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.

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.

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.

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 ?

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

"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.

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.

"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.

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).

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 ?