Any danger with Nielsen rating equipment?

[hop]

Well, I must be one of the select few.  Nielsen Ratings has selected me as a target houehold to monitor our viewing habits.  Sounded interesting, but now I find out they need to hook up equiment to all TV's and DVR's in the house.

All of their questions about what equipment I have kind of scares me.  Does anyone have any firsthand experience with these devices that they need to install?  I am fearful of any negative effect it may have on the performance of my equipment that I own, especially with my big screen LCOS.

Any feedback would be helpful in deciding whether or not to proceed.

[Tom Snyder]

Puzzling... no equipment for me... but I did get my Diaries in the mail this afternoon.

[Kenoman]

Well, I must be one of the select few.  Nielsen Ratings has selected me as a target houehold to monitor our viewing habits.  Sounded interesting, but now I find out they need to hook up equiment to all TV's and DVR's in the house.

All of their questions about what equipment I have kind of scares me.  Does anyone have any firsthand experience with these devices that they need to install?  I am fearful of any negative effect it may have on the performance of my equipment that I own, especially with my big screen LCOS.

Any feedback would be helpful in deciding whether or not to proceed.

Read this. It might help to understand what your getting into.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4021/is_n3_v19/ai_19165304

[Rence]

Years and years (probably 20) I did the Nielsen thing.

They had to connect equipment to all televisions and VCRs (this was before DVDs, DVRs etc).   They did damage one of the VCRs but the did reimburse me for a replacement.  

I did this for five years and had to agree that if I got any new TVs, VCRs etc I had to call them to let them come hook them up as well.

Once the hookup was done, it was no big deal, I just sort of new that they were tracking everything I was watching and the data was being sent in nightly.  I thought it was sort of cool than when they were talking about the overnight Nielsen ratings that I was part of it.

[duncantuna]

As I've written .. I was selected as well .. they tried to install their gizmos and eventually failed, so uninstalled everything and left.

More details can be read here:  
http://blogs.whitefishbaynow.com/village_spillage/archive/2008/01/20/almost-a-nielsen-family.aspx

I was really surprised that they indeed monitor EVERY piece of your system.  They open your TV, they open your VCR, they open your DVD player, and cable box.   If you have it hooked to a stereo .. they monitor the speakers.

When I was surprised at how long it was taking, they said "oh, didn't they tell you?  It takes about 1 hour per item.  TV+VCR+DVD+Cable box is about a 4 hour install.

Is there risk involved?  Sure.  They are opening every piece of your system, hooking up wires to everything.  Will they pay for repairs if they break something?  Yes.    I think they pay for a portion if it breaks after they leave, though.

The other thing I hated was .. you CANNOT change the system after they leave.  You want to buy a new DVD player?  You gotta call them to come over.  You want to hook up new speakers?  You gotta call.  

I didn't know ANY of that stuff before they started their installation.  I thought they'd hook something to the TV and cable box and be done in an hour.  Had I known about the intense surgery they were going to perform, I would have told them to get bent.

So when they couldn't figure out how to monitor my "1-box" speaker, they gave up and uninstalled everything and fired me.

[hop]

Duncantuna and others,

Thanks for the great info.  I will not let them open up all my equipment.  The next time, I have any technical glitch, that will be just one more possible culprit.  I don't need the headache.

Hop