Hands-On Tech 197: Stop Your TV from Turning On by Itself - All TWiT.tv Shows (Audio)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Hands-On Tech 197: "Stop Your TV from Turning On by Itself"

Released on January 5, 2025 by TWiT

Introduction

In Episode 197 of Hands-On Tech, hosted by Leo Laporte from TWiT, the discussion centers around the pervasive issue of technology devices unexpectedly powering on. This episode delves into the reasons behind such behaviors, particularly focusing on smart TVs and interconnected devices, providing listeners with practical solutions to manage and prevent these occurrences.

Richard’s Query: TCL TV Turning On After Power Outages

The episode begins with a listener question from Richard:

Richard: "I have a 65-inch TCL TV that I bought a couple of years ago. I noticed that most of the time if the power goes out, even for a few seconds, when it comes back on, usually the TV will turn itself on. Sometimes the cable box will do this as well. Why?" (00:26)

Understanding Fast TV Start

Leo explains that TCL TVs, like many smart TVs, feature a functionality known as Fast TV Start or similar terms, which keeps the device partially powered. This allows the TV to maintain network connections and stay ready for quick activation. When power is restored after an outage, the TV resumes its operational state rather than remaining off.

Leo: "The TCL TVs actually have a feature [...] keeps the device powered on but has the display turned off." (02:15)

Role of HDMI CEC in Auto Power-On Behavior

A crucial factor contributing to the TV and cable box powering on automatically is HDMI Consumer Electronics Control (CEC). HDMI CEC enables interconnected devices to communicate and control each other over the HDMI connection.

Leo: "HDMI CEC is a tool that lets you do more with your HDMI than just simply provide that signal from one device to the other." (05:00)

For instance, turning on an Apple TV can prompt the TV to power on automatically, and vice versa. This seamless interaction, while convenient, can inadvertently cause devices to turn on after power fluctuations.

Leo: "When I hit the power button on my Apple TV Siri remote, the Apple TV turns on and then over HDMI CEC it tells the television to turn on as well." (06:30)

Scooter X’s Insights and Community Feedback

Listener Scooter X contributes additional perspective, highlighting that HDMI CEC can sometimes behave unpredictably:

Scooter X: "If I wake my Apple TV, the TV will sense it power on and switch to the Apple TV's input. [...] HDMI CEC can be the culprit here where you don't even realize that it's happening." (07:45)

Managing Auto Power-On Features

Leo offers a step-by-step guide to address and potentially disable these auto power-on features:

Accessing TV Settings:
- Press the Home button on the TCL Roku TV remote.
- Navigate to Settings > System > Power.
Disabling Fast TV Start:
- Locate Fast TV Start or Quick TV Start within the Power settings.
- Choose to disable this feature to prevent the TV from powering on automatically after outages.
Adjusting HDMI CEC Settings:
- Within Settings, find and adjust HDMI CEC options to limit device interactions that trigger auto power-on behaviors.
Checking Cable Box Settings:
- Inspect the cable box for similar settings such as hibernation mode, sleep mode, or fast start.
- Disable or adjust these settings to ensure the cable box does not independently power on.

Leo: "Check both of those places for your specific cable box and your specific TV to look into the settings for a hibernation mode, a sleep mode, a fast start mode, a fast restart mode." (08:50)

Broader Implications: Smart Home Devices

The conversation extends beyond TVs to encompass other smart home devices that exhibit auto power-on behaviors, such as smart lighting and robot vacuums. These devices often revert to default settings upon power restoration, leading to unexpected activations.

Leo: "A lot of smart home products, particularly smart lighting, has an auto on feature where they revert to a default state [...] so check always, always, always check your settings." (09:50)

Encouraging Detailed Listener Questions

Leo emphasizes the importance of providing detailed information when posing questions to the show. Including model numbers and specific device information allows for more accurate and helpful responses.

Leo: "Something that's very helpful if you are able to when you send in your questions is give me model numbers, model names, that kind of thing." (10:25)

Follow-Up Segment: Internet Speed Limitations with Apple TV 4K

In a brief follow-up, Leo addresses a previous listener query from Thomas regarding internet speeds on an Apple TV 4K.

Thomas: "The Apple TV 4K I’m using to check the speed will always show about 990Mbps since it supports gigabit Ethernet and that is the max it supports." (15:00)

Leo clarifies that the Ethernet port on the Apple TV 4K is limited to gigabit speeds, which caps the maximum observable speed to approximately 1 Gbps. For users with higher internet packages, utilizing Wi-Fi 6 can yield faster speeds if supported by both the router and the device.

Leo: "If you have a gigabit port on your Apple TV because you've got the Apple TV 4K, you're not going to get speeds that are faster than gigabit Ethernet." (16:30)

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Wrapping up the episode, Leo reiterates the significance of understanding device settings to prevent unwanted behaviors, especially in homes laden with interconnected smart devices. He also encourages listeners to participate in the TWIT Audience Survey to provide feedback and improve the listening experience.

Leo: "Always check your settings for these kinds of features to tell these devices what to do whenever they lose power and come back on." (19:00)

Key Takeaways

Fast TV Start and similar features keep smart TVs partially powered to maintain network connections, leading to auto power-on after outages.
HDMI CEC facilitates device communication, which can trigger unintended device activations.
Disabling Fast TV Start and adjusting HDMI CEC settings can mitigate unwanted power-on behaviors.
Smart home devices often have auto power-on features that require user configuration to prevent unexpected activations.
Providing detailed device information when seeking technical assistance enhances the quality and accuracy of support.

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

Leo Laporte (02:15): "The TCL TVs actually have a feature [...] keeps the device powered on but has the display turned off."
Leo Laporte (05:00): "HDMI CEC is a tool that lets you do more with your HDMI than just simply provide that signal from one device to the other."
Leo Laporte (06:30): "When I hit the power button on my Apple TV Siri remote, the Apple TV turns on and then over HDMI CEC it tells the television to turn on as well."
Scooter X (07:45): "If I wake my Apple TV, the TV will sense it power on and switch to the Apple TV's input. [...] HDMI CEC can be the culprit here where you don't even realize that it's happening."
Leo Laporte (10:25): "Something that's very helpful if you are able to when you send in your questions is give me model numbers, model names, that kind of thing."
Thomas (15:00): "The Apple TV 4K I’m using to check the speed will always show about 990Mbps since it supports gigabit Ethernet and that is the max it supports."
Leo Laporte (19:00): "Always check your settings for these kinds of features to tell these devices what to do whenever they lose power and come back on."

This episode of Hands-On Tech provides valuable insights into managing and understanding the auto power-on behaviors of modern smart devices. By tweaking settings like Fast TV Start and HDMI CEC, users can regain control over their devices' power states, ensuring a more predictable and comfortable tech environment.

Transcript

A (0:00)

Coming up on Hands On Tech, we are going to take a look at the plague of auto on features. We will take a look at how to deal with your devices powering on when you don't expect them to. Stay tuned for this episode of Hands On Tech.

B (0:17)

This is Twit.

A (0:26)

Hello and welcome to Hands On Tech, the show where you write in with your tech questions and I write back. No, I speak back with your tech answers. You can email me Hotwit TV to ask your question and I am happy, happy, happy to answer it. Today we've got a little short episode. We're going to answer one question. We'll have a little bit of follow up but I would love to get going. Richard has written in and Richard has written in with an interesting question because it offers the opportunity to talk about something that you might miss when you're setting up your devices. And that actually is a feature of not just the television that we'll be talking about but also many tech device. And that is the sort of power on behavior or auto on behavior or default power behavior. It has a bunch of different names but let's take a look at Richard's question. Richard writes, I have a 65 inch TCL TV that I bought a couple of years ago. I noticed that most of the time if the power goes out, even for a few seconds, when it comes back on, usually the TV will turn itself on. Sometimes the cable box will do this as well. Why? Thanks Richard again. Thank you for your question on this. The TCL TVs actually have a feature and again this is a feature of many a smart TV that basically keeps the device powered on but has the display turned off. The reason for this is so that you are able to turn this on and then you are able to use this so that you can quickly access your network. Okay, so you are already going to remain connected to wifi or however the connection is made there. And then also some of the features of the TV are just ready to go. This is likely going to be something that you have turned on if you're using a feature called HDMI cec, which I'll talk about in a moment. But essentially what this does is it says when the TV is when I hit the power button to power off the tv, really just turn off the display, keep everything else kind of running in the background ready to go so that all I have to do is when I hit that button it turns on again. In fact, what TCL says about this feature called Fast TV Start is it maintains the network connection and allows other wireless devices to connect to your Roku device when it's powered off. So we'll start Richard by what we need to do to look for this feature. And thank you, Scooter X in the chat for your help with this. So you press the Home button on your TCL Roku TV remote. You scroll up or down and select Settings. You select System, then you select Power. And you may not have a Roku tv, but you have a TCL TV that may not be Roku. Look for System in the Settings, and then look for Power in the Settings. That's the most important thing. Get to Settings, look for System, look for Power, and then look for a feature called Fast TV Start or Quick TV Start. And then you want to, depending on what I what. Depending on how you take what I say. Next, make the choice of whether to enable or disable Fast TV Start. If you disable it, then it's going to turn this feature off. Now here's my thought. When you are powering, not you powering off, but whenever your home is powering off, whenever you're losing power, not whenever you're powering it off, but whenever you're losing power and the power comes back on a feature like this, Fast TV Start is maybe playing at what's going on here, because it is expecting that the television is supposed to stay on when there's power to it, just with the display off. So when you lose power and you're not telling this system to power down, it's still trying to draw power from the, from the. The plug in the wall, right? And so when you turn that power back on, when the power comes back on, it goes to draw power from that again. And because the power was off before, then it kicks it into just fully turning on the tv. Now with HDMI CEC at play, you've got more that's involved here. So this is where it kind of depends on the devices that you have and the settings that you have. There could be a similar feature with your cable box as well. So you want to go to your cable box and check the settings there to see if there's some sort of auto power on behavior or Fast Start behavior, or hibernation mode, something like that, that is also doing the same where it's just keeping it powered on. And if the power shuts off, it's still kind of waiting for that power there. The second the power comes back, then boop, it goes ahead and turns back on again. Because then what's happening is with HDMI CEC you have devices that are able to communicate with each other over your HDMI cable. So HDMI CEC is a tool. Essentially, it's a feature that stands for consumer electronics control that lets you do more with your HDMI than just simply provide that signal from one device to the other. So depending on the device and depending on the features that it has, it may do something as simple as just when one device powers on, go ahead and power on the other device. Think about something like this is one example that I actually have in my home and it works both ways. I have a television and I've got an Apple TV connected to it. When I hit the power button on my Apple TV Siri remote, the Apple TV turns on and then over HDMI CEC it tells the television boop, you turn on as well. In my guest bedroom there's a PlayStation and a television and when the PlayStation gets turned off over HDMI it tells the television go ahead and turn off as well. So these devices can communicate with each other over that consumer electronics control, that cec. And that is likely playing a role here in why both of those devices are turning on whenever the power gets turned back on after being off. The reason why I am even more drawn to this idea, Richard, as to what might be the issue here is because you talk about how it's because you use the word sometimes. Sometimes the cable box will do this as well. If there's one set of features that are very much a sometimes it's hdubycec. You think it's going to work and most of the time it works. But every once in a while you just can't seem to get it to work. I want to read this message from Scooterx in the chat who says it can be the opposite. The cable box comes on after power is restored and the TV senses it via CEC and turns on. If I wake my Apple tv, the TV will sense it power on and switch to the Apple TV's input. Same as with many devices I wake. Also, my LG TV will suddenly shut off when the idle Apple TV connected to it goes to sleep after 15 minutes. Even if the TV is viewing another source. I have the Apple TV set to sleep after many hours. So again, HDMI CEC can be the culprit here where you don't even realize that it's happening, Richard, and it's playing you in the background. So again, going back to the first thing, check to see if you've got that fast TV start thing turned on. We'll have a link in the Show Notes to the TCL support page where you can learn more about that, but also on your television. Check your HDMI CEC settings and see what they say because they may also be playing a role here. And then last but not least, head to both of those places for your specific cable box and your specific TLTV and look into the settings for a hibernation mode, a sleep mode, a fast start mode, a fast restart mode. There are all sorts of different names for this, but they all essentially mean I'm not actually powering all the way off, I'm just making it seem like I've powered down a little bit.