Nielsen ratings, in the context of WMC

[makryger]

Hey folks, so I was just invited to be part of the Nielsen ratings. I seem to recall that they give you a 'box' that monitors your tv habits. Does anyone have any more information on what that entails? How would this work in the context of a single HTPC with cable card? Do they have a way to track dvr'ed shows?

[RyC]

Woo hoo go you! I wish I was a Nielsen family! I don't know how they hook it up, but they do have a way to track the watching of DVR'd shows. They usually factor it into the ratings as "Live + Same Day (DVR watching)" and "Live + 7 Day". Let us know how it goes!

[Shackleford]

Last I participated it was a journal. Did they say if you were specifically getting hardware?

[makryger]

No, they didn't.I'm trying to figure out I'd this is feasible...

[Shackleford]

Yea you'll probably just get the journal which is just writing down what you watch and when you watch it. No hardware.

[LuckyDay]

I also got the journal not long ago. Can't remember how much I got paid but it was worth writing what I watched each day for a week or two.

[makryger]

I spoke to the guy... he offered me one of there people-watch boxes that automatically logs what you're watching. He said that it actually works fine with DVRs and tivo/tivo like devices- it uses sound and image to identify the watcher and the show.

And then he asked if I used satellite or cable- I said cable. He said... "oh, that's too bad... I thought you used OTA TV. We're only really looking for one of those."

Oh well. I am probably an outlier of TV watching anyways...

[RyC]

Thread necro!

For the curious, I can confirm the regular meter boxes they use (not the people meter boxes where you have to push a button to identify yourself) do work with WMC since it just picks up an encoded signal from the audio.

[mikey1273]

I can confirm the newest equipment they had since 2014 works with WMC and xbox 360 as an extender