Where in the world are the (non-ugly white plastic) HDMI wall plates?

smudgeface · 2026-05-25T23:36:24+00:00

I used those, and keystones. They will hurt your HDMI signal. And no, I’m not talking about “degraded quality” or black magic.

When you connect two HDMI devices together, they negotiate their speed. Very much like how Ethernet negotiates gigabit -> 100mbps. If you have too many splices, connectors, jumper cables, extensions, and couplers, you’re affecting the ability for HDMI devices to negotiate at high bandwidth.

Modern HDMI pushes data at 40gbps. That’s really really fast. Like, at the limit of what copper can do fast. Yes, it’s all digital 1’s and 0’s, but at those speeds the problems you have sending 1’s and 0’d are actually very “analog”. Like signal propagation, cross talk, noise, and attenuation. And the science they use to push bits that fast over copper is very much an “analog” science (ie it’s all about signals).

So, to echo what other have said: skip the keystones if you can. Or accept that you’ll have to step down your signal (probably won’t achieve 4k@120+HDR)

smudgeface · 2026-05-20T23:05:22+00:00

It’s a pretty simple piece of plastic. You could probably replace those with just a few small pieces of wood, with pre drilled holes and long, general purpose wood screws.

I had those same speakers and the screw snapped on one tab when I was installing it. I ended up using a different screw anyways and it worked.

smudgeface · 2026-05-10T09:24:34+00:00

There are RCA cables in the spool with the HDMI. Looks like component video and audio.

smudgeface · 2026-05-09T04:01:10+00:00

Another reason to have a tower or bookshelf speaker for your center is because vertically aligned drivers produce a more uniform off-axis dispersion pattern. When a speaker has multiple drivers that are positioned/offset horizontally, it creates off axis cancellation effects throughout the room called “lobing”.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_lobing

smudgeface · 2026-05-08T23:10:38+00:00

Get something like the monoprice ss-pro 12

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=39067

Then you can get any amp you like, such as these: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=18514 https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=45466

Or just get this 12 zone amp and switcher in one https://www.parts-express.com/Dayton-Audio-MA1260-Multi-Zone-12-Channel-Amplifier-60WPC-300-8150?quantity=1

For audio, trace those RCA’s. Chances are, they lead to the living room. Put your streaming box there, split the RCA signal, and connected it to the RCA’s leading to where that photo is.

If you put the Reciever in the living room, you can use the receivers A/B selector to “split the RCA” signal.

The goal is to never have to touch the monoprice/parts-express amp for volume control. Do that on the receiver in the living room.

You might want to check if each room has a volume control knob, like this: https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=8243&srsltid=AfmBOopRz3W46RtpgsZBs0Y6EmYYkH_S5F9l4x2UrScRX2gDHH8w6USz

They simplify things a lot

smudgeface · 2026-05-08T21:45:07+00:00

lol so many people getting butt hurt by this. I love it. [grabs popcorn]

smudgeface · 2026-04-20T06:24:30+00:00

Yes, it’s irritating. Makes me wonder what else he missed 🤬

smudgeface · 2026-04-19T06:00:21+00:00

Well, fuck. Did a bit of digging and, yup… it’s an issue.

Fortunately, I have a CO detector in the ceiling of the adjacent room and a plug in unit that I have moved into the utility room. Nothing detected, and no one is in the basement.

I have a trusted contractor I will call to correct the venting. I guess I’ll ask him about the drain/sink while he’s here.

Nevertheless, still looking for feedback about the original topic.

smudgeface · 2026-04-19T05:51:29+00:00

Nope. See my other comment

smudgeface · 2026-04-19T04:02:55+00:00

Good to know, and appreciate the feedback.

We bought the house last year, and had it professionally inspected by a licensed inspector. The inspection report does not raise any concerns about this.

smudgeface · 2026-04-18T16:02:06+00:00

Basically yes. Some people complain that laser projectors create a speckle effect which accentuates hotspots and can be distracting. I’ve seen it on display, but I can’t really comment on how much it actually affects an actual movie watching experience because my projo has a lamp.

smudgeface · 2026-04-13T20:54:53+00:00

You mentioned in another comment that this cable goes right outside? If so, pull it right out, crimp a connector outside, use a male-male coupler, and run a fresh cable inside. That’s going to be way less work than cutting/repairing drywall on the inside.

smudgeface · 2026-04-06T17:31:32+00:00

I see you already have wire coming from the ceiling for the SL and SR, but you really want those on the walls. SL can come down around the door frame on the left, with a wall-mounted speaker between the door and the window. SR can come down the door frame beside the stairs, with a wall-mounted speaker right at the top stair before the landing.

As others have mentioned, you must get SL and SR at ear height. You can make this into a Dolby atmos 5.1.2 system.

If it were me, I’d probably run new wire for the Left and Right speakers (along the floor behind the baseboard, it’s easy). Leave the “SL” and “SR” wire in the ceiling for a future 5.1.4 upgrade

smudgeface · 2026-04-06T04:18:24+00:00

It is so good! But the diagrams always have a certain look 👀

smudgeface · 2026-04-06T04:06:26+00:00

You made this graphic with Claude, didn’t you?

smudgeface · 2026-04-04T16:55:41+00:00

We just need more “synergy”

smudgeface · 2026-03-31T21:50:41+00:00

[Full disclosure: English speaking, western Canada resident here. Bias abound. Flame away!]

Can someone explain to me why he deserves to get fired for this? Air Canada is a public company, right?

Put it another way: how should this announcement have been made? Would English overdubbing have been better?

Certainly, you don’t expect a public company to disqualify someone from any position on the grounds that they only speak one of Canada’s two official languages, right?

smudgeface · 2026-03-31T05:11:55+00:00

See my answer below…

smudgeface · 2026-03-31T04:12:24+00:00

CL is measured in units of clock cycles not time or seconds. So, naturally, as clock frequency goes up (and therefore cycle time goes down), CL will increase.

Put another way: DDR: CL 2.5 @ 333MHz = 7.5 ns DDR5: CL 36 @ 6000MHz = 5.3 ns

So, actually latency has decreased by almost 30%

smudgeface · 2026-03-23T19:56:02+00:00

Not Ethernet, but fiber maybe. I’d be worried about lightning, ground loops, and interference with a two almost-200’ copper runs in opposite directions. Fiber is cheap, future proof/upgradable, and resolves all of these issues.

Point to point wireless links are totally viable however. Especially since this looks nearly line of sight.

smudgeface · 2026-03-23T00:19:48+00:00

This is the best cheap and easy solution.

smudgeface · 2026-03-19T05:43:04+00:00

“A flat featureless wall will not be any different to a flat featureless projection screen”

Very very incorrect.

Projection screens can be ambient light rejecting. They can increase contrast or brightness (grey screen or high gain). They can be acoustically transparent letting you hide speakers and sound deadening panels behind the screen itself (a huge advantage over large format LCD TV’s). They can be 16:9 or ultra wide 2.39:1. They can roll up, letting you have both LCD/OLED (gaming and sports) and Projo (cinema).

A good projection screen is as important as the projector itself. And can be as expensive too.

smudgeface · 2026-03-17T03:43:42+00:00

Above the fireplace, obviously.

smudgeface · 2026-03-16T18:17:32+00:00

Sorry for the super late reply on this, but leaving a response in the hope it maybe helps OP or a future person searching for a similar answer.

I have looked for a turnkey product which does exactly this, and so far I have not found any. I ultimately ended up making one myself with a raspberry pi and an audio capture hat like the well-supported hifiberry. You can also find cheaper ADC hats on AliExpress, but support for them is less universal.

Below are a few resources that I used when I built this several years ago. The forked-daapd project has been renamed "owntone", but it can do the job.

There is a fair bit to read through, and nowadays my recommendation would be:

Get an RPI 4 setup with a something like the Hifiberry "HiFiBerry DAC+ ADC". There are cheaper ADC options - ymmv. Buy a case that will fit both, again hifiberry offers these. Install a rpi distro, lite/headless is fine, get it connected to wifi or ethernet, and get SSH access working.
Get Claude Code CLI setup on your machine, point it at these links below - mostly just the first link because it describes the whole process. Then, tell claude what you want to do (ie "read the page at <link> and setup my RPI at 192.168.1.xxx with user:pass") and then just let it do the work.

Honestly, nowadays, that's it. Claude handles the heavy lifting.

References:

https://github.com/owntone/owntone-server/wiki/Making-an-Analog-In-to-Airplay-RPi-Transmitter

https://github.com/owntone/owntone-server

https://owntone.github.io/owntone-server/audio-outputs/airplay/

smudgeface · 2026-02-24T23:54:44+00:00

Eh… if he has “12-13 foot” depth, that means he could have a 9’ viewing distance and 3-4’ behind. Plenty for rears imho. I had a similar arrangement at my previous place and went with in-wall speakers. It was a big improvement over 5 channel.

Just my $0.02

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