For years we distributed composite (480i) video and in the last decade we decided to really step up and distribute component (1080i) video.  It wasn't until recently that we really discovered we needed to give clients and end to end HDMI (1080p) solution.  With the "Analog Sunset" just a year or so away we would be doing our clients a dis-service if we didn't approach this technology head on.

The good news is that with the most recent hardware upgrades Crestron can now do this over CAT5/6 cable, though we prefer to use fiber optic cable.  The idea that we can pump full bandwidth HDTV to any room in any house at distances of 1000' or more was awesome.  The CAT5/6 solution does have some limitations but for the most part is an excellent solution, especially in home where you don't have the option of running new cables.

Contact your local certified Crestron DM dealer for more info and enjoy.

I'll be there and look for my tweets live from the show floor!

Wait, there’s more….By January 2011 Blu-ray makers will be able to include an “Image Constraint Token” on all discs that can disable HD video over an analog cable (component video).  All this to reduce piracy, do they not understand that the people creating illegal copies will figure our a way around this?  We’re the ones stuck suffering through standard definition TV. 

Yes it’s gets worse, sorry.  On January first 2014 NO hardware will be manufactured to output anything above 480i unless you use HDMI. 

The good news for most of us?  If you have a flat screen display (LCD, LED, Plasma or OLED) you’ll be fine.  The truth is 99% of flat screens have HDMI inputs so all you’ll need to do is replace the current component video cable with a new HDMI cable.  The only time this turns into a problem is when your Blu-ray or cable box is over 50 feet away from your display.  You see, currently running HDMI over any distance is costly but over 50’ or so it’s also impossible without the use of some fancy gadgets.

SUMMARY:

January 2011 you're probably going to be OK

January 2014 your picture will be pretty bad unless you’ve invested in an HDMI cable

For detailed information visit the AACS website, they’re in charge of this stuff.

Recently we install a Sony KDL 46EX710 and it’s beautiful.  Like most of these new displays it’s an LCD and it’s web enabled.  What does this mean?  You don’t need a Roku or AppleTV with one of these TV’s.  It has Netflix, Pandora, Amazon Video, Slacker Radio, Flickr and more built right it!  This is all available with one single connection, Ethernet (yes it needs power too), most TV’s have an Ethernet jack but many include wireless as well. 

In explaining the web content and how it’s accessed I failed to mention one very important thing, YOUR TV IS A COMPUTER NOW and guess what sometimes it has software problems.  To qualify the “computer” part of my statement, all of these TV’s have microprocessors (just like your iPad), operating systems (like Mac OS or Win7) and a user interface which in this case is a remote control.  Welcome to the convergence of PC and TV, it’s here people.

Now the problem with that, we have had to do factory resets on more than one Sony TV in the last week.  It took one of our technicians calling Sony to figure out the special “Factory Reset” sequence.  This ultimate wiped out all setting we had previously done to the TV but fixed our problems.  The 2 problems we have seen are:  HDMI from a surround processer did not work on any input (directly from any source worked fine so we knew our cable was fine) and the second problem was that none of the web content was available even after refreshing the content in the user menu. 

This was supposed to be a short post on how to fix (reset) your Sony TV so here it is:

We were called in to walk a job site and review the proposed design for the new owners A/V requirements.  Most of this house has been gutted down to the studs and wiring removed.  I ran across this wiring in the pool equipment room, it appears to feed speakers near the pool.  It’s a little tough to see in the video but there are 4 wires, one has a yellow wire nut, one an orange wire nut and two wires are just twisted together.  I have to say that it’s not the first time we have seen this type of workmanship here in LA. 

I know most of you think when you hire a professional to do any job for you, it will be done right, professionally.  Sadly this isn't always the case, it’s not just A/V companies, it could be your mechanic, plumber or virtually service technician.  I’ve been pretty vocal about people in my industry being the worst and I’ll stand by that.  Many people installing TV’s, Speakers, and Stereo Systems have very little or no training.  In fact the title “custom installer” doesn’t mean a thing anymore, most installers just want to get in and out.

Do yourself a favor, when you hire someone to do work for you, make sure your comfortable working with them and you have obvious trust in them.  My experience has been to get a referral from a friend and check up on a companies references, if you’ve done all that the best bet is to go with your gut!

**INSTALLER TIP**  When running wires make sure you have plenty of length, it’s better to have too much and trim it.  If you must splice a (low voltage) wire do it right.  Use the correct splice methods and strain relief, you don't want these wires coming apart.

AVX has been working on custom homes here in Beverly Hills, Malibu, Hollywood and all your favorite beach communities and even here you’ll find these little guys.  I cant confirm if they’re rats, opossum, squirrels or anything else but what I can confirm is for some reason they will eat right through a speaker wire.  Why would they do that?  I’ll get that soon but first let me tell you how to avoid this.

First question is why would these stinky rodents want to eat wire, does it taste good? do they get some sort of high from it? are they really that bored? what’s the reward?  There’s a couple of real answers then I’ll throw in my opinion.  Simply put Rats and Squirrels (and other bacteria infected nuisances) have long front teeth that never actually stop growing, they use the insulation on the wire as a teething ring, this is how they wear down their long teeth!  Could it be that simple?  There’s also some thought that the plastic jacket on wiring is made with a soy or peanut oil and they simply like the taste.  Now I’m not a scientist but I’m willing to go home and nibble on some speaker wire and let you know what I think if you're interested.

My opinion is that rodents (much like seagulls) just love to eat!  They may not be eating the wire to satisfy their need to eat but more importantly clearing a passage to food elsewhere (like inside your house, garage or basement).

What AVX does to avoid this is pretty simple, in areas prone to rodents like crawl spaces, gardens, barns or closets we use conduit.  We don't always use the hard plastic or metal conduit you might be thinking of, normally a flexible, easy to run “Smurf” tubing (photo on right) as I like to call it is sufficient.  It’s slightly more expensive than normal plastic conduit but much easier to work with and quicker to install.  You can bury it if you need to (at least for low voltage wiring like speakers or landscape lighting) and it will last a very long time.  Keep in mind if you decide to use this in your application it is NOT considered waterproof.

**INSTALLER TIP**  When running wires under a house, in a crawl space, basement make sure you tack them up.  Wires laying in the dirt much more likely be eaten by pests, the better your wiring work the less likely it is to be damaged.

…..and why not, they kick ass!

For the first time in 2 decades only half of the TV’s in my house are Sony, the rest are Samsung or Sharp.  I’m starting to wish they were all Sony again.  Love my other TV’s but this new line is amazing!

That’s a loaded question, it depends what end of this question you’re on.  There are a lot of terms floating around the TV and Home Theater market right now and I think I can give you a little information that may help you understand what it all means.  I’ll do my best to keep it simple, even though many of the terms have complicated technical details, you can honestly ignore a lot of it.  In the end I’ll summarize and do my best to explain what’s important to me, I would never recommend a product or technology to a client that I wouldn't use in my own home.

HDTV – By now most of you know a little about this one but here’s the basics.  HD or HDTV would be a TV picture that is higher than SD (standard definition).  Typically measured in “lines” or “pixels” it is the number of lines a video image has, more lines means a better picture.  An SD picture typically has around 480 lines, standard 480 would not be considered high definition.  On the flip side an HD picture could have as many as 4000 lines!  Be warned, not all HDTV content or TV is created equal, you want to make sure that any TV you might buy is at least 1080i or even better 1080p.  Those two standards are most common and available from any manufacturer.

HDMI – Is a connection type used to connect Blu-Ray players, satellite boxes, cable boxes, AppleTV, and many other devices to your TV (or monitor).  Notice I said connection type, many people think HDMI is video only but in fact it carries digital audio and control in many cases.  Along with audio, video and control there is a digital security signal too, thank you Hollywood.  Without getting too deep into the security part I need to tell you that HDMI is currently your best choice in video connections, it is the only full digital video connection that is used in the consumer market today.  As for audio, you’re just as good using optical or coaxial connections (Toslink), the control portion really only works if your equipment is all made by the same manufacturer.  Currently most TV’s have HDMI version 1.3, this will accept 1080p inputs but not 3D.  In order to feed a 3D signal into your TV you MUST use HDMI 1.4 and your TV MUST be 3D capable.

Fiber (Optic Cable) – Fiber optic cable has been around for years.  I remember as a kid being taught about this delicate super cable and how the military was using it.  Back then it was only an idea for the future that this would be used to deliver a TV picture to your house.  Now fiber is being run in homes all over the US.  It is still considered expensive but in many cases it is necessary to transmit and receive the amount of information that we desire in our homes today.  Currently on the west coast of California we have Verizon FiOS service to our homes, this service delivers HDTV, telephone and super high speed internet all over one tiny string of fiber optic cable. 

Now within your home, running fiber from room to room will allow you to do much of the same.  It’s not easy or cheap but it make this possible.  Currently the only way that I know how to distribute HDMI 1.4 including 3D is over fiber using Crestrons Digital Media system.  This system does require some expensive hardware and a fair amount of design and programming but it’s fiber that make this all possible.  Do you need it, no; do you want it, not unless you have a huge home and a lot of $$ to spend.

CAT6 (Category 6 cable) – Is a copper cable, similar to a phone cable.  Think of it as a turbo charged phone cable that is on the coat tails of fiber.  It is the successor to CAT5 cable which has been the standard for phone and DATA (network) connections in both residential and business applications.  CAT6 has increased speed, bandwidth and durability over CAT5 currently capable of DATA speeds up to 10-Gigabit Ethernet!  This is many times faster than 3G, Wi-Fi and 95% of all wired networks that we use today. 

The other technology that CAT cable is good for is sending audio and video using baluns.  A more cost effective way for A/V enthusiasts to distribute HD video or digital audio signals around their home is over copper (cable).  We typically run extra CAT5/6 to all TV and equipment locations in a clients home.  This gives you a lot of options for distributing signals down the road.

Cont.

Upcoming in the next post Plasma, LCD, LED, and more!

Crestron and RTI both are missing the correct IR files for the new lineup from Sony so we have a few items that may help.  First is a document from Sony that has the codes published in HEX (or Pronto CCF) format.  Most control libraries can handle a file like this and will convert them to useable IR.

If you have an RTI remote system I have taken the time or are an RTI programmer you might want to grab this file.  It has on/off and all inputs.  I have tested this on a TV but the TV we had did not have all these input (we did test all inputs we could).

Hope this helps, if you have any questions or need help with the files let me know! @AV_Expert 

Sidebar: Test Setup

Each speaker was mounted in a four-foot high wall formed of two-by-four wood studs set 16 inches on center, and sheathed with a single layer of half-inch gypsum board on the back side and two layers on the front. The two front layers were separated by a paper-thin, sticky constrained-layer damping sheet (Omni-brand dB-Rock) to control drum-like wall resonances. The 2,436 cubic inch cavity-a volume typical in residential wall construction with requisite fire-blocking-was filled with conventional R-11 fiberglass insulation.

Each speaker was installed by Patrick Calderone, a professional A/V installer based in Northern California, per manufacturer instructions. All speakers were checked for good "seating" in the wall, as well as for buzzes, rattles and air leaks. Both gypsum board layers and contrained-layer damping sheet were changed whenever the cut-out requirements for a speaker did not closely match the hole left by the preceding speaker tested.

To get the most accurate ground-plane measurements possible, each speaker/wall system under test was set flush into the ground, speaker aiming skyward, in a quiet, rural setting-my backyard. The joints between the ground and wall edges were filled and smoothed to essentially eliminate secondary radiation. If the speaker had a level control it was set to the "flat" or "0" position. If, as in several cases, the speaker's tweeter was pivotable, it was aimed straight ahead and left there.