Guys, it's a simple question.

Do you turn your STB "on" all the time? Or do you turn it off and make it on standby mode everytime you turn off the TV?

Thanks for the reply in advance,

STB is in standby mode when tv is off.

Leave mine on all the time. Units transformer has power going through it regardless!
Why bother going to standby?

I have a Teac 800 and I use a universal remote to control everything. My System Off macro turns off everything including the STB. The STB does a reboot each time it is turned on from standby, which is probably a good thing. Leaving it on all the time might have problems with memory leaks or buffer overruns. It is like your computer - when it starts getting sluggish, reboot it.

off to standby each time

Where do I start...

to save power

to give it an oppurtunity to cool down, as most STB's run warm/hot and this can eventually affect the components in the box...

as Peter said, to give it a chagne to re-boot.

to ensure the power supply lasts as long as possible.

Why would you need it on when you aren't using it?

JSmith :ph34r:

Yes, I also turn it off everytime I turn off TV. But when I turn it back on, sometimes the STB lose signal on one channel, mostly channel 7.

Does anyone have similar problems?

\

Never turn mine off.

An electrical device which is 'off' (off at its power switch that is) poses little danger in terms of electrical fault/going up in flames.
Something which is left on 'standby' still has circuitry powered up, and so can pose a potential danger.

When leaving a house unattended it is generally recommended to turn off devices at the wall socket for this reason. There are more than a few stories of televisions left on standby that have gone up in flames after an internal fault.
Most devices nowadays reach stable operating temperature pretty quickly, so the old point of keeping it 'on' so it is ready to go no longer really applies.

I usually turn mine off.

Exactly mate...

JSmith :ph34r:

As I said "Standby" means nothing as far as power etc. At least this thread might educate others!

If some of you good people want to break your back each time you stop wayching the STB by turning off a power point good on you.

PS: I agree that appliances not in use for extended periods (Vacation labotomy etc) should not only be turned off at the wall but also unplugged.

PSS: If your STB is overheating return it to the supplier as not fit for purpose.

PSSS: I have a PC on UPS connected to the internet that has not been rebooted in 3 years.

That is not necessarily true.

eg, long winded example: We were moving offices one time many years ago. We powered down the DEC 750 and the image processing system. Turned off all the switches at the wall, but did not unplug anything. Well an electrician working in the building caused an arc with a screw driver in the main power box and the surge took out 45 ICs on the image processsing system. I had to get new boards from the USA and the downtime was 6 weeks. I don't know if even a surge protector would have saved us. Technology has moved on from then but my point is still made I think.

In the house I have a power board before the HT equipment and the whole house is on a clipsal system. Does that protect me? I'm not sure.

What operating system are you running. Can't be Microsoft! I have to reboot my PC regularly just to clear the buffers or it will eventuall hang.

How strange, my Topfield consumes 8W on standby and 22W when "on". How is leaving it on "nothing"? It's using almost three times as much energy!

Yes, it is well documented that if you turn off all your equipment and do not leave it on standby you can save big money on power consumption over a year. Whom of us does that tho?

Agreed that it might save a bit of power on some STB's but nothing else.

It will be interesting to see in 3 - 5 years time, when the people who switch their boxes off still have a working STB, and the others don't... whatever floats your boat. The excess power usage, possible waring of the power supply, and possible fire issues will continue to make me switch mine off. I only put it in stadby so I only need to press one button from the loung to save 2/3 of the power consumption while I sleep and do not use it... I would only switch it off at the wall when away for more than a few days, also removing the aerial in case of electrical storm.

JSmith :ph34r:

Hi Regis169,

I am surprised no-one made a comment about the most reported causes of PSU (power supply) failures. No.1 likely cause is On-Off switching. This is due to several factors but to keep a long story short, most 'conventional' PSUs make use of large Electrolytic capacitors (to filter-out the 50Hz AC component to produce a DC level) and these are notoriously sensitive to operating duty cycles and to changes in ambient temperature (and the PSU is usually the highest heat producing component - that said, Switch-mode PSUs are an improvement as they generally do not require such large Electrolytics and run cooler but on the other hand, due to their increased complexity, there are more chances for other things to go wrong!).

To illustrate, I will take the humble light bulb as an example (my favourite!). 95% of light bulbs fail not because the filament has burnt-out (as most people think and a logical assumption considering that most of the energy dissipated is heat and not visible light output) but because of mechanical strain on the filament due to the On-Off temperature differential (what rubbish! I hear you say). Simply explained, when the light bulb is turned-on from cold, a large amount of heat is generated that expands the filament - when it is turned-off again, the filament cools down and contracts. It is the mechanical effects of the filament contracting and expanding that eventually breaks the filament. This also explains why some light bulbs have lasted for 30-40 years (due to low on-off switching cycles) and it also explains why most light bulbs will fail when switched ON (the mechanical expanssion and amount of heat generated contribute to its failure).

That said, and for the reasons posted by others on this thread, I would still set the STB in stand-by mode when the TV is off and switch the STB (and other devices) off (and unplug) if it is not going to be used for a long period of time (eg. when going on vacation). In properly designed devices, stand-by mode will only result in just a few Watts of dissipation and the PSU will still be active but at a reduced level of heat dissipation - this is a good compromise.

InTune

Agreed. Also I don't think anyone has mentioned loss of memory functions programmed in. If I switch mine off I loose my program favourites for instance.

By the way, there is not much of a link between PSUs and my light bulb story, but there have been many stories said about light bulbs and I just wanted to contribute with one of my own ... we all have our weaknesses!

I'm glad someone else noticed that ...


Although, wait on, I can see a faint glow coming from inside my STB...