Survey says: women control the DVR
By Marc Perton 
posted Jul 18th 2005 2:50PM
posted Jul 18th 2005 2:50PM
After being derided as less technically
adept by their geekier-than-thou male cohorts for years, it turns out there's at least one home entertainment device
that women can call their own: the DVR. According to a new survey from cable network Lifetime, 55% of married women say
they understand their DVR's functions better than their husbands. Of course, the survey only questioned women, so we
assume that if husbands were asked the same queries, somewhere in the excess of 100% would say they're the DVR pros —
and that they control what shows are recorded as well (when they can find the remote, that is; since apparently men
don't ask where to find things, their wives may just end up taking charge after all).
[Via slashdot]
what a useless poll!
so unscientific and biased.
Well because of DVR, my wife now steals the remote so she can watch all her design shows. Unfortunately she has it set to record "all runs for any time slot on channel"..ugh..for each of her shows.
In all cases I have seen the children control the DVR
I've always seen the DVR as more likely to be used by a woman, but I have a question about the survey. According to the article, they polled "1000 DVR users divided equally by sex" but they only reported what the women said. Did they throw away half the data, or what?
I think that survey is utter garbage. We have had tivo for 3 + years and there are still some things I have to do for the mrs. More than likely the majority of their survey was taken by the house frau with nothing to do but watch tv all day while the man works to pay the bills. Even in that case I doubt 55% of the frau can out tivo their husband.
hey B (#4), look at who conducted the poll, of course they skewed the results to favor women. theyd do it anyway they could. and the only way they could was to throw out male responses.
Growing up my sister was always the one that knew how to hook up the VCR. Like cable box to vcr to tv or however it goes, I still don't know. Other than the VCR she knows not a damn thing about electronics or computers which is where I am knowledgeable.
Maybe it had to do with how much TV she watched compared to me. I have no idea. I'm sure she'd love a DVR.
Stupid feminazis.
if you ask 1000 people if they are stupid or not im sure they will all say they are not.
This would explain why my HTPC is always overflowing with !@#$%@#%$ oprah recordings...
Thats Probably cause there are 10 hrs or soap operas on a day!!!
I'm suprised there are women out there that know what a DVR is, much less know how to use one.
I mean we go to all that trouble to explain what it is, show them how to use it several times, and what do we get......
Honey, the DVR capacity is at 80% full of your stuff. Either delete some or stick this in your mouth. Either way, I'll tell you when to stop........
Wow, it appears a few of you readers certainly have some severe gender issues to work out. I had no idea that there were so many Freudian issues concerning the TiVo remote. You sound like a bunch of whiny, pimple-faced teenagers who's mom wouldn't buy them a TiVo, and now you just talking trash about women in general.
Of course Lifetime was mostly interested in the women's response, as it was a marketing survey for use with advertising. They ARE their market.
As far as our TiVo goes, my wife probably does use it even more than I do. See, she has a job and therefore has a real use for a PVR (for scifi and drama, rather than soaps and Oprah). Sorry that fact, along with a doctorate, doesn't qualify her as a "house frau with nothing to do but watch tv all day while the man works to pay the bills." I don't know, maybe your mom was like that or something. If one of you posers, uh posters, is actually married, I'll eat crow; but I seriously doubt it.
It's true, that's why I bought her her own. :)
super structure, I love you (from afar)... you said what I was thinking better than I could say it. The rest of you, grow the f*** up.
DVRs (and VCRs before that) can be a godsend to moms, allowing them to record kids' programs and play them back when needed. What's so surprising about the idea that women will actually learn to use a piece of technology that's useful to them?
That said, this *particular* survey looks more like marketing than science. But I've seen other more academic stuff that challenges the notion of technophobic women with regards to VCRs and DVRs.
Like alek posted in 9, a staggering majority of drivers consider themselves to be better than average motorists. Most Americans consider themselves middle-classed. Polls asking about numbers of past sexual partners show a huge mathematically impossible disparity between men and women (I'll let you guess who reports having had more partners).
So, like alex posted in 1, these polls are essentially useless, unless you are interested in stirring up a little discussion.
glad to see that sexism is still alive and well.
</sarcasm>
Same thing here, our DVR is full of Food network stuff and barely a few Speed TV programs...
I actually have to request clean ups to her!!!!
i'm a woman and i made my own dvr (mythtv+hacked cables from the stupid multiconnector french output to composite+hauppage card+big hard drive+debian). 'nuf said.
---f
".. According to a new survey from cable network Lifetime, 55% of married women say they understand their DVR’s functions better than their husbands.. "
This is an obvious answer, i'm surprised its not a lot higher in fact. I mean all a DVR has to do is record tv. But what do husbands have to do - you get to choose from the following summarised list of options: they're a father, a source of income, protection, a shoulder to cry on, someone to get rid of the spider in the sink, a chef, etc etc.
So if only 55% of woman say they understand the function of their DVR's better than the function of their husbands, then its a worrying sight! No wonder there's so many divorces these days.... :-)
This is why I bought a seperate DVR. So that there would be no battles. She gets one, and I get one.
Guys don't get emotional over TV like women do, thus care less about TV programming. I have a few season passes, yet she needs more and more. While it's true that she uses the TiVo more (watches more TV, follows more stories), I am more capable of operating it and value its usefulness as much as she does.
My mother kept asking for a TiVo for her birthday so she could record her soaps and Lost and 24 and whatever, but she wanted it with the following injunction: "You have to learn all about how to use it and then teach me everything about it so I can use it effectively."
To cut a long story short, she now gets all the Mortal Kombat movies downloaded auto-magically! Thank you DVR!
DVR?? Morons! I don't even watch tv unless it's xfiles or seinfeld (that is the best of the genre)
Spend your time reading Tolstoy or playing tennis or hacking a mac or working out or making love or playing guitar...anything that is worth doing!
“Gotta watch TV...don't wanna miss anything...record all the crap...”
have a life stinkies. really.