Sky Boxes - do you think that they waste power?

[big-all]

ok my freeveiw box
off 0.5w
on 8w
record/play back 10.5w

 

[ericmark]

I will admit I use an old sky+ box which has a problem with the card reader as a freesat box rather than route out the proper free to air box mainly as I know the numbers I watch. I know 123 = Encore and 110 is Gold both don't work with freesat or free to air boxes. I only have old Sky boxes and free to air boxes I have never tested a freesat. I suppose I should list what they are.

FreetoAir = Satellite receiver normally with a rather limited electronic TV guide often only now and next, but also will often allow the user to set the order of the programs so with mine set BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, ITV, ITV+1, ITV2, ITV2+1 etc.
Freesat = Satellite receiver with fixed program numbers and a 7 day program guide.
Both can have extras like HD and auto switching or rotating of dishes so they can also pick up things like Turkish TV.

The old Sky box has a slightly different numbering system to freesat, and getting extra programs needs you to know the details to manually enter there is not auto scan to find them. You also have to wade through all the programs you can't get.

Freeview is a terrestrial system which has one or two programs not on freetoair due to legal reasons of programs not being available to non UK residents there was at one time a card you could buy from BBC which fits a Freesat receiver to allow you to get these programs not sure if that is still the case? Freeview is also forever swapping frequency so TV's need re-tuning every few weeks. It also does not get as many programs as Freesat or Freetoair with programs like films for men missing and you can only watch BBC and ITV for your area so if you were born in Scotland but live in Wales you can't get Scottish news.

The Sky box also has a problem with local selection being fixed to the Post Code at which the card is sent to. However the others are still there if you want them.

If one compares what once pays direct to Sky to what you pay for the extra power used it is very small in comparison. I missed the slot tonight to plug in the energy meter nights viewing has started but I will try to plug it in when I can.

 

[ericmark]

ok my freeveiw box
off 0.5w
on 8w
record/play back 10.5w

That is rather high for freeview. I will test mine.
Mine flits from 4 to 6 watt on a regular pattern either in stand-by or switched on, no TV or aerial connected so don't know what it is doing. I only use Satellite TV now.

 

[Iggifer]

ok my freeveiw box
off 0.5w
on 8w
record/play back 10.5w

That is rather high for freeview. I will test mine.

That's a freeview box that's spinning up a hard drive. I'd say that's reasonable. It's unlikely to be a WD Green HD.

Just checked, even a WD Green pulls between 3.3 and 4.5W on read/write

 

[big-all]

ok my freeveiw box
off 0.5w
on 8w
record/play back 10.5w

That is rather high for freeview. I will test mine.

i chose that as the newest one its actually 1kb rather than the more usual 320-500mb so that may be a factor
will try the other three lol

 

[ericmark]

Found details on free to air box 0 on stand-by and 7 watt running. So free to air better than freeview.

 

[ericmark]

My freeview box is very old. Now freeview built into TV so boxes not used even if I did watch freeview. But with a hard drive I can see why you have a freeview box it has replaced the old VCR.

 

[big-all]

ok 500mb freeveiw recorder
0.8 off
9.4 on or record or playback
this may off course drop if the hard drive stops but as i never have a recorder on except to watch or record i wouldn't know what that is

dug out an old freeveiw box 5.4w on 1w off

 

[winston1]

there was at one time a card you could buy from BBC which fits a Freesat receiver to allow you to get these programs not sure if that is still the case?

There was never a card to fit a Freesat receiver (the clue is FREEsat) and they don't have card readers anyway. You are thinking of the Solus card the BBC would supply on request to licence holders free of charge to go in sky boxes in the bad old days of BBC encryption on satellite. Sky will still sell you such a card for £25 but it is pretty useless, though sky don't tell you that, as it only opens up a very few channels not worth having and regionalises the box.

 

[kai]

That was an idea which was worth pursuing - issue TV licences on plastic chip cards to fit the box, allowing the owner to watch telley with it.
The Freeview box specifications should have included a card reader, the sort you find in a bank's free card reader used in Online Banking, but built into the box itself.

 

[Iggifer]

That was an idea which was worth pursuing - issue TV licences on plastic chip cards to fit the box, allowing the owner to watch telley with it.
The Freeview box specifications should have included a card reader, the sort you find in a bank's free card reader used in Online Banking, but built into the box itself.

Then you would need numerous cards per household, USB card readers for laptops & TVs and then what about smartphones and tablets? Cards are an outdated technology

 

[diyer56]

If they were to be turned off (and I mean completely turned off) how would they make the scheduled recordings? Is it any different to an old school VCR being left on/standby?

My free to air box can make scheduled recordings and in stand-by my energy meter can't register the power used it is so low.

i agree, the reason I added the '(and I mean completely turned off)' was because other devices with more modest standby requirements can make scheduled recordings because they only rely on a timer - as did the old VCRs.

If think the answer is simple (and I don't mean any disrespect by this comment); if someone objects to the amount of power used by a Sky Box when it is in standby, and doesn't have a requirement for scheduled recording, then why not turn it off?

 

[ericmark]

I have started to measure but think I may have fitted the meter into the wrong item and to unplug now is more than I dare. In the early days of getting an energy meter I went around measuring all sorts of appliances. However it did not really matter what the results were I was forced if I wanted to remain married and have cooked meals to forget the readings and carry on the same as before I knew the results. Lets face it we know something plugged in uses power. Other wise why does it need plugging in.

If by understanding it more we can reduce the power great, but in real terms either you have multi-room so many Sky boxes or you leave the single box run so you can watch it with a RF link and maybe a digieye. Leaving one box running must be cheaper than having many boxes. And I love the series link so it will not get turned off.

What I find interesting is boxes which don't monitor program changers still use so much power. I have been brewing my own beer in a old fridge freezer and to maintain temperature with outside at 4.6°C tonight and inside at 20°C requires around 5W. So in a well insulated house in the Winter 5W here and 5W there is nothing. But in the Summer it can mean the difference between a cool house and a warm house. So yes to know how much items use can mean a cooler house in the Summer, that to me is far more important than the 50p the power costs.

 

[big-all]

yes to me the whole package that matters
if you can save 50p over a year but takes several actions over several weeks or days its not worth the effort
if i can save say £20 running costs at a £100 outlay with no additional effort each day then its worth it even if it only last 2 years as product quality doubles and prices halves every year so some investments will not work out but most will

 

[ericmark]

Well this morning wife was out. So at last got the right plug and measured the sky box. Powered up but nothing switched on, it showed three power settings 11, 13 and 16 watt, but then noted on switching on the TV and Sky box and playing back a program still only showing 16 watt. Switching back to stand-by it seems to stay most of the time at 11 watt flitting to 13 for a few seconds every 1/2 minute or so. So the readings have changed likely because the LNB has changed.

The return to testing has in real terms confirmed one thing for me. Simply not worth putting into stand-by.