I just turn the tv off and leave the DVR on. We used to turn the DVR off too but the tech support people told us to leave it on at all times. Yes, the DVR will turn on to record if it's off, but, when I had Comcast, the effing thing would mute the volume and if you tried to watch tv it wouldn't let you unmute or change the channel until the recording was over. The Time Warner DVR doesn't do that though, thankfully.