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Boxes turning off automatically.
Our android TV boxes from Telus shut off on their own every few hours. In some cases more frequently. I've read this is an energy star requirement that Telus can turn off if asked. We contacted custo...
Hi WMR50 FuzzyLogic
The boxes going into standby mode after 4 hours of inactivity is not something that can be 'turned off'; despite the unfortunate fact that there is a Google specific setting in the operating system's Power & Energy which is not active. This is an energystar requirement.
There is an on-screen prompt at the 4-hour mark that asks if you're still watching, and if you respond with the remote, it will reset the 4-hour timer. Similarly, if you do anything during 4 hours of playback (change channels, navigate the interface, increase the volume), the 4-hour timer resets. If you just leave the TV on a channel, or playing On Demand and do not interact with it at all, a screensaver will come on at the 4 hour mark. Similarly, if you don't interact with the user interface for a set time (default is 15 mins), the screensaver kicks in. The screensaver initiation can be configured in Settings > Device Preferences > Screen saver. After the screensaver times out, the box will go into low power standby. You can press any button on the remote to wake the box.
All of these settings are in place for environmental reasons; content streaming forever has an impact on downstream content networks and boxes powered on have power draw implications.
FuzzyLogic
Community Power User
Community Power UserAre you sure it's shutting off and not going to sleep? What issue(s) are you having?
Beyond the settings mentioned above I don't believe there will be anything else you can do regarding power settings.
Thanks for replying again. It's entering sleep mode. The customer service representative said he could disable that, and said he had disabled it but nothing changed and the boxes continue to shut off every few hours.
I've temporarily dealt with it by using a pair of rabbit ears I got off Amazon to bring in OTA TV channels. That way there's always something on, although It requires switching inputs on the TV so we aren't actually using Telus TV services at that point. Given what the live TV service costs, I wouldn't have thought it would be necessary to resort to rabbit ears but unfortunately it seems it is.
A more permanent solution is to cancel the TV service from Telus when the contract is done, and go back to internet streaming services. At least those services don't shut off in the middle of movies or live events.
- FuzzyLogic
The box should never shut off while being used. It's possbile it's overheating or has some other issue.
KHRTELUS Team Member
Hi WMR50 FuzzyLogic
The boxes going into standby mode after 4 hours of inactivity is not something that can be 'turned off'; despite the unfortunate fact that there is a Google specific setting in the operating system's Power & Energy which is not active. This is an energystar requirement.
There is an on-screen prompt at the 4-hour mark that asks if you're still watching, and if you respond with the remote, it will reset the 4-hour timer. Similarly, if you do anything during 4 hours of playback (change channels, navigate the interface, increase the volume), the 4-hour timer resets. If you just leave the TV on a channel, or playing On Demand and do not interact with it at all, a screensaver will come on at the 4 hour mark. Similarly, if you don't interact with the user interface for a set time (default is 15 mins), the screensaver kicks in. The screensaver initiation can be configured in Settings > Device Preferences > Screen saver. After the screensaver times out, the box will go into low power standby. You can press any button on the remote to wake the box.
All of these settings are in place for environmental reasons; content streaming forever has an impact on downstream content networks and boxes powered on have power draw implications.
Thank you for replying. We're paying for live TV services, not a streaming service. How Telus chooses to provide live TV services isn't our problem or our concern. Live TV is supposed to be an always on service, not something that shuts off to conserve data or free up bandwidth. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but the entire selling point of fiber as I recall was that it doesn't become congested.
Data moving upstream and downstream are instantaneous, or as close as possible to that and speed is as close to unlimited as possible. I get Telus is selling a tiered service for profit, limiting internet speed per package and so on, but as I said, live TV service isn't supposed to be the same thing as streaming or an on demand service like Prime. In fact Telus sells a separate streaming TV service and now a separate dongle for streaming. Why bother if live TV and streaming are being treated the same way?
As to the environmental aspect, if the infrastructure to provide live TV is always running, and it's not being used by consumers, then there's no point to the power being consumed to provide the service. It's literally wasted energy. The boxes themselves consume power running the screensaver anyway, having them disconnect from the service might save data for Telus but it's not likely reducing power consumption to any significant degree.
Unfortunately, there seems to be no way to resolve this, other than to use our current setup with rabbit ears as an always on option, and cancel our Live TV service when the contract is up. I just don't see any point in paying a premium price for a service that's essentially just a streaming TV service. We can get that for a much better price through options available online.
Thanks to both of you for the replies, I appreciate your time.
