[Barnstormer]

My Tivo Roamio OTA is not buffering the channels last watched on the tuner when it is in Standby mode. Or so it seems to me. I have my Tivo set to the least restrictive Standby mode. My understanding is - or was - that even in Standby mode it is buffering the last channel viewed. However, it does not seem to be working that way.

I like to watch the morning news on Channel 7.1. So the last thing I do before I go to bed is bring up the Guide, choose 7.1 and watch a few seconds of whatever is on at the moment. I turn off the TV and retire for the night. In the morning, I turn on the TV and and there is no buffer. If I start the news 10 minutes late, too bad. No rewinding back to the start.

Is there a setting I need to modify to make sure the buffer is working properly? Or could it be that I am pressing a button that wipes the buffer?

Note: Yes, I realize that I could just set it to record the show every morning, but I still want to understand how the buffer works.

 

[krkaufman]

My Tivo Roamio OTA is not buffering the channels last watched on the tuner when it is in Standby mode. Or so it seems to me. I have my Tivo set to the least restrictive Standby mode. My understanding is - or was - that even in Standby mode it is buffering the last channel viewed. However, it does not seem to be working that way.

There is no buffering when in Standby mode -- aside from the buffer associated with a given Mini's Live TV viewing (and ignoring recordings). You may be confusing buffering behavior with recording of TiVo Suggestions.

More on Power Saving Settings, >here<.

 

[lew]

.You're missing the purpose of standby use less electricity by powering down the drives when not actively needed. You want the buffer, Don't use standby.

 

[jlb]

If you want to watch the news when you wakeup, just set a recording for it. And, heck, set it as Keep At Most 1 and then you don't have to worry about it taking up tons of space over time

 

[Barnstormer]

Thanks for the comments. Yes, I certainly misunderstood Standby. :-(

However, after staying up a bit late last night and reading through this site, I now understand how to use the four tuners on my Roamia OTA a lot better than I did before. That alone was worth the time and effort.

Thanks again for your responses. The Roamio makes OTA television so much better.

 

[krkaufman]

Good to hear.

See also: Start Here and Viewer's Guide

 

[Bigg]

You can set a recording, or just don't use Standby mode. Not sure why you'd use it in the first place, as it doesn't really save any significant amount of power. My two TiVos buffer 24/7/365 like most do.

 

[mattack]

I think for his use, not powering down would be an option.. I don't see why he's entering stand by in the first place, unless it's the automatic power saving options.. However, there ARE useful reasons to enter standby.. (and even though I essentially buffer CNN through the night, it does eventually power down..)

Useful reasons to enter standby:
1) uses less power. Even if you think it's not significant, it is still saving power, which is a good thing.
2) turns off the video outputs. This can potentially be useful in some video switching situations (somewhat less useful nowadays with HDMI I guess).
3) in standby, your recordings are NOT ruined by EAS alerts. If you're not in standby, they are. I have a weekly EAS at Friday or Saturday morning at 1AM (I do think it changes which day, sometimes)...

 

[krkaufman]

3) in standby, your recordings are NOT ruined by EAS alerts.

Thanks for this reminder!

 

[tenthplanet]

And of course use of standby will shorten the life on your hard drive, since you will be cycling it on and off.

 

[aaronwt]

And of course use of standby will shorten the life on your hard drive, since you will be cycling it on and off.

That is most certainly up for debate. It's a crap shoot either way.

 

[phox_mulder]

And of course use of standby will shorten the life on your hard drive, since you will be cycling it on and off.

I've put my TiVo's into Standby when I'm done watching since day one, and I've never had a hard drive failure.

S2, S3, and now my stable of Roamio's.

phox

 

[Mikeguy]

I've put my TiVo's into Standby when I'm done watching since day one . . . .

Might I ask, why? I had looked into the energy-savings aspect of it a few times, and it seems so (disappointingly) low.

 

[mattack]

See my answer above. Energy savings are not the only reason.. and some of us care about SOME energy savings even if it is small..

 

[Mikeguy]

See my answer above. Energy savings are not the only reason.. and some of us care about SOME energy savings even if it is small..

I care about energy conservation as well, thanks--a reason why my house thermostat is set to 63° right now and there is only a single light on in the house--but use and best functioning comes into play as well.

 

[lpwcomp]

I've put my TiVo's into Standby when I'm done watching since day one, and I've never had a hard drive failure.

S2, S3, and now my stable of Roamio's.

phox

Standby didn't spin down the drives on non-DirecTV TiVos until fairly recently and still doesn't on S2s or S3s.

I used to put my TiVos in standby to avoid recording the EAS messages. No longer do so as I like the live buffers. Plus on at least one occasion my Pro failed to exit standby and I missed some recordings.

 

[krkaufman]

... but use and best functioning comes into play as well.

mattack's post covers that, as well, especially bullet #3 (imo)...

Useful reasons to enter standby:
1) uses less power. Even if you think it's not significant, it is still saving power, which is a good thing.
2) turns off the video outputs. This can potentially be useful in some video switching situations (somewhat less useful nowadays with HDMI I guess).
3) in standby, your recordings are NOT ruined by EAS alerts. If you're not in standby, they are. I have a weekly EAS at Friday or Saturday morning at 1AM (I do think it changes which day, sometimes)...

 

[atmuscarella]

I care about energy conservation as well, thanks--a reason why my house thermostat is set to 63° right now and there is only a single light on in the house--but use and best functioning comes into play as well.

Saving energy is great, but producing your own is even better . I have a 100% electric home that is now powered by a 14KW Solar system. On an annual bases it provides 100% of my power plus some extra I sell back to my utility. I might need to add a few more KW when I switch to an electric car (just can't seem to ware out my 10+ year old Ford fusion ).

 

[JoeKustra]

I don't own my house, so I did the next best thing. All LED bulbs and stock in my electric company.

 

[Mikeguy]

mattack's post covers that, as well, especially bullet #3 (imo)...

Yep. I actually had posted my inquiry to a separate poster, looking for his own reasoning.

There are other angles as well--it all depends on one's needs and preferences, and trade-offs, of course. For me, I don't have an issue with emergency testing alerts (an interesting angle, though), and I like having buffered channels--a nice back-up--as well as suggestions recorded when I'm not around/overnight (vis-à-vis the box's energy-savings settings)--find some nice stuff that way. I like the concept of the potential energy savings, but for me, I calculated it as so small (disappointingly), I've been accepting the trade-off, especially further factoring in the possible extra wear-and-tear on the hard drive, a big factor for me as well and perhaps the tipping point. But something I'm always considering, especially now having more than 1 TiVo.