Instant TiVo box.Ha ha.

[postman]

When i were a lad,i was born Feb 1950.We had a black and white telly,i am not sure when in the 1050's my mum and dad got a telly,but we had one.So i used to watch the valves warm up through the back of the casing,there was a warm hot smell that came from those valves,it was the same with the Radio.It took ages or it seemed so for the telly to come on.
Well now it is 2014,we have instant coffee,instant gratification,instant 24 hour news.instant reports of all goings on around the world.
Then we have fecking Virgin TiVo box,which when you turn it on,you go and boil an egg for your brekkie or go for a shave or to the toilet.Make some toast a brew,and if you are lucky,it will have stopped saying starting up.Guess what even the instruction book says there could be a 4 or 5 min waiting time,while it warms up.hell in 1950 the valves warmed up faster,lord help me.

 

[simon the viking]

I'm going to let Mrs V read this thread as she loses her temper with our s****y BT Vision box all the time.......... I will admit it is slow but not as slow as your Tivio then....

 

[ColinJ]

Is that from power-on (in which case - that's no surprise - it is effectively a computer booting up)? If it is to bring it out of standby, then that is shocking!

 

[smokeysmoo]

Ours just gets left on standby TBH and it comes on within about 10 seconds I'd say.

 

[postman]

[QUOTE 3067618, member: 45"]You don't switch it of at the wall every night do you?[/QUOTE]


Yes off every night.

 

[morrisman]

http://help.virginmedia.com/system/...&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTY=us&VM_CUSTOMER_TYPE=Cable

 

[ColinJ]

Yes off every night.

Well, there you go ...

I think manufacturers still have some way to go on power-saving in standby, but devices like PVRs are not really designed to be switched on and off all the time. Clearly, you don't do any recordings during the night ... Also - many of these devices receive firmware updates during the night so you could miss out on them if you switch them off.

I leave my broadband router on all the time. I use it any time between 08:00 and 05:00 and it hardly seems worth turning it off for the 3 or 4 hours when it would be unlikely to be used. I use my tablet in bed and the router is downstairs so it would be a right faff having to go down there to turn it on/off every time I started or finished using it.

I accept that apart from my fridge, I am probably using about 40 watts all the time from various devices in standby. That's about a kilowatt-hour every day or about £70 a year. Given that I am actually using the devices a lot of the time, I think that is a small price to pay for the convenience.

Having said that, I do switch my TV, laptop and USB chargers off when I am not using them. They do not need to receive power except when I am actually using them and they are to hand, and do not need to boot up. (I hibernate the laptop so I can get that started in less than 30 seconds, and I use my tablet if I need to look something up in a hurry while the laptop is hibernating. The tablet is never switched off, but its standby is so efficient that it used less than 50% of its battery power when it didn't get used for 3 weeks when I was ill and it comes out of standby in 1 second!)

 

[raleighnut]

Yes off every night.

Switch it on first thing then when you want it the boot rigmarole will have been completed.
As for valves I often go to a friends house who has a VERY high end HiFi, Radford monoblock valve power amps (@ £5000) they smell lovely and you don't need the gas fire on

 

[smokeysmoo]

Ours just gets left on standby TBH and it comes on within about 10 seconds I'd say.

FYI - just timed ours and from the moment the 'Waking up' message came on it took 6 seconds before the picture came on the screen

 

[vernon]

When i were a lad,i was born Feb 1950.We had a black and white telly,i am not sure when in the 1050's my mum and dad got a telly,but we had one.So i used to watch the valves warm up through the back of the casing,there was a warm hot smell that came from those valves,it was the same with the Radio.It took ages or it seemed so for the telly to come on.
Well now it is 2014,we have instant coffee,instant gratification,instant 24 hour news.instant reports of all goings on around the world.
Then we have fecking Virgin TiVo box,which when you turn it on,you go and boil an egg for your brekkie or go for a shave or to the toilet.Make some toast a brew,and if you are lucky,it will have stopped saying starting up.Guess what even the instruction book says there could be a 4 or 5 min waiting time,while it warms up.hell in 1950 the valves warmed up faster,lord help me.

You must have a pretty happy life if all you've got to rant about is a TiVo box.

What about something meaty like rising utility bills, poor savings interest rates, dwindling social care budgets, closure of day care centres - your nearly old enough to use one , food bills, the cost of your offsprings' forthcoming university education?

Think big Postie. Think big.

 

[lozcs]

I'm going to let Mrs V read this thread as she loses her temper with our s****y BT Vision box all the time.......... I will admit it is slow but not as slow as your Tivio then....

started contract with BT 3 months ago, the box IS REALLY, REALLY S**TY - it's soooo slow, catchup TV is poor - half the things missing but worse of all when I moved house last month can now only get 22 channels - called up a couple of weeks ago to cancel and was told that as my postcode shows good reception they cannot cancel and I would need to talk to technical support...

For anyone who's ever been through BT technical support you will know why I just can't face it....

Anyone thinking of getting BT Vision, DON'T!

 

[MarkF]

I still have, and use, valve radios, they are wonderful. We have a Virgin box too in our house, it's a black one, whether it's a TiVo one or not I don't know, but since it's been installed I've stopped watching TV altogether, there was too much to choose from and too many buttons to press, it's all too much hassle for me.

 

[vernon]

I still have, and use, valve radios, they are wonderful. We have a Virgin box too in our house, it's a black one, whether it's a TiVo one or not I don't know, but since it's been installed I've stopped watching TV altogether, there was too much to choose from and too many buttons to press, it's all too much hassle for me.

I don't watch TV often enough to have gained familiarity with the remote controls. I'd be quite happy with the UK terrestrial channels.

 

[simon the viking]

[QUOTE 3067618, member: 45"]You don't switch it of at the wall every night do you?[/QUOTE]
No just slow reaction times from the remote and the iplayer can take 2 or 3 mins to load.... funny though before the 'improvements' a few months ago it was great.... and the 'red' button has been taken off so text service at moment

 

[vernon]

Then we have fecking Virgin TiVo box,which when you turn it on,you go and boil an egg for your brekkie or go for a shave or to the toilet.Make some toast a brew,and if you are lucky,it will have stopped saying starting up have sex three times. Guess what even the instruction book says there could be a 4 or 5 min waiting time,while it warms up.

There are alternative activities you know.....