this may sou d stupid, but can you turn this thing off??

[buccsmf1]

Holding down the play button for 6 seconds puts it into "standby" mode. The hard drive still runs, makes noise, and wastes energy all day and night when I'm not using it. Is there any way to turn the hard drive off?

[psychofreak]

Unplug it.

[flyfish29]

Many of your appliances and electronics use electricity if still plugged in and yet not being used, "off" or in standby mode.

DVD players with a red light are draining electricty...many cell phone chargers still drain electricity even if you are not putting the phone in the cradle. Good way is to feel the plug-in adaptor and see if it is warm. Most electronics have a standby mode now that uses quite a bit of electricty when you add them all up for a typical household.

I know both our Tivo and Direct TV dvr run despite being "off" or in standby mode. But unforunately I can't shut those down as I am needing them to switch on to record things at certain times.

[pjac]

A Tivo has a reason to stay "on" at some level - your scheduled recordings, and suggestions, the overnight schedule update.

I don't see why the Apple TV shouldn't shut down - I can turn off my TV and DVD player with a physical switch at the front of each (not even a red LED stays on then).

One option would be to run it and all our other gear off an extension with its own power switch?

[scienide09]

Is your TV on the same channel when you turn it on as when you turned it off? Does it have a clock? Remember your favourite channels? If yes to any of these, then it also drains power at a small but steady rate, even when powered down.

A power bar is useful for these appliances, as it allows you to stop that trickle completely, saving you a bit at a time.

[flyfish29]

A Tivo has a reason to stay "on" at some level - your scheduled recordings, and suggestions, the overnight schedule update.

I don't see why the Apple TV shouldn't shut down - I can turn off my TV and DVD player with a physical switch at the front of each (not even a red LED stays on then).

One option would be to run it and all our other gear off an extension with its own power switch?

Your TV uses electricity even though it is off! See post above as they put it very well- clock, tv memory, etc.

I also bet the DVD player does as well. Yet a DVD player has no reason to be "on" in standby mode. I agree- the Tivo has a reason, but a DVD player doesn't and yet mine is draining power when plugged in and in standby mode.

[AMessy]

A Tivo has a reason to stay "on" at some level - your scheduled recordings, and suggestions, the overnight schedule update.

I don't see why the Apple TV shouldn't shut down - I can turn off my TV and DVD player with a physical switch at the front of each (not even a red LED stays on then).

One option would be to run it and all our other gear off an extension with its own power switch?

One reason to have the :apple:tv in constant standby mode is so you can sync it with a computer in your home without having to run into the room with the :apple:tv just to turn it on, then have to run back and start the sync.

[kwood]

I find it funny that people will complain about the Apple TV being in standby and how it drains power and the environmental impacts. Yet when you ask about how often you should shut your computer down, people will ridicule you for not putting it to sleep instead. It seems like a double standard to me.

Personally, I don't have an Apple TV, but if I did then I would just let it go into standby. It really doesn't draw that much power to be concerned about. I shut my computer down for different reasons (i.e power failure resulting in potential data loss), and not because putting it to sleep draws too much power.

[flyfish29]

Every little bit helps though. I leave my computer sleeping to save wear and tear of booting it up. I also think it uses more energy to boot it up rather than leave it asleep for a while...here are some links about the topic-

this one is old, but interesting link (http://www.aceee.org/pubs/a981.htm)

And one on sleeping a computer... link (http://www.thegeoexchange.org/standby-mode-power-consumption/index.htm)

[buccsmf1]

it has far less to do with the wasting of power than it does with the wear and tear. A red light on my dvd player and some memory on my tv isn't going to shorten its life. when i put my computer to sleep all the moving parts stop, including the hard drive. the apple tv goes on standby and the hard drive runs day and night. The thing stays burning hot all day and running that hard drive non-stop is certainly not helping the life of the machine.

[flyfish29]

it has far less to do with the wasting of power than it does with the wear and tear. A red light on my dvd player and some memory on my tv isn't going to shorten its life. when i put my computer to sleep all the moving parts stop, including the hard drive. the apple tv goes on standby and the hard drive runs day and night. The thing stays burning hot all day and running that hard drive non-stop is certainly not helping the life of the machine.


I wonder why the HD is running all day? My Tivo sounds like it is running all day too when in standby. Doesn't make sense unless it is recording. I understand why it needs to have power to turn itself on, but sure sounds like the HD is always spinning???

[thunderclap]

It makes more sense to have a Tivo or other DVR have a standby more or be constantly running because of scheduled recordings. It doesn't make sense for an ATV to be though. I hope Apple adds an option in the next firmware that allows the unit to be turned off for those of us who don't want it running all the time.

[brogers]

I really agree with the original poster. Most everything that has moving parts has some sort of "off" switch. For me it's not about the environment or complaining about some missing feature. It's simply that I don't use it everyday and it seems strange that you can't turn it off without reaching for the power cord. Maybe it's all mental, but I can't get my head around it.

br

[secondcup]

I guess my question related to this topic (which I posted in a different thread), is: does it make any difference if you shut ATV down or put it in standby. My thought was to just leave it on unless the unit could overheat by doing so.

From what I've been reading, the hard drive is still spinning in stand by, so why not just leave the thing on? I'm more concerned about putting undo wear and tear on the unit more than the electricity it uses. Most home electronics are low draw, so I don't see much of a difference between turning it off or not.

Any thoughts?

[flyfish29]

I'm more concerned about putting undo wear and tear on the unit more than the electricity it uses. Most home electronics are low draw, so I don't see much of a difference between turning it off or not.

Any thoughts?

while I am more concerned with the undo wear on things, I try to do my part on the electricty part. While that :apple:TV might be a low draw, add up all the low draws in your household right now...then across the world! It adds up to be very substantial and we keep adding low draw electronics and appliances every year! My washer and dryer doesn't draw anything if not running. My neighbors new electronic control one does.

This is an excerpt from one of the articles I linked earlier in this thread.

Current projections indicate that miscellaneous electricity, the category in which leaking electricity falls, will account for more than 90 percent of the growth in carbon emissions from the buildings sector between 1990 and 2010 (Koomey et al. 1997). Leaking electricity arises from several sources, including: (1) components that provide a small service that is auxiliary to the product's primary function, such as powering a small display for a clock or charging a battery; (2) components for products that are always ready to be activated, such as remote control or other sensors (e.g., for telephone signal detection); and (3) components that simply waste energy, where power may be supplied to a transformer or integrated circuit that provides no useful function when the device is turned "off" (Rainer, Greenberg, and Meier 1996).

Note- this does not include the fact that we have many more things using electricty now than we have in the past. All of the items we now have that are rechargeable such as Cell phones, iPods, laptops, vacuums, mowers, drills, etc. much of which didn't use to use much or any electricty.

While I do unplug for wear and tear reasons, I try to also do my part when I can for the environment. It is easy to flip a switch on a power strip or unplug something when used only on occasion.

[barijazz]

There is electricity in devices even when they are off, otherwise the power button would not work as it is powered by electricity.

[datawrangler]

There is electricity in devices even when they are off, otherwise the power button would not work as it is powered by electricity.

You sure gave me a laugh with that one. I hope you were trying to be funny. If not, let me add that most ON/OFF buttons are powered by the energy in your finger. ;)

[flyfish29]

You sure gave me a laugh with that one. I hope you were trying to be funny. If not, let me add that most ON/OFF buttons are powered by the energy in your finger. ;)

I agree, but there is power when there is a remote as the finger does power the button on the remote the battery sends it to an IR receiver which I would think must have at least some power running to it to receive the signal to power on the device.

Wasn't the power button on the cube not a real button per se and not like a switch but more like a sensor of some sort??? I don't have one but my inlaws do.

[killmoms]

Wasn't the power button on the cube not a real button per se and not like a switch but more like a sensor of some sort??? I don't have one but my inlaws do.

A capacitance-based touch-button like that still is simply completing a circuit. It doesn't "use" electricity so much as it completes the circuit that signals the rest of your computer's components to power up.

[mchalebk]

Any device that can be powered on via remote has some amount of circuitry that is utilizing power when the device is off. The amount of electricity used depends on how much circuitry is involved and the design of that circuitry.

The memory in devices such as TVs that saves preset and other settings does not necessarily use electricity. It is often non-volatile memory (like flash) that does not require electricity to remember data. Does your TV remember its presets after you unplug it for a day? If so, it is using non-volatile memory to store the information.

My AppleTV does not stay hot when in standby mode; I would classify it as warm. I would assume that the hard drive is not constantly spinning unless needed (for instance, during the initial sync, when it got very hot). I wonder if there are things you can do to keep the HD from working all the time. For instance, I do not have mine setup to stream, only sync. Furthermore, I sleep my Mac when I'm not using it. Is it possible that having your computer awake keeps the unit churning?

[MagnusVonMagnum]

What standby mode? AFAICT, it just goes into "screensaver" mode. It stays "hot" all the time. It'd be nice if there was a standby button that used less power (although I'd want Airtunes active at all times since I use that with an iPod Touch and Remote Buddy to play music around the different rooms in the house).

I've got two of them, BTW (part of a whole house audio/video system) and neither one will let me buy/rent anything from the iTunes store either (apparently a fairly widespread and common issue from the posts I've seen online with NO real solution from Apple so far. Some things have fixed it for some people, but I've tried a number of proposed solutions and none work. It says unknown id or invalid password, even though the same id/password work fine on the Mac it's syncing to. Apple really needs to fix these sorts of basic function issues. "It just works" doesn't apply here at all. It DOESN'T WORK. I really wanted to rent an HD movie over Easter weekend too. It surely doesn't help their sales or reputation when a simple password check doesn't function for unknown reasons (doesn't like the router or maybe even the host computer for whatever reason?)

[mchalebk]

See the manual. To put AppleTV into standby, press and hold the play/pause button for about 6 seconds.

[abrooks]

See the manual. To put AppleTV into standby, press and hold the play/pause button for about 6 seconds.

Read the OP, he does this already but the Apple TV keeps the hard drive alive while in "standby".

[mchalebk]

Read the OP, he does this already but the Apple TV keeps the hard drive alive while in "standby".

My post was in response to the previous poster who stated "What standby mode? AFAICT, it just goes into "screensaver" mode." There is a standby mode. What exactly it means, I don't know, but it is different from the screensaver.

[Killyp]

Erh, I know greenpeace etc... says differently, but the amount of energy used by the Apple TV and other household appliences even when in standby is very very small.

My school took part in green day here in the UK quite recently, and nobody switched on any lights or projectors throughout the day, and computers were left off when not in use, and compared to an average day at school, they saved just over £2 on the entire electricity bill. That's switching off ~800 lights + ~70 projectors + ~250 computer screens.

A little laptop harddrive spinning around inside your :apple:TV is going to use next to nothing.

Something like a kettle or toaster will use far more electricity...

[BaldiMac]

The hard drive will spin down in standby mode when not syncing content.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305375

[flyfish29]

Erh, I know greenpeace etc... says differently, but the amount of energy used by the Apple TV and other household appliences even when in standby is very very small.


Something like a kettle or toaster will use far more electricity...



Read the link of the article I posted earlier in the thread. Many years ago we were saying this "leaking" of electricty was a major source...and it is only growing larger by the day as more electronics flood our society. My son and daughter have several toys that leak electricy now where they didn't a few years ago...it is going down a road that is going to be very significant in a few years.

I have no problem with toasters using electricity...that electricty is serving a purpose. My DVD does not need ANY electricty to work unless I am so lazy that I can't walk four feet to turn it on. Heck, I store the DVD remote on the player so i can tap a button for that matter!

[hotshotharry]

Heres a little breakdown for people who want to know about how much power your wasting and what it will cost you.

Lets say and apple tv uses 10 watts of power to keep the drive spinning and keep the necessary eletronics powered up.

Where i am we pay 6.5 cents per kw/hr so simply insert your rate instead to find your cost.

So if we have 10 watts (.01 kw) for an hour = (.01kw x 1hr) = .01 kw/hr x 24 hrs = .24 kw/hr per day or .24kw/hr x 6.5cents = 1.56 cents or .0156 dollars per day x 30 = .468 dollars per month or .0156 x 365 = 5.694 dollars per year

so watts/1000 x rate per kw/hr = cost per hour hour

1000 watts for an hour = 6.5 cents per hour
500 watts for an hour = 3.25 cents per hour

So you can basically go from there ... :-)

your return on investment would be about a year for a power bar with a switch lol :-)

in 53 yrs you would save approx 300 dollars in hydro at the current rate :-) thus paying for the atv :-)

this also works for light bulbs (actual power usage, cfcs are rated 23w = 100watt incadescent) or anything else if you know the actual power consumption. You should know that the nameplate values are maximum valus with true values being anywhere as low as 60 percent.

just for your information, if you heat with electricity, then the heat generated will simply supplement your electric heater. Therefore its actually 0 cost during the times where you are heating. And costing you the calculated rate when windows are open or heating is not required and costing you approx 1.3 times the calculated value during air conditioning as now you need to power the air conditioner to remove this heat LOL

Anyways thats the low down if you wanted to know haha! Enjoy :-)

[LouisBlack]

While I do try to be energy efficient (I turn my computer off at night, I turn my TV off at the switch, etc), I do wish that Governments would just get off their arses and invest in renewable energy. We wouldn't have to worry about stand by energy usage if we got all of our electricity from off shore wind farms and the like.

And what to do about all the people that moan or protest about how ugly they are? Cut off their electricity!

[flyfish29]

Heres a little breakdown for people who want to know about how much power your wasting and what it will cost you.
Anyways thats the low down if you wanted to know haha! Enjoy :-)



My own point never had anything to do with cost- maybe it did with others....I could care less about the pennies it woudl save over my lifetime...I want to keep from breathing the crappy coal coated air from power plants, dealing with the nuclear waste driving in the truck in front of me, etc. I agree with the earlier poster- we need to get this resolved- not by just reducing but by investing in renewable sources.

To the wind farm- they are great in the right areas, but would you want one right outside of your window...if you had a view of the ocean or mountains? Now if you lived next to a high rise it might not matter so much...but if one has a view it does change it a bit. Just like I don't like cell towers that are ugly on top of the mountains here in NH. I want cell service, but we can do it with towers that don't stick out like sore thumbs too!

[MagnusVonMagnum]

The hold play button for 6 seconds thing does shut off the screensaver and the front panel light, but it still feels very warm to the touch (no real difference) and while it will still apparently sync, it will not function as an AirTunes device in that mode (defeating my whole house audio system function). I can't tell if the hard drive ever spins down or not.

[Killyp]

My own point never had anything to do with cost- maybe it did with others....I could care less about the pennies it woudl save over my lifetime...I want to keep from breathing the crappy coal coated air from power plants, dealing with the nuclear waste driving in the truck in front of me, etc. I agree with the earlier poster- we need to get this resolved- not by just reducing but by investing in renewable sources.

To the wind farm- they are great in the right areas, but would you want one right outside of your window...if you had a view of the ocean or mountains? Now if you lived next to a high rise it might not matter so much...but if one has a view it does change it a bit. Just like I don't like cell towers that are ugly on top of the mountains here in NH. I want cell service, but we can do it with towers that don't stick out like sore thumbs too!

I actually kinda find Wind Farms to be beautiful. IMO, wind farms and hydroelectricity plants are the way forwards.

Solar power would also be good, if we could make it more efficient. The sun radiates over 1000 watts of energy per square metre on average I believe.