Potential Sky standby cloud on horizon

[daveh]

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a44105/sky-helps-reduce-energy-with-automatic-standby.html

"Sky says it is to help customers reduce their household energy bills with the introduction of a new feature that will automatically switch inactive Sky HD and Sky+ boxes into standby mode overnight.

The ‘Auto Standby’ feature will be introduced to more than two million customers’ boxes in phases over the next few months.

It will be 'sent' automatically to all Sky HD boxes from tomorrow. Sky+ boxes manufactured after August 2005 will receive the update between 18 and 24 April 2007. All other Sky+ boxes will receive Auto Standby later this summer. Sky is also exploring the potential to deliver Auto Standby to standard Sky boxes."

Does this mean the sky digibox will require manual intervention before TIVO can request recordings again?

[blindlemon]

TiVos using the right IR codes should pull the boxes out of standby to start a recording, but the fact that they will go into standby after only 2 hours of 'inactivity' is cause for concern.

What if your TiVo is recording a 3 hour film?

Time to get kitted out with a sky-eye I reckon...;)

[TCM2007]

I'm assured the new setting can be turned off.

[blindlemon]

What, like the PIN request on movies?

Somehow I'm not over confident about that... ;)

[aerialplug]

I wonder how practical this is? IIRC, the current drain on a Sky box in standby is hardly different to one that's showing a picture as the processor still needs to be up and running to handle EPG changes and other data that comes in on the transport stream, not to mention the detection of the standby button. They may save a little by shutting down the MPEG decoder, but I don't think a whole lot would be saved somehow.

And auto standby on a Sky+ would be about as practical as a standby mode on a TiVo ;)

[iankb]

... auto standby on a Sky+ would be about as practical as a standby mode on a TiVoNot if that disabled the buffering of the live channel. The drive could spin down.

[ozsat]

But not if it is then saving the new Anytime material overnight

[blindlemon]

Maybe Rupert Murdoch is considering running for Prime Minister...? Gotta have green credentials these days :p:D:D

[ozsat]

The reports say that auto-standby only works between 11pm and 4am

[blindlemon]

Yes, but the 'green' PR will run 24x7....

[Automan]

The auto standby is only for hard drive models e.g. sky+ and Sky HD

with the "instant rewind" feature active the hard drive is always on.

This will power it down making the product "green" :)

It will also help offset the millions of AA batteries being drained entering pin codes to view programs despite Sky's lies that pin protection does not cost a penny.

Automan.

[Automan]

Under SKY+ Setup I now have the option

"Auto Standby" ON/OFF (Default On)

Under Parental Control / Other Restrictions "PIN on Pre-Watershed Playback" ON/OFF (Default On) exists

If this will stop the problem with live pre-watershed items I am yet to discover...

Automan.

[BrianHughes]

My standard Sky box saves 1 watt on standby - whoopydoop!!! That'll save the polar bears then. :o

[Automan]

Over the UK that could add up to 6 MegaWatts and a lot more for the Sky boxes with hard drives in them.

Automan.
My standard Sky box saves 1 watt on standby - whoopydoop!!! That'll save the polar bears then. :o

[ozsat]

But that is all dependent on the boxes not being used overnight - and also the box not downloading any 'Anytime' overnight as well!

[Automan]

The 1 watt saving is with a standard sky box which of course can't cope with anytime.

Still millions of folks in the UK with these so some savings to be made.

Re pin protection it looks to me if sky have still made a mess with this with it still asking for a pin to view a program in realtime.

You can now however playback such a program recorded by sky+ or sky hd products pre watershed without a pin.

Does not make any sense to me...

Automan.
But that is all dependent on the boxes not being used overnight - and also the box not downloading any 'Anytime' overnight as well!

[Tony Hoyle]

You can now however playback such a program recorded by sky+ or sky hd products pre watershed without a pin.


So if you get a pin.. hit record, go to the recorded programs list and play it back.

Someone at sky probably thinks this makes perfect sense. :rolleyes:

[ozsat]

The 1 watt saving is with a standard sky box which of course can't cope with anytime.

Still millions of folks in the UK with these so some savings to be made.

Re pin protection it looks to me if sky have still made a mess with this with it still asking for a pin to view a program in realtime.

You can now however playback such a program recorded by sky+ or sky hd products pre watershed without a pin.

Does not make any sense to me...

Automan.The 'auto-standby' is only for disc based Sky boxes.

There have not yet decided whether to do regular boxes.

[Automan]

It won't let you watch the recording without a pin till its stopped recording.

Will do some more checks with this pre-watershed this Wednesday.

Automan.
So if you get a pin.. hit record, go to the recorded programs list and play it back.

Someone at sky probably thinks this makes perfect sense. :rolleyes:

[Automan]

Confirmed....

Pre Watershed
Start Sky HD recording "Land Of The Dead" Rated 15

If you try and play it back or if you want to watch it in real time a pin is required.

Stop recording and you can then play it back without a pin being required.

Crazy!

Automan.
It won't let you watch the recording without a pin till its stopped recording.

Will do some more checks with this pre-watershed this Wednesday.

Automan.

[iankb]

According to the Sky engineer that I was chatting with last week, the PIN restriction was forced upon them by the Government/Ofcom, when Sky said that they wanted to broadcast adult material during the day. I assume that it would have been against the terms of their broadcasting licence.

To have placed the restriction on watching a recorded programme would have been ridiculous, since any VCR can do that without PIN entry.

Either Sky were unwilling to argue the incongruity of the solution, or they were happy to live with the fact that Sky+ boxes are able to do something that a TiVo or MCE PVR cannot.

[AMc]

Probably just that OFCOM didn't audit the Sky+ implementation, just the regular digibox one. The argument probably goes...if you PIN protect live viewing your kids can't accidentally change channels to something you don't want them to see, they need a PIN and move on to the next cartoon channel.
If they choose it from a now playing list then it's deliberate action liek loading an 18 cert DVD (but surely just as 'child unfriendly' ?!?). As DVDs have ratings but no PIN they could probably argue it's the same.
You could probably make your life more irritating by complaining to OFCOM and having to PIN everything :D

[Pete77]

Either Sky were unwilling to argue the incongruity of the solution, or they were happy to live with the fact that Sky+ boxes are able to do something that a TiVo or MCE PVR cannot.

Would that be rhetorical question by any chance ian? ;) :p