Home Theater
A smart power strip
Dec 9th
Recently I added a smart power strip to the TV/Amplifier setup in the living room. My main aim was convenience – to make it easier to turn everything off all at once. But I also wanted to see how much power I could save by eliminating the parasitic power drain that a TV, amplifier and two DVD players have when in the ‘off’ state.
The power strip I bought is the one featured to the right here and to date I’m pretty happy with how it’s working. The power strip has one ‘blue’ outlet that senses when a single device goes on or off and then several ‘green’ outlets that switch accordingly. Initially I plugged the amplifier into the sensing output and everything else into the green outlets. That worked great and when the amplifier goes off so does the TV, the DVD player and the DVD changer. Since the amplifier is a Denon -CI model I can also control it remotely and since everything else switches on and off with it I can remotely shut down the whole stack from my home automation software.
The only problem with that approach is that in the ‘off’ mode the Denon -CI still consumes about 5W whereas the TV consumes 0W when off. The TV is one of the earliest HD TVs, a Panasonic Tau CRT TV so it’s fairly power hungry when on but it has a ‘real’ on/off switch so when it’s off there is no power draw at all. [Until recently the picture on that CRT beat nearly every flat panel TV on the market, but with recent LED LCD TVs I think I may finally be willing to part with it. It's old technology, but still an awesome HD picture.] So now I have to chose between remote power-off control and a 5W constant draw or no remote control and 0W consumption.
When I purchased the smart power strip I was concerned that it might itself have a phantom power drain equivalent to one of the other devices but it appears to be relatively harmless consuming hardly any current for itself.
The one adjustment you need to make on the smart power strip is to set the sensitivity so it can turn on and off at the right point.
Overall, definitely a recommended buy on this one.
Home Theater Advice
Feb 4th
Room Construction
1. Make your room non-rectangular! A 1″ difference in width between front and back can make a big difference in eliminating a strong resonance at a particular frequency. If you can do the same with the ceiling too that’s even better.
2. Double dry wall for sound isolation (both ways)
3. If height will allow, add a step at the back for back seating – improves the view from the back row. Build the back step with the center off the ground, so it touches only around the sides. See ‘sound’ below for reason why.
Electrical
4. Put large (2″+) conduit or multiple smurf tubes in walls to front, side, back and ceiling of room so you can relocate equipment to any of these locations. Deciding where to put your DVD player so it’s accessible easily but isn’t in your line of sight with its glowing numbers is hard. Don’t risk being unhappy with the location – give yourself the option to moving it later. Don’t forget a front-center power outlet for the Wii IR bar.
Finish / Decoration
5. Use black outlet covers and blackboard paint on the projection wall. Do not use a strong color in the room as it will color the image on screen as it reflects the light from the projector.
6. Add sound absorbing panels on the side and back walls too if the room sounds too ‘live’. You can order these to size or make them yourself using compressed insulation panels and fabric covering. Fiberglass reinforcing can be used to bond to the compressed insulation providing a strong mounting point. Z-clips are the easiest way to mount these panels with no visible screws.
Screen
7. Don’t over-screen the room (most people do). Check recommended viewing distance / diagonal discussions online – about 2x viewing distance to diagonal. Bigger screens are more impressive for guests but if you actually want to watch movies and see the whole thing you’re better off with the right size screen.
8. Stewart film-screen perforated screen with center channel speaker behind it – looks great and sound comes from people on screen.
Sound
9. Denon -CI amplifiers are my preferred receiver because you can control them remotely using a serial or Telnet connection to easily integrate them into a home automation solution. This allows scenarios like auto-shut-off if kids leave room with amplifier and projector on, ability to turn the volume down remotely when kids have it too loud, …
10. Mount a Clark Synthesis Tactile Transducer
There’s many more things I could add to this topic. If you have any specific questions please leave a comment below.