Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Receiver question

I can't believe you didn't take the rest of the day off.

I cable the way you described. Mark just likes to make things complicated. I'll bet he has, like, five remote controls on his coffee table, too.

More questions:
1. Do I need a surge protector?
2. Are there huge differences in HDMI cable quality?

1. It wouldn't hurt.
2. Not particularly.

Hi Coal:
MY OPINION ONLY is that I would get a surge suppressor, even if only for the TV, BD player, etc. Some feel that a surge protector is unnecessary and will even limit peak electrical draw from amps, receivers and subs.

There are some that believe that cable types make a difference, but of them, the majority involve analog cables.

An HDMI cable simply transfers Ones and Zeros.... so any cable should do if you don't have any really long runs.

Many like Monoprice for cables. Their inexpensive (but work just fine). Sometimes, I've found their cables to be a little stiff, but they're still my primary cable source anyway.

That's what she said!

Mark covered it well, for a change. (j/k Mark; you know I love you).

I use a surge suppressor. I'm pretty sure that - if my receiver thinks it has enough electricity to work - I'm not going to be able to hear any difference in sound quality.

I buy the higher-gauge HDMI cables from Monoprice, because they're still really cheap, and it makes me feel like I'm doing "something". Plus, I mostly like to get the 10' ones because I just hate cords that are "too short".

I use a UPS, but that's for my TiVos, mainly. If there's spinning disk involved, I want that protected as well as I can.

Ken, what do you recommend? I used to have my DVR and RPTV plugged into a Tripp-Lite UPS that I got at Costco for about $120. But it ultimately just kind of stopped working, and I hated that SOB for the noise it made whenever the power fluctuated anyway. So, now, I'm just kind of living dangerously (partially because the DVR is leased from DTV and I want to buy a new plasma anyway).

If you can swing it, I'd always go with an APC Smart-UPS of the appropriate size (say, 1000VA). However, I couldn't swing it, so I went with a [url=http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00429N19W[/url]

Which had the added advantage of having surge only outlets on it, and a silence-able alarm.

Bad link, Ken.