Freeview box gone bang....

DON79

Thanks Jasx - that would be a good idea. will suggest that too. I think he mainly thinks it is saving him more on energy than it actually is and is also over-concerned by fire risks from leaving things on overnight etc. Difficult to convince him otherwise

mongoose2009

I work in the TV repair trade and I would say it does shorten the life of electronic equipment to keep starting up the power supply from "cold" everyday
the capacitors they use in these things are so cheap nowerdays
that they have a very short life compared with older components
I'm finding that a lot are failing after 15-18mths
I would advise a surge protector on all you kit tho

kwikbreaks

alanrowell wrote: »

Given he unplugs the box anyway it doesn't make much difference

If he were persuaded to leave it plugged in to save popping it but still insisted on unplugging the aerial it would.

Older people tend to get fixed in their ways. Given the cheap electronic tat we have these days then maybe they're right again.

I'm no fan of surge protectors and regard domestic quality ones to be catch pennies but many do get peace of mind from using them so I won't bother arguing further on that topic.

Sowilo_2

They are so cheap why even think about it. I saw one in Morrisons a couple af weeks back £7 and no doubt there are even cheaper, free if you look on such as Freecycle. Come on, get real.

kwikbreaks

I seriously doubt that a £7 one protects anything at all but if you want to pay that rather than a couple of quid for a 4 way strip that's entirely up to you. Some are a lot more expensive than that and I regard them to be snake oil too.

Taffybiker

In my humble opinion, unplugging every night should not damage the box. Whilst it's true there will most likely be a short surge at switch on, any half decent brand will have included a surge protector, and a soft start power section. Only the very cheapest is likely to cause trouble.
That being said, I use the cheapest and leave them plugged in. I don't see the point of spending much at this time when new freeview technology is on its way. Freeview plus and freeview HD for example, both of which would require new STB's anyway.

DON79

Hi, thanks everyone for the input, have passed it all onto my dad but as expected, it fell on deaf ears about not being necessary to switch off the box etc etc which I expected lol! He is absolutely paranoid about the box catching fire in the night if he leaves it on standby and was talking about how he had heard just today that it happened & someone died.

He now of course can't get it set up properly and phoned me for advice about why he had no picture but had sound and then why he had picture & sound but then the picture would go black after a few minutes..???

Unfortunately, living over 300 miles away I just can't pop over to "fix" it lol!

thanks all anyway for trying to help

preable

DON79 wrote: »

Hi, thanks everyone for the input, have passed it all onto my dad but as expected, it fell on deaf ears about not being necessary to switch off the box etc etc which I expected lol! He is absolutely paranoid about the box catching fire in the night if he leaves it on standby and was talking about how he had heard just today that it happened & someone died.

He now of course can't get it set up properly and phoned me for advice about why he had no picture but had sound and then why he had picture & sound but then the picture would go black after a few minutes..???

Unfortunately, living over 300 miles away I just can't pop over to "fix" it lol!

thanks all anyway for trying to help

I used to think if i left my computer on it would catch fire but nw im over it

spud17

In the instructions for my 2 Freeview boxes it said to leave them on, because there could be software updates.
The updates take place allegedly at 3.00am.

DON79

Yep! told him that too spud17 lol! still makes no difference to him. says he doesn't care if the guide doesn't work properly as he will just flick through the channels to see what is on! :rotfl: