Setting up a new home theater system is exciting, but, with equipment and components and wiring galore, it has its share of pitfalls – many of which are avoidable.
As with most home improvement projects, preparation - and a bit of forethought - is key. Paul Holstein of CableOrganizer.com offers these simple installation tips.
Account for power requirements
Make sure that your home’s circuits can handle the power load placed on them by home theater devices. Before you plug in and run all of those audio/video components, find out how much power you have running to your home theater room, as well as the total amount of power that will be drawn by the electronics. If the load is too heavy, reconfigure your equipment so that you don’t blow the circuit! And always remember: if you’re in doubt as far as power capabilities for a home theater go, there’s no shame in having a professional assess the situation. Where electricity is concerned, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
Go easy on your cables
It’s only natural that you’re going to delicately care for expensive, top-of the line home theater components like screens, DVD players and audio equipment, but you need to make it a point to treat your cables gently too. After all, cables are responsible for transferring all the necessary signals between home theater devices. It doesn’t matter how great the equipment is; if your cabling is bent or crushed, the signal will be impeded and the audio/video quality won’t live up to its full potential. Cable stress is usually the result of improper installation, but the good news is that most problems can be easily avoided by observing these two key rules:
-No sharp angles! If you need to work cable into or around a corner, don’t force it to form a sharp 90º angle… that sort of “kinking” interrupts audio/video signals during their journey from Point A to Point B, and will leave you with garbled pictures and sound. Instead, allow cables to gently curve, or sweep, into relaxed bends that will allow signals to flow freely.
-Don’t squish your cables. Stapling to the wall or floor is a pretty common method for keeping coaxial cable secure and out of the way, but you need to watch out for how it’s done. The wrong types of staples can dig into cabling, damaging its insulation and impeding signal flow. To avoid cutting off circulation, either use staples that are specifically designed for use with coaxial cable, or go with an even better option: surface raceway. Raceway covers all the bases: it gently routes cables without squeezing or harshly bending them, it keeps them neat and organized, and it won’t even leave holes in your wallboard!
Don’t forget the surge protectors
It can’t be denied: with all things considered, installing a new home theater can turn into quite an investment. But no matter how much you’ve already spent, don’t connect all those long-awaited audio/video components until you’ve invested in one more thing: Surge Protection. Home theater electronics have the power to give you a larger-than-life viewing experience, but at the same time they’re extremely delicate! One good power surge can be all it takes to fry audio/video components beyond use. By plugging everything – from the high-def screen to the sound system – into surge-protected power distribution units (PDUs), such as ISOBAR’s Tripp-Lite surge suppressor, you help to ensure that all of those valuable home entertainment components aren’t wiped out in one fell swoop.
Mr.Audio, if you hate the articles here so much, why do you keep coming back? Just enjoy being a troll? I’d think your time would be more valuable than that.
I really think “read the manual” is pretty much implied by suggestions such as:
“find out how much power [...] as well as the total amount of power that will be drawn by the electronics.” and “Be sure to consult the manufacturers’ specifications to see...”
And the fact is, most people *don’t* read the manuals. Heck, go to any bookstore and check the “How-To” or the computer books sections and you’ll find volumes and volumes of stuff that people could learn by studying various user manuals. But *many* people prefer to read something in a more conversational style, which is why those books, and articles like this one, are useful.
You’re entitled to your opinion of course, but don’t think everyone else shares it. If the articles here aren’t sufficiently technical to be of use to you, go somewhere else… the web is a big place.
It certainly is. However, the whole article could have been way more effective by simply making the first point to read all manuals completely. Then go on to the real common pitfals such as speaker placement and positioning. My point is to the EH staff is to write about something that is cannot be known from reading the operator’s manuals. Amps, speakers, DVD players, TVs cannot be setup properly with operator manual knowledge no matter if they are high or low end. If their placement and settings are not optimized, then all you have is a bunch of fine instruments playing out of sync.
Thanks again Mr. Audio for the positive and constructive feedback. Here’s one question to ponder. Is it possible that not everyone possesses your immense wealth of knowledge?
Congrats on another useless article. After that wonderful “Speaker Dos and Don’ts” article, you found yet another topic you know nothing about. “Common Pitfals of Home Theater Installation”. That dude in the picture looks really bummed probably because he read your article and still can’t figure out why his stuff don’t sound right. For the benefit of anyone who reads this post, I will now tell you how to avoid an actual common pitfal of HT installation. READ THE OPERATOR’S MANUAL TO EVERYTHING YOU BUY! That will certainly cover everything in this useless article and give you knowledge to evade even more actual pitfals. EH give it up and write about something you do know about like 10 easy ways to waste other people’s time.
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In my experience, I haven’t see much difference with upscaling DVD players.… 
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So, I’m a troll now. Ok. Why do I spend time call these articles out? Because the first crappy article I read was about how to buy speakers, and said to leave Mr. Audio at home when buying speakers. That’s where I picked up the name Mr. Audio. Yeah, I’m going to say what I think about these articles because they plague the AVS forum everyday with useless stupid advice. Yeah, I’ll spend alittle extra time to call out a useless article.