Gadget Wisdom

Tonight, we upgraded an old computer we use as a secondary MythTV combined backend and a frontend. It is currently the only computer we use ACPI Wakeup on, so we spent some time resetting this feature.

There are three basic Wakeup Types that are useful for computers nowadays.

• Wake on LAN – Wake the computer up in response to a signal over the network.
• Wake on USB – Wake the computer up in response to a USB signal
• Wake on Alarm – Set a time for the computer to wake up

So, how can we leverage this into power-savings and efficiency? By having the computer turn itself off when it isn’t in use. We’ve been using it in cooperation with our TV recording schedule. Computer starts up, records, sets a wakeup for the next time, then shuts down.

But after that, what can we do with this? Wake on LAN allows the computer to be tripped into an active state over a network. Wake on USB would allow us to activate the computer with a USB remote control or other USB communications device, such as a sensor.

The feature is built into every current computer. So, why around we using it? We didn’t even get to the discussion of Suspend to RAM and Hibernate, two features that either save the system state to the hard drive or keep the system on minimal power to keep data in the RAM, which offer additional options.

So, why aren’t you using the power-saving functions of your computer?

The WD Media Player is a great device in both price and features. It plays almost any file off of a USB-connected flash or hard drive.

Details have been leaked of the next generation WD-TV-2, which adds a network connection for streaming video from a network connected drive. This device could replace the old computers we currently have connected to some televisions for easy media playback from our network server, although we may hold out for an Ion computer. Either way, it looks like a good update. More to come as details are available.

Western Digital has also added a discount option. The WD TV Mini. It is smaller than the current box and loses HDMI and full 1080p in favor of analog HD and SD outputs only.

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• Western Digital shrinks the WD TV down to a portable size with the Mini (crunchgear.com)
• WD TV Mini loses Full HD, but remains a handy Media Player (engadget.com)
• WD TV-2 spruces up Western Digital’s already attractive media player offering (engadget.com)
• Western Digital’s WD TV 2 snapped “in the wild” (crunchgear.com)
• WD TV part two on its way (theregister.co.uk)