[mythtv-users] Wrote Script to Power on Cable Box

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Mon, Jun 25, 2012 at 2:40 PM, jr <jraymyth at gmail.com> wrote:
> I have been having trouble with my Cable Box shutting off on a weekly
> basis.

It is my understanding that some cable boxes will turn themselves
off after some period of "idle" (determined by lack of button pushes).

In some cases, some cable boxes can be configured to disable
"sleep" mode (also called Auto Power Down mode).  From what
I recall, that usually means you have to go into settings menu
of the cable box (not the cable company's menu), and requires
various incantations (power off/menu, or equivalent) that are totally
STB dependent.  You might want to see if your STB has been
references in some posting on the various STB forums.  I would
search for combinations of your STB model and idle or standby
to see if you can get any hints.  Sometimes you can even contact
the cable company and get assistance (either via a phone call, or
their online forums).  Here are a couple of example posts by
people with similar issues:
  http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=125410&page=14
  http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=382333

The other approach may be to send "empty" commands to the
STB on some (irregular) schedule to keep the box thinking
that it has someone watching it.  Often there is a command
that has (essentially) few side effects that you can consider
(sometimes you can use the "exit" key; you might have to
experiment a bit with your STB).  My recollection is that using the
MythTV bindings you can determine whether a particular tuner is in
use, and if it is not, you could send an "empty" command to the STB
every (few) hours or so keeping it from going into idle/standby.

Gary