Inactivity Powr Off Mode

[Hermitman]

I recently noticed on my 301 that a new item on the Installation Menu was installed - an "Inactivity Power Off" selection with a sub-menu of enable and disable. It seems if you don't make an input from the remote for 4 hours in the early morning hours, the unit will go to standby and displays a screensaver. Is there a problem with people not turning off their units at night and not getting updates or is this an energy saving feature or is there a need for the unit to run something in the background in the early morning. And if you disable this item, doesn't that put you back at square one since the unit will be on all the time if you don't turn it off yourself. I normally turn my unit off at night when I go to bed but this is just interesting.

 

[rcdallas]

I recently noticed on my 301 that a new item on the Installation Menu was installed - an "Inactivity Power Off" selection with a sub-menu of enable and disable. It seems if you don't make an input from the remote for 4 hours in the early morning hours, the unit will go to standby and displays a screensaver. Is there a problem with people not turning off their units at night and not getting updates or is this an energy saving feature or is there a need for the unit to run something in the background in the early morning. And if you disable this item, doesn't that put you back at square one since the unit will be on all the time if you don't turn it off yourself. I normally turn my unit off at night when I go to bed but this is just interesting.

This is a important thing to do, I am glad to see EchoStar adding this feature in the 301's. I hope 311's are like this as well along with the 381's.

I haven't seen this yet myself, but I'll keep my eye on it.

Anyhow it is important for you to turn the reciever off every night, the IRD will not take software downloads when the unit is on. It never really turns off even though the indicator light says otherwise.

If EchoStar decides to update the actual core software of the IRD itself and get behind a update or two what'll happen is you'll turn on your tv one day and start flipping channels, the title bar will appear but the screen will stay black.

301/311 are fairly easy to force a core software download/update. I know 625 211 322 622 have the inactivty timer. The latter are more difficult to force if you experience a out of date software issue, it's always best practice to get in the habit of shutting off the reciever not just the tv.

Engineering: I think it would be a good idea to incorporate a macro in the remote controls - instead of the little red tv button turning off the tv, have it do both TV and IRD.

 

[yooper.mi]

I had to turn off inactivity power off feature, bedroom tv is on all night. I never had trouble with updates.