Do you leave your E* receivers on ........

[BFG]

I keep my 811 on all the time. It takes so much time to boot (check switch/ downloading info etc.) !

Mine is doing that now, this thing was working perfect, now it's been infected, it must need to go to the doctor...

 

[BOYCOTT26]

I don't have a DVR so I really don't see any point to leaving the reciever
on 7/24.I have left my 811 on for 24 hours before and didn't decrease any
of the problems with it.

 

[Big Bob]

Oh no Not this again

NightRyder

oops, did I step in something old and smelly? sorry.

Really looking for some good, hard advice on this. Have any drive (or chip) manufacturers EVER provided any guidance on this? Or anyone else done any sort of good research into this?

The rate of failure on modern hardware is sooo low now, I really don't know how this could be tested and come up with a valid result. And I doubt that any one person's experience would cover enough units over enough time to have their results be valid.

I have wondered about this for a long time, and never been able to come up with a definitive answer.

 

[GaryPen]

Ya ever notice how a light bulb usually burns out when you first turn it on, not while it is already on? That's because of the initial stress when first powering up, mostly heat-related, I would imagine. I'm not saying that solid state components experience the same heat and stress. But, there is still some stress when current is first applied.

Hard disks are much more active during power-up than when idle, so it makes some sense that a HDD would last longer if left in idle, rather than being powered on and off perhaps a thousand times in less than 3 years. OTOH, if they're still spinning when idle (I do not know), that may cause premature wear. Certainly there is a study somewhere.

 

[ramblinwreck]

I leave my regular receivers on all the time and never have any problems. My 501 is now turned off every evening. For the first year and a half, I left the 501 on 24x7 and then it started acting strange. I would lose the use of the remote control, the system would lock up, etc. Dish told me that the problems were caused by the hard drive getting full and fragmented. They said to turn it off every night so that it could clean up itself.

I don't know if I believe all of this, but I have had zero problems with my 501 since I started doing this last year.

 

[K R Kimmel]

Originally Posted by NightRyder
Oh no Not this again

NightRyder

The endless debate as to weather it is better to shut down a hard drive or to keep it running continues endlessly.

For my computers I am in the leave it running camp.

There is a difference however in the use of hard drives in DVR equipment. In most computer applications the hard drive is idle most of the time. The disks spin but unless the computer is creating or accessing files on the disk the Read/Write heads are not in use and the mechanism that positions them can park. When a DVR is active the hard drive is buffering the program it is currently tuned to and the Read/Write heads are in use 100% of the time. This has the potential to wear out the Read/Write servo much more quickly than in computer use.

Additionally the DVR in my bedroom is much quieter when it is turned "off"

 

[slusig]

You definitely want to turn the DVR off every night. Having the receiver constantly recording will really wear it down over time.

 

[ken]

iceberg, leaving your heat on is kind of like leaving your receiver on. when you have to turn the heat back on it takes more energy to get the house warm again then if you had kept it on.

Ken
Minneapolis

 

[gpflepsen]

Depends on dt and length of time.

 

[GaryPen]

Kent seems to make a lot of sense.

 

[rtt2]

The 301s stay on
The 508 gets shut off

 

[Stargazer]

My 301's are left on, 721 shut off.

 

[Kevinw]

Air conditioning is just that ... conditioning the air. Sometimes it makes it cooler, other times it adds or removes humidity. I'm glad to have air conditioning year round, even if I only get to use the "cool" setting for four or five months a year.

JL

Jeez, remind me next time to put in a smilie...Its a joke 85% percent of the people in the US equate " Air Conditiong" with cooling and " Furnace with heating...
As one who has lived on Lake Superior-with natural "cooling" , I have never needed an air conditioner, a furnace and a wood stove yes
Now that I live in the South, where humidity and a heat tend to be on the high side, I really need air conditioning.

 

[jabels]

I tend to think of the Power On/Off button a Download Off/On button. That is about all it does, isn't it?

Actually, my 522 says that if I don't set a download time, (3 am), then downloads will only happen when the receiver is powered off. So my impression is that downloads happen at 3 am whether or not i turn the receiver on.

As far as I've been able to tell in my limited use, *all* the green and blue lights do are tell you if a signal is being sent to the output (to your TV). Everything, including DVR functions, still work with the green and blue (and orange) lights off.

I have wondered if overuse of the recording is causing clitches in my replay on the 522. I have absolutely no trouble with live tv, but DVR event sometimes drop sound or glitch (especially if recording on the other tuner), and last night it was pretty bad.

 

[AppliedAggression]

can someone measure the difference in power while the unit is off and on, on a dvr receiver?

 

[M Law]

IMO it's Heat, not on/off stress, that is the number one killer of electronics. Heat ages power supplies, circuit boards, traces, connectors, you name it. I say this based on years of work experience in facilities with both always-on equipment and on-demand equipment. The always-on equipment failed at a substantially higher rate, and the failures were generally related to heat.

All my equipment is off when not in use. In the case of DVRs, I keep them as "off" as the equipment will allow without actually disconnecting power.

 

[bcshields]

I'd say it depends on your usage of the DVR.. if it's in the bedroom, shut it off, if it's in the living room, constantly on/off, on/off, leave it on, just make sure you let it notify you of updates.

If it's in a low-usage room, the lack of usage outweighs the consequesnces of powering up.

Ken's heat anology made me think of it. I have rooms I set at 60 for the winter, cause they are low usage rooms, where as the bedroom and living room, and kitchen are heated all winter, fluctuating temperature for time of use.

And no matter how hot the bathroom is, the toilet's always cold.

 

[GaryPen]

And no matter how hot the bathroom is, the toilet's always cold.

It sounds like you need one of these:
http://www.washlet.com/default.asp

The Japanese don't just make the best electronics. They are the leader in toilet-seat technology. Trust me. Once you use one, you'll wonder how you ever got along without one! (Like a PVR)

 

[James Long]

Jeez, remind me next time to put in a smilie...Its a joke 85% percent of the people in the US equate " Air Conditiong" with cooling and " Furnace with heating...

That reminds me of Family Feud ... 100 people surveyed, top five answers are on the board ... the #1 answer is the most popular answer (from that 100). NOT always, or even often, the right answer. But nevertheless ...

As one who has lived on Lake Superior-with natural "cooling" , I have never needed an air conditioner, a furnace and a wood stove yes

A furnace and a wood stove sounds like a perfect reason for air conditioning. Hopefully you had a good filter on the circulation. Humidity control is pretty good too. Mine is built on the furnace.

I've lived near Gwinn in the distant past. Too long ago to remember how the house air was adjusted for comfort.

JL

 

[James Long]

The Japanese don't just make the best electronics. They are the leader in toilet-seat technology. Trust me. Once you use one, you'll wonder how you ever got along without one! (Like a PVR)

Ever hear of a Bidet? You can see one in the first Crocodile Dundee movie.
It is a French invention from 1710, more info here.

JL