[mcf57]

I have a roamio with an xfinity cable card. I get their lowest basic cable package and all works great. I use to use it more frequently, but I now rarely use it. Instead I use my nvidia shield, amazon fire tv and directv satellite tv ($10/month employee discount) for regular tv viewing, streaming and/or recording.

the only reason for keeping xfinity tv is I need to record local cable access channels for a certain project (long story). This only happens about 2-3 times per month.

I was putting the DVR in standby. However, lately I am totally shutting it down as sometimes it can be 3-4 weeks between recordings. I then plug it in about 1-2 days before a recording. Then after a recording is done, I transfer the show to a networked PC via pyTivo & shut it down again. I figured the hard drive is not spinning at all when shut down and therefore last longer.

which would better in this situation; standby or unplugging? (survey above)

 

[ThAbtO]

The powering up and down is wearing the drive more and more, than just leaving it on.

 

[TishTash]

which would better in this situation; standby or unplugging?

I was under the impression that standby shut down hard drive activity unless there was a recording taking place. (I certainly hear no hard disk activity when I put a TiVo into standby.)

 

[ThAbtO]

In standby, only the video output is shut off. The max power save mode will turn off everything and will not even turn on by itself for recordings.

 

[TishTash]

In standby, only the video output is shut off. The max power save mode will turn off everything and will not even turn on by itself for recordings.

Well, it may not "turn on" but the recordings proceed nonetheless.

 

[morac]

In standby, only the video output is shut off. The max power save mode will turn off everything and will not even turn on by itself for recordings.

It won't record suggestions, but it will record scheduled recordings. And it's not technically off as the box is still running.

 

[JoeKustra]

which would better in this situation; standby or unplugging? (survey above)

For your use, I would power off. I have a Premiere that I use for storage. It gets power about twice a month for a few days.