California TV Ban Even Worse Than We Thought
The California Energy Commission’s ruling treats all TVs the same, regardless of the application. California retailers will suffer.
I’m doing a story for our consumer magazine, Electronic House, on typical mistakes that DIYers make on their home tech projects.
Can we start a list here?
If you have any great photos of these mistakes, please email to me at jjacobson at ehpub dot com.
Thank you!
The “Biggest” mistake? Not hiring a custom installer in the first place! In my experience, most people go the “DIY” route, not because they are passionate about the gear, or love to do things themselves, but because they are trying to be cheap and save a few bucks.
As most readers here will know, the value of working with a custom installer is that you get to rely on his (or her) expertise. You explain what you want, and the professional will guide the customer through the process: explaining differences in products, recommending the best gear for the money, ENGINEERING the project (including wiring diagrams, bluprint markups etc), running the wires, installing the products, CALIBRATING THEM, and most importantly, providing and programming the remote (user interface) that the family will use to control the system.
The end result is a happy client who has a working system that the whole family can use.
1) Selecting equipment that does not do what they want. i.e. buying the least expensive amp then learning it doesn’t provide enough i/o to accomodate their equipment.
2) Hooking up equipment using sub-standard cables, connectors and adapters. Leading to poor performance and eventually - no performance.
3) Under-utilizing gear they have. Connecting the DVD playing using composite when it has component or even HDMI outputs. Using analog audio when it has digital. Not setting the TV to the maximum resolution!
4) Not taking advantage of any integration features - I’ve seen setups where the user simply plugged and unplugged each device as they needed to instead of figuring out how to integrate them with the existing gear.
5) Not understanding the control features. i.e. never hearing surround because the amp sits in the 2 channel stereo mode.
6) Never realized they are paying for HD cable/satellite but never whatching the HD channels. “You mean Channel 4 is standard but 404 is HD?! I never knew!”
7) Almost every DIY project has some compromise in the setup. Some feature that they just learned to live with. Often having to leave a cabinet door open, or you can only control from one seat, or you have to point the remote at a mirror, or you have to hang a blanket over a window, or move cables from one device to another… you get the picture.
8) The clock isn’t even set on the device that has a clock.
9) No phone or internet at the equipment.
10) Ugly wiring. Cables everywhere. No power protection!
Terrible locations. Displays crammed in a corner with windows on both sides. Displays too high, projectors not centered horizontally or vertically when no lens shift is available. Bose Systems. Surround speakers IN FRONT of the listening position. LCR Speakers in ceiling and NOT Directional. Distributed audio speaker locations not wired in stereo. The list goes on and on.
- Running speaker and control wiring to the TV location, instead of the rack / stack location.
- Forgetting to put power where it’s needed: Racks, TVs, Projectors, Powered seats
- Trying to use “rule-of-thumb” for speaker locations in a room that has a serious flaw (missing a wall, angled seating / screen, etc.)
- Using commercial equipment in a residential setting or residential equipment in a commercial setting.
These sometimes work out well, but I once had a client where commercial audio (70 volt system) was used in a residential distributed audio system. The original homeowners took key equipment with them when they moved, and the new homeowner thought they could just put regular residential equipment in its place. And of course there’s the cheap residential TVs used for digital signage or restaurant/waiting room entertainment which almost always goes out after a year or so.
1) Selecting equipment that does not do what they want. i.e. buying the least expensive amp then learning it doesn’t provide enough i/o to accomodate their equipment.
2) Hooking up equipment using sub-standard cables, connectors and adapters. Leading to poor performance and eventually - no performance.
3) Under-utilizing gear they have. Connecting the DVD playing using composite when it has component or even HDMI outputs. Using analog audio when it has digital. Not setting the TV to the maximum resolution!
4) Not taking advantage of any integration features - I’ve seen setups where the user simply plugged and unplugged each device as they needed to instead of figuring out how to integrate them with the existing gear.
10) Ugly wiring. Cables everywhere. No power protection!
It doesn’t stop with DIY home owners either, we received a call from a contractor awhile back that wanted us to take a look at a cabling rough-in project performed by a low voltage subcontractor the owner had hired. Apparently this subcontractor did not own a drill and as such routed the low voltage cabling parallel with the electrical through the same holes within the walls that the high voltage electrician had previously drilled, when he did not have a hole to go through he ran the cabling out of the wall over the bottom plate, stapled it along the floor until he got to a point where he could go back into the wall and continue routing through existing holes. We got the call because the drywall contractor had asked the builder if it was ok to cut the wiring coming out of the wall so they could properly install the drywall.
I worked with a client who was a ‘DIYer’, who mounted his old 42” plasma into a recessed niche… he then framed in the niche, drywalled and finished the wall, for that ‘built-in, framed out look’. The problem, of course, he walled up his TV! He said that he wanted to only see the picture and nothing else, completely ignoring the fact that the TV had no ventilation, no access for service/repairs and violating fire codes… He continued to show us that his equipment (receiver, cable box and subwoofer) was also installed and placed behind the wall - his reasoning “I’m using an RF remote, I don’t need to see my equipment.” I could not believe what I was hearing and seeing! We ended up selling him a new, and properly designed home theater… and sure enough, when we tore the wall apart, there was all of his equipment and subwoofer. Needless to say he was impressed with the difference is performance of his PROFESSIONALLY installed and designed system.
I believe, in many cases, the problem begins when customers perform research online. Without the proper knowledge and experience to differentiate fact from fiction and claims from actual benefits, customers will simply make uninformed decisions; hence, this is where we are the biggest value to our clientele. Customers can’t become an experienced product consultant and integrator with a couple of hours of online research. In my experience, the ‘DIYers’ become our biggest advocates once they see the impact that qualified, experienced integrators have on their systems.
We were actually called in by our woodworking company… the customer was having their kitchen and office remodeld with all new custom woodwork. The woodworking company looked at the living room, and immediately knew that they needed to speak with a professional. We have a relationship with the woodworking company, so we were called in by them. The customer was actually very hesitant to change the living room niche system that he designed. I showed him some examples of living room multi-purpose home theaters from our portfolio, and explained to him all the reasons the niche must be changed, and updated to fit his performance and aethetic needs. The customer was very appreciative and decided to go with my consultative advice.
I have pictures of the finished results of the remodeled niche and his office; we actually relocated his old system to his office and installed it properly for him. I’ll try and dig up some pics of the before, I had backed them up - I’ll find them and post.
I located the before pictures of the DIYer’s wall niche…
As you can see, the TV is walled in - framed up and finished. Above the TV are two doors; one housed the DVD Player, the other was open. The center channel is below the TV, you can see the grille… and below the center channel grille, there is another grille that was for the subwoofer. Keep in mind that these are not in-wall speakers, they are bookshelf speakers and a stand-alone subwoofer that have been permanately walled-in. The subwoofer was actually sitting on the floor behind the wall… it was actually lower than the grille in the wall, and downward firing!
The other equipment, i.e. receiver, cable box, RF receiver, were installed BEHIND the tv… to get the panel off to discover these treasures we had to knock the plaster finish off the wall to find the screws that held the frame to the niche, and cut the drywall around the perimeter of the unit to break it free from the niche. I have never seen anything like it! But the end result was good, and the DIYer is now a convert, and an advocate of the professional intregration/consultation industry.
California TV Ban Even Worse Than We Thought
