Have you ever felt like someone came into your home, rearranged the furniture, and left? I don’t blame you if you feel that way about DIRECTV’s new Genie menus. Personally, I find a lot to like about them. They’re cleaner looking and put commonly used functions right up front where you want them. This is really DIRECTV’s first change to its menu system since 2011 and I think the old menus were really beginning to look dated.
Let’s turn off Power Saving
Power saving mode is on by default on DIRECTV DVRs and clients. This mode turns off the video output after 4 hours if you haven’t pressed a button on the remote that whole time. It doesn’t actually have a really big impact on the power usage of the DIRECTV box, but without video the TV will usually turn off and that will save you power. Sometimes people like to fall asleep in front of the TV, or they walk away and leave the TV on. Power Saving mode is perfect for those instances.
What if you just want the TV on in the background all day? What if you’re having a party and want to play music or show sports? You could definitely have the TV going for over 4 hours and it would be embarrassing if it turned off by itself. That’s why you want to know how to turn it off.
Step by Step
Press MENU on the remote.
Arrow left so “What’s On Now” is highlighted.
Then, Arrow down so “Settings” is highlighted.
Arrow right until “Power Saving” is highlighted. Press SELECT.
Here in the Power Saving menu, you can arrow down to turn off Power Saving. When you are done, press EXIT to get back to live TV.
It’s just that easy.
You can turn off Power Saving temporarily and then turn it back on if you want later, because it’s actually really easy to get to this menu and there’s no harm in changing the setting as many times as you want.
What about commercial customers?
This tutorial is really for home users. If you have a commercial account, you wouldn’t have a Genie anyway. Also, power saving is “off” by default for commercial customers and it cannot be turned back on. Every so often you’ll run into a commercial receiver that has Power Saving turned on, and usually the problem is solved automatically within a day or so when the receiver updates its software.
