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 recently purchased a new home, and anyone serious about home audio/video (like me) knows that moving is an opportunity to "do it right this time." The home is new construction, but unfortunately the builder didn’t do obvious things like run CAT5, so I’ll be doing a bit of "remodeling" with the help of my brother-in-law (who’s a great electrician) to do a clean installation. I thought I’d share the process with everyone, including pictures, in case it is of any help. I’ll start this series with what my goals are, and my new purchases to get the job done.

My primary goals are to: conceal all wiring and make the installation look as minimalistic as possible (while also future proofing), preserve as much floor space as possible, and ensure the entire entertainment/lighting experience can be easily controlled. Because of these goals, I’ve decided to sacrifice one of three (the middle one) small windows on the only wall a TV could possibly be mounted. Using a piece of AV furniture would have been way easier, but remember, my goal is to maximize floor space. There is a lot of light from other windows in the room, so I’m not really loosing anything if the install turns out the way I plan.

Seriously, this place was not designed for a media enthusiast. As fate would also have it, the built-in shelving system next to the fire place, where I had planned to place my equipment, is not wide enough for AV components. I could put an AV rack in my garage below the living room, but running up-and-down the stairs in the event I want to watch a DVD would be a pretty bad experience. I’m up for the challenge, so decided to cut out the shelves and custom install a Middle Atlantic swiveling AV rack. This will definitely require some custom work to keep with my goal of looking minimalistic.

Lastly, I’ll have to mount my surround left and right speakers (dipole drivers) on the back wall because I’d prefer to not hang the right one from a roof mount to keep decent symmetry. As you can see from the above picture, the main floor is very open and I feel having a roof-mounted surround over the main walk-way would not be aesthetically pleasing. The rear wall is about 4 feet behind the main listening position, so I’m not worried about this placement.

Here’s my order from Blue Jeans Cable:

• (2) 25-foot HDMI Series-1 Belden Bonded-Pair
• (2) 25-foot 1694A component video
• (1) 30-foot LC-1 subwoofer cable
• (1) 35-foot 1694A RF (coax) cable
• (3) 3-foot 1505A RF (coax) cable
• (2) 3-foot 1694A (coax) digital audio cable
• (2) 3-foot optical digital audio cable
• (1) 250-foot spool Belden 12AWG 5000UE speaker cable
• (1) 25-foot wire for IR blaster in rack (1/8" jack)

Gulp! My next post will show how I run the wires and how I’ll mount the TV. Following posts will show the finished product with tidy wiring job. I’ll show off my Vista Media Center too.

Advice is always welcome (but you’d better speak up now because I have a lot of work to do and I’m moving in 4 days!)

Microsoft shipped first-party (it’s own) MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital decoders in Windows Vista to support DVD, live/recorded TV, and HDV (home video editing) scenarios. These decoders are included by default for the Ultimate and Home Premium editions; however, large OEMs have the option to pre-install the Microsoft decoders for Business, Home Basic, and Starter editions (primarily for DVD playback support). Mileage may vary depending on the OEM (I don’t know which OEMs choose to do this).

Why would Microsoft do this? To ensure a quality and consistent user experience of built-in applications like Media Player, Media Center, Movie Maker, and DVD Maker. Each of these applications leverages MPEG-2 in some way and it would have cost Microsoft significantly to license a third-party decoder per copy of Windows, and they wouldn’t be able to innovate or handle quality control. Further, Dolby Digital has an explicit per-application licensing policy, so in addition to quality control concerns, it would be a challenge (if at all possible) licensing a third-party solution that met legal requirements for each internal application that required its use.

Dolby licensing policy requires that Dolby Digital implementations not be sharable. Only a vendor’s specific software player can legally decode Dolby Digital from their specific decoder;  i.e. vendor-A’s software player cannot use vendor-B’s decoder.

Lastly (and importantly), Microsoft had to implement their own MPEG-2 decoder to ensure an end-to-end protected media path for enabling Windows as a platform for premium content such as digital HD cable (OCUR), HD-DVD, and BlueRay (with premium satellite solutions to hopefully come in the future). Specifically, it was necessary to ensure certain precautions were taken at encoder input and output such that the decrypted stream couldn’t be compromised during the component transition, and that decryption keys are protected.

Speaking of a protected media path, new to Windows Vista is the Enhanced Video Renderer (EVR), which provides many enhancements over video rendering platforms prior to Vista, in addition to support for Protected Video Path - Output Protection Manager (PVP-OPM) and Protected Video Path - User Accessible Bus (PVP-UAB). A couple noteworthy are support for DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA), and resilience to glitches (see Multimedia Class Scheduling section in my post about Vista Kernel Improvements). While the MS MPEG-2 decoder supports other (pre-Vista) renderers for output of the decoded stream, only EVR supports the protected media path (and the many other enhancements). If you’re the geek type, and want intricate details, check out the EVR WinHec presentation. Also, recognize that EVR is for rendering on display attached to the Windows Vista PC, not when streaming content across a network for rendering within a Media Center Extender for display on a TV. While the PC-network-TV end-to-end “path” is also fully protected, EVR is not a component used in this scenario.

For all of the aforementioned reasons, Media Center in Windows Vista will not allow use of third-party MPEG-2 or Dolby Digital decoders like prior editions did. However, while Media Player uses MS decoders by default, it is possible to register third-party decoders for decoding within that application.

Media Center will use 3rd party video and audio decoders for anything other than MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital respectively; it will only ignore any registered 3rd party MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital decoders. Unlike Media Center, Media Player will not ignore 3rd party MPEG-2 decoders (even though it uses the Microsoft version by default). Media Player will; however, ignore 3rd party Dolby Digital decoders and only use the Microsoft version.

I’ll write follow-up posts to discuss why the MS MPEG-2 decoder may have some short-term challenges, and ultimately why it (combined with the new video pipeline) will yield the best possible results.

Any questions or comments?

Consider a TiVo or other personal video recorder (PVR) attached to your TV. If something should happen tragically to one of these devices, such as system or hard drive failure, it’s certain that any recorded content on the device will be lost (once you finally get it back from repair). From a broadcaster’s perspective, the content on such devices is transitory and not permanent (even though many people tend to keep recordings around for a long time). This is especially true for protected content, where a protection scheme (DRM) is used to lock the content to that specific device or limited other devices within a home network. For these dedicated consumer electronic (CE) devices, users tend to expect loss of their recordings should some evil befall the unit.

Now consider a Vista PC with digital cable tuner (generically referred to as OCUR). Just like a PVR, content recorded and stored on the PC hard drive is considered transient by broadcasters. Unlike stand-alone PVRs though, a PC is much more susceptible to system failures (although hopefully this is much improved with Vista) because of buggy software, viruses, etc. where end users might re-install the OS to recover from a poor state, or even worse have to replace a major component like the motherboard. Just like a PVR, if a Vista PC enters such a tragic state, all recorded content will be lost.

Some specifics are in order:

• If your content is on a hard drive that crashes, you can’t do anything about that anyway. Your recordings are gone. This isn’t an area where I expect users would be surprised to have data loss.
• If you re-install the OS, even though your recorded content is on another drive or partition, your recordings will be worthless
• If you replace your motherboard (of course with one from your OEM that supports OCUR), even though nothing else about the system has changed, your recordings will be worthless.
• Replacing the processor, hard drive, RAM, or other system components will not impact your recorded content.

The reason your recordings will be worthless is because the process used to protect the OCUR-recorded content is based in-part on the system security identifier (SID) and is also tied to the OCUR capable motherboard BIOS. Hence, if you re-install the OS, the system SID changes and all bets are off. Likewise, if you change the motherboard, the BIOS also changes, so all bets are off.

I personally do not know all the detailed CableLabs legal requirements for a certified Vista PC, but not being able to recover a DRM key in a limited secure way is a problem for PC users. Heck, Vista has a built-in backup program that users likely expect can recover their recorded TV, but doesn’t (make note: your recorded TV files *will not* be backed up by the Vista backup application). Take for example the BitLocker feature which makes use of a secure Trusted Platform Module (TPM) built on to certain motherboards to encrypt the entire OS file system. This solution enables users to backup the necessary keys to Microsoft’s online Digital Locker for recovery. A similar solution for DRM keys seems within the realm of possibility (but again, I am not sure of all the intricate legal details). While Vista provides a parity experience to a TiVo in a system failure situation, as I’ve said before, I believe Microsoft has a responsibility to ensure these scenarios make sense for PC users and not just accept how things currently work in existing consumer electronics offerings. I suspect, though, that folks within eHome are thinking about this for improving the experience over time. I hope so anyway.

What do you think?

Quite simply, those of us who have built our own MediaCenter PC are out of luck when it comes to CableCARD; at least for the near future anyway (I’ll get to this later). Vista has shipped, but there are no OEMs offering CableCARD support for their MediaCenter offerings yet. This is mostly due to the heavy weight CableLabs certification process (which I won’t get into in detail). So what are your options for getting CableCARD for premium digital cable (including HD) in the near future?

(1) Purchase a Vista MediaCenter PC today from an OEM who promises you an upgrade path (make sure it’s in writing too). Note that I’m not aware of any OEMs who have explicitly said they provide an upgrade path for customers who have purchased a Vista-Capable logo’d PC. In all honesty, while it may be possible for an OEM to get CableLabs certification for a particular MediaCenter PC model that was shipped prior to general Vista availability, i.e. with a Vista-Capable logo, I’m not sure whether this will happen or not. My feeling is that if the option is feasible, only the most customer caring OEMs will do so due to the significant cost of certification (note that this certification cost is per unique system). If such a loving OEM does exist, the process would have to be one of the following:

• Purchase a Digital CableCARD Tuner from them when they become available, and download the necessary system updates that enable the digital tuner to work. Of course, you would have had to install the Vista upgrade first.
• Send your MediaCenter PC back to the manufacturer for all necessary upgrades.

The second option seems the most feasible considering that OEMs likely don’t want the system updates getting distributed illegally (not that I’m sure option-2 would thwart such a thing anyway). This option does have considerable cost though, both monetary for shipping the PC, and in terms of customer loyalty because they’ll be without a PC for some time. This option will likely only happen for an OEM that has sold a lot of these MediaCenter PCs and are willing to cover the costs to slightly ease customer pain. My intuition is that I doubt either will happen, but we’ll see if an OEM steps up to do the right thing. 

(2) The other option is to wait for OEMs to start shipping their CableCARD ready machines. This will probably be in full swing within the next few months. Obviously, this option has less unknowns and is the safer bet.

Let me know what you think about all this, and considering the restrictions, what OEMs could do to make you feel better about whatever decision they make. Also, if you have any thoughts other than “there shouldn’t be any restrictions”, I’d like to hear them.

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For those of us invested in Media Center, one of the missing links thus far has been to get access to the protected music, TV shows, and movies available from iTunes. Apparently MCE Tunes has stepped up to that challenge to deliver this content through the Media Center. There are; however, a couple of questions I’m unsure of yet without giving this a try myself.

• Does the plugin integrate with the Vista Media Center?

All screenshots show the 2005 interface; however, that could just mean the new UI rendering capabilites have not been implemented. I would overlook inconsistency for a while so long as I could get my hands on some TV and movie goodness.

• Does the plugin support playback on Xbox 360 and new extenders (codename Pika) that will hopefully be on the market soon?

I’m fairly certain that this isn’t possible because the content encoding (mpeg4) of iTunes TV and movies is not supported on extenders. For music, the Xbox 360 supports the encoding (AAC) if you download the iPod support from Xbox Live (free); however, I am not certain whether this is limited to USB connected iPods or if the network streaming path is also supported.

Looking forward, a critical issue for Media Center Extender is providing access to premium video content. Apple has a lead in this area with iTunes TV and movies, with livingroom extension capability from the Apple TV product. The Xbox video marketplace; however, is quickly closing ground. The problem is none of this Xbox video marketplace content is accessible from within the extender UI; only the Xbox dashboard.

Xbox and eHome folks: please open the gates and create better integration between the two platforms. I hate switching between UI’s and video inputs!

I post fairly often on the core Windows networking blog, but often want to share other topics both professionally and personally. I’ll use this blog as my primary means to not only talk about the things I do in my life, but also to professionally answer all the questions I hear from customers and partners I interact with. I will also frequently comment on other online writings which I feel need clarification, or I agree/disagree with. I’ll share my thoughts on products, strategies, and even gaps in various markets.

If you have questions or want to comment on anything I write here, please feel free.