The CableBox

I like to wait at least a day to mull over a purchase, sale or no sale. But I was waiting months on a purchase of some stuff, so tacking on a <a href="http://www.bluelounge.com/cablebox.php" title="CableBox—Blue LoungeBlueLounge CableBox (or two) to my A+R order didn’t seem such a bad idea.

Blue Lounge CableBox(es). You can Buy them in white or black.

Usually snap buying decisions are a bad idea, but this one turned out not so bad.

The “white side” before, during, and after the installation.

Who knew a bunch of plastic boxes with cutouts could do so much!

What was cabled

I actually had to purchase two of them because I have the following cable mess:

1. AV receiver power cord
2. left speaker power cord
3. right speaker power cord
4. speaker cable to left speaker
5. speaker cable to right speaker
6. bass cable to left speaker
7. base cable to right speaker
8. speaker cable to center surround speaker
9. speaker cable to left surround speaker
10. speaker cable to right surround speaker
11. power cord to LCD TV
12. HDMI/DVI cable to LCD TV
13. Playstation 3 power cord
14. ethernet for Playstation 3
15. Playstation 3 HDMI connection
16. Xbox 360 power cord
17. ethernet for XBox 360
18. XBox 360 HDMI cable
19. Wii power cord
20. Wii S-video and audio connections
21. Wii receiver bar connector
22. power cord for Wii inductive charger
23. Ethernet switch power cord
24. Ethernet cable for switch
25. Mac mini power cord
26. HDMI/DVI to Mac mini
27. Optic audio cable for Mac mini
28. ethernet for Mac mini
29. Drobo power cord
30. USB connector to Drobo
31. Airport express power cord
32. optic audio cable for Airport express
33. battery charger power cord
34. charger cable for Logitech DiNovo keyboard
35. Smartstrip power cord
36. regular strip power cord

Not to mention assorted batteries and remotes. 🙁

Basically I use the smartstrip with the AV receiver controlling for the black cable box and everything else (computer, wireless, battery charging) goes on the other strip. The system uses about 15 watts when off, almost all of which goes to the wireless repeater.

The Black Box

The before, middle, after of the left side installation. I’m using the box as a place to put my remotes—they are the main and satellite AV receiver, the Playstation 3 remote, and the DiNovo mini keyboard for my Mac mini. The other stuff controllers went into a canvas box I keep near the couch

It ends up costing $50 for this which sounds a lot for two plastic boxes. But then again, I managed to purge myself of three Cable Organizers from the Container Store so the net would be $5.

Not bad.

Parting shot

Next: get rid of that DVD rack. Someday I’ll get to tell my grandkids that we listened to music and watched movies by sliding plastic discs into players, and they’ll say, “Grandad is a crazy old coot!”

The difference is small but noticeable.

“Chi rides the wind and scatters, but it is retained when encountering water.”

—origin of Feng-Shui which means “wind-water”