BOB - Screen Time Manager - Manage Your TV Time & Video Game Time

I Love BOB.I researched all the time management devices and chose BOB. I've owned and used BOB for 8 months now and am very happy with the purchase. It does everything it says it does. It also helps the kid organize their time better. We only give each child 1 hour and 4 minutes and it makes them plan and organize and be aware of their television viewing, especially if there is a show on that they really want to watch. There is never any arguing anymore and we don't have to constantly check up on the kids every half hour (they are 10 and 11) and tell them to play outside or go to bed. It is really useful on the weekends when the kids are allowed to stay up later and we go to bed early. We can be assured they are not on the television all night and still get our rest. It also helps us during summer days when we are outside doing yardwork, BOB insures that the kids aren't coming back in the back door and watching t.v. instead of getting exercise by playing in the sun (kids can be sneaky). It is very sturdy and works well PLUS BOB IS THE ONLY TIME MANAGEMENT DEVICE THAT WILL WORK ON LARGE TV'S OR BIG FLATSCREENS. We have it hooked up to a 42 inch Samsung Flat Panel and it works flawlessly. I have it connected just to the tv because as long as the tv is under control, it controls the Nintendo Wii, tv viewing and DVD instead of having it control all. This also insures that my TIVO still is on and records my shows but turns off the t.v so the kids can't watch anything once they use up their time. You can also get reports from it and analyze the tv viewing and it lets you know when the kids are trying to break into it by attempted hacking. I haven't found any complaints. I lost the master code once and called customer service and they were really helpful and courteous. They solved my problem quickly. This is a great product and worth every penny (even though I got it on sale for nearly half off! yay me.)

In theory this is a fantastic idea to limit TV or video game time and my kids now get mad at Bob and not me. The problem is that it shuts off randomly while watching or when I've tried to use it with a PS4. After reading reviews I found that some energy efficient TVs don’t draw enough power to make Bob realize they are still on and it automatically shuts off. Super annoying!! I hope their customer support will have a solution or Bob is going back. I also found that it reverts to factory settings for time and you can’t use it until you reprogram the time and day. This happens without a loss of power in the house.UPDATE: I've reached out to customer support multiple times with no response. I'm extremely disappointed in the product AND customer support (or lack thereof).

I don't write many product reviews but thought that if maybe--maybe--I could just help just one family stop a son or daughter from turning into a zombie-fied version of his/her former self, drawn to the TV like a moth to a porch light at night, sapped of all energy as though they just raced the Tour de France--then my good deed for the day has been done. These symptoms of which I speak, I know them well for my children are former sufferers of TV addiction.By the way, the Comcast set top box used to have a built in version of BOB in my area until they performed the Xfinity upgrade a few months ago, now that went away (curse you Comcast). But about the BOB:We were tired of the constant whining about TV watching. We ordered 2 of these a few weeks ago, one for upstairs, one for downstairs. Coming out of the package, they are fairly substantial in weight and appear to be well built with quality components. At least, you are not going to comment on it's lack of quality. There are apparently 2 builds, the USA and China (I have the Chinese manufactured build, more on that in a moment). The rear access door has a lock with 2 keys and appears to lock tightly and doesn't look like it can be easily defeated, although I guess if you took a screwdriver and hammer...or blowtorch to it...but then you would have bigger issues than simple TV discipline in your house.The set up took about 5 minutes. The hardest part was disconnecting the proper cords from the mess of spaghetti behind the entertainment systems and then figuring out which would be controlled by BOB. Upstairs unit controls a receiver into which is plugged an LCD TV.Downstairs was trickier. The large plasma TV plug was not so handy. I had read that BOB did not react well to new plasma tvs. I set the unit up the same way as in the upstairs unit, but it didn't work well; because of the way the AV guys connected everything when they set up our system, when the receiver is off, the TV can still come on, it just can't play sound...through the stereo system, that is. But it can still play sound through the TVs speakers. The enemy is crafty and cunning; it would only be weeks before it would discover this. One other problem: After 30 minutes, the BOB would say that no activity had been detected and it was powering off. Then we would have to turn it on again, and in 30 minutes it would shut off again, ad nauseum.My hopes for BOB were fading. I didn't mention it but there is a setup book with a customer service number and email address. I sent them an email about the problem. The next morning I received a very detailed reply back stating how to change the 'standby threshold' for the unit, and it involves pressing combinations of keys in sequence so it is not something that you are going to see on your own. With this information in my hands, the enemy was going to be crushed.Regarding the USA vs. China model--the threshold reset only works with the China make, she said that she would swap out a USA model if I had one, which I did not.My resolution--I spent the extra time and plugged the TV directly into BOB. Since I did that, the unit has not timed out at all so I did not perform the reset. The TV is a Panasonic Viera. The cord is really large and is tight in the lock box but it just fits. If I have one point of constructive criticism for BOB it would be that the lock box could be deeper to allow more space for the cord to fit inside--it has really close tolerances for a large 3 pronged cord like my Panasonic; the cord is as thick as my index finger.So what is the outcome after 1 week of BOB use? Well, it really has been amazing. I haven't heard,"Can I watch TV", since we got BOB. They know that they get 1 hour per day, they can use it however they like, whenever they like. We don't question them on it, they know that they have to budget and ration because BOB is cold, impartial, prompt and he will cut you off when he says he will. We have blocks set up for early weekends since my son tends to wake us up too so that we can all 'enjoy' Scooby doo. Blocks are easy to set up, it takes 20 seconds. Now the kids get extra TV time for good behavior, e.g., 30 mins at night for no fighting with each other, cleaning up their rooms, etc., and we tend to make that time a family show that we all watch. But they really have to work for it and they don't get it every night. They are playing outside more and reading more. We are criticizing less often and frustrated less often.By the way, I think I read on here that power outages cause a reset of your BOB, but I have found this to be untrue from what is in the manual and from my own testing, for what it is worth.Full disclaimer: not a BOB employee, not an investor, the only time I have talked to the BOB company was by email once. I am just a dad who has seen home life get much easier since this product arrived.

Bob rocks! Oldish GUI, but it does exactly what it needs to do — limit tv watching without burdening parents with the task of “the enforcers”.

Does not work in Australia, I even contacted first to check and was still sent the US version. There is not enough room within the unit to use an adaptor. Still don't have my refund either.