New V+ box - disk spinning constantly!

[HDFootyMan]

Looks like the Government need to build a few more power stations, with all these V+ boxes which aren't powering down (mine included - it 'rests' now and then, but its never powered down).

[Blonkster]

Hi All,

I have reset my box a number of times and pressed standby - the disk never shuts down.

I left it on overnight and in the mornign there wasa 'resting' message - but the disk was still spinning, so what was resting ? It had buffered abotu 80mins of programme.

So, if the disk never stop in standby then I think it must be broken, at the firmware level, and should be fixed.

It may only be using a few Watts of power to spin the disk, but when multiplied by ten of thousands it adds up.

My main complaint is the noise of the disk. If it shortens its life then NTL will replace it for free - but it is just WRONG, and nobody at NTL can give me a straight answer why it deos it and if they intend to fix the problem.

Does anybody know who I can contact to escalate this and save our planet ;-)

Blonkster

[Jonessie]

Originally Posted by JG3870

The box is designed to be left switched on and the hard disk should power down overnight

The halo lightning up the whole room in standby can be a pain if its in a bedroom but if you put blu-tack over the halo to cover the bright light that's one way of solving it.

I agree it should shutdown overnight, although sometimes the HDD will wine a little at night, if this is the case then just leave the V+ box tuned on completely instead of standby, it does not make much of a difference apart from the power consumption. With regards to the LED over the buttons when in standby, if you have a 100gm paper for your printer just cut some paoper enough to cover the LED and fold it in two and it blocks out the glare from the glow completely. Rather handy if your V+ is in your bedroom like mine, it lights up the room completely...?

[windy]

Its light blackpool illuminations...and yes my disc is constantly spinning 24/7..

[Strangerstill]

Anyone who wants to save power can just switch the box off at the mains- unless you have overnight recordings planned. It's designed to be left on but it doesn't have to be.

[number.cruncher]

Originally Posted by Strangerstill

Anyone who wants to save power can just switch the box off at the mains- unless you have overnight recordings planned. It's designed to be left on but it doesn't have to be.

The whole point of a PVR is not having to remember what you've set to be recorded and when. And turning it off means waiting several minutes for the thing to boot up and load the EPG.

There's simply no need to keep the hard drive spinning 24/7/365. That would be like leaving your car engine on all the time in case you need to pop out for an hour or two a day.

According to the plausible figures in this thread, the V+ will burn about 0.035*24*365 = 307kWh per year. This is more than most family fridge-freezers!.

I, for one, don't feel comfortable that something the size of the V+ is consuming more electricity than my largest electrical appliance.

[JG3870]

Originally Posted by number.cruncher

The whole point of a PVR is not having to remember what you've set to be recorded and when. And turning it off means waiting several minutes for the thing to boot up and load the EPG.

There's simply no need to keep the hard drive spinning 24/7/365. That would be like leaving your car engine on all the time in case you need to pop out for an hour or two a day.

According to the plausible figures in this thread, the V+ will burn about 0.035*24*365 = 307kWh per year. This is more than most family fridge-freezers!.

I, for one, don't feel comfortable that something the size of the V+ is consuming more electricity than my largest electrical appliance.

That's a bit of an eye opener glad i don't have a family fridge-freezer but VM in there wisdom released the new software code drop yesterday and have decided to remove the overnight "Resting" mode where the hard disk would spindown but now you have to put it into blackpool illuminations mode (Standby) to get the hard disk to spindown and save a little bit of energy.
Brightly lit LEDS in standby mode don't exactly save energy do they?

[Blonkster]

Interesting. Can you tell me what version the new firmware is and if your disk does actually spin down in standby -and if so, how long it takes ?

Thanks

Blonkster

[JG3870]

I'm not at home at the moment Blonkster so I can't tell you what I have but its the latest firmware for ex-Telewest areas which is slightly different to ex-NTL areas, I have one of the silver TV Drive boxes and when i put it into standby it takes about 2 minutes for the hard disk to spindown.

[Strangerstill]

Originally Posted by number.cruncher

The whole point of a PVR is not having to remember what you've set to be recorded and when. And turning it off means waiting several minutes for the thing to boot up and load the EPG.

There's simply no need to keep the hard drive spinning 24/7/365. That would be like leaving your car engine on all the time in case you need to pop out for an hour or two a day.

According to the plausible figures in this thread, the V+ will burn about 0.035*24*365 = 307kWh per year. This is more than most family fridge-freezers!.

I, for one, don't feel comfortable that something the size of the V+ is consuming more electricity than my largest electrical appliance.

I agree, I was just suggesting a temporary solution for power and noise.

[hansi]

I can hear my disk spinning too whether it's on or on standby, so I think I'll turn it off at night. Don't record anything at that time anyway. I also turned it off for two weeks when I was away recently and and when I plugged it back in, al the channels were there, so I'll do that in future too.

[number.cruncher]

Originally Posted by Strangerstill

I agree, I was just suggesting a temporary solution for power and noise.

No offence meant. Turning unneeded stuff off is always a smart move.

My gripe is that although I think it needs to be "powered" at all times (like an alarm clock or fridge), it certainly doesn't need to be decoding 10 millions bits of data and spinning a chunk of metal 100 times for each and every of the 32 million seconds in a year!

If my humble DVD player can get by on less than 1W in standby, why must the V+ use 3500% more power?

Originally Posted by JG3870

Brightly lit LEDS in standby mode don't exactly save energy do they?

L.E.D.s use negligible amount of power (a fraction of a watt)

it's the other 20+ watts you need to worry about

[Strangerstill]

Been switching off at night for a while now, does this mean I could miss a code drop or will it pick up new info automatically?

[spiderplant]

It won't miss a code drop, but you could find that series recordings get missed. Leave it on at least one night a week.