Who here considers "the wife factor"?

[tevbill]

Quote (The wife):
“Well Bill, you know sitting around watching these recorded TV shows all day is a lot more fun than smoking.”

Now my wife does work, she is an EMT and when she works it’s usually 24 or 48 hours straight at the local volunteer fire department, and then she is off for days at a time.
Then she taxis kids to school and activities.

When she is not doing that she likes to watch DVDs and Sci-Fi well now she likes to watch what she calls “freevo” as she calls it. I explained that there is a PVR actually called “freevo” and that what we are watching is called gbpvr. She still calls it that though.
She coined the freevo thing because while I was working on gbpvr I told her that what I was working on was kind of a free tivo.

She likes to put the result of my efforts to kind of a stress test if I offer them for public use so since putting Gbpvr on the TV through the MVP my “tweaking and fiddling” time with it have been restricted because there are always scheduled recordings for the next week and a half.
The then kids (girls) have to record all the “Laguna Beach the Real Orange County”, “The O.C” and “My Super Sweet 16” (whatever that is?) episodes.

I’d say it was a success and as far as the wife is concerned I’m finally “doing something” with all the computer parts I have stacked and taking up space in the basement.

[dgeezer]

I got started because our local cable company (Time Warner, North Carolina, US) had a promotion to give their customers 3 months of digital cable with a PVR for the same price as regular cable. The tech from the cable company came and hooked it up. Normal installation: cable line in to set top box to channel 3 on tv. My wife hated this setup. She had to find both the tv remote and the cable remote to be able to turn on the TV. I tried programming the remote from the cable company to turn the TV on and off. She always managed to get the two out of sync and couldn't get them both turned on together.

I could see that this wouldn't work out. I switched the setup so that the cable box was on a separate input on the TV. Now she could turn on the TV with the regular remote and watch standard cable just like before.

We used the dvr fairly often at first, but finally decided that it wasn't worth the extra money when the price went back to normal. My other complaint was that recording shows was easy, however, deleting shows was more difficult. Also, deleting old shows etc., tied up the main tv.

Now with GBpvr and an MVP all recording functions are completely separate from the TV. I schedule recordings on my home office computer which serves the MVP and we only use the MVP for playback of recorded shows. My wife and daughter love this setup, maybe because I do all the work of scheduling recordings, and because it is completely non-obtrusive. My daghter, who is 6, has no trouble at all using the MVP.

My wife actually commented that the auto commercial skip was pretty cool!

Money wasn't a big factor here. I probably have less than $300.00 US invested. The extra charges from the cable company amounted to about $25.00 per month so it won't be long before that investment is recouped.

I think that I am probably in the majority of users who have no problems at all with the software. Reading the forums sometimes makes it seem like there are lots of bugs in the software but I have never experienced any problems.

Great work, Sub. Cheers.

[Torque]

WAF is a big thing here too, but probably not as much as SAF (self acceptance factor) If I can't run it easily myself, then I won't be happy. My wife is more tolerant of things than I am. About 15 minutes ago I finished swapping out fans inside the PVR (for the 2nd time) to make it as close to silent as possible. Wife didn't see a problem with it, but I hate computer noise. BTW, Panaflo 80mm Fan, FBA08A12L1A, are VERY good quiet fans that still push alot of air.

As far as the software goes, I tried a few of the others, BeyondTV, Sage, and Media Portal... they all had their strenghts and weaknesses, but GB seemed to just be the simplest one that got the job done. I usually stay one or two revs behind because when I was trying to stay current, I always had problems and I'd miss a show. I'm at I think v.92.11 and it's working wonderfully and I don't plan on upgrading anytime soon.

Only thing I'd like to see in the future are polls taken every so often on what plugins people are using and if there are some hot ones, integrate them into GB's overall install. There are a few plugins that I've tried to get working and others that have quit working that used to work and I just don't have the patience to deal with trying to make them work. (I don't mean to hijack this thread with this last paragraph.)

[jorm]

Forgiveness is easier than permission. I bought all the stuff and got it working before I told my wife see this....

Then as I write the plugins I get her feedback after the core is written. She is a software engineer as well, I am still trying to get her to write plugins.

now she is hooked

[Pioneer4x4]

She is a software engineer as well,

That doesn't count!!

Mine is an accountant. So I have to fight the cost and usage battles at the same time. So as long as it works, she is tolerant.

[jorm]

I married an engineer so she can relate to what I am talking about.

accountant. yeah that does sounds like a harder fight than I had.

[A_Brass]

My wife tends to be a technophobe, Before our son was born she was a History teacher. She has this funny habit of taking any common situaiton and looking at it as though it were 100 or 200 years ago. So technology is not her priority.

That being said I actually saw her navigate from the Main Menu, to My Videos, to the sub folder where her show resides, (SuperNanny or Nanny911). My jaw dropped. 2 Month's ago she would yell down into the basement for me to come up and start her show. I'm not sure which has made more progress GBPVR or my wife, but WAF is a very real consideration. Ever time I make a technology purchase I need to justify it to her. GBPVR was no exception. The good news was that until I was ready for the tuner it didn't cost a thing. I was all spare parts. The big step will be when I want to make a substaintal upgrade to the primary recording unit, and a donation to the cause, I need to find a way to make a stelth donation, or I'll hear "I thought that thing was free"!

The removal of Tapes and nice menu system has made her see the light. As far as TV goes. She still has a tendency to shut off the computer for fear its using too much energy, but If I can make it a little quieter she wont even notice. And no show will ever be missed again. The next big step will be to remove the CD's from the living room. Right now she insists on having the CD and the case where she an find it. She insists on using the CD player instead of the computer. But with time, all things can change. She will see the light, one day.

[onestar]

oh yeah.
Phase I
Investment
I have to start it off on my own - no mention, or a fleeting mention.

Phase II
Secrecy
Have to work on it in bits, when it gets a tricky situation, its fixing something

Phase III
Introduction.
Normally met with scepticism initially - worth, why, what, lot of trouble to learn.

Phase IV
Pain
Initial bug fixing, issues - painful. "see told you", "why, a lot easier the old way"

Phase V
Dependence
"Hey why is it down". "Where is it". Always on music/videos/recordings something. Its now a critical system

Always works out like that.
Wife is an accountant (wonder if thats a factor)

[daphatty]

WAF is a big factor for me now that I am married but I never really had to convince her that it was something we "needed." The easiest way to get my wife's "approval" is to convince her that it is more economical for us to have something than to be without. My HTPC first began as nothing more than a DVD ripper. We were big on Netflix back then but hated our 3 disc limitation. I came up with the brilliant idea of ripping our rented DVDs to HD the day they arrived so we could get the next DVDs right away. This was especially useful for watching the ever so addictive 24.

Fast-forward to February of this year. I purchased my new HDTV with a built in DVI input. That was the catalyst that opened the flood gates. I purchased my first capture card with some money I received from my father for christmas and within a day or two I was recording TV and playing it back on my HDTV. When I felt comfortable enough to show off the newfound toy to the wife, I showed her Oprah. She was amazed that she could watch her show without ever having to insert a video tape. Now I can't get her away from the darned thing. I find myself having to schedule time just to upgrade the software!

[ydekmekji]

I feel a kindred spirit with all of you... But I do wonder if there are any women in here who consider the "HAF" (Husband Approval Factor)