# Standby Mode Schedule?



## hotzorro

Hello

New to Tivo and recently purchased a Tivo Premier XL4 with Mini extenders.

Why does Tivo make it so hard to put the Tivo in standby mode? I like to conserve energy and it would be nice if the Tivo had a scheduling feature for this. So, for example, I want the Tivo to enter standby mode automatically at 1am and automatically exit at 6:30 am. Why isn't this possible?

Also, why is there no one button standby mode on the remote? This would have been nice.

Thanks for any response.

Jerry


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## bshrock

Hi Jerry, welcome to the TiVo Community.

A button for "Standby" would be a nice addition to the remote.


To put the DVR into standby I have learned to do it blind

Using the HD menus
"Tivo", "Left arrow", "Page down", "Page down", "Right arrow", "Page Down" then "Select".

Using the SD menus
"TiVo", "Left arrow", "Slow", "Page Down" then "Select".

Stand by does not really save any energy the DVR is still recording only the output is disabled. The advantage to put the DVR into standby is 
- DVR knows it can change channels without asking.
- EAS alerts are ignored.

You will find several threads with opinions about putting the TiVo into Standby and some have measured the power usage in both modes as you read through these forum's.


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## wmcbrine

It does save energy. I have yet to see a single reading where it didn't use less power in standby. Some people just argue that it's "not enough" to bother with.

Also, it's not hard. Harder than it should be, perhaps. But not so hard that I don't put it into standby whenever I'm not watching. (So, scheduling standby, I don't see the point of.)

If you have a universal remote, there's a discrete standby code that you can assign to a button. I used to use this when I had a URC-6131. Also, I included a standby button on my network remote (see sig). But mostly I just use the menus now.


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## hotzorro

I have a kilowatt meter. I'll test it later today when I get home from work. I'm sure it saves electricity as well. Every little bit counts for me - I'm one of those that powers my whole house with Solar and Drive a Chevy Volt. So yes, I take every kilowatt serious.

I never said it was difficult. As I typically fall asleep watching TV, I'd like the thing to have an automatic schedule to go on standby by 12:30am every day.


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## bshrock

hotzorro said:


> I have a kilowatt meter. I'll test it later today when I get home from work. I'm sure it saves electricity as well. Every little bit counts for me - I'm one of those that powers my whole house with Solar and Drive a Chevy Volt. So yes, I take every kilowatt serious.
> 
> I never said it was difficult. As I typically fall asleep watching TV, I'd like the thing to have an automatic schedule to go on standby by 12:30am every day.


 Might be a nice feature to add to wmcbrine's remote (hint, hint)


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## scandia101

hotzorro said:


> Why does Tivo make it *so hard to* put the Tivo in standby mode?





hotzorro said:


> I never said it was difficult.


Check your original post.


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## nooneuknow

I, too, am a frequent, at least 1x/day(or night) "Standby Mode" user.

I ALWAYS get heckled/hassled when bringing up this TiVo feature, which has been available for generations of TiVos.

If it had no purpose, no use, no benefits, or no users, WHY WOULD TIVO KEEP IT AROUND?

Here a few reasons, some of which have already been brought up:

1: It DOES save a minute amount of electricity, by shutting down, or lowering power, to components/circuits not necessary if you aren't viewing, leaving only what is required for the base DVR functions fully-operational.

2: It shuts off all the front LEDs on the front of the unit, for those of use who like (or need) pitch-dark when sleeping (and have a TiVo in the bedroom), without having to turn them all off, all of the time, in the settings menu. I like them on, when USING it. I hate it when people tell me to shut them off at all times, as opposed to using standby.

3: It stops EAS from changing the actively tuned channels.

4: It stops EAS from recording the banner into your programs. This situation only happens if your EAS system is one of two types, when you are a digital subscriber. If you are an analog subscriber, I *think* it always gets recorded, as opposed to overlaid, and not recorded (but this won't happen, at all, in Standby).

5: Besides the power saving, it reduces the heat generated, and can result in savings on your air conditioning costs. It also can lower the RPM speed of the cooling fan, due to the lower operating temps, giving you a quieter bedroom, also good for those who want/need a dark & quiet room to sleep in.

I'm sure there is more. I take it a step further, by telling my Guided Setup that I have both Cable & Antenna, even though I have no antenna. I then program in a manual, repeating, 1 minute, recording, for each tuner, to record an antenna channel (this is often called "Tuner Parking", by those who use it), which frees up processing power, minimizes hard drive activity, results in further power savings, less heat, and less hard drive wear/tear/seeking noises. I make sure the resulting Season Pass entries are at the very bottom of my list, and I decided on 4AM for them to start. I also park the tuners, when I see no reason to have my units buffering Live TV, like when I am watching recordings. Parked tuners also speed up other things that rely on the limited processing power of the CPU. DVRs must always give the highest priority to the base DVR functions, as well as giving the highest priority to buffering, or recording, the A/V data to the hard drive. One place you can see the difference, greatly, is when you re-organize your Season Pass list. It's no small difference in the length of time it takes to update a long list of SPs. When "parked", using a non-existent antenna channel, the recording won't show up in your Now Playing List, because it aborts, detecting that there is no signal. No signal equals nothing for the hot-running tuner/decoding/encoding components to process

I, too, would like to see the Standby feature become more easily activated, and customizable.


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## jrtroo

EAS is clearly the biggest benefit. The savings are watt-hours, not kilowatt-hours. If it saves 4 watt-hours, and is on standby for 12 hours a day, the savings are, annually, around $2.10 (using 12 cents/hr cost).


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## aaronwt

Yes, heat savings and power savings are miniscule.

When I had my original S3 boxes with the OLED screen, I always put it in stanby to save the screen. But with the tiVos HD and S4 boxes i stopped putting them in standby. Since I don't have the EAS issues around here. I think I've run into it only two or three times over the years.


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## nooneuknow

aaronwt said:


> Yes, heat savings and power savings are miniscule.
> 
> When I had my original S3 boxes with the OLED screen, I always put it in stanby to save the screen. But with the tiVos HD and S4 boxes i stopped putting them in standby. Since I don't have the EAS issues around here. I think I've run into it only two or three times over the years.


One thing I posted in another thread, which I left out of my standby mode benefit list was: It speeds up network transfers (apparently it frees up enough processor cycles to give the networking performance a boost). Combined with "tuner parking", it can make a bigger difference.


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## wkearney99

Is there a way to put it into standby via the network? As in from a cron job script running on computer.


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## nooneuknow

wkearney99 said:


> Is there a way to put it into standby via the network? As in from a cron job script running on computer.


I think kmttg *might* have that function, as well as some other network control software published by various people on here. You'd need to enable network remote control on the TiVo, since it is disabled by default, as well as (possibly) making sure your settings on TiVo's website allow the interaction.

I don't see why it couldn't be possible, unless TiVo's coding doesn't allow it.

I'd like to know the same thing (for sure)...


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## nooneuknow

It may be of interest that scandia101 has started TWO polls on standby, now concurrently.

No surprise to me that this has not been mentioned in this thread.

Here's the links to both:

Original: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=507509

Second: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=507535


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## lpwcomp

While I am all for people using their TiVos in any manner they wish, I am at a loss to understand the usefulness of having a standby timer. Why not just put it in standby and leave it that way when you are not actively, directly using it? One of my TiVos is rarely _*out*_ of standby.


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## lujan

I don't use standby but just pull the plug on my backup TiVo. I just want to have another TiVo just in case my primary TiVo bites the big one.


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## wkearney99

As has been explained, standby offers two main benefits. The foremost of which seems to be avoiding EAS notifications interrupting scheduled recordings. That's a pretty nice benefit for folks stuck in areas where EAS alerts are sent out frequently. Meanwhile all other scheduled passes or recordings will get made just fine. The other being a reduction (albeit small) in power consumption.

I've only run into the EAS alert problem maybe 3 times in as many years. So it's not a big deal for me. But still, if it were easier to trigger it I could see making use of it.


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