DLP Projection at home

[Peter]

If we are talking about buying cables here.... where WOULD you suggest buying cables? I need about 8, 1/4" patch cables about 6-10 feet in length and am open to suggestions on where to pick them up (although not in the chicago area, unless someone wants to ship them to me )

 

[bdesmond]

Most anyone will ship them. I'd just make em, but, if thats not an option. I really have no idea where to walk into in your local area. A guitar place might have an ok price on that sort of cable. Radio shack might be ok, best buy would not be a good price I'm sure.

 

[JahJahwarrior]

for something only 6-10 feet in length...really, they ar eabout the same price often as a 20 foot guitar cable. most of the cost in cables seems to be in the plugs, because astelast in the 20 foot and under range, they are only a few dollars difference. How nice of patch cables do they needto be? the local shop that I frequent (being a musician-guitar, bass, i dabble in drums) almost always has several 10 foot really cheap cables that come with guitar combo kit things, they sell them for usually $1. I've gotten several, they are useful sometimes, and for a $1....they have molded ends, but they work well. Try and find amusic store and see if they have a "bargain bin" first off. if not, ask if they sell really cheap 6-10 foot 1/4, and see what they have that's cheap. If it's a permanent install, don't pay anymore for anything that has a warranty. It probabl won't break if it's permanent (though the store I usually go to, all of the cables they sell have a lifetime warranty. bring it in, and if it doesn't work, and it looks like you didn't break it on purpose, then they give you a new one. )
musiciansfriend.com should sell cables online. i mean, I know they do.

 

[Peter]

They need to be decent quality but more on terms of sound quality instead of durablity. (they are to patch between pieces of equipment in my recording studio (which also doubles as a good part of my home theator... Keeping it on topic ) but they wont be dragged around stage or anything like that. I am going to have to check out the local shops, although that would be easier if I had a car and stores near me!

 

[avkid]

find your local Hosa distributor

 

[JahJahwarrior]

find your local Hosa distributor

yeah, find them, and ask if they have a bargain bin

I've always found Hosa adaptors to be a few more dollars than other things. I'm not their biggest fan, but their gear does work well. Really though, your best bet does seem to find a music store near you and ask for their cheapest 1/4's. Hosa are good. Whirlwind are good. Horizon are good. It really doesn't matter that much! The $1 cables I have work great! not very durable, granted, but great for our rehearsal room because the equipment, atleast parts of it, stay there all the time. Sound is not an issue with them. Musiciansfriend.com also should have what you need, and likely at about the same price as locally, but you have to pay a few $ for shipping.

10 pack of TRS-TRS 2 foot patch cables: $15
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=live/search/detail/base_pid/339072/

20 foot cable (yeah, too long. You COULD buy some 1/4 plugs too, and cut these in half, solder on the next plug.) TS $3
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=live/search/detail/base_pid/333210/

10 foot Hosa TRS-TRS molded ends: $5 for 10 feet
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=live/search/detail/base_pid/333001/

 

[Peter]

Thanks for those links! I am still not sure what I'll do, I think I'll have to find some time to take a time to run to the local* (*relative term) music store and check out their prices (i just dont like the shipping costs and time of buying it online)

Another question, should I go with TRS (sterio) or the mono type cables? I have some equipement that uses each. Can / is it bad to use a TRS in a mono plug?

 

[soundman1024]

TRS can't hurt to my knowledge. The drawback associated with it is it is a few bucks more.

 

[Peter]

Ok, thanks that's good to know!

 

[JahJahwarrior]

if you have a TRS keyboard and you run it througha TS cord, it just means that you lose one channel of info, and instead of stereo you get mono--you still get sound out of both sides, but it's the same exact signal. and all the TRS cables in the world aren't worth it if your inputs aren't TRS. If you have a TRS input, and a TRS device, and you know that you will be using stereo effects (say, a ping pong delay, or a rotating speaker effect) then yes, buy one or two. Also, if it's home stereo sound, and it's running through 1/4, then yes, it might be worth it to get TRS as long as it's TRS before the cables....like, if the stereo signal from your tv comes to a TS plug, then it's already TS, so don't bother with a TRS cable.

and yes, TRS and TS can be used interchangeablly with nothing bad happening. It won't harm a thing! TRS just costmore.

 

[Peter]

So, I managed a trip down to the "local" music store today.... they didnt have very many cables and wanted $15 for a 6 foot TRS cable!!! forget about that.... musiciansfriend.com here I come! I went on there and bought 8 of them (10' ers) for $5 a piece! (Hosa ones actually) 2 day shipping should have them here intime for my recording sessions tuesday and thursday! After that, it's time to use the 10 outputs of my Firepod with the 7.1 ouputs of my Audigy 2nx to wire up a sweet surround sound system! now i just need a screen or tv or something to watch the movies on.... my laptop will have to do for now!

 

[avkid]

do not rely on their shipping time quotes. I had a 3-5 day oder that took more than 15 days! Fedex screwed it up and sent the thing from Missouri to New York by way of San Diego.

 

[moojoe]

each teacher has a fairly good projector at my school, plus screens, and the entire school is networked so we sometimes bring in our Xbox's, stick in Halo 2, network one xbox per room, and one projector per xbox, and have a giant lan party throughout the school. the tech department hates it because they suddenly see all of these random things on the network (the xbox), but its a hell of a lot of fun.

 

[Peter]

LoL, that's great moojoe! Things like that usualy happen the last day (week) of school. Sometimes they dont work b/c of the security on our school network, but other times they do. (usualy the last day one of the tech guys "forgets" to turn on the security).

I ordered a bunch of stuff from them 2 weeks ago and it came in right on time. And they just sent me a shipping confermation e-mail with a UPS tracking number. I did the 2-5 day shipping on my last order, but did the 2 day shipping this time. if it doesnt get here on time, I go back and politely ask for a refund or store credit for the difference in shipping costs between 2 day and 2-5 day. Usualy stores are good about things like that. However, I dont expect to have to do that...

 

[bdesmond]

Not getting too technical here, but, you folks a) have some serious monitoring in place to notice the xbox traffic and b) have routers seriously ACLed if certain traffic isn't going between classrooms. A little excessive IMHO.

 

[Peter]

Every computer/device in my school's network needs to have its MAC adress verified against a know list of "good" MAC adresses (if you buy your own laptop and want to use it at school, you have to bring it to the tech guys and they virus scan it and add your MAC adress to their list). There are just now implementing a system where you have to have a novell client installed on your computer to get and verify a special key too. I have no idea how X-box will work with this.... something to find out!

 

[moojoe]

yea, we have some insane systems on our network. its almost impossible to get in on a computer which is not on the network. the one flaw though is that you can set up networks in the system, which they for some reason frogot to hide this from the students when they log in. so we just log in, make our own network, and put the xboxes on that. it takes about an hour just to set up. i dont do the networking though, i just help set up the physical stuff, some of my freinds who are able to hack set up the network for the xboxes

 

[Peter]

::rolls eyes:: I have a network @ home that can support about 15 computers or Xboxes, I just dont have the projectors.....

 

[bdesmond]

OK. SO doing DHCP reservatiosn is one way to go about it. It will cut down on people bringing personal gear onto the LAN. If yoru friends are able to add DHCP reservations, your IT folks need to do an audit, they have issues.

Not sure what you mean by setup your own network. IF you mean plug somethign like a linky router into a switch port and route a Class C from behidn the linky, then yeah, thats one way around the problem. Your IT people should look into some port level security to combat this.

 

[moojoe]

no, its just like a virtual network within the network. i have no clue really, i just know that its not physical