New power settings on updated app

[Saint1976]

A question (grumble/rant) to those that worked on the new update to the service.

What's going on with the power settings for stand alone NowTv devices?

Previous iterations of the app have powered down the box after 10 minutes of inactivity (as long as you were in the menu screen) resulting in the power light going out. Now the box seems to be permanently on and only goes to sleep after 4 hours (the only option you can select in the settings).

Also, just switching on my television forces the box to start up from its long awaited sleep and switch the TV's input to the box, regardless if I want to use it or not.

I appreciate that as a single device the power consumption is low (the best resource I can find shows it's about 3.5 watts streaming and 2 watts idle) but collectively (how many devices are there in the UK - 200,000? 500,000?) that is an enormous amount of energy when we are in an age of not wasting energy and contributing to needless co2 omissions. 

Sky claim that they are reducing carbon emissions as a company to zero by 2030 "To get there, we’ll cut the carbon emissions created by our business, by our suppliers across the world and by the use of our tech products, by at least 50%" but the latest update seems to counter that statement by increasing needless energy consumption.

https://www.skygroup.sky/sky-zero

@Karl-F @Simon-J can this be fed back to the development team for an answer?

[schnapps]

Hi @Saint1976 

I reported this myself plus other items that i wasn't happy with during the trial on more than one occasion and didn't even get a reply response and went on deaf ears.

NowTV Trialists are just bug testers and have no input how NowTV should operate or how any new layout should look or feel 😠.

[Anonymous User]

I'm finding this incredibly frustrating too. I try to be energy and environmentally conscious so seeing that white light on the Now TV box when its not in use is very annoying. I appreciate the energy usage is low but every little helps. It also make me paranoid that after we've finished watching something on the Kids channels or YouTube with my daughter that we've forgotten to press home and something is still streaming, to the point where i then have to flick back to the box to check.

I really hope that customers' concerns are listened to and they revert back to how the standby mode used to work.

[Simon-J]

@schnapps  @Saint1976  @Anonymous User 

Hi guys,

Just to let you know I've raised these concerns to the team responsible for the update and will update you as soon as I have anything back.

Thanks

Simon

[schnapps]

Hi @Saint1976 @Simon-J @Anonymous User 

Seems like NowTV have listened to customers concerns, where i have just noticed that my NowTV 4K Smart box white power light has gone off when not in use and the screen is gone back to the low power screen saver mode with the floating NowTV icon instead of those annoying NowTV adverts 😀.

Haven't checked any of my other NowTV branded devices yet in the house (apart from the Lounge 4K Smart box).

[Saint1976]

Hi @schnapps did your 4k box do an update? Both my black boxes are still showing the ads an on for the 4 hours before shutting down. I checked for an update and there isn't one available.

[schnapps]

Hi @Saint1976 

No update was received or forced onto my NowTV 4K box and was using the box first thing this morning, then went out of the house for a couple of hours and when i came back noticed the white power light on the front of the box was off.

Then when i switched on the television screen i was greeted with the floating NowTV logo screen saver instead of the NowTV what's on advertisements.

Maybe it was a glitch on my box, i will know tomorrow morning when i wake up and switch on my box and television in the Lounge (unless i can find a gap in my NowTV viewing schedule this afternoon / evening not to use my box to trigger the power down mode).

[schnapps]

Hi @Saint1976 

When i woke up this morning the white light on the front of my NowTV 4K Smart Box was off and when switching on my television on the correct HDMI input source to my box i was greeted with the bouncing NowTV Logo screen saver.

Went into my box settings and under Power the "Turn off after 4 hours" check box was unticked and Screen saver wait time was set to 30 minutes.

The box is running software version 9.2.3 build 5136-68.

Don't know if the bug that i reported to NowTV on Saturday morning with regards to pressing the directional keys or Home or back button on the NowTV smart remote which sends you to the My Apps screen page has any bearing on this or not.

[Anonymous User]

Good news, my box is now back to "normal" and goes off with the bouncing Now TV logo after short period. Thanks for listening to us!

[Saint1976]

@schnapps @Anonymous User 

Well, it's all a bit of a mess with my boxes. Watched the F1 Sunday and then backed out to the menu and switched inputs to BBC for the cricket. After about half an hour (I wasn't paying attention) the light went out so I switched over the input. No bouncing logo, just 'no signal - check your connection'.

Watched Fox last night, backed out to the main menu and when I woke up this morning the box was still on showing the home screen.

When I get a chance tonight I'm going to see if it makes a difference using the box with the old style app instead of the new UI.

[Saint1976]

@schnapps finally got the box to power down and the bouncing logo appeared by using the old interface. Tried on a few screens - menu, app store, TV guide and all the same result so it must be the new UI/home screen that doesn't recognise the setting. 

I just have to remember to go to one of those screens from now on!

[schnapps]

Hi @Saint1976 

I only tend to use the new home screen page layout now, though my 4K box has the bug which forces you onto the My Apps page (which i reported it to NowTV over the Weekend).

I did notice this morning when i fired up the television and was greeted with the bouncing NowTV Logo that when i started up the box it was stuck on the My Apps section, so your testing and theory sounds possibly right 👍.

@Simon-J can you forward these findings onto your relevant Dept please.

[Saint1976]

@schnapps yep I noticed that bug on Sunday which is possibly why the box powered down after watching the F1 as I was forced into the app screen.

I hope it's just a tweak to the code so that the power setting is applied to the new UI but I won't hold my breath as they'll lose the rolling adverts! Although, I have wondered what the point of the adverts are if your TV is switched off 🤔

[sdan10]

for last 3days iam getting unknowen error blue screen on my now tv sticks live chat want me to send a video of it it every 15min to 1hour keeps cutting out .come on now tv its not my tv its your new ui software update 

[Anonymous User]

I have also had issues with powering down after use, as others have said it seems you have to go to another screen thats not the the main menu screen in order for the light to go out after 1 min (my personal setting), but after 2 hours the box wants to come back on without any prompting from me!!

So I have to go onto the box and go through the motions of putting a non main screen on, come off it and then the light goes out after 1 min, then it sems to stay off, until I want to use it again.

Also why has the nowTV app disappeared from My Apps? In order to get to the NowTV app I have to go through the app store to access it?

This new "update" is not an improvement and was not needed. Everything was working fine as it was.

[Saint1976]

@Simon-J any news on this as my box has also started switching itself ON in the middle of the night!

[36deedee]

@Simon-J

[Anonymous User]

I have the same trouble with the light staying on and I have to keep unplugging the black box in the middle of the night!!!!

anyone got any answers to this annoying problem. 

may even cancel my subscription!!

[Anonymous User]

I also have the problem in that the blue light now stays on whereas before when I switched off my tv the light went off after a couple of minutes. As I use this box in the bedroom it’s incredibly annoying!!!!

[schnapps]

Hi @Anonymous User 

My NowTV 4K box is now fixed with regards to the power light and box not switching off during no use.

I went into the box menu settings under System > Power > Auto Power Savings and unticked and then ticked the box option again.

Don't know if it's fixed on the NowTV Freeview Smart boxes with the blue power light because i believe they are running an older OS software version which is behind the current OS firmware on the NowTV 4K boxes.

[Anonymous User]

Thank you. I went into that setting and the 20 minute box wasn’t ticked anyway. I have ticked it now so I will see if it works as that is better than the light staying on all the time. If not I suppose I will have to put up with it but as I sleep I a pitch black bedroom that light is a pain 😩😩