Power usage of DTiVo - part deux
Steve Lionel
on my server.)
Using a "WattsUp" power usage meter, I measured the power usage of my
Philips DSR6000 (dual satellite, factory 40GB Quantum A disk, 120GB Maxtor
D540X B disk) in various modes:
"Powering up" - 32W
"Almost there..." - 43W
"Acquiring satellite information" - 44W
Live TV - 47W
Standby - 45W
(The actual reading fluctuated up and down a watt, the figures I give above
were the most frequent reading.)
I checked the usage on Standby both immediately and after an hour or two -
no difference. I could hear that the disk was no longer seeking, as the live
buffer was not being recorded. (There seems to be a difference of opinion as
to whether or not the buffer is recorded in standby - my experiments seem to
strongly suggest that it is not.)
A couple of interesting points.. This is the second set of such measurements
I made - the first, on a different (but identically configured) box had the
power usage maxing out at 37W. I'm guessing that the difference was that I
didn't have that box connected to the satellite dish (and measured usage
while playing a program from Now Showing.) It would appear that 10W or so is
sent to power the LNBs (and multiswitch in my case - it may be that without
a multiswitch, the usage would be lower.)
Another interesting point is that the labelled power consumption is 40W. I
suppose it might be closer to that with only the factory disk and no
multiswitch, since the second disk does draw about 3-5W, according to
Maxtor's specs.
Lastly, the 2W difference in Standby can be entirely attributed to the lack
of head seeks on the disks, again from Maxtor's specs. Nothing else "shuts
down" in standby, and there is no difference in system temperature over time
by leaving the unit in standby. (The temperature levelled off at 48C, which
is typical for my environment.)
Since the live buffer doesn't particularly interest me when I'm not
watching, I have added commands to my Pronto macros to put the TiVo into
standby when I do an "All Off" and bring it to Live TV when selecting to
view the TiVo. This will, if nothing else, make the unit a bit quieter when
not in use (or recording).
I had intended to do similar measurements on the SVR-2000 which I replaced
with the DSR6000s, but because I had already done a "Clear Everything" in
preparation for selling it, all I could get was the initial usage which was
about 32W. That SVR-2000 is now with its happy new owner, courtesy of Ebay.
Steve
Steve Lionel
Indeed it is recorded - the reduction in disk noise is undoubtedly due to
the buffer not being simultaneously played back, resulting in fewer head
seeks. It's been suggested to me that part of the power reduction in
standby is that the RF modulator is turned off.
Steve
Jack Ak
The buffer isn't dumped in Standby either, so I can watch the last
30 minutes of whatever was on before Standby is entered. If a scheduled
recording is done in Standby the buffer on the used tuner is dumped.
Are you sure the buffer content is not that which was there before
going to Standby? Change channels on each tuner before going to
Standby for 30 minutes and see if the buffer is recorded.
The MPEG decoder is not needed in Standby mode and should result
in some reduction in power consumption if it is shut down.
"Steve Lionel" <st...@NOsteveSPAMlionel.com> wrote in message news:5%RO8.205756$352.13185@sccrnsc02...
Kevin Driscoll
live buffer recorded exactly the same way whether on standby or not.
Remember, if the TiVo is recording a show on the To Do list, it will not
resume live buffer recording until it has finished.
Kevin
Jack Ak <ak2...@excite.com> wrote in message
news:uVSO8.467$N72.10...@newssvr13.news.prodigy.com...
Scott Seligman
Why do you say that the buffer is being recorded?
I can beleave that the one or both of the tuners are still active as
the TiVo maintains the APG guide data (though, I'm not 100% sure it
does this in standby), but whenever I come out of standby part of
live-tv is missing. It's easiest to see this when you're watching a
channel like CNN that has a clock on screen. Turn off the unit for
more than a minute, and you'll see the clock jump for a minute when
you try to watch the portion that should have been recorded.
--
Scott Seligman
Neil Bradley
> (This is a follow-up to a posting I made a few weeks ago which is no
longer
> on my server.)
> Using a "WattsUp" power usage meter, I measured the power usage of my
> Philips DSR6000 (dual satellite, factory 40GB Quantum A disk, 120GB Maxtor
> D540X B disk) in various modes:
While this is interesting information, what use is it? If one pays an
average of $0.08 per kilowatt hour and the TiVo uses that every 21.27 hours,
that winds up being about 9 cents a day, or roughly $32 of electricity per
year - hardly a scraping at all considering the average electricity bill is
around $80/mo (or $960/year).
One would be better off replacing often used incandescent lights with
fluorescents if you really want to make a dent.
-->Neil
MAG
nb_del...@synthcom.com says...
In my opinion, adding 3% to the yearly energy total is significant,
given that it is just for a "vcr replacement" device.
On the other hand, I've got a fish tank with lights on for about 12
hours / day drawing 570 Watts so my TiVo is very much a drop in the
bucket by comparison :-)
Marc
Steve Lionel
news:ugqc1bn...@corp.supernews.com...
> "Steve Lionel" <st...@NOsteveSPAMlionel.com> wrote in message
> news:kfRO8.88789$pw3.4034@sccrnsc03...
> > (This is a follow-up to a posting I made a few weeks ago which is no
> longer
> > on my server.)
> > Using a "WattsUp" power usage meter, I measured the power usage of my
> > Philips DSR6000 (dual satellite, factory 40GB Quantum A disk, 120GB
Maxtor
> > D540X B disk) in various modes:
>
> While this is interesting information, what use is it? If one pays an
> average of $0.08 per kilowatt hour and the TiVo uses that every 21.27
hours,
> that winds up being about 9 cents a day, or roughly $32 of electricity per
> year - hardly a scraping at all considering the average electricity bill
is
> around $80/mo (or $960/year).
I started this because someone posted in this group, a while back, a message
suggesting that a TiVo drew closer to 200W. I knew that wasn't true, but I
wasn't sure just what it did draw. There was also a raging debate as to
whether or not standby mode draws significantly less power. I figured some
hard data would be useful.
For myself, I don't begrudge the power cost of running a TiVo, though I wish
it were less (for environmental reasons). Perhaps the Series 2 boxes are a
lower-power design.
Regarding the "does it or doesn't it" issue of buffering on standby, I did
another test. I left the TiVo on standby with suggestions off and nothing
scheduled to record. I came back several hours later and looked at the
buffer. Either I would expect to see a half hour buffer or maybe less than a
minute. What I saw instead was about 10 minutes of buffer, with the first 9
minutes being what was in the buffer before I put the recorder into standby.
So what this tells me is that the buffer is NOT recorded during standby, but
not all of it is kept either. It is somewhat puzzling.
Steve