[mythtv-users] Harmony 700?

[Brian Wood]

On Sunday, October 24, 2010 09:07:08 am Christian Szpilfogel wrote:

> 
> The only things that draws significant power are the Cisco/SA set top
> boxes which draw a shocking 25W just for the basic set top box and 35W
> for the PVR. Turning the power button off on those seems to be a placebo
> as well as it doesn't change the power draw. They take about 5-10minutes
> to boot and sync so you pretty much have to leave them on. I have 4 of
> these beasts.

"Placebo", that's the best description of the "off" state of those thing I've yet heard.

The cable companies want them on all the time, so they can push lineup changes, or download information about PPV or OD 
stuff you may have purchased, when it's convenient for them.

They certainly don't care about using *your* power, there was even a proposal years ago to send power from STBs back to 
the CATV system, essentially running their systems from customer-provided (and paid for) power. I don't recall ever 
hearing of that idea being implemented, though it might also cut down on unauthorized tampering with drops :-)

Evan a watt or two for each cable customer would add up to a lot of energy, but until there is some incentive to eliminate 
this needless waste it won't happen.

The only way to be sire something is really "off" is to remove its power source, but that can lead to long bootup waits and 
other problems (like missing channel lineup changes or being unable to purchase PPV or OD programming (not a great loss).