energy to be wasted in the cost of replacing,
transporting, and scraping those systems.

You sound shocked. Surely they asked themselves 'why' do some things
have a stand-by function before setting ridiculous targets based on
'wasted' electricity?

In article .com,
Ed wrote:
Heard today that Sky boxes will have a new feature enabled in the next
software package to make them automatically go into standby, as apparently
they use half as much electricity when in standby mode.

I was under the impression that most of the box was still active in standby
mode. Obviously it still needs to receive IR signals and still needs to
power the LNB, but not sure about the rest of it.

I wonder what other exciting stuff is lined up!!

Optional DOG removal button?

--
___________________________________________
|\ /| ark Fraser
| \/ | Somerset /www.mfraz.freeserve.co.uk
| |__________/Acorn SA RISC PC You know what the sig means!

Mark Fraser (News) wrote:
In article .com,
Ed wrote:
Heard today that Sky boxes will have a new feature enabled in the next
software package to make them automatically go into standby, as apparently
they use half as much electricity when in standby mode.

I was under the impression that most of the box was still active in standby
mode. Obviously it still needs to receive IR signals and still needs to
power the LNB, but not sure about the rest of it.

Yes, and because of that most Sky boxes consume only about a watt less
in standby, than they do in 'on'.
It's more 'green bandwagon' ****e if true.

2 hours vastly exceeds the attention span of your average Sky viewer,
so it's only a problem for the intelligent to worry about. It's going
to make unattended recording of something a challenge for some people's
set ups.

In article .com, Mark
Carver writes

Mark Fraser (News) wrote:
In article .com,
Ed wrote:
Heard today that Sky boxes will have a new feature enabled in the next
software package to make them automatically go into standby, as apparently
they use half as much electricity when in standby mode.

I was under the impression that most of the box was still active in standby
mode. Obviously it still needs to receive IR signals and still needs to
power the LNB, but not sure about the rest of it.

Yes, and because of that most Sky boxes consume only about a watt less
in standby, than they do in 'on'.

That's what I thought, but when I made that comment on another forum, I
was told that it wasn't the case with Sky+/HD boxes, as unlike TiVo, if
you put them in standby the harddisk is no used, whereas with TiVo it's
constantly recording a buffer of the last half hour of whatever channel
you are on.

It's more 'green bandwagon' ****e if true.

Agreed, I'm yet to be convinced that this whole global climate change
isn't just a normal thing that happens every few
hundred/thousand/million (delete as applicable) years with our use or
refrain from use of energy making negligible difference in the great
scheme of things.

2 hours vastly exceeds the attention span of your average Sky viewer,
so it's only a problem for the intelligent to worry about. It's going
to make unattended recording of something a challenge for some people's
set ups.

At least, you can finally permanently switch off the pin request for
pre-watershed movies, apparently, after the update.
--
Sean Black

Heracles Pollux wrote:
"Cardinal Chunder" wrote in message
...
Ed wrote:
Heard today that Sky boxes will have a new feature enabled in the next
software package to make them automatically go into standby, as
apparently they use half as much electricity when in standby mode.

I wonder what other exciting stuff is lined up!!
Sounds like a damned good idea. I wonder if EU law should mandate that
that all consumer AV devices go into standby by default if not used for
some reasonable period of time, e.g. 5 hours.

define "used"?

Which devices are not "used" and left powered on, apart from possibly street
lights.

VCRs, Hi-Fis, Televisions, Set top boxes, VCRs etc. Basically anything
that sits there doing **** all for most of its like to an audience of
nobody because nobody could be arsed to put the device in standby or
switch it off before going to work.

Also note I said "by default". I.e. if you like you can disable the
function.

--
"Hello. I'm Leonard Nimoy. The following tale of alien encounters is
true. And by true, I mean false. It's all lies. But they're entertaining
lies. And in the end, isn't that the real truth? The answer is: No."