[mythtv-users] Harmony 700?

[Greg Oliver]

On Sun, Oct 24, 2010 at 10:17 AM, Brian Wood <beww at beww.org> wrote:
> 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).

Yeah -- OT, but it's funny how my parents relate power state on their
DirectTV DVRs with the lights on the front.  I finally took over a
clamp meter to prove it to them.  The only power savings was the LEDs
on the front..