CRT to LCD
The grill has been fairly inactive over the last week because I have been getting caught up on a number of home technology projects. The first big challenge of the week was running the structured cabling for my parent's new house. When we built an addition on to our own home several years ago, I undertook the same project. The goal is to run at least two RG-6 coax cables and two Cat-5 cables to every room in the house, as well as speaker cable for any audio distribution. With all of the cables "home run" to a central location, you have complete control of the who, what, and where of signal distribution. The nice thing about running the cables now is that you are future proofing your work. If you don't need it, don't terminate. But if you do need it, the cable is there and you are set. So, 3000 feet of cable later, including leads for DirecTV, cable, and an in-attic antenna for over the air HD, we were done. It is easy work for anyone. So if you are ever planning on adding on, or building new, take a project like this on for yourself.
Project #2 was prepping a new home for a Samsung LCD TV we picked up on clearance at Best Buy. When we originally planned the room, the TV was a 200 plus pound Sony 36 CRT XBR. It was a beast and so was its ledge. The goal for this project was to get a clean appearance with adding another in-wall speaker and maintaining the hidden cabling. I also wanted to recess the TV opening a little bit because I wasn't sure what the radiant heat from the fireplace would do.
Insert Company Plug: I purchased all of my cabling from www.callcct.com which is nicely located in the Dayton area. For a little over $50, I obtained two 12 foot HDMI cables, a 12 foot component video cable, and a 12 foot optical cable. If I were to pick these up at Best Buy, I would probably be looking at close to $200. I also found some great double gang covers on Amazon that eliminated the need to have my in wall cables terminated. The shroud, which reminds me of a dry vent, provided an aesthetic way of running the cables out of the wall.
I framed the opening in and added a makeshift speaker box for the in wall center channel. I figured the huge opening behind the speaker wouldn't help the sound. After testing to make sure everything fit, I drywalled and Zoe painted. After again making sure everything fit, I added some trim to finish off the recessed areas of the TV.
During this same week, I contacted DirecTV and updated our old DirecTIVO...which I did love, for a new DirecTV branded DVR...which I don't love so much. On the plus side, I got the HDDVR for only $100 and talked them into a free year of HD access valued at $120. So, in the end, I made out on the deal and we have another two year commitment on the shelf.
The only frustrating bit on the electronics side is the Sony receiver. It only accepts two channel PCM audio over HDMI. So, I need to run an optical cable from the DVR to the receiver in order to get 5.1. Sony's HDMI has screwed me before and it has screwed me yet again. At least everything looks nice!
