I have a new/great TV, and it will not turn itself off if I don't interact with the tv itself while I'm watching an all-day marathon of Lost for example.  We're talking about tv here.  People tend to put on something they want to watch, and then watch it...  Not play with their remote control or fiddle with tv settings.  It's completely ridiculous to assume the user is done watching tv simply because he doesn't tell his tv otherwise every x minutes or x hours.  If he wants the tv off, he can turn it off himself.  There is no reason to behave otherwise unless it's done thru some kind of "auto-shutoff? [y/n]" setting.  With a setting like that I suppose you could specify to shut off at a certain time of the day or user-defined timeout period.  But force a shutdown because the user hasn't interacted with vdr?  No way!  He was probably too busy enjoying his favorite shows to think 'oh, I better check in with my tv before it turns itself off'.  Come on now.

Also, a coffee-maker is not a device used for entertainment purposes.  Nobody turns their coffee-maker on and then sits there watching it.  I hope not anyways.