long story short, I have a roomate who owns nothing in the house except his bed and computer. All the furniture, home theater, and everything in the house is mine.

I don't mind sharing my stuff, but lately he has become a douche about my HT. I just got a 56" DLP HDTV, replaced the bulb in it with a new one, and all he does while I'm not home is sit on My couch and watch My tv. He racked up over 50 hours in one weekend from friday morning to sunday night, and that's all he does. I haven't been able to fully enjoy my setup since I got it, because he is always watching it, and I actually have a life and get out sometimes so I'm not always at home like he is.

I bought a bunch of new audio stuff (harman kardon avs 335 reciever, velodyne sub, mangepan mmg speakers, etc, etc), and I mentioned that I was going to get a true HD-DVD player because I saw one on sale for 269$. Well, he called me an Idiot for wanting to get a HD-DVD player, and was talking all this crap about how I shouldn't spend money on all this HT "crap" (when he's the one who spends the most time watching it).

So, I said SCREW that.... and I'm looking into getting something to where I can either password protect my stuff from being turned on, or like an electrical cutoff or something so he can't mooch my HT. I ran a dish line into his room, so he has TV in his room.

My question:

What would you think would be the best way to "protect" my HT setup when I'm not there so that he can't watch it? My TV and reciever don't have any password protection stuff built in, so I was thinking of some kind of "lockbox" that I can put on my power strip. He doesn't own an extension cord, so if I can secure the only power outlet anywhere near the TV that I feed it off of, then I should be good to go.

Anyone have any ideas on how I can keep him out of my HT?

Move him out or move yourself out. That doesn't help any does it?

V-chip! The parental controls on TV and media players can be turned down pretty far (and sometimes even used to turn off the equipment for viewers without a code).

roomate goes, and mortgage/bills become twice as expensive, plus apart from being a douche he's a good roomate responsibility wise.

I don't want to only restrict him to watching G rated shows on TV, or using my dvd player, or anything. I want it to where he can't turn anything on, and if he can, he can't use it at all.

Make one of the key cables (like audio or video) removable and take them with you.

Or take the remotes. (Granted, he can still turn it on, but unless he only watches one channel for hours on end, it'll be more inconvenient for him.)

Or sign him up for eHarmony.com or something. If he gets a girl, maybe he'll stop watching your TV.

well do you have your own room? if so put everything in your room and lock it up. or if you rather have it in the livingroom tell him not to touch it simple ass that. i also live with a roomate in a 3 bedroom house. and i sure ass hell dont touch his stuff in his living room. i know better and im only 26. i never have never will touch his stuff mostly cuase my stuff is better lol but all my stuff is in my room and he also wont go into my room. if you live with a roomate their has to be rules. just let him know in a nice way. tlel him that if something breaks you dont want to blame him for it.


btw last resort find the breaker that is for your tv and put a lock on the box and kill the power when your gone and lock it up...

If you kick one roomie out, you can always find another. Well, if you live in a place with high rent, at least. In the SF area, you'll get three or four roomies to an apartment...

This is exactly my situation. This is also why next year i'm moving into an apartment with a bunch of people and i'm keeping all my home theater stuff in my room.

One of the many reasons I cant have a roommate anymore...

It's so funny that I came across this thread. I thought I was the only one with a roommate like this. He's an alright person, just can't stand living with him. I buy all the movies, TV, sound system, everything. I honestly don't think he owns one thing besides his computer.

I'll walk in from class, he'll be watching TV. I'll go to lunch and come back, still watching, i'll go to class and come back, still watching. I honestly think the TV gets a good 8-9 hours a day from him alone. I tried to be nice about it, but I'm honestly caring less and less. I have 2 more weeks with all my HT stuff here before I ship it home (for summer, and also getting a new apartment).

I made the image on the TV for cable (as he watches Fox News and the history channel only) really bad, not because I want to piss him off, but because I don't want burn in from anything. My contrast is at like 5 or so and the TV is zoomed in so there are no black bars for any of the widescreen programs he watches (some on discovery). Can't wait to get out.

He also hasn't bought a single roll of toilet paper this whole year. Me and my other roommate get it all. I've become wiser though. I have a roll hiding for me and the other roommate. Ughh....

Sam

Now you know why some of us are misanthropes :D

Plug everything into a single power supply/power strip/etc. Then take the cord for that.

Get rid of the room mate. Yes, it's more expensive. But it's worth every penny. Unless the room mate is female and looks like an extra for the Swedish Bikini Team, I would never have a room mate.

well do you have your own room? if so put everything in your room and lock it up
yup. if he complains shoot him.

I'm in the same situation :(

I feel your pain. Why don't you unplug your TV and hide the wire real good? I'm sure he wont bother to fix it. I dunno :confused:

i've dealt with similar situations, and your idea is not a good solution.

first, talk to him about it. *gah* i know, i know, guys don't like to talk, but try. invite him out with you and have some beers, and talk about it outside of the room in question.

explain to him the costs of the bulbs... i have a projector, and warned my roommies beforehand that if they parked on the couch a lot, i'd expect them to chip in when i buy a new bulb this summer, and one has, and he's already given me a check for half of the bulb cost.

MOST IMPORTANT. your idea of password protecting your stuff, or whatever, is passive aggressive, and will only cause tension and problems, take this from my experience. one of two things will happen. either he notices, and just accepts it and never brings it up (unlikely), or he notices, and confronts you about it.

in that case, now you're talking to him about it, but he's pissed off, and you get defensive because he came at you, and now you're fighting. why not just talk to him about it when you're both ok?

also, if he's telling you your tv stuff is crap, you might suggest that if it's that bad, he doesn't have to use it.

additionally, set some ground rules. if he has a few shows he *has* to watch, like 24/lost/sopranos, whatever, that's fine, let him watch those. however, if you want to use it, it is YOUR stuff. my roommates always ask if i want to change channels or watch a movie/play 360 when i come into the den, because i established at the beginning it was my stuff, and i could always put it in my room, if they get pissy about giving it up when i want to use it... but i hardly even needed to mention that, they're good guys.

fortunately, i have nice roommates, that helps.

honestly though, talking about it is the best solution.

Its a tough line to cross man. In one hand you have a butthead roomate that is decreasing your TV's lifespan, on another hand he is a decent responsible roomate. I agree with Charlies post. then i agree with the others who say kick him out. If you lock your equiptment out he might get pissed and start.... i dont know, going in your room and stealing crap or something.

been there, done that. it would actually be better to "talk" to your buddy and let your concerns be know rather than just "lock" him out of your tv. I agree with jason on this... you don't want to know what he'll do to you other stuff while your away since he'll have some spare time on his hands.

I suggest with the others to "talk" to your roommate and come to a compromise. That'd be the best option for both of you to continue living together. I was pretty much in the opposite position of you where I owned everything but did most of the watching (like your current roommate but not as bad though). My old roommate felt that he had to be in his room (even though he was often in his room with his girl though) rather then them hanging out with me. I told him he could watch whatever he wanted to in the living room but if I'm in the middle of something just wait till the show was over before starting something. He never took advantage of that, but I at least made it known it was an option to him. I'd also suggest it might be wise to communicate via email. It might be better then you confronting him and him getting all defensive w/o looking at his own actions first.

In terms of a solution, I'd suggest buying a cabinet that you can put your components into and be able to lock it with a key (so they're not open). You could get a RF remote (I suggest a Harmony 890) and either put the base unit in the cabinet or even lock it in your room also (with all the original remotes locked). Take it out when your using it but leave it locked when your not. I'd think you should be able to put a password on your receiver and leave that locked when you're not using it. That way he can't manually change it.

I think that restricting him to G rated television would be hilarious, and far better than just cutting him off completely.

I also second the power strip approach.