I have a client with eight of the same satellite receiver, with no discrete power commands. It finally occurred to me that I could definitively turn them off if I plug them into the A/V receiver's swtiched power outputs.

DirecTV says this should not negatively affect performance of the system, except perhaps to slow the first access of the guide every day. They say removing power should not affect the callback procedure, either.

This is such a simple stupid answer that it seems impossible. Any comments?

Should work, unless:
The power off is normally a 'soft' feature; the unit still has power at all times to enable remote functions, but the rest of the unit is switched.

With the unit powered down normally, it still is capable of communicating with the sat service.

With the unit completely powered down (more or less unplugged) you may have it come to life and begin searching for service, downloading data for a few minutes, or some other thing that we sometimes see them do in the field when they have been unplugged.

Just have to try on one and see. Let us know, since it may be of help. The brand and perhaps model of receiver would be significant.
=Tom

If my customer has receivers with no discretes, I just leave em on all the time,

Deco

deco, it's a Panasonic TU-HDS20, and the engineers did not think the fan needed to be quiet. It has to be turned off at least on the three bedroom systems so that people can sleep.

Tom, you say
<The power off is normally a 'soft' feature; the unit still has power at all times to enable remote functions, but the rest of the unit is switched.>>

I don't get your point. EVERY unit that can be turned on by a remote control, which means at this point everything except most CD players, has "power off...normally a 'soft' feature" but worse than that, it is only a toggle. That is the whole problem.

After restoring power, the receiver will hopefully ALWAYS either turn itself back on or not. If it does not always do the same thing, then this will all be in vain, because the whole goal here is to lock it into being on or off in some predictable way to get around the toggle nature of its power command.

<>

Again, I don't see your point. Do you mean that my suggested method should work unless "with the unit..."? If power is removed, it cannot communicate with the sat service, which is only done one way: callbacks. The DirecTV clone whom I spoke with consulted a higher consciousness within the echelons, and the response was that this should not be a problem.

<>

Yeah, these Panasonics always take at least thiry seconds to try to remember who they are when they wake up by having power restored, even if they were unplugged for only a few seconds. These guys should have heard of data backup batteries.


Anyway, so far, the recommendation to try it is the best thing I have heard, so I will, and I will let you know.

The point of my post is, your success depends on how it comes back up when you reapply power. You will have to try it.

Once in awhile I'll see a receiver that, after being unplugged for awhile and plugged back in, takes 3, 5, maybe 10 minutes to "reacquire information". I think that might be the only thing that would kill you.

The soft-on feature was explained because it is not fully understood or even considered by some users. Some think off is fully off/no power anywhere, but as you say, only true with CD players and the like.

Maybe if it won't come up in the ON state, your Pronto can add a power on command as part of the start up procedure.

Hope it helps,
=Tom

Ernie, Aren't you the one giving everyone hell for not providing enough information? You didn't say anything about the noisy fans....
Sorry, I could'nt resist
Deco

All the DSS satellite recievers (Mitsubishi and RCA) I use at home have to reaquire the satellite signal and guide if they are removed from the power, which is about a five minute process and not the sort of thing that you really want.

If you are using a universal such as a Pronto, which I am assuming you are or wouldn't be asking about discretes, a pretty elegant solution for those products without discrete on/off codes (like both the above) is to have a panel within the macro which asks the question "Is the DSS on?" and two buttons (Yes and No) which direct you to two different macros one which cycles power, one which doesn't.

I installed three panasonic tvs and a 65 inch mits in a theater once. I used a zantech ir router system to control each tv individually. (a1 for channel 1 a2 for channel 2.....) kind of a pain but it worked like a champ when finished. Might want to try something like that.

My question is - why do you need to turn off power on the satellite receivers anyway? We normally just leave them powered up all of the time.

Take a look at the Xantech Gate keepir.

sndtowne,
three of these panasonic dss receivers are in bedrooms, and the fans are noisy. We will probably add the process that mike whoodhall suggests.

thanks to all.

Another reason that switching them off is necessary is the RF feedthrough, like on my DSR6000Rs. On my 'other' TVs, the over-the-air antenna is fed through the sat tuner, and is connected to the TV when the sat tuner is turned "off", although the power to the tuner is still on.

I guess it's similar to cable-TV boxes where the only thing the power really does is control the TV power receptacle on the box.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

You didn't mention it but if you want to record programs you will need to leave the receiver on or write some really elaborate code. I have not had a problem with excessive noise from fans. How old are these units? Maybe they just need a little mainainace.
If you really want to contol on/off the surest way is to use a sensor such as the Niles LS-1 to tell you if the unit is on or off and then you can send the toggle as necessary.

Larry, re:
"A...reason that switching them off is necessary is the RF feedthrough....
I guess it's similar to cable-TV boxes where the only thing the power really does is control the TV power receptacle on the box."

I have found that people will accidentally turn the DSS receiver's RF OUT on or off and get confused, so I never use it. And with an HD receiver set to HD, there is no image there anyway. I amplify the antenna signal, then split it, send it where I want it, and switch video from source to source. My customers rarely want to record, especially with the mono audio you would get with a channel 3 signal.

All of the cable boxes I have run into here in the Los Angeles area, when turned off, do not allow the cable signal to bypass the box; instead, they turn off the channel-changing and lock the box onto the last chosen channel.


Thon,
again, recording is not a must. The Panasonic HD DSS receivers, in particular, cannot remotely change their video outputs. If we set the unit up to record we have to instruct the client on how to be sure they are in 480i, not any of the other six video output positions, or they would get blank video with sound tracks. Sony HDs would but be similar except that you can change the output from the remote.

Ernie, I would still recommend using a Niles LS-1 or perhaps a video sensor to tell whether power is on. I like my installations to be fairly seemless and waiting for guide info everytime I switched the unit on would piss me off.