Home > Consumer Reviews > BOB - Screen Time Manager - Manage Your TV Time

I bought Bob to replace the TV Allowance we had used for years, but was not compatible with three-prong plugs or TVs that require a trickle of power.

I think Bob is a great product, but we did have problems at first. Bob had the maddening habit of shutting DVDs off when a scene with low lighting came on or the credits rolled. My family was ready to toss me and Bob out the door. A call to the very helpful Bob technical support staff resulted in emailed instructions on how to adjust the light level sensor in Bob. This has solved the problem.

We use Bob to limit our son's TV and video game time. He gets 10 hours per week to use as he sees fit, but then 10 hours is up, it's up. There are no more arguments.

Bob is a great addition to a parent's child raising tools.

BOB has brought peace in our house when it comes to watching TV. Our 2 kids would watch TV as soon as they came home from school to "unwind", but it was very difficult to get them to shut it off and start homework. Even when it was possible the kids would be in a whiny mood which made studying difficult. Our kids are old enough (10 & 12) that once you left the room for a few minutes they would stop the homework, walk into the room with the TV, & turn it back on. Finishing their homework got later into the evening specially when there was extra curricular activities that night (volleyball, karate, or Cub Scouts).

We purchased two BOBs (one for each TV) and they are pretty simple to set up. BOB controls the power to the TV set. So first you unplug your TV from the outlet and connect it into the small plastic power box attached to BOB. Then lock it with the key & put the key away somewhere safe. The BOB power cord is now plugged into the wall. Next, set a 4 digit master password for you, & set the current day & time. Then set a 4 digit password for each child, the amount of time each child can watch TV & "blocks" which are times when they cannot watch TV. You can limit any user's time by day or by week, but not both. For example, we allow 1 hour of TV per day in the living room and have blocked TV from 3:30 pm to 6:00 pm. on school days because that is homework time. Since they can't watch TV when they come home from school they have figured out they might as well get their homework done then. On weekends they can watch 2 hours of TV each day. There is an audible warning that starts when 60 seconds of time are left.

BOB has helped to reduce the stress tremendously in our family & overall we are happy with it. It only took about 10 minutes to set up and everything is menu driven on a 4 line LCD display. You use the arrow keys, enter button, and numbers to enter the info. You can also add or subtract time on the fly using "fly time". Basically while your son or daughter are watching TV you touch a special key sequence, enter the master password, and enter or subtract time in 15 minute increments.

One minor grip is that I wish it was more flexible. For example, if we want to keep our current TV limits until 6 pm on school night it worked fine, but if our son is done with his homework early and wants to watch TV at 5:00 it's not easy to do this. You cannot user "fly time" because the user must be logged on to BOB, and they cannot log on since the time is blocked. The only way I found was to use by master password to turn it on for him.

Here's the link to the user manual if interested http://usebob.com/pdfs/BOBUserManual.pdf

I purchased the Hopscotch Bob for my video arcade as a way to allow customers to pre-pay for extended periods of time. This device is 100x's better than other timers I've purchased. I kick myself everyday for not having bought this first.

VERY solid design. Works 100% of the time and is a very well built machine. I would've given this a perfect 5 stars but I cannot because of the ultra-annoying "warning buzzer". With 1 minute remaining the Bob will start to beep. The beep is much louder than needed and there is no volume adjustment. This wouldn't be an issue if it only did it once or twice. It beeps CONSTANTLY for that minute and with the last 5 seconds beeps rapidly. Volume control should be included but do not overlook this product because of this one omission.

I have since bought 8 more units and they are all perfect for me in my line of work. This could be used in the office break room as a bonus for employees. Simply set up a tv or video game and it'll regulate the time spent. You can also set up a block to keep people off it except during specific hours.

I would have NO problems buying this product but do not spend over $90shipped for it. There are numerous retailers selling this for $85shipped.

The rare perfect product -- designed for a specific purpose and does it very well. It used to be a pain to try to keep track of how much tv the kids were watching. BOB does it for us. We set time limits, they enter their individual codes and they get to watch until their daily time limit. My wife and I don't have to worry about it at all anymore. Smart design -- the tv's power plug gets locked into BOB so you can't even get around it that way. It starts chiming 1 minute before shutoff, which is good b/c then you can shut off the tv yourself if you're worried about the effects of external power cutoffs (I have no idea if that's really an issue). One improvement would be to allow different time limits by day of the week, specifically we allow the kids to watch longer on weekends. We get around that by having separate weekend accounts for them. Since we have 2 kids and there are 6 available accounts that works.

The Bob Screen Time Manager is just what it was promised to be. It works great~! My 16 year old son has NOT been able to circumvent the system and it has delivered just what was promised: more time for family and studies and more control over media time for our teens. Best product I've purchased on the internet in the last two years.