PVR standby

Those DTT PVRs which use 4TV for the EPG do update overnight - at 0300.

Ah, thanks. I stand corrected.

Steve

JW wrote:

The EPG will update when you switch it on.

Mine also keeps a cached copy of the EPG data on the HDD, or stored in a
network share. This means that in the usual case, the EPG will in the
ready-to-use (populated with data) immediately after the power-on.

Of course, you can't record anything when the power's off,
or when the power is turned on but the device left in
standby - the device won't know what time it is until you
switch it on and it updates off-air.

My PVR has a "deep" standby mode. In this mode, the main
board/processor, HDD, tuner, etc. are lifeless, but the clock chip and a
low-powered "front panel processor" (which monitors the front panel
buttons and can wake up the rest of the system) is still running. If you
set up timed recordings and then switch the device into the deep standby
mode, it will wake up a couple of minutes before the next timed
recording should start.

As long as the system is on standby AND not recording, the
disc will be spun down and safe to power off. Since these
devices are recording all the time when on,

At least my PVR isn't recording all the time when on. It only records
when told to.

Some manufacturers specify low-noise discs designed for
consumer devices. They can still be audible when placed on
a glass TV shelf, but there are ways to reduce this.

My PVR can also record to a network share, which means that a local HDD
isn't necessarily needed - although it's a supported option, of course.
(No local HDD = no noise at all.)

(What is "my PVR"? A Dreambox DM 7025, equipped with two DVB-T tuners
and set up to record to network shares:

http://www.saunalahti.fi/znark/dreambox/dm7025/picture_gallery/
http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/en...s_dm7025_techn
ical.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreambox
http://www.dream-multimedia-tv.de/board/)

--
znark

wrote in message
ps.com...
Hi there,

I'm thinking of finally moving into the 21st century and replacing my
VCR with a PVR, such as one of these:

http://www.richersounds.com/showprod...9c2e0a9078de69

If you have a PC you can have a twin tuner PVR, and so much more, for less
than £50!
All you need is two DVB-T tuner cards / USB devices. So long as one of
the cards is Hauppage with a 45-button remote control. Then for
the software I use the FREE gbpvr media center from http://www.gbpvr.com/
Ok it is more work to setup, but gbpvr is a fully functional media center so
not
only do you get the usual time-shift, record one watch another etc, but you
can also watch all your videos (XviD, DivX , DVD etc), play all your music,
view
photos...
The 7-day DVB EPG can be set to update any time you want, and has series
link, so you can easily record a series. The data is not 'lost' when you
turn the PC off, and PC's can be made as quiet as you like. A PC can also
display high-def content - some countries already get high-def DVB-T.
You can even connect to it from any PC in the world and set recordings &
view your media! gbpvr supports 8+ tuners (though cannot imagine why
you would want to record 7 channels and watch another).
Another advantage of using your PC is that the resulting MPEG2 recordings
can be easily edited / transcoded or saved to DVD. And all files can be
shared on a home network.
Worth a look anyway...
GTS

wrote:
Hi there,

I'm thinking of finally moving into the 21st century and replacing my
VCR with a PVR, such as one of these:

http://www.richersounds.com/showprod...9c2e0a9078de69

However, I have a couple of questions. I've already tried these on the
Richer Sounds people, who replied to my Email but clearly did not know
the answers. I'd appreciate general answers, even if people here don't
have direct experience of the specific box above.

1. I gather these devices update the schedules at night. However, I
prefer to switch off unused devices at night to save power (and,
nominally, the planet). Will the device know to update once I give it
power again, even if it's not the middle of the night? Or can I
explicitly tell it to update?

2. I usually switch off my TV/DVD player and so on by just switching
the whole lot off at the wall. If I do this to a PVR, will it do nasty
things to the hard-drive and so on?

3. I've seen some complaints that PVRs can be noisy with processor
fans and disk spinning. Am I going to notice this? Does anybody know
how noisy the Hitachi thing above is?

Thanks in advance for any insight,

Peter

This is a very interesting thread. One thing that doesn't seem to have been
addressed is what happens to your timer settings for future recordings when
you disconnect the mains from a PVR?

With Sony HDD/DVD recorders for example you have to keep the unit plugged in
otherwise you lose all the timer info, so no timer recordings will take
place when you power up. Perhaps dedicated PVRs work differently and write
future timer recordings straight to the hard drive or flash memory?

By the way OP - I'm reading good things on web forums about the Thomson PVR
currently on sale at Argos for 99.99. The cheapest price elsewhere was
around 150.00. It's got a 160 gig hard drive and is a Freeview Playback
device, meaning that it has series link etc. It's also a Top Up TV machine
and by default half the hard drive is reserved for TOTV downloads.
Personally I think TOTV is a waste of money (10.00 per month) but you can
disable it and have access to the full 160 gigs.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/yohz46

On 31 Jul, 23:35, "DannyT" wrote:
By the way OP - I'm reading good things on web forums about the Thomson PVR
currently on sale at Argos for 99.99. The cheapest price elsewhere was
around 150.00. It's got a 160 gig hard drive and is a Freeview Playback
device, meaning that it has series link etc. It's also a Top Up TV machine
and by default half the hard drive is reserved for TOTV downloads.
Personally I think TOTV is a waste of money (10.00 per month) but you can
disable it and have access to the full 160 gigs.

It's not yet a Freeview Playback device; it has series link, but
that's courtesty of the InView EPG that it downloads overnight, and
it's not yet got the accurate recording feature, though TUTV plan to
get it Playback certified.

Personally, I think that there are better machines out there; I found
the interface on the Thomson annoying, and some people have reported
problems with the latest firmware release on it - both my review units
went back before that came out.

If you like the (in my view lowbrow) material that makes up the TUTV
Anytime service, then it might be worth it, because of the subsidy
they give you with a subscription. But otherwise, I'd not recommend
it, personally.

There's a full review I wrote in the April/May issue of Active Home; I
gave it 3/5. Since then the latest firmware update has added
subtitles, which was a major point against it for some.

Nigel

On 30/07/2007, wrote in message
om:

I'd appreciate general answers, even if people here don't
have direct experience of the specific box above.

1. I gather these devices update the schedules at night. However, I
prefer to switch off unused devices at night to save power (and,
nominally, the planet). Will the device know to update once I give it
power again, even if it's not the middle of the night? Or can I
explicitly tell it to update?

Different PVRs run their updates differently. The one I have (Topfield
5800) updates its EPG information only when it's on, not even when it's in
standby mode. And it does it slowly and continuously, as the information
is broadcast, rather than running one big batch update. I don't know how
the Hitachi model does it.

2. I usually switch off my TV/DVD player and so on by just switching
the whole lot off at the wall. If I do this to a PVR, will it do nasty
things to the hard-drive and so on?

You do not turn off PVRs at the mains. They're designed to be put into
standby mode, not unplugged. They will lose a lot of state information.

The startup procedure is just like the one for a computer: it's very
thorough and involves powering up all the components and running some
tests on the hard disk. This is a huge, hungry operation and will use up
as much power as leaving the device in standby mode for a few hours so
you're not saving much power anyway. The same is true, by the way, of
most computers. Most people who turn them off overnight (as opposed to
putting them into sleep mode) aren't saving any power.

3. I've seen some complaints that PVRs can be noisy with processor
fans and disk spinning. Am I going to notice this? Does anybody know
how noisy the Hitachi thing above is?

Again, different PVRs are different. The one I have doesn't have any
fans, and is silent apart from the hard disk clicking softly if it's
recording two programmes at once.

Simon.
--
http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk

"DannyT" wrote in message
k...
wrote:

This is a very interesting thread. One thing that doesn't seem to have
been addressed is what happens to your timer settings for future
recordings when you disconnect the mains from a PVR?

With Sony HDD/DVD recorders for example you have to keep the unit plugged
in otherwise you lose all the timer info, so no timer recordings will take
place when you power up. Perhaps dedicated PVRs work differently and write
future timer recordings straight to the hard drive or flash memory?




Our Humax 9200 PVR is disconnected from the mains and transported elsewhere
at weekends, so that any programs recorded during the week I wish to keep
can be download onto my computer and made into DVDs.

When it's taken back downstairs and reconnected all of the original timer
settings are maintained, the only gripe I have (apparently along with other
owners) is that it can take somewhere from five to 15 minutes to repopulate
the EPG.

In message , Simon Slavin
. uk wrote

Different PVRs run their updates differently. The one I have (Topfield
5800) updates its EPG information only when it's on, not even when it's in
standby mode. And it does it slowly and continuously, as the information
is broadcast, rather than running one big batch update. I don't know how
the Hitachi model does it.

With an alternative EPG TAP on the Topfield you can have the EPG stored
to the disk and it's immediately available after you switch on - and
it's updated as new information comes in.

The startup procedure is just like the one for a computer: it's very
thorough and involves powering up all the components and running some
tests on the hard disk. This is a huge, hungry operation

On power up a box may require 10% more power for 10 seconds as the disk
spins up but that's about all.

and will use up
as much power as leaving the device in standby mode for a few hours so
you're not saving much power anyway.

Off = 0W
Standby = 5/10W
On = 20/30W

Again, different PVRs are different. The one I have doesn't have any
fans, and is silent apart from the hard disk clicking softly if it's
recording two programmes at once.

You may even reduce that noise with the HDD Info TAP to put the disk
into quiet mode.

--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com

In article , Simon Slavin wrote:
The startup procedure is just like the one for a computer: it's very
thorough and involves powering up all the components and running some
tests on the hard disk. *This is a huge, hungry operation and will use up
as much power as leaving the device in standby mode for a few hours so
you're not saving much power anyway. *The same is true, by the way, of
most computers. *Most people who turn them off overnight (as opposed to
putting them into sleep mode) aren't saving any power.

My computer takes only a few minutes to boot up, but when switched off at
night, it may be off for 8-10 hours or more, perhaps several hundred times
as long as the boot-up process.

If boot-up really did consume more in those few minutes than 8-10 hours
worth of normal running, wouldn't it have to consume power during boot-up
at a rate several hundred times higher than the steady consumption rate? If
so, then it would have to be several hundred times about 50 Watts, which
seems highly improbable.

Rod.

On 01/08/2007, Alan wrote in message :


. uk wrote

The
startup procedure is just like the one for a computer: it's very

thorough and involves powering up all the components and running some

tests on the hard disk. This is a huge, hungry operation

On power
up a box may require 10% more power for 10 seconds as the disk
spins up
but that's about all.

Which box ? The power draw from my PVR indicates
it not only spins up the disk but reads the header block and all the top-
level directories. It also turns on both tuners at top amplification for
an instant and the interfaces for both CAMs whether there are any inserted
or not. This takes two or three seconds and involves more power than the
'on' setting, let alone the 'standby' setting.

Off = 0W
Standby = 5/10W
On = 20/30W

Which box ? The TopField has published figures of

Standby 6 to 8
Watts depending on whether it needs to wake up to record something
On
15 Watts to 25 Watts depending on watch/play/recording going on

But ...
at turn on it gets a peak of 40 Watts while it's performing its startup
routine.

Anyone who cares about these figures, by the way, should note
that new EU legislation to be introduced in 2008 will make sure that
standby draw is even lower.

Simon.
--
http://www.hearsay.demon.co.uk