TV Allowance - TV & Video Game Time Manager

We've only had this a week, but so far, it works like a charm! My boys (5 & 9) don't fight as much about who gets to control the TV. Control belongs to whomever is using their code. And it's teaching my younger son more about planning ahead & conserving. He ran out of time this week, and we talked about how he could earn some extra, and how he might be more conservative with it next week. He voluntarily cleared the counter (not normally his chore) in order to get a little extra time for the weekend. We will be using a reward system to encourage some skills we have been working to learn, and this is a nice way to make TV time more concrete for them (and me- I'm terrible at keeping up with it).We have the system plugged into our newish (bought 2013-14, I think) flat-screen Panasonic TV. Set up was a breeze (just follow the booklet), and the cord was long enough to put the system below the TV, with the cord tucked into the shelf below. We had to figure out how to get the TV to come on, which involves leaving the TV turned on when the box gets turned off. If the TV is turned off before the box, then when the kids enter their password, the TV won't turn on (the box shuts itself off first). I'm not sure exactly why, but I guess it has something to do with the smart TV. Entering the parent password solves the problem, though, and no worries. We haven't had any other problems. It's easy to "force" it to change the time someone has available. Like when my son accidentally left the TV on when he came to breakfast on Saturday. I just gave him the 30 minutes back. It's easy.

The potential and concept of this device is wonderful. However, it would need to actually function properly to receive it's potential. The instructions are rather frustrating as you will always need the manual to set-up anything. And once you finally have it set up, the child codes don't even work. The master code will turn the unit on and nothing else. I have spent too much time trying to get this thing to function. The website on the back of the manual (www.tvallowance.com) is a dead end. I am definitely returning this item. Don't waste your time!!

If you have young kids, get a Wemo instead. Have it turn off automatically at certain times and have your kids ask for the "password" when they want to use it. Very good tool to get some chores / homework done before they can use it. You can use an app on your phone to turn the outlet on or off. Until they find out what's happening and try a different socket, you're golden.I too grabbed one of these initially, but it wouldn't work with my tv. I see some other reviews about a high-draw required. Even my plasma didn't draw enough for this thing to work.

I think this thing will probably get returned. Setup is fine, and it seems to have the harder parts handled, but it misses on a couple of prime features in my opinion:1) No Countdown? I assumed that whenever a child was using their "time", it would show up on the unit and countdown, or at least show how much time was left. Otherwise they're left to guess, or even watch all of their allotment in one sitting due to issue #2:2) It's a Weekly Allowance. I assumed, again, that you could set custom amounts for weekdays and weekends. but no, it's all one big pot, and that's a problem since the kid can't even see how much of the pot has been used or is left.

does as advertise i use it on the ps4 system i have to put a power strip to add a light because apparently if you turn the ps4 on the tv allowance shuts off after 30secs i don't think the the ps4 draws enough amperage during boot up to where it triggers the tv allowance, that is where the light comes i use a 10watt light after the ps4 is booted i can turn off the light my child who is 11 understands the routine he needs to do.

I use this device to give a time reward for doing chores. He has to work for his video game time. At the end of the week he gets his reward as a lump sum that he can use however he wants, during the time I alloted for video games. He can also trade his unused time for cash money if he wants to buy something for himself.It took about 2 months to finally get him fully in the swing of things. Now my 11 year old is making a weekly budget...and most of his chores are complete by the time I get home.The setup was fairly easy to do with the manual. Once it is setup, it is very easy to add time. The only time I have had to use the manual since the initial setup was to change the TV blackout hours when school got out for the summer.I would love to see this product have smartphone integration, but other than that this product is top notch!

We have been using this since January to limit our son's screen time, without the battle! It was fairly easy to set-up, just a little frustrating. We've been very happy with this device, until today. The time display has quit working, which disables the time restrictions, since the device goes on and off based on the time settings. Will try to reset and if that doesn't work I will contact the company. I'll update later with the result!

This serves its purpose, however we'd prefer to have an option for setting this to a daily limit. The only option for this device is a weekly limit.We used this to limit video game play and would go in each day to "force" that day's allowed time. It is easy to do, but the adult has to log in, force time for the assigned users and log back out. Simple yet redundant.