Who here considers "the wife factor"?

[Pioneer4x4]

If there are, they are keeping quiet. (they probably feel this is "insider information" on us)

[andlju]

My girlfriend has a MSc in computer engineering, but unfortunately that doesn't mean that she shares my interests.. So far, she hardly uses our setup at all. She seems to like the concept of a PVR but not that it requires so much maintenance. I mean, every time there is a new update, I hear things like "Are you going to sit there the entire weekend again?" and "Why not just leave it as it is?" (especially after the 0.93.9 installation package refused to work).
Also, I guess that the downside to her being an engineer is that she isn't easily impressed with technical stuff.

But actually, my biggest issue at the moment is that she keeps insisting on using the PVR (which is actually just a laptop with a USB tuner) for playing computer games in bed... So now, the thing to sort out is whether to get a new laptop or a new PVR..!

[nitrogen_widget]

WAF became a part of my world at the beginning of the month.
There are still little bits of resistance throughout the house but for the most part loose dangling wires are a thing of the past.

We have sattelite & tivo.
She loves it.
but, she hates that she can't play her recorded shows in bed or that she can't pick things to record from bed.
Or that there are space limitations.
She wants a video library of all her favorite movies without having to dig through a pile of DVD's.

Bless her little heart.
IF my wife can come up with these killer ideas why can't Tivo & direct-tv?
Ok, I know why but the resons really don't fly with me.

I started out slow with just a spare PC & pvr150mce.
I copied her movies off tivo & burned them to DVD & converted them to x-vid.
They are all on the media server I plan to use to record my shows from sattelite.

The DVD's were a hit.
Stage 2.

Put a PC by the tv to play those movies & to record new movies off the tivo.
I will mount it in the basement ceiling under the tv & run the standard 6 foot cables through the floor / wall to keep it hidden & silent.

Unfortunatly the DVD in the bedroom is too old to play burned DVD's so If the living room PC works out she will probably give me the go ahead to buy an MVP for the bedroom.

[jorm]

at radioshack a few weeks ago they were only $40, still might be.

[paulg]

I hate to be the one to point this out but...

All you guys that are working the WAF for playing videos and games in the bedroom are missing something

Paulg

[ydekmekji]

PaulG, are you married?

[paulg]

29 years and I stand by my comment

[reboot]

Congrats Paulg...
I'm at 5 and a half years, and stand by your comment too!

[sixgun]

I've had a similar experience to others here.

At first my girlfriend questioned why i was wasting money on computer bits. I started off fairly simple, with a spare PC with one tuner card and an MVP in the bedroom. I soon moved on to having a dedicated PVR PC in the loft with 2 PVR250s, running cat5 to the lounge and having another MVP. Of course i needed a switch, so i got a 24 port rack mountable switch. Just bought a patch panel and have built myself a rack too. I'm also in the process of moving the PVR machine into a better rack mount case to "tidy" up the mess of wires in the loft.

I'm not even allowed to use the remote for the mvp anymore.

We have so many season records that i can never find a good time to upgrade the system. That and the fact that i screwed up an upgrade recently means that i am now looking into setting up a test system for new releases and trying out new hardware. I have a Nova-t PCI card, but whenever i've messed around with it, it's screwed things up. Which is very bad for the GAF.

I have even wowed friends and family with it. So much so that my Dad has a GBPVR system now and a friend has just got his working (with a little consultancy from myself)

The only thing i wish for now is that hauppauge would bring out a new MVP model that can play mpeg4/xvid/divx/ogg etc and has an optical digital sound output. Then i could rip all my DVDs and just keep them on the server and i could get rid of another box from the lounge. Then i'd just have the amp, freeview and mvp boxes.