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rogers HDPVR - disable press any key to watch TV

6K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  Wayne 
#1 ·
I've switched from Bell where I used media center to control the satellite boxes. Now I have Rogers and I seem to have things working but the PVR wants to go into a sort of screen saver mode overnight and sends a message "press any key to watch TV"

If I have a recording to happen after that message comes up then the MC PC channel change on the IR blaster just wakes the box up and doesn't change channel.

If what I want to record is on the same channel that the box is tuned to it doesn't send anything to wake it up.

Any idea how to disable the "power saver" mode ?

Thanks
Chuck
 
#4 ·
I'm talking about the (non-PVR) STBs like the 4642. I'm pretty sure they don't powersave since I've programmed the remotes for many people to leave the STB on and only turn off the TV. They will stay on unless there is a reboot - relatively rare with STBs, but can happen with new firmware or a power failure. The 8642 and 8300 PVR will powersave every night.

I would not like to go away for a 3 week vacation though and rely on the fact that there won't be a power failure while I'm gone and not have any recordings. Are you sure there's no "on/off" commend for the HTPC software? A UPS would circumvent most power failures, but not a reboot from firmware or perhaps short loss of signal.

I am not aware of any way to send extra commands.
I'm not familiar with HTPCs, so someone else will need to assist with this aspect.
 
#6 ·
Looking at futureshop or at rogers site the only HD STBs I can see are the 8642PVR and 4642nextbox

I don't see any other HD chioces - are there other STBs I can buy to use on the rogers network ?

The wake up setting you refer to is the timers ? I think I can program up to 8 but I don't know what they do - Rogers gave me no user documentation.

I will try it.

Anybody know if the powersave modes happen at a specific time or just after a certain period of disuse ?

For those who don't know windows media center simply operates like a STB but in this case relay's the channel changes through an IR blaster to the cable tuner. In my case the only cable tuner I know of from Rogers is the nextbox or PVR hence my problem.

The Windows Media center has its own guide and is recording whatever I program from the guide and does not send wake up commands - just tune to channel xyz commands assuming tyhe STB is always ready to listen.

Thanks
Chuck
 
#7 ·
1. The 8642 and 4642 are the only HD STBs currently available, the former being a PVR. There are other older models available from previous owners, etc.

2. My PVR goes into Powersave at 1:10AM every morning unless it's doing something else like recording, or me watching it, in which it might go into powersave at a later time. It only goes into powersave if it's not already turned off.

3. The STBs have 8 timers which can be set just like "scheduled recordings" on the PVR. The STB wakes up (if it's off) and switches to the channel desired, for the time desired, but obviously doesn't record since it's not a PVR, however, you can then record from it.

4. The "wake up" setting can be found under the "settings" press settings button twice it's under Timer: Wake Up. (Not sure if the new IPG is the same) This will wake up the PVR (or STB) at a predetermined time, however, you can't set it for say 1:20AM, I believe it must be set for sometime after say 5AM, which would preclude recordings between 1-5AM roughly. You may need to experiment since the PVR will go to sleep again if you set the wake up too early.

5. My recommendation is to have the PVR do it's own recordings and transfer them to an HTPC when desired. You could purchase/rent a STB for dedicated use for the HTPC as many do.
 
#8 ·
You may be able to buy used boxes like the SA3250HD or the SA4250HD on places like kijiji. There are settings on these boxes that cause the box to turn on when any remote control key is pressed - therefore you don't ahve to worry if the box is on or off. I don't know if the PVRs work the same way.

Sending a command in other ways this can be done using another program to control your IR blaster. For example, many people use a USB-UIRT to control their STBs. There is a command line program called uutx.exe that will send an IR command to the box. Or if you use firewire to change channels you can run a program called channelw.exe that changes channels.

Therefore you can run a Scheduled Task at 4 am that will work like someone pressed the Enter key on a remote control. I believe the power saving kicks in somewhere around 2am so you would only lose recordings between 2 am and 4am.

Alternatively it sounds like only the first recording fails. So find a short show that is on early in the morning every day and record that (Miss Spider is on TVO from 0600 to 0615 at least on weekdays). Or set up MC to do a timed recording every day from 0400 to 0405.
 
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