2. home-theater
  3. 984298406

Anybody else wanna pull their hair out ?

I just got done trying to "re-plumb" my HT system. How i pity professional installers of this stuff. It is PATHETIC what one has to do to get all of this stuff hooked up "right". I am an electronics tech by trade and even i get confused as to what goes where !!! The two worst things that i realized is that there is really no standardization of jacks ( audio RCA's, Balanced, S-Video, Component Level video, Composite Video, 75 ohm digital, toslink, spades, banana's, etc....). Between the 3 trillion different types of connectors, you also have to worry about what length of each type of cable you need where.... It's enough to drive you crazy. On top of that, you should pray to God that you never loose power once you get all of that crap programmed !!! Some of this stuff will "reset" at the drop of a hat. Take my advice people. Keep your HT system as simple as possible !!! You'll enjoy it more when you watch a good movie rather than remembering all of the hassle that you had to go through just to get the damn thing to work. I would do things VERY differently if i knew then what i know now. Sean
>
sean
stereokarter
185 posts
 
Yes, Sean, BUT WE HAVE ALL BEEN THERE...and are still doing that!
datsunmike
3 posts
 
What hair?

The number and jumble of wires are mind boggling on my system with all the toys I have such as MD, DVD, CD, Nakamichi, Panamax, TT, phono preamp, SACD wires, component cables.

So far I haven't pulled too many hairs out as I have too few to spare.
allanblissett
140 posts
 
Not just the wires, but having two or three manuals open in front of you, tring to figure out why something won't work in one system, when it works fine with the same hookup in another system. Not to mention the remotes.
I just got a flat screen and redid the HT. So I figured I would put the better Samsung HD Directv box from the bedroom into the main HT system.
Well I hooked it up the same way its been working in the bedroom, using coax digital out for the sound to the Marantz reciever.
Now when I try to use the same coax out, going into my Sherwood Newcastle pre, I can not get the audio out of any Directv programs. I get it out on the local antenna, but just picture from Directv, no audio.
So after hours of hair ripping I gave up and used RCAs.
Any ideas would be welcome.
sulloj
23 posts
 
Agree it is complicated as I have "replumbed" several times with TV and component changes in the last year. I have found thinking it through and drawing a blueprint really helps. I use simple masking tape and markers to label both ends of the wires, connectors, power cords etc.
Simple things like "goes to opt in" and "power cord for VCR" etc. (You get the picture) On another note my new Panasonic tv has such great audio that I hardly use my HT receiver when watching cable. I still like to fire up the receiver when watching a DVD but for everyday use I keep it simple.
More to discover