The Ecotek Standby Saver (originally featured in the UK on Dragons Den) is a clever device for avoiding having to leave all your TV linked STBs etc in standby so probably will save quite a bit of power (£43 per annum per unit claimed by the manufacturer. Units retail between £15 and £22.)

It's a 6 socket extension lead/ adapter with an IR sensor. Two of the sockets have switches so that they can be left on if preferred. The idea is that it is set-up to respond to your TV remote control so that when the TV is switched off all the STBs and recorders etc will also power down instead of being left consuming power in standby.

I've had some interesting results.

Adapter 1 was set-up to respond to the remote control on my Pinnacle Soundbridge, with my Beomaster 2000 tuner amplifier plugged into the Saver. Excellent results. The BM2000 can now be left with the TAPE key depressed and it switches on and off with the Soundbridge. (When the Soundbridge is turned off with the remote, there is a 15second delay before the extension sockets are powered down.) Eventually I'll get a Lintronic unit so that the Beo4 can be used instead of the Soundbridge remote.

Adapter 2 has been set-up with the BV5, HDR1, Sky and Panasonic Freeview. Not so satisfactory results. Because the Ecotek unit IR sensor will not respond directly to the Beo4, the sensor has to be fixed to the front of the Skybox so that it will receive the SAT signal via the B&O IR blaster for switching the power on for the STBs. For some reason the initial signal via the TV does not switch the power on until the TV has been switched on and off then on again: everything works OK after this procedure but I suspect that this will not do the TV much good so the end result maybe that one STB has to be left on in standby rather than have it powered-off. The TV itself is left on standby (less than 1W if I'm not mistaken) to avoid re-entering the PIN all the time. We've had a couple of inexplicable power-downs without any remote being touched.

Adapter 3 is connected to a freeview box and a BC1. This set-up seems to be OK with the signal via the Beo4 and IR blaster nicely powering off the freeview STB about 15 seconds after the TV is turned off.

Conclusion.

Great device if you want to link a vintage BM to a web network radio or similar remote controlled unit so that you can leave the BM switched on and let it be powered down by the Ecotek unit when you switch off the signal source with the remote.  Not so straight forward with Beo4 though, with a lot of fiddling about to get the IR sensor fixed to a STB to receive the IR blaster signal from the TV (and to allow that signal to also control the STB itself.) Erratic results with a BV5. The really simple answer is to either leave everything switched on, or alternatively just have all the STBs on a separate mains switch so you can switch the lot off at night manually.

Graham

EDIT

The BC1 set-up also has a problem! I suspect that the delay between the TV getting the signal from the Beo4 and sending a signal via the IR blaster to the STB somehow conflicts with the power-up and power-down delays of the Ecotek. Sometimes the freeview box stays in standby when the TV is off, sometimes the freeview box switches off (power-down) as the TV is switched on with the Beo4. Apart from powering vintage B&O my Ecoteks will now be heading for the non-B&O areas of my apartment!

There's a more low-tech solution for this that might actually work better for some setups - a regular master-slave extension cord. When the device connected to the master socket pulls enough (an adjustable amount) current, the cord switches the rest of the sockets on.

Further to my last post, I suspect that a lot of STBs go into standby when they are first powered-up, and then need to respond to a remote control signal. With the B&O IR blaster, the signal simultaneously hits the Ecotek IR sensor and the STB itself. The Ecotek switches on the power, but the STB then goes into standby and will not respond to a further signal from the TV because the TV knows it is on and will not send a second power-on signal to the STB (and the STB should have already been in standby as far as the B&O signals are concerned.)

Non B&O set-ups would at this point involve using the STB's own remote which would overcome the problem. 

Probably a Lintronic unit to convert the signals is the answer.

tournedos:

There's a more low-tech solution for this that might actually work better for some setups - a regular master-slave extension cord. When the device connected to the master socket pulls enough (an adjustable amount) current, the cord switches the rest of the sockets on.

Good idea Mika, but (if my theory is correct) the STB's already need to be on (in standby) before the TV goes on.

Graham

vikinger:

Further to my last post, I suspect that a lot of STBs go into standby when they are first powered-up, and then need to respond to a remote control signal.

You're right, that is a common problem... but I have a couple that come up either in the previous state before power cut, or powered on.

It's easier here because we can freely choose what STB we might want to use instead of a provider shoving a single model or two down the user's throat... But given that I have an MX6000 and a BS6500 plugged in all the time, I suppose they use about 20x the standby power of a single STB - so haven't given much thought to this problem...