Sleeping/Waking PVR - options?

[kevin_c]

Hey all!

Getting my PVR all nicely setup, and it's working very well so far.

I'm wondering what options I have to have it automatically sleep/standby/turn off, and then start up when it needs to do something.

Do most of you just leave it on all the time, or how do you manage it?

Wondering what approaches there are.

Thanks

[bluesxman]

I've just set mine up to hibernate after a period of inactivity - mainly for when recording late night programs so the computer isn't whirring noisily away when everyone's alseep. It wakes up for scheduled recordings quite nicely!

[mixedup]

Whats the PC requirement here for successful GBPVR "hibernation" like functionality? I've noted when I hit the "PC Power" button on my MCE remote the PC is freezing? I'm guessing there must be some base "hibernate" type support in GB-PVR (without the shutdown plugin) which is triggering this?

Question: To have this "PC Power" button issue fixed should I test my XP PC can be successfully put into STAND BY mode, and successfully come out of this? Is this what GB-PVR relies upon?

Tks

[sub]

Whats the PC requirement here for successful GBPVR "hibernation" like functionality? I've noted when I hit the "PC Power" button on my MCE remote the PC is freezing? I'm guessing there must be some base "hibernate" type support in GB-PVR (without the shutdown plugin) which is triggering this?

No, GB-PVR pays no attention to the MCE power button. Its ignored entirely. GB-PVR will never shutdown/hibernate/standby a PC, unless you install the shutdown plugin and actively request it.

The only power management activities GB-PVR will do, is waking the machine to perform a recording.

Many people configure their machine to standby/hibernate after x minutes of inactivity.

[mixedup]

No, GB-PVR pays no attention to the MCE power button.

Thanks for clarifying.

The only interesting thing here is when I do push the 2005 MCE remote's "PC power button" (there is a "tv power" button too) then my PC does do something which seems to be like an unsuccessful hibernation attempt . This is a bit of a mystery then (I do have an A/V/remote sending in the mix too).

I'm currently trying to get the hang of girder to override this button so I don't accidently hit it.

[sub]

The only interesting thing here is when I do push the 2005 MCE remote's "PC power button" (there is a "tv power" button too) then my PC does do something which seems to be like an unsuccessful hibernation attempt . This is a bit of a mystery then (I do have an A/V/remote sending in the mix too).

I guess thats just the default behaviour of the MCE remote software. You'll find if you stop all the GB-PVR software and press the power button, it'll do the same thing.

[mixedup]

Oh oh - I'm not quite clued up enough yet with Girder to know whether I can get Girder to intercept the remote keys before this happens....ummm....I'm guessing this probably won't work. I guess my options are:
a) follow up with the 2005 MCE remote driver support people on this (mayber there is a config file buried in the driver somewhere) OR
b) try to get my PC working properly re hibernation (or shutdown or whatever the correct term is), so I can recover without a reboot

Thanks for pointing this out

[sub]

I was just suggesting its was the default behaviour, rather than something GB-PVR was doing. I definitly think you'd be able to change it somewhere. I'm sure the girder guys would have looked at this and have a work around.

[malcolm]

b) try to get my PC working properly re hibernation (or shutdown or whatever the correct term is), so I can recover without a reboot

Hibernate, standby and shutdown and all different activites, I set my PVR box to go to standby, this is known as S3 state in the bios, or Suspend to RAM. All programs in memory are maintained when it goes into standby, unlike hibernate, which just dumps the memory onto the hard disc, then re-opens that file on start-up. So standby recovers quicker, but uses a bit more power. I now have an MVP so the PC realy neeeds to be on most of the time.

I found I had to set the S3 option in the bios BEFORE I loaded WinXP, or it would not successfully implement the feature when the windows load was done. Then you have to select it in the Control Panel/Power applicaion. Mine will only restart from the front panel button. It is supposed to re-start from USB but I have no device to implement this.

Another PC I have looses it's hard drives at the next cold reboot if I let it go to stand by and then restart, so success in this area is not guarranteed! That is a pretty modern system as well, NF3 motherboard and so on.