I need major help

[joshbucsfan]

Does anyone in the tampa area no where I can find a good person that is an installer. I have an HDTV, DSS, TIVO, DVD recorder, DVD player, and more. They are all hooked up, but I have wires everywhere and I could really use some help. Please contact me at jbabbitt@executive-solutions.biz if any one knows of someone good.

[passedpawn]

Does anyone in the tampa area no where I can find a good person that is an installer. I have an HDTV, DSS, TIVO, DVD recorder, DVD player, and more. They are all hooked up, but I have wires everywhere and I could really use some help. Please contact me at jbabbitt@executive-solutions.biz if any one knows of someone good.
Unfortunately, I think most of the folks that are on these forums are do-it-yourselfers. I highly suggest you take a stab at this, and post specific questions here.

If you really don't want to deal with the hookups yourself, try contacting one of the many Home Theater companies in the area. I have seen Miani Audio vans all over my area (north Clearwater):

MIANI AUDIO VIDEO
27954 US HIGHWAY 19 N, CLEARWATER, FL 33761
Phone: (727) 799-2211

You might also find that there is a member here who lives next door...

[Floyd]

Is your problem that you want to have everthing hooked up the best way(which varies, depending on user preferences), or maybe you don't like all the wires.

In my experience, the more components you have in your A/V system, the more wires you will have, and the possible combinations of things you can do with them will grow exponentially with the number of components. The corollary to that, especially as it pertains to wives, girlfriends, offspring, older folks, friends, and any other non-technical person who tries to operate your system, is that the number of ways to improperly operate the system is almost infinite.

Many of the systems that I have worked on require a sequence of remote operations to properly display the desired component, and the only person who can quickly do it is the primary operator of the system.
With regard to the wiring mess, they can be neatly routed and bundled and wrapped, but I find that it's allready hard enough to modify or troubleshoot a system when the wires can be traced and changed when they are loose. Having them bundled up makes it almost impossible without untieing them.

Before I installed all my stuff, I got on the computer and used corel presentations to draw up a diagram with all the components and used different line styles to depict the various cable types. I was then able to more easily visualize the system operational parameters, and the cables and splitter components that I would require for the installation. A big system sometimes has so many different desired capabilites that I find it too hard to juggle them all in my mind while setting up the system.
Some considerations:
1. which components will require an off-air or cable input?
2. which components will require a composite video or audio connection
3. will the main audio(/video) receiver be used to switch signals?
4. will you be able to record one signal while watching something else
5. will you be able to send multiple signals to other rooms
6. do any of the signals need to be split or combined?
7 if you place the components like you want them will all the cables reach? (my DVI cable was only about 6' long)
8 Does the surge strip have enough outlets?
9. can someone watch the TV without having to turn on several other things?
ect. ect.

[OccamMD]

Where are you located?