# Green Mode



## Videodrome (Jun 20, 2008)

Does Tivo plan a "green mode", I know there is standby, but it would be great if standby was on the main screen. Or after no activity say an hour, or user set, the Tivo goes to sleep. Its just a waste of energy if its not recording , or no one is watching. It almost no hassle to hit the tivo button to wake it up.


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## socrplyr (Jul 19, 2006)

The Tivo is always recording. It is one of the features of the Tivo. If you sit down to watch and it is 15 minutes into a program you can at least back it up and watch. I am not saying that I disagree that maybe it should go into some kind of standby, but that isn't how the Tivo operates and it is unlikely to in the near future. As for the current standby, it doesn't do much other than turn off the video outputs I believe (I think it continues to record, it may have some kind of effect on emergency alerts as well).


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## StanSimmons (Jun 10, 2000)

The TiVo, by design, is always recording. That is how the 30 minute buffer works.


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## EvilMidniteBombr (May 25, 2006)

Green mode?! If you want to save electricity, unplug it.


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## classicsat (Feb 18, 2004)

Assuming the hardware can be shut down to a degree (it cannot be shut down in a deep standby mode, like a computer can), the HDD can be spun down, and some of the chips can be put to low power mode. Then there is the issue of powering everything up properly, in a timely fashion.

For any major greening, a core hardware redesign will need to take place.

As well as recording, it is also always indexing and processing data.


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

Videodrome said:


> Or after no activity say an hour, or user set, the Tivo goes to sleep.


What constitutes "inactivity"? Also, if this is a CableCard based TiVo, then federal regulations require the TiVo to respond to Emergency Broadcast alerts. That would be diffficult if the TiVo were sleeping.



Videodrome said:


> Its just a waste of energy if its not recording


As others have pointed out, it's always recording. Although I never personally make use of it, the ability to rewind the live buffer up to 30 minutes is a big marketing chip. Indeed, one of the most common complaints on these fora is the fact the live buffer is only 30 minutes.



Videodrome said:


> or no one is watching.


How is it supposed to know?



Videodrome said:


> It almost no hassle to hit the tivo button to wake it up.


Quite to the contrary, I would be most annoyed if at least one during every movie I was interupted by such a dreadful "feature". The TiVo's power consumption is rather small, in any case. Turning off your TV and all your lights will save much more energy than the TiVo.


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## djwilso (Dec 23, 2006)

lrhorer said:


> How is it supposed to know?


It seems fairly logical to assume that if the TiVo is in Standby mode, no one is watching it because during that time, the video outputs are all disabled.

Further, it seems logical that during Standby mode, the TiVo should not be required to act in the instance of EAS alerts.

I think that it makes sense that the hard drive could spin down while in Standby mode and not spin back up again until the unit was brought out of Standby or a scheduled recording was about to start.

And, once the recording(s) are completed, the drive would spin back down again if the unit remained in Standby mode.

And, if the customer wished to have the drive powered on continuously, simply do not place the TiVo into the Standby mode.

- Dennis


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## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

djwilso said:


> It seems fairly logical to assume that if the TiVo is in Standby mode, no one is watching it because during that time, the video outputs are all disabled.


Yes, but that wasn't the OP's suggestion. He's suggesting an automated power saving mode when no one has been watching for an hour.



djwilso said:


> Further, it seems logical that during Standby mode, the TiVo should not be required to act in the instance of EAS alerts.


I disagree. The only real reason for standby mode is to allow the TiVo to work well with automated video switching systems which choose the line with live signal as the active input. In the best scenario the EAS broadcast should 
be able to take over.


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## Videodrome (Jun 20, 2008)

lrhorer said:


> Yes, but that wasn't the OP's suggestion. He's suggesting an automated power saving mode when no one has been watching for an hour.
> 
> I disagree. The only real reason for standby mode is to allow the TiVo to work well with automated video switching systems which choose the line with live signal as the active input. In the best scenario the EAS broadcast should
> be able to take over.


If an EAS broadcast occurs, the unit could switch to that channel. It doesnt need to buffer or record it. Besides, if the tv is off already, how will the user see it. Plus the user could set the sleep time say, 60-unlimited minutes without a key press. I just see the idle buffer as a big waste, i get 200 channels, what are the chances that it would be on the channel i want to rewind to. I would want the unit to wake for an EAS broadcast anyway, does the unit say "EAS " like the cable boxes do ? Cable boxes have this same problem if the tv is off, no one is going to see it.


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