Willy-waving.

[Krusty]

Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
I've got:

5 power
(TV, HC amp, HTPC, STB, network hub)
4 satellite coax
(1 STB, 3 DVB-S2 cards)
4 freeview coax (main feed + 3 patch leads)
(1 TV, 2 DVB-T2 cards)
4 network (main into hub then 3 patch leads)
(PC, TV, HC amp)
2 HDMI
(PC - HC amp - TV)
1 optical S/PDIF
(PC - HC amp)
1 SCART
(STB - TV)
1 Composite Video
(STB - PC analogue card)
1 Audio-out
(PC - music amp)
6 speaker
1 FM aerial
1 PC IR remote receiver USB
1 STB IR-blaster
1 keyboard
1 mouse

So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...

[1] 33 in use - don't need the S/PDIF anymore but can't be arsed to
wrestle it out.

[CT]

Post by Krusty
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...

7!

3 power (TV, BT Vision, DVD player)
1 HDMI (BT Vision -> TV)
1 SCART (DVD -> TV)
1 coax (aerial -> BT Vision)
1 ethernet (Powerline adapter -> BT Vision)

[Vass]

11.

5 power
(TV, BlueRay, Xbox360, Sky HD, Apple TV)
2 satellite coax
(Sky)
4 HDMI
(see power)

[Pete Fisher]

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
5 power
(TV, HC amp, HTPC, STB, network hub)
4 satellite coax
(1 STB, 3 DVB-S2 cards)
4 freeview coax (main feed + 3 patch leads)
(1 TV, 2 DVB-T2 cards)
4 network (main into hub then 3 patch leads)
(PC, TV, HC amp)
2 HDMI
(PC - HC amp - TV)
1 optical S/PDIF
(PC - HC amp)
1 SCART
(STB - TV)
1 Composite Video
(STB - PC analogue card)
1 Audio-out
(PC - music amp)
6 speaker
1 FM aerial
1 PC IR remote receiver USB
1 STB IR-blaster
1 keyboard
1 mouse
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...
[1] 33 in use - don't need the S/PDIF anymore but can't be arsed to
wrestle it out.

That would *totally* freak SWMBO out. She "hates wires".

[Krusty]

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...

That would totally freak SWMBO out. She "hates wires".

Tbh I'm not wild about them myself. It doesn't look /quite/ as bad as
it sounds though as the TV sits in a nook with an outside wall on one
side & inglenook fireplace wall on t'other. So you can only see it all
from the front, which makes it easier to hide them.

The downside is because I can't get to it all from the back or sides, I
have to leave enough slack in the cables to let me pull the hardware
out the front to get to the connectors. I think it's all pretty much
sorted now though, so I can pull the stand out with everything on it,
cable-tie the wires out of sight behind the stand legs, then slide it
all back in again. If I want to get any bits out in future I'll just
have to pull the whole stand out again.

[boxerboy]

Post by Pete Fisher
That would *totally* freak SWMBO out. She "hates wires".
--

+1

My SWMBO goes mental about the need for cables.

Boxerboy

[Pete Fisher]

In communiqué

Post by boxerboy

Post by Pete Fisher
That would *totally* freak SWMBO out. She "hates wires".
--

+1
My SWMBO goes mental about the need for cables.

<nods>

How about multiple mobile phone chargers?

[nicknoxx]

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.

6

2 power (tv,dvd)
1 hdmi to server in study
1 audio to ditto
1 scart
1 coax

[Switters]

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.

Hmmm, off the top of my head...

11 power
5 coax
5 RJ45
3 HDMI
2 S/PDIF
4 SCART
1 Component Video
2 IR blaster
12 speaker
1 FM aerial
7 RCA audio
1 Wii sensor
1 AUX audio lead

55... which is better than it was as I've moved some stuff out. Mostly
they're not too visible as the stand has a series of holes in the shelves
for cable management, so they're tucked away behind the boxes themselves.

Obviously I still need to get rid of some stuff.

[Krusty]

Post by Switters

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.

Hmmm, off the top of my head...
7 RCA audio

Does that mean you're running separate audio channels from a PC to a
Home Cinema amp rather than using HDMI/optical?

[Switters]

Post by Krusty

Post by Switters

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.

Hmmm, off the top of my head...
7 RCA audio

Does that mean you're running separate audio channels from a PC to a
Home Cinema amp rather than using HDMI/optical?

Sort of... it's from the DVD player that supports SACD. As I recall it
won't output the audio over optical/digital, or my amp can't handle the
stream. I can't remember. It was a pain at the time.

[Krusty]

Post by Switters

Post by Krusty

Post by Switters

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the

Hmmm, off the top of my head...
7 RCA audio

Does that mean you're running separate audio channels from a PC to a
Home Cinema amp rather than using HDMI/optical?

Sort of... it's from the DVD player that supports SACD. As I recall
it won't output the audio over optical/digital, or my amp can't
handle the stream. I can't remember. It was a pain at the time.

I know that pain well. I've spent two weeks trying to get my HTPC to
bitstream HD audio over HDMI. Everytime I think I've stumbled upon the
particular mix of codec settings that works, I find another file that
won't play. And getting Dolby out of a Freeview feed is completely
impossible, hence the reason I've now got three DVB-S2 tuners to keep
the DVB-T2 ones company (Dolby works fine on the FTA HD satellite
channels).

I've got one more bunch of settings to try tonight, & if that doesn't
work I'm giving up & letting the sound card do the decoding.

[Switters]

Post by Krusty
And getting Dolby out of a Freeview feed is completely
impossible, hence the reason I've now got three DVB-S2 tuners to keep
the DVB-T2 ones company (Dolby works fine on the FTA HD satellite
channels).

Interesting. The Humax Fox2 is happy to output it.

[Krusty]

Post by Switters

Post by Krusty
And getting Dolby out of a Freeview feed is completely
impossible, hence the reason I've now got three DVB-S2 tuners to
keep the DVB-T2 ones company (Dolby works fine on the FTA HD
satellite channels).

Interesting. The Humax Fox2 is happy to output it.

To clarify, getting it out of a PC is impossible. It comes out from the
Freeview feed into the telly ok. It's only since July last year I think
it was that hardware carrying the Freeview HD logo has had to support
it though[1], so there's an awful lot Freeview tuners out there that
don't. Most people probably don't even realise (or possibly care).

[1] 'It' being HE-AAC, as used by... well nobody really, other than
Freeview.

[frag]

Switters says...

Post by Switters
12 speaker
Obviously I still need to get rid of some stuff.

12 speakers?

Or 6 cables with 2 cores?

[Switters]

Post by frag
Switters says...

Post by Switters
12 speaker
Obviously I still need to get rid of some stuff.

12 speakers?
Or 6 cables with 2 cores?

Actually my memory failed me, as I found out last night.

It's actually 9 speaker cables. Six for the 3 front speakers, which are
bi-wired. One for the sub, and one each for the rears, which I discovered
I didn't bi-wire.

Like Pip, I'm considering sneaking in 2 more for a 7.1 system, but I've
other logistical issues besides 'er indoors.

[frag]

Switters says...

Post by Switters

Post by frag
Switters says...

Post by Switters
12 speaker
Obviously I still need to get rid of some stuff.

12 speakers?
Or 6 cables with 2 cores?

Actually my memory failed me, as I found out last night.
It's actually 9 speaker cables. Six for the 3 front speakers, which are
bi-wired. One for the sub, and one each for the rears, which I discovered
I didn't bi-wire.
Like Pip, I'm considering sneaking in 2 more for a 7.1 system, but I've
other logistical issues besides 'er indoors.

I've thought about a 7.1 system but I'd need to audition one at someone
elses house to hear if it's worth it.

Lots of people have told me that 7.1 is nothing like 5.1 where the rears
don't do much, 7.1 all 7 speakers are used a lot, and full range
identically sounding speakers for all 7 is recommended.

That'd be a big investment (upgrading the Eltax rears and buying 2 sets
of decent speakers) so I'm not going to do it until I'm convinced it's
worth it.

[Malc]

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...

CD to Amp
Turntable to Amp
Dvd to TV
DVD Speaker cables 5 off
Amp speaker cables 2 off
TV aerial

11 in total excluding power leads.

Malc

[Percy Flage]

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
5 power
(TV, HC amp, HTPC, STB, network hub)
4 satellite coax
(1 STB, 3 DVB-S2 cards)
4 freeview coax (main feed + 3 patch leads)
(1 TV, 2 DVB-T2 cards)
4 network (main into hub then 3 patch leads)
(PC, TV, HC amp)
2 HDMI
(PC - HC amp - TV)
1 optical S/PDIF
(PC - HC amp)
1 SCART
(STB - TV)
1 Composite Video
(STB - PC analogue card)
1 Audio-out
(PC - music amp)
6 speaker
1 FM aerial
1 PC IR remote receiver USB
1 STB IR-blaster
1 keyboard
1 mouse
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...
[1] 33 in use - don't need the S/PDIF anymore but can't be arsed to
wrestle it out.

Champ will be along in a minute claiming "1".

[Lozzo]

Post by Percy Flage

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
5 power
(TV, HC amp, HTPC, STB, network hub)
4 satellite coax
(1 STB, 3 DVB-S2 cards)
4 freeview coax (main feed + 3 patch leads)
(1 TV, 2 DVB-T2 cards)
4 network (main into hub then 3 patch leads)
(PC, TV, HC amp)
2 HDMI
(PC - HC amp - TV)
1 optical S/PDIF
(PC - HC amp)
1 SCART
(STB - TV)
1 Composite Video
(STB - PC analogue card)
1 Audio-out
(PC - music amp)
6 speaker
1 FM aerial
1 PC IR remote receiver USB
1 STB IR-blaster
1 keyboard
1 mouse
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...
[1] 33 in use - don't need the S/PDIF anymore but can't be arsed to
wrestle it out.

Champ will be along in a minute claiming "1".

I can claim 0 - I don't have a tv and the dvd player and video player
are now consigned to the loft.

[frag]

Hear Yea! Hear Yea!
On 10 Jan 2012 20:21:37 GMT, Lozzo writ...

Post by Lozzo

Post by Percy Flage

Post by Krusty
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back

there...

Post by Lozzo

Post by Percy Flage

Post by Krusty
[1] 33 in use - don't need the S/PDIF anymore but can't be arsed to
wrestle it out.

Champ will be along in a minute claiming "1".

I can claim 0 - I don't have a tv and the dvd player and video player
are now consigned to the loft.

What about the Voltaic Pile and the Wireless?

[CT]

Post by frag
What about the Voltaic Pile and the Wireless?

He's got a cream for the former.

[Pip]

Post by CT

Post by frag
What about the Voltaic Pile and the Wireless?

He's got a cream for the former.

They charge a lot for it, though.

[CT]

Post by Pip

Post by CT

Post by frag
What about the Voltaic Pile and the Wireless?

He's got a cream for the former.

They charge a lot for it, though.

ogden will be on my back for my joining in a cascade but resistance is
futile.

[frag]

CT says...

Post by CT

Post by Pip

Post by CT

Post by frag
What about the Voltaic Pile and the Wireless?

He's got a cream for the former.

They charge a lot for it, though.

ogden will be on my back for my joining in a cascade but resistance is
futile.

Well if you didn't join in, there'd be a hole in the cascade.

[Champ]

On Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:38:06 +0000, Percy Flage

Post by Percy Flage
Champ will be along in a minute claiming "1".

Fucker, you've made me go and count now...

Power: 8
Scart: 2
HDMI: 1
Coax 4
Sat coax 1
Optical 1
Cat 6 4
IR blaster 1
S video 1
SPDIF 1
Speakers 6

Only 30.

[Pip]

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
5 power
(TV, HC amp, HTPC, STB, network hub)
4 satellite coax
(1 STB, 3 DVB-S2 cards)
4 freeview coax (main feed + 3 patch leads)
(1 TV, 2 DVB-T2 cards)
4 network (main into hub then 3 patch leads)
(PC, TV, HC amp)
2 HDMI
(PC - HC amp - TV)
1 optical S/PDIF
(PC - HC amp)
1 SCART
(STB - TV)
1 Composite Video
(STB - PC analogue card)
1 Audio-out
(PC - music amp)
6 speaker
1 FM aerial
1 PC IR remote receiver USB
1 STB IR-blaster
1 keyboard
1 mouse
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...
[1] 33 in use - don't need the S/PDIF anymore but can't be arsed to
wrestle it out.

For. Fuck's. Sake.

That's an hour of my life I'll never get back, you cable obsessed cunt.

There's a big glass rack, see: a standard one with an extra shelf, 'cos
I bought two and made the sectional legs longer. There's a big HC amp,
a CD player[1] a VCR[2] five fucking game consoles[5], a dual-disc DVD
player[3] a multiregion DVD player[4] a Sky+HD box, a centre speaker and
a clutch of sensors - and a 50" plasma perched on one end of the top
shelf.

The rat's nest runs to about 100 cables altogether: life's too short to
sit on the subwoofer counting any more and idly pulling out those that
aren't currently in use. 18 power cables, for a start - and do I count
the bi-wired speakers as one cable or two each?

The router sits in the opposite corner of the room and the keyboard,
mouse and most of the controls are cordless, so I'm doing my best,
right? It's all due an update, as I'm about to change the power supply
framework in order to eliminate a lot of the "standby" LEDs that glow
constantly as I CBA to unplug the boxes: a power strip with separate
power switches will take care of that, but it has to go somewhere easily
accessible whilst out of direct view ... apparently. While I'm in there
I'll re-route some of the cabling and hide as much of it as I can, while
I'm plumbing in a clutch of proper power amps to beef up the Jap-amp's
wallop.

1. Sounds better than any of the alternate disc spinners.
2. There's an awful lot of pre-recorded tapes that I'm not prepared to
duplicate on DVD, not to mention a shedload of camera tapes.
3. A pukka HiFi job, R2 only though.
4. Not used much, but there's some discs the PS3 won't look at.
5. Not all used for gaming.

[Krusty]

Post by Pip

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
5 power
(TV, HC amp, HTPC, STB, network hub)
4 satellite coax
(1 STB, 3 DVB-S2 cards)
4 freeview coax (main feed + 3 patch leads)
(1 TV, 2 DVB-T2 cards)
4 network (main into hub then 3 patch leads)
(PC, TV, HC amp)
2 HDMI
(PC - HC amp - TV)
1 optical S/PDIF
(PC - HC amp)
1 SCART
(STB - TV)
1 Composite Video
(STB - PC analogue card)
1 Audio-out
(PC - music amp)
6 speaker
1 FM aerial
1 PC IR remote receiver USB
1 STB IR-blaster
1 keyboard
1 mouse
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...
[1] 33 in use - don't need the S/PDIF anymore but can't be arsed to
wrestle it out.

For. Fuck's. Sake.
That's an hour of my life I'll never get back, you cable obsessed cunt.

Haha.

Post by Pip
There's a big glass rack, see: a standard one with an extra shelf,
'cos I bought two and made the sectional legs longer. There's a big
HC amp, a CD player[1] a VCR[2] five fucking game consoles[5], a
dual-disc DVD player[3] a multiregion DVD player[4] a Sky+HD box, a
centre speaker and a clutch of sensors - and a 50" plasma perched on
one end of the top shelf.

Jesus.

Post by Pip
The rat's nest runs to about 100 cables altogether: life's too short
to sit on the subwoofer counting any more and idly pulling out those
that aren't currently in use. 18 power cables, for a start

"For. Fuck's. Sake."

Post by Pip
and do I count the bi-wired speakers as one cable or two each?

One.

Post by Pip
The router sits in the opposite corner of the room and the keyboard,
mouse and most of the controls are cordless, so I'm doing my best,
right?

You're a hero & no mistake.

Post by Pip
It's all due an update, as I'm about to change the power
supply framework in order to eliminate a lot of the "standby" LEDs
that glow constantly as I CBA to unplug the boxes: a power strip with
separate power switches will take care of that, but it has to go
somewhere easily accessible whilst out of direct view ... apparently.

Bugger that, just spray the strip satin black - it'll look lovely. I'm
considering doing that with my Sky box.

[Pip]

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
The rat's nest runs to about 100 cables altogether: life's too short
to sit on the subwoofer counting any more and idly pulling out those
that aren't currently in use. 18 power cables, for a start

"For. Fuck's. Sake."

As a not very wise man once said in a moment of unrestrained eloquence.

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
and do I count the bi-wired speakers as one cable or two each?

One.

That's a relief. That's three off the total, then.

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
The router sits in the opposite corner of the room and the keyboard,
mouse and most of the controls are cordless, so I'm doing my best,
right?

You're a hero & no mistake.

Feet of clay. The router had to be moved from its original position as
The Boy was getting a poor signal and is now running on 20m of phone
cable from the funky souped-up socket that the nice BT man put in last
year - not to mention the two 20m lengths of Cat5 required to run back
to our PCs. I'm fucking sure that's costing us bandwidth - the socket
is 4 feet from my PC, but the cables run 20m one way, then 20m back
again and that can't be ideal. And The Boy still gets dropouts.

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
It's all due an update, as I'm about to change the power
supply framework in order to eliminate a lot of the "standby" LEDs
that glow constantly as I CBA to unplug the boxes: a power strip with
separate power switches will take care of that, but it has to go
somewhere easily accessible whilst out of direct view ... apparently.

Bugger that, just spray the strip satin black - it'll look lovely. I'm
considering doing that with my Sky box.

Hmm. Dunno. It's a thought, but I've just found this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Omega-Surge-Protected-Extension-
Switch/dp/B000KB3NOE/ref=pd_cp_ce_1

I think that looks pretty funky.

You never know, it might even be domestically acceptable - but there's
another kettle of decomposing pond life: the stacked-up rack is
acceptable, especially as the aforementioned rat's nest is only visible
if you put your head behind the TV. There's been talk of a bigger,
better telly, as once again, it is starting to look a bit small and the
soundscape is comfortably bigger than the screen size when it's all
rockin' with a good BluRay fillum of a Suturday night.

So why won't she let me slip another pair of speakers into the equation?
I mean, 5.1 is all very well, but in the current DTS-HD context, 7.1
would be two better, right? I've got the speakers already, I've scoped
the locations and they'll only take a square foot of windowsill and
fireplace respectively - and what difference is another couple of cables
(that'll be hidden for 95% of their length) going to make, amongst the
half-tonne of copper and solver already resident?

Quite a lot, apparently - even if I let her put a basket of dried
flowers on them. Wimmin.

[Krusty]

Post by Pip

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
The router sits in the opposite corner of the room and the
keyboard, mouse and most of the controls are cordless, so I'm
doing my best, right?

You're a hero & no mistake.

Feet of clay. The router had to be moved from its original position
as The Boy was getting a poor signal and is now running on 20m of
phone cable from the funky souped-up socket that the nice BT man put
in last year - not to mention the two 20m lengths of Cat5 required to
run back to our PCs. I'm fucking sure that's costing us bandwidth -
the socket is 4 feet from my PC, but the cables run 20m one way, then
20m back again and that can't be ideal.

I suspect sticking the router by the phone socket then Cat5e (or 6)
from router to PCs would be better.

Post by Pip
And The Boy still gets dropouts.

Have you tried different channels? Mine's steady as a rock now I've
fixed it to a specific channel rather than leaving it on auto. I used
an Android WiFi analyser to find the best channel.

Post by Pip
So why won't she let me slip another pair of speakers into the
equation? I mean, 5.1 is all very well, but in the current DTS-HD
context, 7.1 would be two better, right?

Absolutely.

Post by Pip
I've got the speakers
already, I've scoped the locations and they'll only take a square
foot of windowsill and fireplace respectively - and what difference
is another couple of cables (that'll be hidden for 95% of their
length) going to make, amongst the half-tonne of copper and solver
already resident?
Quite a lot, apparently - even if I let her put a basket of dried
flowers on them. Wimmin.

Can't live with 'em, can't hide extra speakers from 'em. 'Tis a
conundrum & no mistake.

[Pip]

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
The router sits in the opposite corner of the room and the
keyboard, mouse and most of the controls are cordless, so I'm
doing my best, right?

You're a hero & no mistake.

Feet of clay. The router had to be moved from its original position
as The Boy was getting a poor signal and is now running on 20m of
phone cable from the funky souped-up socket that the nice BT man put
in last year - not to mention the two 20m lengths of Cat5 required to
run back to our PCs. I'm fucking sure that's costing us bandwidth -
the socket is 4 feet from my PC, but the cables run 20m one way, then
20m back again and that can't be ideal.

I suspect sticking the router by the phone socket then Cat5e (or 6)
from router to PCs would be better.

Pikey, poxy BT HomeHub only has two cable connections. That's me and
the missus. Boy is (therefore, perforce) on wireless, as are the
laptops and the game consoles and they're all benefitting from the
shorter distance - as is The Boy, but it still drops out on occasion
(usually, I'll betcha, when he's hogging the bandwidth doing something
dodgy with his webcam but I really, really don't wanna know). He
doesn't moan about it as much as he used to, so he can put up with it
until he wants to come up with a proposal.

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
And The Boy still gets dropouts.

Have you tried different channels? Mine's steady as a rock now I've
fixed it to a specific channel rather than leaving it on auto. I used
an Android WiFi analyser to find the best channel.

I'll put Elly onto this, as she's i/c that sort of thing. I deal with
hardware.

I miss the Virgin cable days, especially after my splurging a chunk of
hard unearned on a lovely, lovely Draft N cable router by D-Link, that
was supposedly designed for some stately home, with a range of 300m and
all sorts of super funky fair-share software that prioritised use and
made sure nobody hogged it to the exclusion of others. The main benefit
of that was unplugging Loz, once wireless was fast enough, so I could
close the window above my chair thus cutting out the draught blowing
around the Cat5.

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
So why won't she let me slip another pair of speakers into the
equation? I mean, 5.1 is all very well, but in the current DTS-HD
context, 7.1 would be two better, right?

Absolutely.

<printed>

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
I've got the speakers
already, I've scoped the locations and they'll only take a square
foot of windowsill and fireplace respectively - and what difference
is another couple of cables (that'll be hidden for 95% of their
length) going to make, amongst the half-tonne of copper and solver
already resident?
Quite a lot, apparently - even if I let her put a basket of dried
flowers on them. Wimmin.

Can't live with 'em, can't hide extra speakers from 'em. 'Tis a
conundrum & no mistake.

I can feel some hollow-form artwork pieces coming on - about half a
cubic metre each, I think.

[Champ]

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
And The Boy still gets dropouts.

Have you tried different channels? Mine's steady as a rock now I've
fixed it to a specific channel rather than leaving it on auto. I used
an Android WiFi analyser to find the best channel.

Coo. Might give that a whirl myself, as I've practically given up on
wireless in The Penthouse cos it was up and down like a whore's
drawers. I've switched to the 200MBPS Powerline doobies, and they're
rock solid.

What app did you use?

[Krusty]

Post by Champ

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
And The Boy still gets dropouts.

Have you tried different channels? Mine's steady as a rock now I've
fixed it to a specific channel rather than leaving it on auto. I
used an Android WiFi analyser to find the best channel.

Coo. Might give that a whirl myself, as I've practically given up on
wireless in The Penthouse cos it was up and down like a whore's
drawers. I've switched to the 200MBPS Powerline doobies, and they're
rock solid.
What app did you use?

WiFi Analyzer. It's got a funky graph that shows the signal strength
for each channel.

[Pip]

Post by Krusty

Post by Champ
What app did you use?

WiFi Analyzer. It's got a funky graph that shows the signal strength
for each channel.

<noted>

[Switters]

Post by Krusty
WiFi Analyzer. It's got a funky graph that shows the signal strength
for each channel.

+1 darned useful it is.

[frag]

Pip says...

Post by Pip
You never know, it might even be domestically acceptable - but there's
another kettle of decomposing pond life: the stacked-up rack is
acceptable, especially as the aforementioned rat's nest is only visible
if you put your head behind the TV. There's been talk of a bigger,
better telly, as once again, it is starting to look a bit small and the
soundscape is comfortably bigger than the screen size when it's all
rockin' with a good BluRay fillum of a Suturday night.

Projector & screen. There is no substitute old boy!

You two haven't been round here for ages, we should pick a date for you
both to wend your way over here for grub and bring your best BluRays,
you know how Elly grins like a loon whilst watching :)

[Pip]

Post by frag
Pip says...

Post by Pip
You never know, it might even be domestically acceptable - but there's
another kettle of decomposing pond life: the stacked-up rack is
acceptable, especially as the aforementioned rat's nest is only visible
if you put your head behind the TV. There's been talk of a bigger,
better telly, as once again, it is starting to look a bit small and the
soundscape is comfortably bigger than the screen size when it's all
rockin' with a good BluRay fillum of a Suturday night.

Projector & screen. There is no substitute old boy!

I know, I know. Think I need to get a job.

Post by frag
You two haven't been round here for ages, we should pick a date for you
both to wend your way over here for grub and bring your best BluRays,
you know how Elly grins like a loon whilst watching :)

I'll put it to her. As it were.

[frag]

Hear Yea! Hear Yea!
On Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:30:49 -0000, Pip writ...

Post by Pip

Post by frag
Pip says...

Post by Pip
You never know, it might even be domestically acceptable - but there's
another kettle of decomposing pond life: the stacked-up rack is
acceptable, especially as the aforementioned rat's nest is only visible
if you put your head behind the TV. There's been talk of a bigger,
better telly, as once again, it is starting to look a bit small and the
soundscape is comfortably bigger than the screen size when it's all
rockin' with a good BluRay fillum of a Suturday night.

Projector & screen. There is no substitute old boy!

I know, I know. Think I need to get a job.

You've currently got a 50" haven't you? The next step up has to be,
what, 55"? 65"? Talking a lot of dosh there, certainly enough for a
manual screen and low to medium end projector, or high end if you don't
mind buying used.

Post by Pip

Post by frag
You two haven't been round here for ages, we should pick a date for you
both to wend your way over here for grub and bring your best BluRays,
you know how Elly grins like a loon whilst watching :)

I'll put it to her. As it were.

Fnar

[Pip]

Post by frag
Hear Yea! Hear Yea!
On Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:30:49 -0000, Pip writ...

Post by Pip

Post by frag
Pip says...

Post by Pip
You never know, it might even be domestically acceptable - but there's
another kettle of decomposing pond life: the stacked-up rack is
acceptable, especially as the aforementioned rat's nest is only visible
if you put your head behind the TV. There's been talk of a bigger,
better telly, as once again, it is starting to look a bit small and the
soundscape is comfortably bigger than the screen size when it's all
rockin' with a good BluRay fillum of a Suturday night.

Projector & screen. There is no substitute old boy!

I know, I know. Think I need to get a job.

You've currently got a 50" haven't you? The next step up has to be,
what, 55"? 65"? Talking a lot of dosh there, certainly enough for a
manual screen and low to medium end projector, or high end if you don't
mind buying used.

Yes, a 50. Getting long in the tooth now, nearly five years old. We've
been thinking about a projector for a while, especially as the living
room lends itself by its shape to such an installation with minimal mods
to the structure. 3D is the coming thing though, so I'm hanging on the
future generation that won't require £100/pair specs to watch it.

Post by frag

Post by Pip

Post by frag
You two haven't been round here for ages, we should pick a date for you
both to wend your way over here for grub and bring your best BluRays,
you know how Elly grins like a loon whilst watching :)

I'll put it to her. As it were.

Fnar

I can see a large takeaway and Rango in our near future.

[Simon Wilson]

Post by Pip
3D is the coming thing though, so I'm hanging on the
future generation that won't require £100/pair specs to watch it.

LG's stuff at CES this year is pretty impressive:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/siwilson/6677130735/lightbox/ only cheapy
specs required. I'll be checking out the others over the next couple of
days.

[Pip]

Post by Simon Wilson

Post by Pip
3D is the coming thing though, so I'm hanging on the
future generation that won't require £100/pair specs to watch it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/siwilson/6677130735/lightbox/ only cheapy
specs required. I'll be checking out the others over the next couple of
days.

Well, you're the man on the spot, so to speak. Sort it out, Si.

[Thomas]

On Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:01:25 -0800, Simon Wilson =

Post by Pip
3D is the coming thing though, so I'm hanging on the
future generation that won't require =A3100/pair specs to watch it.

LG's stuff at CES this year is pretty impressive: =
http://www.flickr.com/photos/siwilson/6677130735/lightbox/ only cheapy=

=

specs required. I'll be checking out the others over the next couple o=

f =

days.

Spike TV has a live show going on. Looks like the place to be is Club =

Tryst. Party on, dude.

[frag]

Hear Yea! Hear Yea!
On Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:39 -0000, Pip writ...

Post by Pip

Post by frag
Hear Yea! Hear Yea!
On Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:30:49 -0000, Pip writ...

Post by Pip

Post by frag
Pip says...

Post by Pip
You never know, it might even be domestically acceptable - but there's
another kettle of decomposing pond life: the stacked-up rack is
acceptable, especially as the aforementioned rat's nest is only visible
if you put your head behind the TV. There's been talk of a bigger,
better telly, as once again, it is starting to look a bit small and the
soundscape is comfortably bigger than the screen size when it's all
rockin' with a good BluRay fillum of a Suturday night.

Projector & screen. There is no substitute old boy!

I know, I know. Think I need to get a job.

You've currently got a 50" haven't you? The next step up has to be,
what, 55"? 65"? Talking a lot of dosh there, certainly enough for a
manual screen and low to medium end projector, or high end if you don't
mind buying used.

Yes, a 50. Getting long in the tooth now, nearly five years old. We've
been thinking about a projector for a while, especially as the living
room lends itself by its shape to such an installation with minimal mods
to the structure. 3D is the coming thing though, so I'm hanging on the
future generation that won't require £100/pair specs to watch it.

The latest generaion of Sony & Panasonic 3D TVs are the only ones I can
get along with. The earlier ones just gave me a headache.

Wandered into Currys the other day to kill half an hour and tried all
the 3D telly again and found the above out.

Quite impressive but, as you say, forcing the user to wear glasses was
never really going to be widely accepted.

It's my guess that glasses free TVs will follow the same path, it'll be
the third generation or so where they really get the technology licked.

And then holograms will be just around the corner.

And then neural links.

Post by Pip
I can see a large takeaway and Rango in our near future.

It's sitting on the Sky HD box, but a BluRay would be even "Oooh!" er.

[Pip]

Post by frag
Hear Yea! Hear Yea!
On Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:39 -0000, Pip writ...

Post by Pip
Yes, a 50. Getting long in the tooth now, nearly five years old. We've
been thinking about a projector for a while, especially as the living
room lends itself by its shape to such an installation with minimal mods
to the structure. 3D is the coming thing though, so I'm hanging on the
future generation that won't require £100/pair specs to watch it.

The latest generaion of Sony & Panasonic 3D TVs are the only ones I can
get along with. The earlier ones just gave me a headache.

I've had a look at such things (under supervision and without my wallet,
obv) and have come away less than convinced. I find the big plasma a
bit tiring to the eyes sometimes - if I'm tired to start with, or the
material is less than involving especially.

Post by frag
Wandered into Currys the other day to kill half an hour and tried all
the 3D telly again and found the above out.
Quite impressive but, as you say, forcing the user to wear glasses was
never really going to be widely accepted.

I have probs with the glasses - being a specs wearer for that sort of
distance is a real pain to start with and having a radically bent nose
leads to all sorts of irritating difficulties to the extent that it is
painful for any more than five minutes.

Post by frag
It's my guess that glasses free TVs will follow the same path, it'll be
the third generation or so where they really get the technology licked.

I hope the existing telly lasts long enough for the right generation to
come along: good, hi-def 3D with a 2D performance at least as good as
the current box and useable without heavy specs. The TVs I've seen so
far fall down on the specs (obviously, except a single Tosh that didn't
require them but the picture wasn't special) and if the 3D picture was
good, the 2D wasn't. Even some damned expensive boxes had a really
tight sweet spot for perfect 3D too - one person wide and deep. This is
no good when normal viewing involves a spread across a sofa and an
armchair.

Post by frag
And then holograms will be just around the corner.

The Japanese can't be far off, now.

Post by frag
And then neural links.

We'll be dead before that one.

Post by frag

Post by Pip
I can see a large takeaway and Rango in our near future.

It's sitting on the Sky HD box, but a BluRay would be even "Oooh!" er.

I've just ordered it ;-)

[CT]

Post by Pip

Post by frag
The latest generaion of Sony & Panasonic 3D TVs are the only ones I
can get along with. The earlier ones just gave me a headache.

I've had a look at such things (under supervision and without my
wallet, obv) and have come away less than convinced. I find the big
plasma a bit tiring to the eyes sometimes - if I'm tired to start
with, or the material is less than involving especially.

Top of my current list is the Panasonic that Krusty & switters(?) were
wibbling on about a while back. Of course, this is all "internet
research" - I haven't looked at one in the flesh yet.

And if the model hadn't just disappeared from the John Lewis website,
one might have been on its way to me as I type (I was very bored the
other day at work).

Post by Pip
I hope the existing telly lasts long enough for the right generation
to come along: good, hi-def 3D with a 2D performance at least as good
as the current box and useable without heavy specs. The TVs I've
seen so far fall down on the specs (obviously, except a single Tosh
that didn't require them but the picture wasn't special) and if the
3D picture was good, the 2D wasn't. Even some damned expensive boxes
had a really tight sweet spot for perfect 3D too - one person wide
and deep. This is no good when normal viewing involves a spread
across a sofa and an armchair.

It seems from some of the reports I've read that as 3D gets better, so
2D performance (usually) follows. I hope that's true. IRDGAF about
3D, and I'm not home-cinema freak like some of you lot (ahem!).

[Switters]

Post by CT
Top of my current list is the Panasonic that Krusty & switters(?) were
wibbling on about a while back. Of course, this is all "internet
research" - I haven't looked at one in the flesh yet.

Krusty has the ST30 and I've the GT30. But don't judge the TV by the
setup in the shop. My local RS had their GT30 setup quite poorly, but I
took a punt on the specs, and now that's run-in and tweaked (but not
calibrated), it's far better than the shop had.

[CT]

Post by Switters

Post by CT
Top of my current list is the Panasonic that Krusty & switters(?)
were wibbling on about a while back. Of course, this is all
"internet research" - I haven't looked at one in the flesh yet.

Krusty has the ST30 and I've the GT30.

It's the GT30 that I'm interested in.

Post by Switters
But don't judge the TV by the
setup in the shop. My local RS had their GT30 setup quite poorly,
but I took a punt on the specs, and now that's run-in and tweaked
(but not calibrated), it's far better than the shop had.

Cool. I think that the reviews I've read and the awards it has won is
probably good enough for me[1].

And now, I see that's back on the JL site, except out of stock, so my
twitchy finger can just hang-fire for the moment.
http://www.johnlewis.com/231311623/Product.aspx

[1] I bought the current TV from JL based purely on reviews anyway.
<fx:remembers> Fuck - £1600 for a 32" LCD!

[Krusty]

Post by CT

Post by Switters
But don't judge the TV by the
setup in the shop. My local RS had their GT30 setup quite poorly,
but I took a punt on the specs, and now that's run-in and tweaked
(but not calibrated), it's far better than the shop had.

Cool. I think that the reviews I've read and the awards it has won is
probably good enough for me[1].
And now, I see that's back on the JL site, except out of stock, so my
twitchy finger can just hang-fire for the moment.
http://www.johnlewis.com/231311623/Product.aspx
[1] I bought the current TV from JL based purely on reviews anyway.
<fx:remembers> Fuck - £1600 for a 32" LCD!

The 36" CRT I threw in a skip a couple of weeks ago was £2.5k at JL
when I bought it. I got it for £2k as they price-matched an online
supplier. OK it's not quite car levels of depreciation, but still quite
depressing.

[CT]

Post by Switters

Post by CT
Top of my current list is the Panasonic that Krusty & switters(?)
were wibbling on about a while back. Of course, this is all
"internet research" - I haven't looked at one in the flesh yet.

Krusty has the ST30 and I've the GT30. But don't judge the TV by the
setup in the shop. My local RS had their GT30 setup quite poorly,
but I took a punt on the specs, and now that's run-in and tweaked
(but not calibrated), it's far better than the shop had.

So if one uses it "out of the box" and with no other external
Freeview/Freesat/Sky/Virgin boxes I assume that if you want to record
something (using the USB to external HDD) one must record Freeview and
watch Freesat or vice versa? (assuming one doesn't want to watch what
is being recorded)

[frag]

Pip says...

Post by Pip

Post by frag
Hear Yea! Hear Yea!
On Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:39 -0000, Pip writ...

Post by Pip
Yes, a 50. Getting long in the tooth now, nearly five years old. We've
been thinking about a projector for a while, especially as the living
room lends itself by its shape to such an installation with minimal mods
to the structure. 3D is the coming thing though, so I'm hanging on the
future generation that won't require £100/pair specs to watch it.

The latest generaion of Sony & Panasonic 3D TVs are the only ones I can
get along with. The earlier ones just gave me a headache.

I've had a look at such things (under supervision and without my wallet,
obv)

LOL

Post by Pip
and have come away less than convinced. I find the big plasma a
bit tiring to the eyes sometimes - if I'm tired to start with, or the
material is less than involving especially.

Viewing distance? Height of screen?

I don't get any problems with my plasma but it's a bit further away and
lower.

I do sometimes get that effect (when you're just on the verge of a
headache but you know some good grub and a beer will sort it, but in
spite of that, something just sets it off) when watching the projector.
I think it's to do with the height of the screen. (the center, i.e. if
you have to tilt your head up or down or level to look at the centre of
the screen)

Luckily digging the bean bag out and slouching like a slob alters the
angle of my whole body and points my natural eyeline up higher :)

Post by Pip
I hope the existing telly lasts long enough for the right generation to
come along: good, hi-def 3D with a 2D performance at least as good as
the current box and useable without heavy specs. The TVs I've seen so
far fall down on the specs (obviously, except a single Tosh that didn't
require them but the picture wasn't special) and if the 3D picture was
good, the 2D wasn't. Even some damned expensive boxes had a really
tight sweet spot for perfect 3D too - one person wide and deep. This is
no good when normal viewing involves a spread across a sofa and an
armchair.

Yep, I'm suprised there isn't a lot more people cursing them as the
whole family try to watch, all trying to crowd into that sweet spot.

Post by Pip

Post by frag
And then holograms will be just around the corner.

The Japanese can't be far off, now.

Those will eliminate the sweet spot and you'll be able to watch
EastEnders from the back. (which has got to be an improvement)

Ballroom dancing from underneath?

Post by Pip
We'll be dead before that one.

Noooo! I want my brain put in a jar and kept alive. I'm sure they'll
invent artificial eyes that they can attach so I can see out of the fish
bowl.

Post by Pip
I've just ordered it ;-)

Game on! :)

[Colin Irvine]

Post by frag
And then holograms will be just around the corner.

IWHT for most programmes 3D would be preferable to a hologram.

[frag]

Colin Irvine says...

Post by Colin Irvine

Post by frag
And then holograms will be just around the corner.

IWHT for most programmes 3D would be preferable to a hologram.

But a hologram is 3D, just one you don't need glasses for and you can
walk round.

But I suspect for the programmes you're thinking of, a nice screen saver
would be preferable.

[Vass]

aIt's my guess that glasses free TVs will follow the same path, it'll be
the third generation or so where they really get the technology licked.
And then holograms will be just around the corner.

next is 4K Blue ray apparently, needs new player and TV, all the major
brands have taken it up already.
cant see Jo Public happy to change their kit all over again though.

[frag]

Vass says...

Post by Vass

aIt's my guess that glasses free TVs will follow the same path, it'll be
the third generation or so where they really get the technology licked.
And then holograms will be just around the corner.

next is 4K Blue ray apparently, needs new player and TV, all the major
brands have taken it up already.
cant see Jo Public happy to change their kit all over again though.

Yep.

It's out in Japan already IIRC. They decided to skip hi-def (1080i/p)
altogether and go for 4K.

I'm not sure Mr Murdoch would be happy to reduce the number of advert
carrying channels from 'x' hundred to about 16 :)

[Vass]

Post by frag
Projector & screen. There is no substitute old boy!

hated it, the whirring fan over my head, ruined the film
Projectors in the loft now gathering dust.

[frag]

Vass says...

Post by Vass

Post by frag
Projector & screen. There is no substitute old boy!

hated it, the whirring fan over my head, ruined the film
Projectors in the loft now gathering dust.

You bought the wrong one then, me old boy.

This what I've got at the moment:-
http://www.trustedreviews.com/JVC-DLA-HD1-1080p-LCD-
Projector_Projector_review
(although it's a D-ILA projector, not an LCD)

Quiet as a very quiet thing.

The case is huge which really helps as they can have large air ducts
with slow moving air.

['Hog]

Post by Pip
2. There's an awful lot of pre-recorded tapes that I'm not prepared
to duplicate on DVD, not to mention a shedload of camera tapes.

Get with 2010.
Rip all your tapes/discs to a NAS (1) and punt the fskin lot to a charidee
shop. You'll never look back and the clutter reduction is immense.
If the covers are special to you, scan them.

I haven't even had my blue-ray player out of the box in 8 months.

(1) or just torrent the equivalent

[Pip]

Post by 'Hog

Post by Pip
2. There's an awful lot of pre-recorded tapes that I'm not prepared
to duplicate on DVD, not to mention a shedload of camera tapes.

Get with 2010.
Rip all your tapes/discs to a NAS (1) and punt the fskin lot to a charidee
shop. You'll never look back and the clutter reduction is immense.
If the covers are special to you, scan them.

Fuck. That. For a game of soldiers.

Seriously: I've been doing some back-to-back listening to music,
inspired by some recent digitally remastered re-releases and there's
some considerable noticeable difference between CD output and MP3
output. Fine, I guess, for casual, in-car activities, but not what I
want to listen to, IYSWIM. That would mean lossless ripping which would
be a bit space-hungry, even in these days of cheap terabyte drives -
which I'd have to back up to a second drive in case the first one went
crook, right? Then I'd have to remember to duplicate it from the
backups every couple of years, as HDDs son't last for ever. Multiply
all that time and effort by ~2000 music CDs and it's more than Id want
to do. Ever.

Post by 'Hog
I haven't even had my blue-ray player out of the box in 8 months.
(1) or just torrent the equivalent

I don't do torrents. There's several reasons, not least amongst them
being the number of virus-carrying payloads that I've seen the results
of: throw away HDD with all its contents, buy new HDD, reinstall OS and
rebuild from the ground up. I don't need any entertainment that badly
to justify the risk of that sort of inconvenience. Not only that, but
we come back to the quality issue: I'd assume a torrented rip to be
shrunk to minimal size and tehrefore the picture and/or sound will
suffer and I haven't invested the GDP of a small country in my
electronics to listen to it in mono, nor to watch a grainy picture. I
guess there's high-quality rips, but we don't have the Virgin 20Mb line
any more and there's a 100Gb cap at the end of the month to be wary of.

I'll stick with my discs, TYVM.

[Krusty]

Post by Pip

Post by 'Hog
(1) or just torrent the equivalent

I don't do torrents. There's several reasons, not least amongst them
being the number of virus-carrying payloads that I've seen the
results of: throw away HDD with all its contents, buy new HDD,
reinstall OS and rebuild from the ground up. I don't need any
entertainment that badly to justify the risk of that sort of
inconvenience.

Highly unlikely to ever happen if you're sensible & stick to torrents
with at least a handful of positive comments & ratings.

Post by Pip
I'd assume a torrented rip to be shrunk to minimal size and tehrefore
the picture and/or sound will suffer and I haven't invested the GDP
of a small country in my electronics to listen to it in mono, nor to
watch a grainy picture. I guess there's high-quality rips, but we
don't have the Virgin 20Mb line any more and there's a 100Gb cap at
the end of the month to be wary of.

That's the killer. There's usually several quality options to pick
from, but you're looking at 50GB for a top quality Blu-ray rip.

[Pete Fisher]

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip

Post by 'Hog
(1) or just torrent the equivalent

I don't do torrents. There's several reasons, not least amongst them
being the number of virus-carrying payloads that I've seen the
results of: throw away HDD with all its contents, buy new HDD,
reinstall OS and rebuild from the ground up. I don't need any
entertainment that badly to justify the risk of that sort of
inconvenience.

Highly unlikely to ever happen if you're sensible & stick to torrents
with at least a handful of positive comments & ratings.

Post by Pip
I'd assume a torrented rip to be shrunk to minimal size and tehrefore
the picture and/or sound will suffer and I haven't invested the GDP
of a small country in my electronics to listen to it in mono, nor to
watch a grainy picture. I guess there's high-quality rips, but we
don't have the Virgin 20Mb line any more and there's a 100Gb cap at
the end of the month to be wary of.

That's the killer. There's usually several quality options to pick
from, but you're looking at 50GB for a top quality Blu-ray rip.

I only usually torrent old TV shows that date from before HD so it's not
an issue. Never had any capping issues with Demon either.

Now I have a flat screen 1080 HD ready 'monitor/TV' (but only Freeview,
not HD Freeview) that will run at loadsa pixels or whatever though, I've
been experimenting with the odd HD torrent and streaming iPlayer HD via
SWMBO's new lappy. The picture is suitably impressive (but jerky when
streaming - mainly a bottleneck in the 'Homeplug' we have to use in that
room via fairly old mains wiring I guess), but as her machine has no
HDMI output (unlike the lad's but that means disconnecting it from his
multitude of wires) the sound can only be enjoyed by hooking my Sony
'lo-fi' aux input up to the lappy headphone socket. Good enough for
Chancer but not for 'Unplugged'.

[Pip]

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
I'd assume a torrented rip to be shrunk to minimal size and tehrefore
the picture and/or sound will suffer and I haven't invested the GDP
of a small country in my electronics to listen to it in mono, nor to
watch a grainy picture. I guess there's high-quality rips, but we
don't have the Virgin 20Mb line any more and there's a 100Gb cap at
the end of the month to be wary of.

That's the killer. There's usually several quality options to pick
from, but you're looking at 50GB for a top quality Blu-ray rip.

Easier all round to buy the BluRay, really. As they're down to around a
tenner these days and you know it will work, with functional menus and
extras, I don't see the attraction of ripoffs.

[Krusty]

Post by Pip

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
I guess there's
high-quality rips, but we don't have the Virgin 20Mb line any
more and there's a 100Gb cap at the end of the month to be wary
of.

That's the killer. There's usually several quality options to pick
from, but you're looking at 50GB for a top quality Blu-ray rip.

Easier all round to buy the BluRay, really. As they're down to
around a tenner these days

Piranha 3D was only a fiver. I would've paid ten times that just for
one particular scene...

['Hog]

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip

Post by 'Hog
(1) or just torrent the equivalent

I don't do torrents. There's several reasons, not least amongst them
being the number of virus-carrying payloads that I've seen the
results of: throw away HDD with all its contents, buy new HDD,
reinstall OS and rebuild from the ground up. I don't need any
entertainment that badly to justify the risk of that sort of
inconvenience.

Highly unlikely to ever happen if you're sensible & stick to torrents
with at least a handful of positive comments & ratings.

As I said up in the thread, never had a problem. They get scanned anyway.

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
I'd assume a torrented rip to be shrunk to minimal size and tehrefore
the picture and/or sound will suffer and I haven't invested the GDP
of a small country in my electronics to listen to it in mono, nor to
watch a grainy picture. I guess there's high-quality rips, but we
don't have the Virgin 20Mb line any more and there's a 100Gb cap at
the end of the month to be wary of.

That's the killer. There's usually several quality options to pick
from, but you're looking at 50GB for a top quality Blu-ray rip.

The biggest blu-ray rip I've used is probably 10gb. I can't hear or see any
difference in comparison to a 5gb 1080 rip so that's where I go and mostly
1-2gb at 720 looks and sounds excellent.

Then again I've never spent £100 on an audio cable....

[Fraser Johnston]

Post by Pip

Post by 'Hog

Post by Pip
2. There's an awful lot of pre-recorded tapes that I'm not prepared
to duplicate on DVD, not to mention a shedload of camera tapes.

Get with 2010.
Rip all your tapes/discs to a NAS (1) and punt the fskin lot to a charidee
shop. You'll never look back and the clutter reduction is immense.
If the covers are special to you, scan them.

Fuck. That. For a game of soldiers.
Seriously: I've been doing some back-to-back listening to music,
inspired by some recent digitally remastered re-releases and there's
some considerable noticeable difference between CD output and MP3
output. Fine, I guess, for casual, in-car activities, but not what I
want to listen to, IYSWIM. That would mean lossless ripping which would
be a bit space-hungry, even in these days of cheap terabyte drives -
which I'd have to back up to a second drive in case the first one went
crook, right? Then I'd have to remember to duplicate it from the
backups every couple of years, as HDDs son't last for ever. Multiply
all that time and effort by ~2000 music CDs and it's more than Id want
to do. Ever.

Post by 'Hog
I haven't even had my blue-ray player out of the box in 8 months.
(1) or just torrent the equivalent

I don't do torrents. There's several reasons, not least amongst them
being the number of virus-carrying payloads that I've seen the results
of: throw away HDD with all its contents, buy new HDD, reinstall OS and
rebuild from the ground up. I don't need any entertainment that badly
to justify the risk of that sort of inconvenience. Not only that, but
we come back to the quality issue: I'd assume a torrented rip to be
shrunk to minimal size and tehrefore the picture and/or sound will
suffer and I haven't invested the GDP of a small country in my
electronics to listen to it in mono, nor to watch a grainy picture. I
guess there's high-quality rips, but we don't have the Virgin 20Mb line
any more and there's a 100Gb cap at the end of the month to be wary of.
I'll stick with my discs, TYVM.

He's talking tapes vhs and cassette. Both of which have shit quality
and lots of bulk. Cd's don't take up a load of room in comparison to
vhs. Personally I am ripping all my stuff lossless and even on my quite
good system I can't tell the difference in back to back tests.

['Hog]

Post by Pip

Post by 'Hog

Post by Pip
2. There's an awful lot of pre-recorded tapes that I'm not prepared
to duplicate on DVD, not to mention a shedload of camera tapes.

Get with 2010.
Rip all your tapes/discs to a NAS (1) and punt the fskin lot to a
charidee shop. You'll never look back and the clutter reduction is
immense.
If the covers are special to you, scan them.

Fuck. That. For a game of soldiers.
Seriously: I've been doing some back-to-back listening to music,
inspired by some recent digitally remastered re-releases and there's
some considerable noticeable difference between CD output and MP3
output. Fine, I guess, for casual, in-car activities, but not what I
want to listen to, IYSWIM. That would mean lossless ripping which
would be a bit space-hungry, even in these days of cheap terabyte
drives - which I'd have to back up to a second drive in case the
first one went crook, right? Then I'd have to remember to duplicate
it from the backups every couple of years, as HDDs son't last for
ever. Multiply all that time and effort by ~2000 music CDs and it's
more than Id want to do. Ever.

2 TB drives with auto backup software innit. One in the external HDD/NAS
another in the media PC.

I'm sure you are right about the audio quality. Get yourself some hearing
loss and a decent dose of tinitus and you will never notice.
All my music is 192kb VBR and it sounds just fine to me on whatever.

For video, MKV files with HD 5.1 audio/video at between 1 and 5gb for 720 to
1080 look great and sound great. I've never ripped to a 20gb file.

Post by Pip

Post by 'Hog
I haven't even had my blue-ray player out of the box in 8 months.
(1) or just torrent the equivalent

I don't do torrents. There's several reasons, not least amongst them
being the number of virus-carrying payloads that I've seen the results
of: throw away HDD with all its contents, buy new HDD, reinstall OS
and rebuild from the ground up. I don't need any entertainment that
badly to justify the risk of that sort of inconvenience. Not only
that, but we come back to the quality issue: I'd assume a torrented
rip to be shrunk to minimal size and tehrefore the picture and/or
sound will suffer and I haven't invested the GDP of a small country
in my electronics to listen to it in mono, nor to watch a grainy
picture. I guess there's high-quality rips, but we don't have the
Virgin 20Mb line any more and there's a 100Gb cap at the end of the
month to be wary of.
I'll stick with my discs, TYVM.

Be careful who you get the source from as a torrent or through Bolt and
Bob's your cross dressing auntie. I've never had a problem.

TBF most stuff came from renting the DVD, which I invariably rip then watch
or buying the DVD which I rip then bin or chuck it in the charidee bag.
Yeah I do usually watch the rip rather than the original disk as I squeeze
out all the intro shit and it goes straight into play.

[Switters]

Post by Pip
and do I count the bi-wired speakers as one cable or two each?

I counted them as two, hence my sub-total. After all, there are 2 pairs
of cables per speaker.

[Krusty]

Post by Switters

Post by Pip
and do I count the bi-wired speakers as one cable or two each?

I counted them as two, hence my sub-total. After all, there are 2
pairs of cables per speaker.

<engages brain>

You're right, I missed the bi-wired bit.

[Pip]

Post by Krusty

Post by Switters

Post by Pip
and do I count the bi-wired speakers as one cable or two each?

I counted them as two, hence my sub-total. After all, there are 2
pairs of cables per speaker.

<engages brain>
You're right, I missed the bi-wired bit.

Oh, stop it.

I've found the (faux)marble plinths for the power amps, now. I know
where the cables are, so it's *just* a matter of tunneling into the loft
and extracting the amps. Fortunately, they're in the far corner and
weigh quite chunky chunks, plus the weight is all in one corner and
there's lots of uncovered fibreglass insulation around there, so it adds
up to considerable agony to get them out.

The temptation is, however, immense as I miss they slam they convey -
and hey, if I biwire and biamp then that's another clutch of cables to
count. You cunt.

[Krusty]

Post by Pip

Post by Krusty

Post by Switters

Post by Pip
and do I count the bi-wired speakers as one cable or two each?

I counted them as two, hence my sub-total. After all, there are 2
pairs of cables per speaker.

<engages brain>
You're right, I missed the bi-wired bit.

Oh, stop it.
I've found the (faux)marble plinths for the power amps, now. I know
where the cables are, so it's just a matter of tunneling into the
loft and extracting the amps. Fortunately, they're in the far corner
and weigh quite chunky chunks, plus the weight is all in one corner
and there's lots of uncovered fibreglass insulation around there, so
it adds up to considerable agony to get them out.
The temptation is, however, immense as I miss they slam they convey -
and hey, if I biwire and biamp then that's another clutch of cables
to count. You cunt.

Get to it man, I expect an answer by the morning. Excuses along the
lines of 'the dog ate my totting-up sheet' won't be accepted.

[Pip]

Post by Krusty

Post by Pip
I've found the (faux)marble plinths for the power amps, now. I know
where the cables are, so it's just a matter of tunneling into the
loft and extracting the amps. Fortunately, they're in the far corner
and weigh quite chunky chunks, plus the weight is all in one corner
and there's lots of uncovered fibreglass insulation around there, so
it adds up to considerable agony to get them out.
The temptation is, however, immense as I miss they slam they convey -
and hey, if I biwire and biamp then that's another clutch of cables
to count. You cunt.

Get to it man, I expect an answer by the morning. Excuses along the
lines of 'the dog ate my totting-up sheet' won't be accepted.

F.O.Y.R.N.B.

[Switters]

Post by Pip
The temptation is, however, immense as I miss they slam they convey -
and hey, if I biwire and biamp then that's another clutch of cables to
count. You cunt.

I don't see the downside really. I mean, we both know that bi-wiring is
pretty much a waste of time. I'm not really convinced I can tell the
difference and it's difficult to do a blind test... but bi-amping, well,
that's a different kettle of scaley creatures.

[Pip]

In article <***@88.198.244.100>, Switters
says...

Post by Switters

Post by Pip
The temptation is, however, immense as I miss they slam they convey -
and hey, if I biwire and biamp then that's another clutch of cables to
count. You cunt.

I don't see the downside really. I mean, we both know that bi-wiring is
pretty much a waste of time. I'm not really convinced I can tell the
difference and it's difficult to do a blind test... but bi-amping, well,
that's a different kettle of scaley creatures.

Bi-amping is the way forward - unless you're running a set of real high-
end speakers with unimpeachable crossovers off a set of pokey amps. I
still dream of a rack of Krells or Levinsons powering a pair of Grand
Slamms, but it'll never happen. I'm sitting here grinning now,
recalling the difference it made when I got home with the second Rotel
power amp, flicked the switches to "bridge" and got a pair of monobloc
180Wpc beasts, curled in the monstrous Audioquest jump lead-like speaker
cables leading to the RTL 4s and sat back to listen to whatever was in
the tray - Amused To Death by Roger Waters, IIRC.

I hadn't altered the volume setting on the preamp, had I? Those
speakers were always a bit big for that house, and the single 60Wpc
Rotel had always struggled a bit with them, so it was set at about 7.

Next door knew all about it. I'm suprised they didn't hear a) every
hair on my head and the back of my neck standing on end; b) every nerve
ending howling at me; c) the thud as the sofa went over backwards as I
frantically backpedalled from a seated position, rolled out rearwards
and scrambled to get to the amp before the wife got to me.

The sweet spot at 70% volume moved twelve feet backwards - from my sofa
straight into next door's living room. 30% was much more suitable and
it felt like I was *there*, maaan.

It was a bit thuddy, though - I was hearing bass that just hadn't
existed before, and so was next door on both sides. I took some advice
and part-exchanged the beautiful Audioquests for some super-slim QED
silver (rather than copper) bi-wireable multicore cables ... at a mere
£15 per single run metre. Teeth grinding it was, running four strands
of that 1.5 metres up the back of the speakers to the connectors. A
hundred quid to get from the carpet to the connectors made me twitch a
bit. Took the thud out and replaced it with sweet though, and I'm still
running those cables now, over 20 years later when I'd never even
consider spending that much.

[Alex Ferrier]

Post by frag
Switters says...

Post by Switters
I don't see the downside really. I mean, we both know that bi-wiring is
pretty much a waste of time. I'm not really convinced I can tell the
difference and it's difficult to do a blind test... but bi-amping, well,
that's a different kettle of scaley creatures.

Bi-amping is the way forward.

Agree. I use four channels (140wpc) on my TX-NR905 to Bi-amp my stereo
front pair (TDL RTL4s). Along with getting the levels correctly set on my
trusty old REL Storm sub, It transformed the precision and depth of the
stereo imagery.

Cable count?
Er, without actually physically checking:

10 power,
8 speaker,
5 HDMI,
6 RJ45,
4 TV co-axial,
2 Aerial (1 FM, 1 AM),
1 Keyboard Tx/Rx unit,
2 permanent USB device installations,
1 External fan lead (for the water cooling system)
1 Wifi co-axial connector,
1 Optical,
7 audio phono

er, 48ish?

[Switters]

Post by Alex Ferrier
I use four channels (140wpc) on my TX-NR905

I see RS have dropped the price on the NR609, but I guess there's little
to compare between the two. How do you rate the Onkyo generally though?

[frag]

Pip says...

Post by Pip
It was a bit thuddy, though - I was hearing bass that just hadn't
existed before, and so was next door on both sides. I took some advice
and part-exchanged the beautiful Audioquests for some super-slim QED
silver (rather than copper) bi-wireable multicore cables ... at a mere
£15 per single run metre. Teeth grinding it was, running four strands
of that 1.5 metres up the back of the speakers to the connectors. A
hundred quid to get from the carpet to the connectors made me twitch a
bit. Took the thud out and replaced it with sweet though

Careful now, all those peopl^Hfools who insist that electrical cables
cannot alter sound in any way just because they've never heard it will
come out of the woodwork.

[frag]

Pip says...

Post by Pip
For. Fuck's. Sake.
That's an hour of my life I'll never get back, you cable obsessed cunt.

You bloody nerdwannabe!

Can't remember everything from memory?

FFS, half of the phono audio cables I can tell you the colour of them.
(and no, not black! :P )

Post by Pip
The rat's nest runs to about 100 cables altogether

Hah, mine was like that.

Then one day when I needed to fight my way back there and change a
couple of things around, got that pissed off with it all and
disconnected *everything*, sorted the cables out into piles and re-wired
everything, with matching cable ties everywhere.

Like wot you should do.

Mr Cable Ties indeed. Pah!

:)

[g***@gmail.com]

Post by frag
Then one day when I needed to fight my way back there and change a
couple of things around, got that pissed off with it all and
disconnected *everything*, sorted the cables out into piles and re-wired
everything, with matching cable ties everywhere.
Like wot you should do.
Mr Cable Ties indeed. Pah!

Heathen!
The beauty is in *having* them, not *using* them.

[frag]

Hear Yea! Hear Yea!

Post by g***@gmail.com

Post by frag
Then one day when I needed to fight my way back there and change a
couple of things around, got that pissed off with it all and
disconnected *everything*, sorted the cables out into piles and re-wired
everything, with matching cable ties everywhere.
Like wot you should do.
Mr Cable Ties indeed. Pah!

Heathen!
The beauty is in *having* them, not *using* them.

Ah!

Now I see why we're all in a biking newsgroup! :)

[Pip]

Post by frag
Hear Yea! Hear Yea!

Post by g***@gmail.com
Heathen!
The beauty is in *having* them, not *using* them.

Ah!
Now I see why we're all in a biking newsgroup! :)

You're coming round to the CT viewpoint, now.

[CT]

Post by Pip

Post by frag
Hear Yea! Hear Yea!

Post by g***@gmail.com
Heathen!
The beauty is in having them, not using them.

Ah!
Now I see why we're all in a biking newsgroup! :)

You're coming round to the CT viewpoint, now.

I've checked and my bike is definitely still in the garage. All I
really need is for the physio to sort my back out and then I shall
stick the Optimate[1] on it for a few days, kick the tyres and I should
be good to go.


[1] YY,SS,W

[frag]

CT says...

Post by CT

Post by Pip

Post by frag
Hear Yea! Hear Yea!

Post by g***@gmail.com
Heathen!
The beauty is in having them, not using them.

Ah!
Now I see why we're all in a biking newsgroup! :)

You're coming round to the CT viewpoint, now.

I've checked and my bike is definitely still in the garage. All I
really need is for the physio to sort my back out and then I shall
stick the Optimate[1] on it for a few days, kick the tyres and I should
be good to go.
[1] YY,SS,W

Does one really need to kick the tyres on a motorbike suspended above
the fireplace?

And I'm impressed by your agility, too.

[CT]

Post by frag
CT says...

Post by CT
I've checked and my bike is definitely still in the garage. All I
really need is for the physio to sort my back out and then I shall
stick the Optimate[1] on it for a few days, kick the tyres and I
should be good to go.

Does one really need to kick the tyres on a motorbike suspended above
the fireplace?
And I'm impressed by your agility, too.

I don't have a fireplace in the garage.

[Pip]

In article <***@4ax.com>, grimly4
@gmail.com says...

Post by g***@gmail.com

Post by frag
Mr Cable Ties indeed. Pah!

Heathen!
The beauty is in *having* them, not *using* them.

**DING**

[Pip]

Post by frag
Pip says...

Post by Pip
For. Fuck's. Sake.
That's an hour of my life I'll never get back, you cable obsessed cunt.

You bloody nerdwannabe!

That's "dork", TYVM.

Post by frag
Can't remember everything from memory?

Memory? After all the booze and pills I've done in the last 20 years?

Post by frag
FFS, half of the phono audio cables I can tell you the colour of them.
(and no, not black! :P )

I can remember where the Rubies and Emeralds run, then tehre's some
lovely big pink lads with locking plugs ... then tehre's a bunch of
purple and yellow fellas ... then it all gets a bit vague. Thing is,
the configuration has changed more than a few times and rewiring takes
the form of sitting on the subwoofer with a huge pile of cables on one
side and a bunch of boxes onna rack on the other. Can of beer, head
torch on, two hours and another couple of cans and it's all done.

By the time the spiders have moved in, I've forgotten what goes where.

Post by frag

Post by Pip
The rat's nest runs to about 100 cables altogether

Hah, mine was like that.
Then one day when I needed to fight my way back there and change a
couple of things around, got that pissed off with it all and
disconnected *everything*, sorted the cables out into piles and re-wired
everything, with matching cable ties everywhere.
Like wot you should do.

Meh. I likes a bit of space around me wires, like. Velcro straps stop
them interfering with each other and allow adjustments.

Post by frag
Mr Cable Ties indeed. Pah!
:)

If any of my Christmas cable ties had had ends on them I have might been
able to use them.

[davethedave]

Post by Pip
Meh. I likes a bit of space around me wires, like. Velcro straps stop
them interfering with each other and allow adjustments.

Post by frag
Mr Cable Ties indeed. Pah!
:)

If any of my Christmas cable ties had had ends on them I have might been
able to use them.

No, no, no.

All of the cables should be custom made for each run. Long enough but no
longer. Quality cable, nice connectors, lovingly hand soldered with care,
leaving a shiny well wetted out joint containing enough filler to make a
beautiful silver meniscus but not so much as to overflow the cup.
Finished beautifully with a perfectly sized bit of heat shrink for
insulation. Connector case screwed over the strain relief spring and
another layer of heat shrink as extra strain relief in a suitable colour.

If they are all the perfect length then you won't need cable ties, will
you?

[Pip]

Post by davethedave

Post by Pip
Meh. I likes a bit of space around me wires, like. Velcro straps stop
them interfering with each other and allow adjustments.

Post by frag
Mr Cable Ties indeed. Pah!
:)

If any of my Christmas cable ties had had ends on them I have might been
able to use them.

No, no, no.
All of the cables should be custom made for each run. Long enough but no
longer. Quality cable, nice connectors, lovingly hand soldered with care,
leaving a shiny well wetted out joint containing enough filler to make a
beautiful silver meniscus but not so much as to overflow the cup.
Finished beautifully with a perfectly sized bit of heat shrink for
insulation. Connector case screwed over the strain relief spring and
another layer of heat shrink as extra strain relief in a suitable colour.
If they are all the perfect length then you won't need cable ties, will
you?

If they all looked like that, I'd put a mirror behind the rack so we
could all admire them.

[davethedave]

Post by Pip

Post by davethedave

Post by Pip
Meh. I likes a bit of space around me wires, like. Velcro straps
stop them interfering with each other and allow adjustments.

Post by frag
Mr Cable Ties indeed. Pah!
:)

If any of my Christmas cable ties had had ends on them I have might
been able to use them.

No, no, no.
All of the cables should be custom made for each run. Long enough but
no longer. Quality cable, nice connectors, lovingly hand soldered with
care, leaving a shiny well wetted out joint containing enough filler to
make a beautiful silver meniscus but not so much as to overflow the
cup. Finished beautifully with a perfectly sized bit of heat shrink for
insulation. Connector case screwed over the strain relief spring and
another layer of heat shrink as extra strain relief in a suitable colour.
If they are all the perfect length then you won't need cable ties, will
you?

If they all looked like that, I'd put a mirror behind the rack so we
could all admire them.

Obtain a video camera, -stuff-it-up-the-back-of-the-rack- wire it in
neatly and you can have a TV channel devoted to the beauty of cabling.

Only adds to the cable count by one power and one video.

[frag]

Pip says...

Post by Pip

Post by frag
Can't remember everything from memory?

Memory? After all the booze and pills I've done in the last 20 years?

Post by frag
FFS, half of the phono audio cables I can tell you the colour of them.
(and no, not black! :P )

I can remember where the Rubies and Emeralds run, then tehre's some
lovely big pink lads with locking plugs ... then tehre's a bunch of
purple and yellow fellas ... then it all gets a bit vague. Thing is,
the configuration has changed more than a few times and rewiring takes
the form of sitting on the subwoofer with a huge pile of cables on one
side and a bunch of boxes onna rack on the other. Can of beer, head
torch on, two hours and another couple of cans and it's all done.
By the time the spiders have moved in, I've forgotten what goes where.

Loading Image...

Post by Pip
Meh. I likes a bit of space around me wires, like. Velcro straps stop
them interfering with each other and allow adjustments.

Sounds good. And posh. I should have known I had no chance of keeping
up.

Post by Pip
If any of my Christmas cable ties had had ends on them I have might been
able to use them.

ROLF

[Switters]

Post by frag
Then one day when I needed to fight my way back there and change a
couple of things around, got that pissed off with it all and
disconnected *everything*, sorted the cables out into piles and re-wired
everything, with matching cable ties everywhere.

heh, that's what I did when I replaced the TV, except without the cable
ties and shit. So it's still a mess, but a little more organised than
before.

[Gyp]

Post by Pip
The rat's nest runs to about 100 cables altogether: life's too short to
sit on the subwoofer counting any more and idly pulling out those that
aren't currently in use. 18 power cables, for a start - and do I count
the bi-wired speakers as one cable or two each?

You could reduce the power cables by one...

Ebay item 280802400536

[Pip]

Post by Gyp

Post by Pip
The rat's nest runs to about 100 cables altogether: life's too short to
sit on the subwoofer counting any more and idly pulling out those that
aren't currently in use. 18 power cables, for a start - and do I count
the bi-wired speakers as one cable or two each?

You could reduce the power cables by one...
Ebay item 280802400536

Ten years ago, I'd have been in there like a ferret.

These days it's all about multi-channel and HDMI and remote control and
domestic acceptability.

I'd still love a Michi mind, but OTOH the same seller has a couple of
Krell boxes I'd have happily died for ten years ago and still might ...
if I was daft enough to buy them.

Krells or Levisons running a pair of big Wilsons. In a big room, in a
big and very detached house.

[Champ]

Post by Pip

Post by Krusty
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...

For. Fuck's. Sake.
That's an hour of my life I'll never get back, you cable obsessed cunt.

LOL!

<high fives Krusty>

[Pip]

Post by Champ

Post by Pip

Post by Krusty
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...

For. Fuck's. Sake.
That's an hour of my life I'll never get back, you cable obsessed cunt.

LOL!
<high fives Krusty>

And you, you fucker.

I can see Ace's point now. Stereo is enough for anybody, really.
Bloke's only got two ears.

[Bill_h]

Post by Pip

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
5 power
(TV, HC amp, HTPC, STB, network hub)
4 satellite coax
(1 STB, 3 DVB-S2 cards)
4 freeview coax (main feed + 3 patch leads)
(1 TV, 2 DVB-T2 cards)
4 network (main into hub then 3 patch leads)
(PC, TV, HC amp)
2 HDMI
(PC - HC amp - TV)
1 optical S/PDIF
(PC - HC amp)
1 SCART
(STB - TV)
1 Composite Video
(STB - PC analogue card)
1 Audio-out
(PC - music amp)
6 speaker
1 FM aerial
1 PC IR remote receiver USB
1 STB IR-blaster
1 keyboard
1 mouse
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...
[1] 33 in use - don't need the S/PDIF anymore but can't be arsed to
wrestle it out.

For. Fuck's. Sake.
That's an hour of my life I'll never get back, you cable obsessed cunt.
There's a big glass rack, see: a standard one with an extra shelf, 'cos
I bought two and made the sectional legs longer. There's a big HC amp,
a CD player[1] a VCR[2] five fucking game consoles[5], a dual-disc DVD
player[3] a multiregion DVD player[4] a Sky+HD box, a centre speaker and
a clutch of sensors - and a 50" plasma perched on one end of the top
shelf.
The rat's nest runs to about 100 cables altogether: life's too short to
sit on the subwoofer counting any more and idly pulling out those that
aren't currently in use. 18 power cables, for a start - and do I count
the bi-wired speakers as one cable or two each?
The router sits in the opposite corner of the room and the keyboard,
mouse and most of the controls are cordless, so I'm doing my best,
right? It's all due an update, as I'm about to change the power supply
framework in order to eliminate a lot of the "standby" LEDs that glow
constantly as I CBA to unplug the boxes: a power strip with separate
power switches will take care of that, but it has to go somewhere easily
accessible whilst out of direct view ... apparently. While I'm in there
I'll re-route some of the cabling and hide as much of it as I can, while
I'm plumbing in a clutch of proper power amps to beef up the Jap-amp's
wallop.
1. Sounds better than any of the alternate disc spinners. 2. There's
an awful lot of pre-recorded tapes that I'm not prepared to duplicate on
DVD, not to mention a shedload of camera tapes. 3. A pukka HiFi job, R2
only though. 4. Not used much, but there's some discs the PS3 won't
look at. 5. Not all used for gaming.

How many cable ties did you cut counting the cables?

[SteveH]

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
5 power
(TV, HC amp, HTPC, STB, network hub)

Router, Wii, Sky box, video sender, DVD recorder, TV, media PC, Apple
TV, Powerline plug - and all the hifi kit on the stand next to it... so
that's a turntable, pre-amp, amp, tuner, CD / MD player, another DVD
player, and cassette decks x2... total 15.

Post by Krusty
4 satellite coax
(1 STB, 3 DVB-S2 cards)

Only 1.

Post by Krusty
4 freeview coax (main feed + 3 patch leads)
(1 TV, 2 DVB-T2 cards)

Just the 1 again.

Post by Krusty
4 network (main into hub then 3 patch leads)
(PC, TV, HC amp)

2 phone leads - one for the Sky box and one for the router.

2 network cables - one for the PC, one for the Apple TV.

Post by Krusty
2 HDMI
(PC - HC amp - TV)

3 - Sky box, media PC and Apple TV
(PC is on a DVI to HDMI adaptor)

Post by Krusty
1 optical S/PDIF
(PC - HC amp)

None of those.

Post by Krusty
1 SCART
(STB - TV)

3 of these - DVD recorder to Sky box, DVD to TV and Sky to TV.

Post by Krusty
1 Composite Video
(STB - PC analogue card)

None. I do have Component for the Wii and S-Video from the media PC (So
I can transmit it via the video sender to the kitchen)

Post by Krusty
1 Audio-out
(PC - music amp)

4, I think - Wii, PC, Sky and TV.

Post by Krusty
6 speaker

3 - one from the amp to the sub and 2 from the sub to the speakers.

Post by Krusty
1 FM aerial

Same.

Post by Krusty
1 PC IR remote receiver USB

None.

Post by Krusty
1 STB IR-blaster

One.

Post by Krusty
1 keyboard

This.

Post by Krusty
1 mouse

And this.

Plus a cable from the Wii to the controller charger station.

Post by Krusty
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...
[1] 33 in use - don't need the S/PDIF anymore but can't be arsed to
wrestle it out.

I'm not even counting - but I need to plan an afternoon to re-do it all
with some of that spiral wrap stuff.

[Pip]

Post by SteveH
I'm not even counting - but I need to plan an afternoon to re-do it all
with some of that spiral wrap stuff.

That's an 'orrible job, mind. Keep your cable types separate, mind: you
don't want 240V cables rubbing up against your interconnects.

[Thomas]

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...

No idea, but there's a rat nest.

Power:
10 = 2 TVs, cable, amp, DVD, CD, VCR, VCR rewinder, cassette player, woofer

assorted cables between them & 6 speakers

the turntable was moved to the office for ripping and will go back some day

I also have a plethora of remotes. I made a diagram so house guests can
navigate them.

[frag]

Krusty says...

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.

11 Power : TV, Sky, BluRay, Pre, power, audiolab DAC, audiolab CD,
Squeezebox, media player, network switch, webcam.

2 Sky HD coax, 1 freeview coax going into Sky box
1 coax coming from sky box to house distribution feed

6 network, 1 in, 1 to Sky, 1 to BluRay, 1 to Squeezebox, 1 to media
player, 1 to PCs in dining room.

HDMI Sky > pre, BR > pre, media player > pre, pre > TV, pre > projector

3 optical; 1 Sky > pre, 1 Audiolab CD > pre, 1 squeezebox > pre
1 phono digital Audiolab CD > Audiolab DAC

1 SCART Sky > TV

3 phono audio out, L, R & sub
2 phono audio audiolab DAC > pre

5 speaker leads

1 DAB aerial
1 FM aerial

Post by Krusty
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...

37.

[g***@gmail.com]

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...

2 sat - one to HD box, one to Sky
1 HDMI from HD to tv
1 scart from Sky to DVD rec
1 scart from Sky to tv
1 component from DVD to tv
Power cables for above
RF input to tv

So... 9ish

Not counting audio, as that's relocated

Once it's all relocated it will be a spaghetti monster.

[Fraser Johnston]

Post by Krusty
Not bhp, torques or cylinders this time, but 'cables behind the TV'.
5 power
(TV, HC amp, HTPC, STB, network hub)
4 satellite coax
(1 STB, 3 DVB-S2 cards)
4 freeview coax (main feed + 3 patch leads)
(1 TV, 2 DVB-T2 cards)
4 network (main into hub then 3 patch leads)
(PC, TV, HC amp)
2 HDMI
(PC - HC amp - TV)
1 optical S/PDIF
(PC - HC amp)
1 SCART
(STB - TV)
1 Composite Video
(STB - PC analogue card)
1 Audio-out
(PC - music amp)
6 speaker
1 FM aerial
1 PC IR remote receiver USB
1 STB IR-blaster
1 keyboard
1 mouse
So 34 in total[1]. No wonder it looks a bit of a mess back there...
[1] 33 in use - don't need the S/PDIF anymore but can't be arsed to
wrestle it out.

I'd hate to count. PS3, video, minidisc, Media PC, Xbox 360, Wii, amp,
cd player, network hub, subwoofer, lamp, dvd player and ups. It's not
all connected but there must be at least 50.