Spelunking

I spent almost the entire day crawling within, on top of, and under my house. In preparation for our modest SuperBowl gathering, I had resolved to finally run a strand of RG-6 coaxial cable from somewhere on the roof all the way down to the "bonus" room which now serves as the home theater. The point being to enhance my somewhat spotty reception of the local digital HDTV channels. Yeah, I know, my life is so hard. Well, it did involve a high level of frustration, glass fiber inhalation, belly crawling through mud, rusty nails, and cobwebby veils, but eventually I was successful. I now have a solid signal on all the major channels, including the one that will be broadcasting the game tomorrow.

As a reward we sat down and watched part of a Sheryl Crow concert that was being broadcast on KQED in HD. I'm not really a fan, but man was it awesome. Almost like being there, seriously, it gave me chills. The music was great of course, but there was a hilarious trio of man-groupies in the front row, dancing and leaning against the stage as they gaped at Sheryl. Steph said, "I hope they don't try to throw their underwear on the stage."

For the techno-curious, here's a little description of the theater setup, which I've never really attempted to do before surprisingly enough. For HDTV duty, the signal reception starts with a Channel Master 4228 antenna and a 100 foot run of RG-6 cable connected to a RCA DTC-100 (discontinued). Video signal is carried by BetterCables VGA cables, passes through a Key Digital CTCA3, to a Sony D50-Q front projector (discontinued) where it is converted to photons and flung against a StewartFilm StudioTek 130 fixed frame screen. Audio signal exits the DTC-100 via the optical port, is converted from photons to electrons by an Audio Authority model 977, travels down a 30 foot run of RG-6 coaxial cable to a Yamaha DSP-A1 integrated amplifier (discontinued) on the other side of the room, where it is converted from digital to analog and distributed via more BetterCables to a set of Miller & Kreisel S-150 speakers, and MX-105 powered subwoofer (discontinued). DVD duty is handled by a Toshiba player whose model number I'm too tired to look up at the moment.

All this has been accumulated over the course of about five years. It looks pretty complicated, and I haven't even described the IR distribution system or light control, not to mention the room decorating and seating arrangements. Maybe I'll get to that next time, but now it's time for bed.

Comments

[hollyjean]

I forgot before leaving to ask you about the cords in your backyard - it looked like some had fallen away from the house (left side of the back porch) and I was worried - Steph had me just not touch them, but there had been the intention of checking with you to see if they were supposed to sit like that.
"belly crawling through mud, rusty nails, and cobwebby veils"
- love the quality of your writing. =o)
Hope the backyard grows something pretty soon.

[tony]

Oh yes, these would the wires in question. I cleaned them up mostly, but there is more work do there. I think I saw a couple of flowers in the back yard that hadn't been there before. I'll have to take another look, and maybe send you a picture.