# New Bolt owner, Probably an old question (about standby).



## Vect0r (Nov 2, 2010)

So I've gone from 3 premiere XL's to 2 XL's +1 Bolt. I am very TiVo familiar....except when it comes to standby  I am used to all 3 premieres running on all 4 tuners buffering me 12 channels of live TV goodness. This new Bolt, goes into standby each time I switch activities (I am on multiple game consoles, with a Harmony remote).

Power settings set to manual, so never turn off. However, the fact I am running an HDMI switch, which when inputs are changed, make the TiVo think the TV is turned off, trigger the standby in the box. *I have been able to throw some extra commands into the remote to avoid the standby. *

My bottom line question is there anything to worry about here? I really don't care about the electricity usage, obviously, but hardware wise? Is there a reason this goes into standby if the HDMI isn't active by default? Is this a spinner drive, flash drive? Should I give into the shutdown? I have had Premieres for almost 10 years and, KNOCK ON WOOD, never had a single hardware issue.


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

You should check your Harmony settings.

The TiVo shouldn't be turning off if the settings are as you say. The TiVo does not have CEC to 'detect' the TV (or switch) being off.

-KP


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

Does the Bolt go into standby when not connected to the HDMI switch?


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

Just to reemphasize the point - my Bolts do NOT go into standby when the TV is turned off, and they do NOT go into standby if the HDMI cord is disconnected. I do not use either an HDMI switch or a Harmony remote, so I cannot comment on either of those situations.


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## BobCamp1 (May 15, 2002)

Vect0r said:


> My bottom line question is there anything to worry about here? I really don't care about the electricity usage, obviously, but hardware wise? Is there a reason this goes into standby if the HDMI isn't active by default? Is this a spinner drive, flash drive? Should I give into the shutdown? I have had Premieres for almost 10 years and, KNOCK ON WOOD, never had a single hardware issue.


Nobody answered your original question. Hardware-wise, you are OK disabling standby. And the Bolt uses a hard drive not a flash drive.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

BobCamp1 said:


> Nobody answered your original question. Hardware-wise, you are OK disabling standby. And the Bolt uses a hard drive not a flash drive.


I thought the bolt had built-in internal flash storage and a hard drive.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

Vect0r said:


> Power settings set to manual, so never turn off. However, the fact I am running an HDMI switch, which when inputs are changed, make the TiVo think the TV is turned off, trigger the standby in the box. *I have been able to throw some extra commands into the remote to avoid the standby.*


Putting aside whether this is good for longevity, I haven't seen that behavior with my Bolt connected to an HDMI switch. Do you customize the harmony on/off/input-switch sequences or go with defaults? I vaguely recall a long time ago when I used harmony remotes they would program a sequence in to shut off devices when you switched away from them. Rather than add extra commands to avoid standby I had to remove commands so standby wasn't initiated.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

I'll add, not only do I have 2 Bolts on an HDMI switch, but I've unplugged HDMI from them and they have never gone into standby


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

BobCamp1 said:


> Nobody answered your original question. .


I thought I answered the question.

Depending on which Harmony you're programming, go into the settings for the TiVo. Click on 'Adjust Power Settings' or the like. Pick the option for 'Do not turn off' or the like.

I've programmed a few dozen Harmony's with TiVo's. The default settings ALWAYS turn it off. Both at System Shutdown and during Activity Change. It's a pet peeve of mine that Harmony won't dial in those settings.

In each Activity, there's an additional option to 'Leave Unused Devices On'. I usually go through and check that for each Activity.

After that, it absolutely should NOT turn off. Ever. Unless you manually find the command in Device Mode.

-KP


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

BobCamp1 said:


> Nobody answered your original question. Hardware-wise, you are OK disabling standby. And the Bolt uses a hard drive not a flash drive.





shwru980r said:


> I thought the bolt had built-in internal flash storage and a hard drive.


I believe the earlier response was directed toward the user-accessible storage, which is hard drive.


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## T-Shee (Sep 22, 2006)

FYI: during initial setup of my new bolt+, I dug out my kill-a-watt power meter to see how much power the new box actually used under various conditions. Here's what I found:
Startup=17 to 19 watts
720p, 1080i, 1080p = 15 watts
2160p = 16watts
Standby = 13 watts
(Voltage= 125)
Additionally, any non-recording tuner shuts off and live buffering stops. Scheduled recordings continue normally. ODT drops a few degrees during standby, which is probably more significant than the nominal 2 watt "power saving".


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

T-Shee said:


> Additionally, any non-recording tuner shuts off and live buffering stops. Scheduled recordings continue normally. ODT drops a few degrees during standby, which is probably more significant than the nominal 2 watt "power saving".


Thanks for the numbers. Another side effect of standby happens if you have a Mini connected. There will be a BSC while a tuner wakes up and the drive spins up.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

When people had looked into the standby/energy issue earlier, it seemed that the energy difference was not great, similar to T-Shee's post above (which is not to say, even saving a little isn't good). But taking that in conjunction with possible extra wear-and-tear on the hard drive (also discussed earlier), I just left well enough alone, without adopting standby. I balance it with shorter showers.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

Mikeguy said:


> When people had looked into the standby/energy issue earlier, it seemed that the energy difference was not great, similar to T-Shee's post above (which is not to say, even saving a little isn't good). But taking that in conjunction with possible extra wear-and-tear on the hard drive (also discussed earlier), I just left well enough alone, without adopting standby. I balance it with shorter showers.


Complicating the analysis is that TiVo would vacillate between powering down the drives or leaving them on between various releases. Currently they are powering them down.


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## Vect0r (Nov 2, 2010)

kpeters59 said:


> I thought I answered the question.
> 
> Depending on which Harmony you're programming, go into the settings for the TiVo. Click on 'Adjust Power Settings' or the like. Pick the option for 'Do not turn off' or the like.
> 
> ...


Thanks everyone for the quick responses. I was able to add 'Live TV' command to the Harmony Elite at the system shutdown and activity change. The Bolt now stays on full time. Thanks!


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

Vect0r said:


> Thanks everyone for the quick responses. I was able to add 'Live TV' command to the Harmony Elite at the system shutdown and activity change. The Bolt now stays on full time. Thanks!


Wouldn't it be cleaner to check the option to "Leave Unused Devices On" (as suggested by kpeters) than to have the activity put TiVo in standby then send a LiveTV command to abort the standby before it takes effect?


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