Existing Cabling Diagram

This past week, Becky and I decided to rearrange the living room a bit, as we seem to do every few months.  This time, we shifted the shelf that the TV sits on so that it’s flat against the wall (as opposed to angled out, with stereo gear on a small table behind it).  To that end, I had to shove all the stereo gear into the shelving unit.

Amazingly, for once, this was accomplished without unhooking anything at all.  I see this as a positive sort of thing, since the cables are quite a rat’s nest, for no more gear than we’ve got hooked up. Compounding the problem is that much of this gear is connected by 3-RCA component video cables.

I resolved to tame the cable maze and bring us into 2011 by moving as much as I can to digital video interconnects, and limiting the total cable runs as much as possible.A few days back (before the rearranging and the cable-taming urge), Becky had suggested that maybe a new DVD player for the bedroom was in order, to replace the noisy and unreliable (not to mention cobbled together) CyberHome unit we’ve got up there now.  I suggested that it might be a good idea to upgrade our “main” DVD player (a 7 year old Panasonic) to an upconvert model and bring the old one upstairs, rather than replacing a crappy old DVD player with a crappy new DVD player. This idea sort of went on hold, until after the cable-taming project began.

As part of a project at work, we’ve purchased a few DVD players recently, and Blake is very pleased with the Samsung DVD-C500.  I found a smokin’ deal (around $30 shipped to the store) on a refurbished one at Best Buy (where I had some change left on a gift card), so I decided to give it a try.  One nice feature, compared to the existing Panasonic, is that the C500 is nice and narrow, fitting easily inside the shelf, as opposed to on top of it.

As for the decabling, I’m going from 10 runs (with 5 Component) down to 7 runs (2 component) and possibly even to 6, based on whether or not the DVD player has a separate digital audio output (I can’t seem to find a rear panel photo anywhere online;  I’ll be rectifying that later this week when the player comes in). I’ll also be eliminating the Component Switch in its entirety, and virtually gutting the receiver of its video duties  (it doesn’t support HDMI, and has only 2 component inputs).

Proposed Cabling Diagram B TosLink between Receiver and TV is an audio back-haul.

Proposed Cabling Diagram

In the last revision of the cabling setup, the system was designed to be easy to operate by hand. That is, turn on the TV, switch inputs with the receiver.  With the introduction of a Logitech Harmony 890, we virtually never adjust anything without the remote, which takes care of any selections or settings needed. To that end, a minimal cabling setup is now desirable, regardless of the or logical configuration.

More on this once the setup is complete.

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House, Products, Technology by Kevin