Virgin Media Community

[steveN8458]

Hi All,

I have tried calling 150 for this but the lady did not understand the question so hung up!!!

Like most people I have been looking at what devices are plugged in 24/7 to see if any could be controlled via an on/off timer. As part of this I was looking at the power usage of each device. Those that don't use much can be ignored atm and those that use alot put on a timer.

EG, our lounge TV is 210w on standby, that equate to £1.50/day (we only use it from 19:30 to 23:00 ish) so this is now turned off when not in use.

So this brings me to the virgin 360 box. It has a separate power supply that only give 'max' output, not what is 'normal' usage.

Does anyone know what is the 'normal' usage?

Following on, can I turn the box off when NOT in use?

Thanks

Steve

[roy247]

The 360 has 3 power setting already,  Fast start - the 360 starts quickly but is less energy efficient, Active start - more energy efficient than fast start but the box takes a little longer to start up and Eco start - the most energy efficient, just takes a while to start.

You can turn the power off to the 360 when not in use but any updates are usually done overnight so would then have to be done when you power the box on so would take longer to start up.

[LittleMick73]

Hi its not a good idea to turn off virgins TV boxes as they are taking data all the time, I think this will cause more trouble restarting all the time and for what you save not worth the hassle. Regards Micky

[SCA1972]

Hi Steve

I am not surprised that the call centre staff could not help, although that is no excuse for being rude and hanging up, this is not something they are normally asked.  As you say it is probably something of interest to more people as energy costs increase.

Are you sure your TV uses 210w on standby?  How old is it?  EU regulations introduced in 2010 and updated in 2013 should mean that no device in standby should draw more than 1w:

"On 6 January 2010, the European Commission's EC Regulation 1275/2008 came into force regulating requirements for standby and "off mode" electric power consumption of electrical and electronic household and office equipment. The regulations mandate that from 6 January 2010 "off mode" and standby power shall not exceed 1 W, "standby-plus" power (providing information or status display in addition to possible reactivation function) shall not exceed 2 W (these figures are halved on 6 January 2013)."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Watt_Initiative

So with those regulations in mind the 360 shouldn't draw more than 1w, at least when in Eco mode.  Having said that the box will need to "wake up" to perform recordings which will increase power usage.

I have found this page which shows power usage of previous Virgin TV boxes:

https://hackingathome.com/2017/11/02/power-usage-of-virgin-tivo-v6-tv-box-and-superhub/

In addition to missing updates when turned off you would also miss updates to the channel guide and any recordings scheduled for when the box is off.  That last one is probably obvious, but I believe some versions of the 360 in other countries have cloud recording options which would not require the box to be switched on.

______________________
Scott

My setup: VM TV 360 box, M350 Fibre broadband with Hub 3 in modem mode connected to a Netgear R7000 router. Telewest/VM user since 2001.

[japitts]

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@steveN8458 wrote:

Following on, can I turn the box off when NOT in use?

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I'll just pick up this question and reinforce what's already been mentioned. VM's TV boxes are designed to be powered-up 24/7, and often received updates out-of-hours. Not to mention inability to record scheduled programmes when powered-down.

If you start powering any TV box off at the mains with any regularity, you will hit problems sooner or later.

[steveN8458]

Thanks for the replies.

Just to clarify, the standby figure I quoted for my TV is from the user manual, which I take to be accurate.

Our audio system is 200w on standby, again from the manual (now off rather than standby)

The power usage for the 360 box is not listed anywhere I can find, just the 240vac/1A on the power supply label, which equate to approx 240w/hr, not the 1w inferred by the EU regs. Hence I ask?

Had I managed a conversation with the support line, I could have asked about update scheduling to see if having the box 'on' for a specific time period would suffice, along with knowing the power usage when on standby I could make an 'informed' decision.

[japitts]

There isn't any user control over when updates are pushed out.

EPG updates are on the basis of "every few hours" 24/7 on a 360.

[SCA1972]

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@steveN8458 wrote:

Thanks for the replies.

Just to clarify, the standby figure I quoted for my TV is from the user manual, which I take to be accurate.

Our audio system is 200w on standby, again from the manual (now off rather than standby)

Wow, those figures seem at odds with what I know of modern devices and the EU regs. I have a 55" Samsung TV that averages 153w when in operation and maxes out at 200w and is only 0.5w when in standby. Care to share the make and model of these power hungry devices?

The power usage for the 360 box is not listed anywhere I can find, just the 240vac/1A on the power supply label, which equate to approx 240w/hr, not the 1w inferred by the EU regs. Hence I ask?

Had I managed a conversation with the support line, I could have asked about update scheduling to see if having the box 'on' for a specific time period would suffice, along with knowing the power usage when on standby I could make an 'informed' decision.

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Again you are expecting too much from the support staff as I do not think they would have access to this information.  As for the labelling on the power supply that is surely only the max output that it can supply.

I had forgotten that the 360 hardware is essentially the same as the V6 hardware, so the link I supplied earlier suggests it uses 3w in standby. Possibly less in Eco mode as I don't recall the V6 software having an Eco mode.  According to that site the V6 only uses 10w when in full operation so your 240w figure is way off.

______________________
Scott

[steveN8458]

try google Sony KDL-40Z4500 and go to page 54. standby 210w.

No I do not expect too much from support, I expect that if the telephone people don't know or don't have access to the info then they should pass me to someone who does, not hang up because they have a difficult question.

Yes I know that the info on the power supply is max load, but what else is customer/user supplied with????

After all where have you got your info from?? the info is available somewhere.

Oh and while we here, where did ECO come from? none of my docs mentions it!

[steveN8458]

PS, the audio system is also Sony