Maybe This Explains Why My HDTV Signal Is Spotty ...

I was looking for some fodder to reference for a work blog and in my search came across this article: Comcast Degrades HD Quality To Make Room For More Channels

It appears that Comcast is compressing some of my favorite HD channels, thus lowering the quality of the picture. When I had the cable guy over last year to hook up the HD DVR box, I immediately noticed the picture looked pixelated (compression artifacts, "tiling" or big blocks as they are often referred to in troubleshooting guides). The orginal installer said it was because I had an RG-5 coaxial cable leading into my condo from the main building "smartbox."  He said that the cable would need to be replaced with a RG-6 to get a perfect picture. Well, a couple of installers later, we installed an RG-6 just to test is out, and the picture still didn't look perfect. I was given a thousand excuses why the picture still wasn't perfect by multiple comcast installers:

• "The signal is too strong"
  
• "The signal is too weak"
  
• "It's your TV"
  
• "It's the HD box"
  

It was a frustrating process going through all of this, but one by one I was able to troubleshoot all of these theories:

• "The signal is too strong": I added a load resistor.
  
• "The signal is too weak": I added a signal booster.
  
• "It's the HD Box": I had a new box swapped out.
  
• "It's your TV": This one is my favorite ... A $4k TV that doesn't know how to accurately decrypt and HD signal? Not likely. Since this is Sony's flagship LCD and received top ratings from multiple home theater publications, I knew this was bull snot.
  

This article finally explains what the true problem is. The only option I have is to go with Verizon Fios (Fibre Optic lines). I hear the picture is stellar from one of my friends who does high-end home theater installations. Unfortunately, I won't be able to take advantage of this solution until my Comcast contract runs out (I signed one of those two-year contracts with the intention of saving money over time ... harumph ...)

 

I've Been Gone Too Long From This Blog Thing ...

I've made some movement over the last several months on my space. Some things I've learned:

1. Kitchens will take you longer than any other room to renovate.
2. Home Depot isn't the solution for everything.
3. Decorating a place can take longer than renovating it.

Right now I'm in the phase of "wait to get inspired before decorating the bedroom."  I think I can consider the living room/dining room done though. I've decided that if I have to pick a theme for these two rooms, it is Modern Eurasian.  I'll have to post some photos so you get what I'm sayin'.

Update

People keep asking me, "How's the condo renovation coming along?"

Well, not too quickly. The last month, every single weekend I have been out of town. To make matters even slower, I began doing some consultant work for a startup downtown.

As you can imagine, no real progress has been made. I still need to finish some detail work on the flooring, build and install all of the base cabinents in the kitchen, schedule the granite counter tops to be installed, and finish painting my bedroom.

Stay tuned.

Day 1 of Flooring

Check out the flooring and paint in the dining area, along with the cabinets in the kitchen (they are blue since I haven't removed the protective shipping film).






You can check out more photos here: Flickr Photos

Paint, Lights and Splinters

It's been too long since I made a post. As a way of making it up to you, my faithful reader, I have a bunch of progress photos:

Suspension lights in the living room (notice the new paint and the TV hung on the wall (thanks Bill!)








The ultra formal dining room ... I had a lot of color choices. I opted for a maroonish-red.




Check out that flooring! I installed it myself. The Porter Cable Brad Nailer is my favorite powertool. I love the "fa-tunk!" sound it makes every time I pull the trigger. It took me two straight days to lay the flooring in the kitchen, livingroom and dining area. Tomorrow and Sunday I will finish up in the bedroom and closets.





Appliances arrive this Sunday. Next Saturday the sofa, ottomans, etc will come.

Drywall, Demo and Injury

I demo'd most of the kitchen cabinets today. It's messy work, but it felt great to get the ugly lead paint covered boxes out.

Since I've been borrowing my buddy Jason's truck, I've been able to take large items to the dump. When I was loading the truck with some metal-wrapped counter tops today, I made a boo-boo and cut myself pretty bad. Basically, a piece of metal filleted my knuckle. I've got a massive bandage on my hand as a result. I knew I wouldn't escape this renovation without some sort of injury!

The crew has been doing a bang up job on the drywall and theater installation (albeit a bit slower than scheduled).

The foreman is from Mexico as well as one of his drywall guys. The electrician is from Venezuela. We've had some good conversations today in Spanish about world affairs, women and soccer.

Cristian (electrician dude) told me tons of stories about his life as a teenager living in Miami, Florida. He said he has lived in the U.S. for eight years, but didn't start learning English until about a year ago. We talked about how in different parts of the U.S. you really don't need to know how to speak English since there are large Spanish speaking populations.

OK, onto the actual project photos. You'll notice the room is really starting to take shape since the drywall is up.


Speaker terminals are all set up in the media closet.




In the kitchen, we had to build another column (much to my dismay), since there were some building-specific lines that couldn't be relocated. Luckily, the island/breakfast counter should still fit.



The kitchen cabinents will be delivered tomorrow. I'm so excited to begin this next part of the renovation! Look for more photos ...

Later.

Demo Party

There are a ton of projects to do in my new place. Since I don't really own any furniture, it is really easy to make alterations/upgrades to the space.

The biggest eye sore in the entire condo definitely has to be the 1960s time capsule that barely passes for a kitchen.

A close runner-up in the "has-to-go" department, is the built-in bookcase in the living room. I need to hang my TV there!

To alleviate the first problem, I hired a contractor to remove three of the kitchen walls. Once that is done, I'll break out the 'ol hammer to install an island along with new cabinets, counter tops and appliances. Here's the before:


Here's the after:

I removed the beautiful tile flooring in the kitchen that was horribly installed by the previous owner (it must have been his first time doing tile). It was a TON of fun banging the shit out of the floor with an 18-pound sledge hammer.



To nip the second problem in the butt, the contractor has ripped out the bookcase and is in the process of installing drywall in it's place.


I built a media rack in the living room closet to hide all of my audio video components. The electrician is running all of the necessary wires so that I can have fully integrated Dolby Digital surround sound (of course!)

Yesterday I special ordered some Brazilian Cherry Wood flooring so that I can install it throughout the floorplan. It will be a big project, but I think I can handle it.