# How did my TV turn itself on? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 23, 2026, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918 "2026-02-23T23:02:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/1 "2026-02-23T23:02:45Z")
The question’s in the title. I was eating lunch with my wife today. The Dot was playing some music. Suddenly, the TV turned itself on. The remote was in it’s holder and the on/off button was not in contact with anything. I shut it off, but later when I turned it back on, it was rebooting. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/2 "2026-02-23T23:03:39Z")
Any close neighbors? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/3 "2026-02-23T23:05:06Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > I shut it off, but later when I turned it back on, it was rebooting. Any ideas? I assume this is a “smart TV”? (Since you said it was rebooting). It’s possible it wakes up periodically to check for system software updates, which it was doing when you powered it back down. It had to finish them when you turned it back on, hence the reboot. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/4 "2026-02-23T23:14:31Z")
Yep. Happened to me once. Scared the crap outta me. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/5 "2026-02-23T23:16:43Z")
As did mine. I believe once it came on after a power outage. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/6 "2026-02-23T23:52:06Z")
My Samsung smart TV does this about five minutes after being turned off about 10% of the time. I’ve given up trying to figure out why. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2026, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/7 "2026-02-23T23:57:24Z")
I don’t connect a TV itself to the internet. No reason to. Streaming I get through my cable box or a PC. ---
**Author:** ![abcdefghij](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/43a26b/32.png) [@abcdefghij](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abcdefghij)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/8 "2026-02-24T00:52:49Z")
Were you [jangling your keys](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-early-tv-remote-worked-without-a-battery)? ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/9 "2026-02-24T00:55:47Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > Any close neighbors? It’s an apartment building, but the closest neighbor to us is the next floor down and directly under us. Sounds like it’s a common enough occurrence, but I’d like to know why. Glitch? Looking online, it seems there are any number of causes. Hopefully it won’t come on at night and scare the crap out of us. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/10 "2026-02-24T01:35:24Z")
Modern “smart” TVs are essentially computers. When you “turn it off”, you’re doing a similar thing as when you put your computer to sleep. It’s not completely powered off (obviously, since it needs to respond to the next remote control input to turn it on). The most likely explanation for why it turned itself on, at a high level, is it’s simply a software bug of some sort. There’s unlikely to be any way to determine in any more detail exactly what happened. Amusing story: when I was working for Roku, in the very early days we gave some early alpha units to some of our major investors for them to play around with. One of the investors was a tech big shot whose name you would almost certainly recognize. One night he left his TV powered on with the Roku software parked on its home screen. In the middle of the night he was suddenly awakened by a loud clamor and people shouting in his living room. He immediately called the police. He was not amused to discover the explanation, that a bug in the Roku software caused his unit to unexpectedly start playing a video. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/11 "2026-02-24T01:37:21Z")
This is funny timing, because my TV in the den keeps turning itself on. I blamed my daughter at first because she was in here watching it; now I keep walking into a scrolling Roku screen. I went and checked it when I saw this post, and indeed, it was back on. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/12 "2026-02-24T03:20:30Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Modern “smart” TVs are essentially computers. When you “turn it off”, you’re doing a similar thing as when you put your computer to sleep. It’s not completely powered off (obviously, since it needs to respond to the next remote control input to turn it on). But that’s how _every_ TV I have ever used worked. All those big tube sets still turned on with a remote. How would being a smart TV be any different in that way? Occasionally my AppleTV will turn itself back on after I shut it off, which then auto turns on the TV. I figured out it was the Spectrum app. If I then close the Spectrum app on the AppleTV, it’ll shut off like it should. It has done that on two separate TVs by different manufacturers, and two different AppleTV devices. So possibly an app on the Roku is doing the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/13 "2026-02-24T03:48:04Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > This is funny timing, because my TV in the den keeps turning itself on. I blamed my daughter at first because she was in here watching it; now I keep walking into a scrolling Roku screen. I went and checked it when I saw this post, and indeed, it was back on. It turned out Roku was insisting on an update. Once I did that, it stopped turning on. Freaking tech, I tell you. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2026, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/14 "2026-02-24T03:53:55Z")
The old TVs that I was familiar with when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s didn’t have a remote. There was a power switch on the TV that (AFAIK) completely killed the power to the TV, like turning off a light bulb. Later TVs gained remote controls, but weren’t yet “smart”, in the sense that there was no CPU or anything remotely similar. I don’t know exactly how those worked, but I suspect there was a separately powered circuit for the IR reader, whose only purpose was to turn on the main power when it received the appropriate remote command. When “turned off”, almost all of the internal components apart from the IR receiver were not powered. My point was that in modern “smart” TVs, there’s often little difference in the TV’s state when it is “off” vs. when it is “on”, other than that the display is disabled. Better designs will put the electronics into a low power state as well, but even then, it’s much easier for some design oversight to cause the TV to “turn on” unexpectedly, since from some points of view, internally it’s always “on”. ---
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Nerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed655f/32.png) [@Ancient\_Nerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Nerd)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/15 "2026-03-02T03:19:35Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > The old TVs that I was familiar with when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s didn’t have a remote. Back in the mid 60’s, we had a TV with a remote. It connected to the TV with a big thick multi-wire cable. When you changed the channel, a motorized relay in the TV cycled through the channels one by one until it reached your selection. It only went one direction. If you changed from channel 5 to channel 4, it stepped forward by twelve steps. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2026, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/16 "2026-03-02T22:04:22Z")
Same thing from a year ago: [TV switches on by itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-switches-on-by-itself/1014213) ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/17 "2026-03-03T17:42:25Z")
Wasn’t there some movie where the young troublemaker protagonist was annoying a neighbour down the street, by using a remote through the picture window to turn on and off the annoying neighbour’s TV? IIRC he used a cardboard tube lined with aluminum foil or something to help focus the beam. (Good for a laugh but probably wouldn’t work). A co-worker had a Radio Shack universal remote control in a watch back in the 90’s, that he would use occasionally to change channels on the TV in the bar. Which probably is obsolete in these days when the typical video feed is not over-the-air broadcast channels. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/18 "2026-03-03T17:49:51Z")
> [@md-2000](#): > > Wasn’t there some movie where the young troublemaker protagonist was annoying a neighbour down the street, by using a remote through the picture window to turn on and off the annoying neighbour’s TV? IIRC he used a cardboard tube lined with aluminum foil or something to help focus the beam. (Good for a laugh but probably wouldn’t work). [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/RXT2FehOab8/maxresdefault.jpg "Dennis The Menace: S1 E22 - Dennis And The TV Set") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXT2FehOab8) ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/19 "2026-03-03T17:51:54Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > But that’s how _every_ TV I have ever used worked. All those big tube sets still turned on with a remote. How would being a smart TV be any different in that way? Old TVs just had power to the remote sensor so it knew when to turn on. It didn’t have a computer inside doing all sorts of things on its own. Modern TVs are essentially a computer. They aren’t just waiting for the remote sensor to be activated. They are continually doing things like checking for updates and installing them. It may decide to turn on as part of the update process. Or maybe the software is glitchy and turns on the TV when it’s not supposed to. If you have external devices connected to the TV, they can tell the TV to wake up. The protocol called HDMI-CEC. It allows you to do things like press the Home button on your Blu-Ray player and the TV automatically turns on and switches to the HDMI port of the Blu-Ray player. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2026, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-my-tv-turn-itself-on/1027918/20 "2026-03-03T19:17:09Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > If you have external devices connected to the TV, they can tell the TV to wake up. The protocol called HDMI-CEC. It allows you to do things like press the Home button on your Blu-Ray player and the TV automatically turns on and switches to the HDMI port of the Blu-Ray player. I have a Blu-ray player and an external sound system connected to the TV, but no buttons were pushed on either of those remotes. Anyway, it hasn’t happened again, so was likely just an electronic hiccup.