Hauke’s Projects

Playin' around with Electronics and Computers

API

Media Center Auto Shutdown and RTC Wakeup Based on tvheadend Recording Schedule

I created a script that runs via cron job that will power off my media center if it is not in use, but will program the real time clock (RTC) on the motherboard to wake up the system in time to run a scheduled recording, and/or to update the EPG data, and from that derive potential new or changed auto-recordings. To determine if the system is currently not in use, I

  • Check if the monitor is off
  • Check if any audio is playing, e.g.,  Spotify or KODI is playing anything
  • Check if the wireless keyboard is connected
  • Check if tvheadend is currently recording something

Also, the shutdown processing can be blocked by creating a flag file. If that file exists, no shutdown will happen.

The wake-up time is either the next recording time plus some allowance for boot time, or every 24 hours, whatever comes first. This makes sure that at least once a day the EPG is updated and tvheadend can update its auto-recording-schedule.

As a result, I reduce power consumption of the media center considerably.

Continue reading “Media Center Auto Shutdown and RTC Wakeup Based on tvheadend Recording Schedule”

Scroll to top