It has been a year since I wrote the first part of this series, when I first purchased my new townhouse. I had a daunting task ahead of me, and I was more ambitious than most, but I’m happy to say I’ve completed (a year later) everything that I set out to do. In part one of my install, I decided where I would mount my display, speakers, and AV rack to fully optimize the limited space, as well as how I would run all the cable necessary to future proof the install and meet my cosmetic goals. In this post, I’ll describe the challenge of getting it all done, and show you the result.

Running the cable

To run the audio, video, and network cable, I had to do a lot of drilling and pulling. In order to get my hand (and remodel drill bit) into the wall, a lot of 4 inch holes had to be drilled; then afterwards patched. My new year project is to paint and install new trim. All cables terminate behind my AV rack where they are either punched down into a patch panel (network and speaker cables), or directly attached to individual components such as the AV Receiver (AVR). It was important to me to use exact-length cables behind the rack because I have very limited space for wire clutter, and as you’ll see later, the rack has to be free to slide in-and-out on rails for maintenance. Another important factor for minimal wire clutter behind the rack is optimizing air flow to keep components cool.

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Modifying the built-in cabinet for the AV rack

As I described in my first post, the built-in bookshelf in the console separating my living and dining space was not wide enough for standard AV components, so after some precise measuring and discussions with my brother-in-law Nick who knows how to do pretty much anything related to home improvement (my lifeline), my plan was to do some cutting and install a built-in AV rack. This specific challenge is what I procrastinated on for a year before finally getting around to starting. What a mess! With the help of Nick, the bookshelf was cut out; studs in the console were removed to widen the opening; tiles around the fireplace were replaced; a new sub-floor was installed for mounting the rack; new paneling was installed within the new opening; and finally, new trim was installed around the opening. Nick and I completed this violence to my console, and mounted the rack, in a single day.

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AV rack installation, power, and cooling

I ordered rack-mount shelves with custom faceplates for each of my components, as well as a drawer (for remotes, etc.), blank faceplates, and network patch panel, from StayOnline.com, who always satisfied my order within a week; I definitely recommend them. To keep the rack from sliding out on its rails, a screw-on plate at the very bottom is used, which also serves to aesthetically cover the levers that enable it to slide out and rotate 90 degrees for servicing.

All components installed in the rack are powered through a Panamax power conditioner, including the plasma display mounted on the adjacent wall. A nice thing about the Panamax is it provides a real-time voltmeter on the front. Each shelf and custom faceplate has an added benefit of enforcing airspace above and below each component to improve airflow. Because only two main components will be on at the same time, i.e. the AVR and one of: Xbox 360, DVD player, or BlueRay player, my hope is that natural convection will be sufficient for cooling. On the front of the rack, I installed a 1U perforated steel blank panel at the very bottom, and cut a hole aesthetically covered with a floor vent in the back/very top. If all goes as expected, cool air will be sucked in the front and exhausted out the back. If it turns out natural convection doesn’t get the job done, I’ll install another perforated filler panel in the middle of the rack (probably above the Xbox) and a low-noise fan to force air out the back. Suggestions are welcome.

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Before and After

Completed Project

As you can see from the above photos, the project turned out exactly as I had envisioned when writing my first post – no visible wires and no sacrifice of floor space. All speakers in my 5.1 setup are Paradigm. The center channel is mounted within the sacrificed window frame above the display, and the front left and right speakers are on stands on either side of the display connected to terminals in the wall. The surround left and right dipole speakers are mounted on the rear wall (picture below) behind the couch, and the sub is in the front-left corner of the room.

Windows Media Center is at the core of my media collection, which tops 2TB currently. My digital media library contains over 4500 music tracks, 300 DVDs, 2000 photos, and a plethora of recorded HD and SD tv. The entire media library is available to each room (living room, master bedroom, and guest bedroom) by way of an Extender for Windows Media Center and a multi-zone Sonos audio system (a wireless Sonos controller is shown below). I’ll cover more details about my Media Center, Extenders, and media storage in another post.

What’s next?

Paint, molding, and better control. In the next few months, I’ll be installing trim around all my windows, crown molding, and painting all the walls (it’s a new house, so the walls are boring). I’ll also be purchasing a better universal remote (touch panel) and installing an IR-repeater system in the rack so I can build a door to cover the rack cabinet for an even more minimalistic install.

I just downloaded and installed this great app based on Zumobi for my Windows Mobile phone which makes it easy to look up snow conditions from anywhere! Check out REI Snow Report; it works for Windows Mobile, iPhone, and Blackberry.

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Channel 10 just posted an interview we did about a month ago about the Windows 7 Play To feature that I work on, which lets you easily push music, pictures, video, or recorded tv to other network-connected displays or speakers around your house. Check it out:

Or, you can view it directly from within your media player.

Play To is available on the right-click menu of media items selected within Windows Media Player and Windows Explorer, and also from the playlist area within Windows Media Player. Media items can be selected from within your own media library, or a shared media library on your home network. I plan on writing about this feature in much more detail soon, so stay tuned.

Some internal components make use of the system rating (processor/memory/graphics/disk/etc.) to determine whether a machine is capable enough for certain features (such as media transcoding and transparent windows). Update your system rating quickly from a command prompt by typing: winsat formal

Some of you may not have realized that if you commonly play music (or pictures/video/recorded tv) from a shared library within Windows Media Player, those items are offered up in the jump list along with frequent media content from your local library. This is really great for laptop users who store their media on a centralized media server (Windows or standards-based digital media server found in most NAS devices). Without having to open WMP and browse the shared library, I can simply play my favorite music with a single click!

I self host Windows 7 everyday; except I have the luxury of more recent builds than the general public. However, to ensure I can discuss features and bugs as beta testers see them, I have both the beta and the most recent build (give or take a week) installed. To differentiate between the builds I wanted to rename what is presented in the boot screen. Since Vista, boot.ini is no longer an option, so here is how to accomplish the rename:

From an administrative command prompt, type bcdedit. This will list all the installed operating systems known by the boot manager. To change one of the attributes (such as the description), you need to know the identifier. Copy the identifier value (from the output of bcdedit.exe) for the OS you want to change the description for, then:

bcdedit /set ID_YOU_COPPIED description “Win7 Rocks”

If you want to change which OS is started by default:

bcdedit /default ID_YOU_COPPIED

I was very happy to see a subtle change in the Windows 7 networking configuration settings that validates a static change to TCP/IP settings. By default, If you decide to manually enter any of IP address, Subnet mask, Default gateway, or DNS server address, Windows 7 will do a validation test to make sure what you entered hasn’t broken connectivity. You can easily disable this if you are testing or don’t care to validate the changes.

This subtle change will go a long way for those who have to support their friends and family over the telephone Is anyone really making static changes to their TCP/IP settings these days? Certainly not for casual users.

Many of you have already seen the new window management features in Windows 7, such as Aero Peek and the ability to snap windows to the top/bottom/left/right to maximize, minimize, and dock. However, you probably don’t know that Windows 7 provides keyboard shortcuts to improve window management further.

1. Windows key + Up arrow = maximize working window
2. Windows key + Down arrow = minimize working window (or restore a maximized window)
3. Windows key + Left arrow = dock working window to the left
4. Windows key + Right arrow = dock working window to the right
5. Windows key + Space = Peek at the desktop

For folks with multiple monitors, you can move windows between those monitors by using the Shift key:

1. Windows key + Shift + Left arrow = move the working window one monitor to the left
2. Windows key + Shift + Right arrow = move the working window one monitor to the right

I’ve heard mixed feelings about the new Windows Live Messenger behavior when running on Windows 7; specifically, how the application stays docked in the Taskbar while running in the background.

The nice thing about the application always being in the new taskbar is the ability to more quickly interact with commonly used features. A Windows 7 jump list gives you fast access to common tasks for the application, such as changing your presence, accessing your Windows Live mail, etc. This is great if you’re a frequent user of the application.

However, if you’re like me and are not a frequent user of the application, having Windows Live Messenger always on your Taskbar even though you didn’t choose to pin it there, is a bit of an annoyance. You might prefer the previous behavior where the application runs quietly in the background within the notification area until an event comes in; or if you choose to open the application. To do this, navigate to where you installed Windows Live Messenger (usually %ProgramFiles%\Windows Live\Messenger\), right-click on msnmsgr.exe and choose properties. From the Compatibility tab, specify the application should run in compatibility mode for Windows Vista.

Voila! Windows Live Messenger is tucked nicely away in the fly-out list for applications running in the notification area. Events happen the same way whether you run the application in compatibility mode, or in the default mode as part of the Taskbar. Even better, when you decide to use the application, the great new experience is revealed (the icon is displayed in the Taskbar; light-up notifications, jump list and all).

Having founded and been involved with a few technology startups with healthy competition from incumbent companies, I can attest that this image (courtesy of Engadget) accurately depicts the first few years.