Cable Chaos

thames writes "I have recently moved in to a new college-dorm, and I'm reinstalling all my electrical equipment, such as DVD-player, CD-player, Stereo Receiver, Computer, Speakers, Mini-Disc-player, Video, Playstation, TV and so on... All these things are connected via multiple cables, so I have approximately 50 cables running in my room, and it isn't pretty... My question is: How do I get rid of all those (or most) cables, without throwing my stuff out the window??"

Comments

Gotta agree

[gmhowell]

I gotta agree. You've got all that shit in a dorm room? Only kids I knew who were like that were seriously rich fuckers. Why don't you throw out some of the toys and hit the books?

Okay, let's say you are a genius who doesn't need to read the books, and you bust your hump over breaks to pay for the toys. You have a few choices:

Consolidate. Assuming you have a PS2 (don't know about PS1), get rid of the CD player and the DVD player. When I was in school ~ 10 years ago, we used carousel and cartridge cd changers. Your PC should have enough storage and a good enough sound card to obviate the need for that. So, to recap, no need whatsoever for the CD player. Probably no need for the DVD player.

Minidisc player? What for? Burn to CD's, get rid of the MD player. Or just queue up some mp3's.

That doesn't leave much. Speakers shouldn't be a problem. Any dorm room I've ever seen didn't have enough space for 5.1 sound, no matter what you try to tell yourself. But in any event, there is no way around cable clutter for speakers. Well, no good way.

Which leads to the second alternative: wireless. You know those pop-under X-10 ads you dismiss? They've got some stuff for doing exactly that. Or go to Rat Shack. Plenty of stuff.

This is worse than "won't type 'http://www.google.com'". Why? Because the X-10 ads come right to your screen:)

Re:some help

[JabberWokky]

CABLE TIES ARE YOUR BEST FRIEND

And then, if you got good, solid long ties, late at night with an attractive and adventureous coed, cable ties are a girl's best friend. (Sometimes I think BDSM is so popular among educated people simply because those dorm room beds are so sturdy and have so many tie points). ;)

--
Evan

Gah

[Raptor CK]

I had to move to a new place, and while I have a lot more free space than most college students, it's still a nightmare.

Here was my setup when I moved:
Dreamcast
PS2
N64
DVD player
Tivo
Cable Box
TV set (duh!)

There's no easy way out of the tangle, and I've added a GameCube since then, as well as splitting my cable input so I can get broadcast channels and still record a separate channel on the Tivo.

Your best bet is to have a receiver that can take everything else hooked into it, and has a quick hookup to your speakers. Use the shortest cables that you can handle, and just stack up your components. If you need to move them, move them as a single pile of gear. If you really want, build an enclosure for all of this, including a sliding tray for your console (Unless you've got a PS2/XBox, in which case, it doesn't matter.)

For a dorm, you *definitely* want this all in one block, and either hidden under a desk, or at least positioned under a shelf. Theft isn't an issue. If someone wants to free you of you burden, it'll happen. There's no escaping that. However, you don't want some idiot (even a sober one) using your receiver as a stepladder, and the best way around that is to tuck it away.

I don't have a surround sound rig just yet, but I'm doing fine with a 4-way S-Video switch box.

Finally, for you fools who are about to tell me to toss my DVD player and just use the PS2, you clearly don't understand what good hardware is. My DVD player beats the crap out of the PS2, and I already had the component video cables. No way that I'm about to buy another cable for my PS2 in addition to a remote just to get something that still isn't as good as a standalone unit. Of course, YMMV, and in terms of space, the PS2 really is the best all in one option.