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ENERGY STAR
Information to Facilitate Discussion of How to Address Removable Media Players
/Recorders (DVD) Under the Version 2.0 ENERGY STAR® Set Top box Specification
Removable Media Players/Recorders (DVD)
DVD players and recorders that include an over the air (OTA) tuner are covered under the
draft Set-top Box specification.1 DVD players and recorders that do not include a tuner are
not covered.
A stakeholder has raised a concern that some DVD products (i.e., those that include tuners)
could qualify both under the STB specification and the ENERGY STAR Audio and DVD
specification.2
EPA seeks stakeholder feedback on the option presented below to clarify this qualification
issue, and other ideas that stakeholders may have. As discussed below, EPA believes that
exempting products that fall under the current Audio and DVD specification from the STB
specification may be the best approach for the near term.
Background
DVD products with OTA tuners have been included in draft STB specifications to date for the
following reasons:
o Including OTA tuners follows the STB definition and categorization scheme used in
standards CEA-2022 and CSA-C380-06.
o Including DVD products with OTA tuners in the STB specification would be timely given
the planned transition to all digital terrestrial transmission in early 2009.
o The proposed Total Energy Consumption (TEC) criterion for DVD products with OTA
tuners goes beyond the Standby only criterion under the Audio and DVD specification.
DVD definition per the Audio and DVD specification:
o A commercially-available electronic product encased in a single housing whose intended
purpose is the production or recording of digitized video signals on a spinning reflective
disc media.
DVD definition per draft STB specification.
o Digital Video Recorder (DVR): A device that records video in a digital format to a
rewritable disk drive or other non-volatile storage media local to the unit. The term covers
DVR functions integrated in a STB; it does not include software for personal computers
that enables video capture and playback to and from the computer's data storage nor
does it include server based DVR capabilities.
o Note also "All STB types can come as stand-alone tuners or as part of a larger device
with other tuners and/or secondary functions such as, but not limited to, DVR and DVD
playback/recording."
1	The latest draft is ENERGY STAR® Program Requirements for Set-top Boxes DRAFT 2
October 5, 2007
2	ENERGY STAR® Program Requirements for Consumer Audio and DVD Products
- Version 2.0

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Proposal To Address Removable Media Players/Recorders
Exempt products that can qualify under the Audio and DVD specification
o In Section 2 - Qualifying Products, products that qualify under the ENERGY
STAR Audio and DVD specification would be added to the Tier 1 exemption as
follows:
2) Qualifying Products: In order to qualify as ENERGY STAR under
Tier 1 of this specification, STBs must meet the definition for these
products in Section 1 and meet the technical requirements in Section 3.
The following devices that fall within the definition of an STB, or provide
functions similar to STBs, do not qualify under this Tier 1 specification.
EPA envisions that the below list of excluded products list will likely be
modified for the Tier 2 phase of this specification:
Tier 1 Excluded Products:
•	Game Consoles (See definition above)
•	DTAs (See definition above)
•	IP set-top boxes sold or provided outside of a dedicated service
or service contract.
	~ • Products that qualify under the ENERGY STAR® Program
Requirements for Consumer Audio and DVD Products
o EPA expects that a majority of products covered by the exemption will be DVD
Recorders that feature an OTA tuner.
o EPA expects that all models covered by the exemption will be sold at retail and
will not have a digital cable or satellite tuner.
o Based on initial review, EPA believes this is the best way to address the potential
for DVD products to qualify under two separate ENERGY STAR specifications
during the STB Tier 1 time frame.
o OTA tuners in DVD products may be addressed in any future revision of the
Audio and DVD specification, or integrated as part of Tier 2 of the STB
specification.

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