Who here considers "the wife factor"?

[ydekmekji]

As I've followed posts here for months, I've realized that many of you are in the same shoes as I--we want GBPVR to be better and are rooting for Sub and the plug-in/skin developers because of "the wife factor". Basically, that our wives tolerate the hours we spend on gbpvr because the end result is worth it, but that they are always a little suspicious of spending so much time.

I'm curious to hear how many of you here are always considering "the wife factor" and I'm curious to hear your story!

For me, my wife was very skeptical, and when i was spending several hundred dollars building this system, she had no idea what I was doing and was very much cautious in spending our money for such things. But, 8 months later, she loves it. In fact, she boasts and shows it off to friends and family. She has learned to use it pretty seamlessly. The one thing that i have to make sure to keep tabs on is the hard drive space and to clean out the system regularly so that when she goes to record, it doesn't flop on her!

[capone]

I think anyone doing this setup in a 2+ person household does. Success seems to come to those that build to fit a need more than create one. For us it was videos first (ours and for my son). Once it was getting daily us for that, using ti to watch TV (having the guide was big plus, when you have regular cable) and then record became necessities from there. It's now a must-have part of the house.

The real secret to overcome the "hobby" factor--the occasional error and breakdown--is making recovery no-effort. Our's is a GB-only, always on box, so there's no wake up, no waiting for turning on, and nothing else running or in use. If there's an error or something doesn't respond, she can just press the reset button the case to fix.

Anything more complicated (in a non-tech-ish wife/other household) is probably going to make it undesirable real quick.

[GoodGuys]

Hey, the WAF is a very real issue.
For example, I never upgrade when Sub puts out a new release. I wait at least 2 weeks, trying to read all of the problems that people encounter, to see if I can minimize the impact in case I encounter the same. I know, it's a bit self-centered to do this, but my wife has come to rely on the system. It's better to have some bug remain a while longer if she knows how to deal with it, than to solve it and give her new bugs every day...
This only agitates her and causes her to distrust the system. Sorry if my contribution to the community does not include as much beta testing as others, but I try to give of my experiences and save time for Sub in answering questions, etc.

GGF

[LilY0da]

Same as GoodGuys for me, except that I wait a bit less. I'm more impatient
But she was indeed skeptical, and I didn't know wether she was going to go with it or not

And then, I finally made comskip work. She can't stop saying "this is really cool" when she zaps commercials out of her crime shows by a simple press on the "play" button....

[Pioneer4x4]

For me, the WAF is basically, with all that stuuf, it better not miss a show... She only tolerates it since the MVP is so small and quiet. She doens't mind seeing the equipment, but she doesn't like seeing wires..... She really doesn't use GBPVR at all. Everyone in the family leaves it up to me to record what is requested. When my dad was visiting, I was stunned that he was able to use it. He kept leaving it 'on' and recording live tv, and I missed a couple of shows due to that. I'm hoping that the new show "Criminal Minds" is good, so I can use that as a reason for another tuner.

[cannabinoidboy]

"Wife" (girlfriend) Factor was certainly an obstacle for me when I discovered the idea of pvr/media centre type things so it took me a long time to persuade her to have the box in the living room and cost me a bit of extra cash on extra quiet system etc. Like others experiences, once it was up and running she suddenly realised how cool it was and certainly had no problem with all the hours of configuartion/troubleshooting. Funny thing is we separated a few months ago and since then i have been haveing too much fun to mess around with GBPVR, although I still browse the forums when Im bored at work!

[darisb]

My wife is generally pretty cool about things. It's definitely easier to spend the money when she's "on-board" with the plan. At first she wasn't very enthusiastic, but indulged me. When I got it stable and functional, she ended up using the GBpvr server (in the living room) & the MediaMVP (in the master bedroom) more than anything else.

I have the same upgrade/update plan as GoodGuys. Downtime of the system is not good for the WAF. I wait at least two weeks on releases. When it does come time to upgrade/update or install plug-ins I have difficulty getting on the system. It's almost always in use in one room or both. I usually have to make changes in the morning before I go to work.

I finally broke down and told her ho much I actually spent. Since it's been running well, she wasn't upset at all. Fortunately for me the project is just about complete. I shouldn't have to buy anything else.

Cheers,
Daris

[nightwalker]

I've found out that the WAF is probably the most important aspect of not only the PVR but i'm also into home automation and it's every bit as essencial there. The key is making the systems indispensable to the wife, slowly at first but more and more all the time till one day something doesn't work and she's asking you to talk a look at it and get it fixed ASAP. Then you know you've arrived

I first got into GBPVR just as a music machine mostly because she could never find what she wanted on the carrosel CD players. Ripping it all to HD and giving her an interface she could see and understand is what made that part almost easy.

Next came getting her soap operas to record on HD as opposed to tape, this she liked because she now didn't need to remember to change the tapes all the time, again very easy because she could see and understand the interface and work it from any TV in the house. The same thing for pictures we've taken, again on the HD and easy for her to pop up to see or show as opposed to rooting thru the many albums and shoe boxes full of pictures. We still don't use it for live tv and probably won't anytime soon. Home automation was a little harder to see but same principal. That was even easier for her to use, there was nothing for her to do, it's all automatic and she's so come to rely on it.

As a result i think my hobbies have not only become easier to sell, but part of my hobby has turned out to be how far can i go before she realizes she's hooked

We had a power failure a few weeks ago and everything was out for almost a day. Not only was she lost but wanted to know if there was any way to get a generator hooked in and have it automaticly cut in when the power goes out.

"Honey, what a great idea. Let me see what i can come up with!" (as i'm making the last of the connections to the already purchased emergency generator system

[GoodGuys]

My wife knew exactly how much we're spending on building that thing.
She was on-board, waiting to see me fall :-) But now she loves it.
GGF

[reboot]

WAF was almost instantaneous.
One remote, not 3, for DVD playing, movie/show recording and playback.
No boxes for VHS tapes spread all over the living room.
No difficulty scheduling a show, especially if it got moved to a different timeslot/channel.
Catching up on missed episodes.
The list goes on.
Then my kids started requesting tons of stuff they wanted to record, and thus was born the networked (5 computers, 9 tuners) family