May I brag? A high WAF HTPC and home setup!

What's there to bash? If you love it who are we to judge?

Congrats!

I'd never, ever bash anyone for scoring WAF points!

WAF? What's that...

Wife Acceptance Factor.

Next year's HTPC budget

Here's what impresses me: good cable management. You can't see any cables. So many people just leave the cables all over the place.. but not here. Well done.

I agree. Cable management is key. My AV equipment is in an enclosed cabinet about 20 feet from the TV. Because the walls are solid plaster that I don't want to break into I have one cable bundle that comes out of the cabinet to the TV with HDMI, Ethernet and power zip-tied together. All speaker wires for my 7.1 surround system are hidden under the base boards or molding strips. It could probably use a little work inside the cabinet but hey the doors are closed and are solid so out of sight out of mind..

OP, I think your set up looks great, BTW.
Edited by Sammy2 - 3/7/13 at 7:43am

WAF is the ultimate achievement. There should be a trophy or medal or even some kind of badge that shows up next to your profile picture on every post when it's achieved.

It also never hurts to have a wife that's accepting. I've never been that fortunate.

My wife loves our HTPC's. She has told me several times that she would have a very hard time watching TV like "common folk". With the automatic commercial skipping in MC7 we rarely ever see a commercial. With the Server I've just added we also have 500+ movies and about 20 or so series on demand.

My kids (3 and 5) have every kids movie ever made at their finger tips, and both can pull up whatever they want with out my intervention (when they're good of course). I haven't heard a complaint in more than 2 years.

Zener, U are my hero dude !!

Earning some of the coveted WAF points has been an uphill battle for me... Congrats on making progress!

That 6 year old tv looks like the Panny 50px50u or it may be the 42" version... I have the 50 inch and it is still my favorite, Even only being 720p. I have had it about 7 years and still love it. I just bought a new 60" panny for another room but still love my old one.

I feel your pain. I spent enough to buy a Yugo on my 65" Panasonic back in 2006. I'll probably be burried with it, since my wife would shoot me before I could upgrade. At least it's 1080p.

It is not an eyesore alright. I can't even tell where your HTPC is!

How do you watch TV in the daytime with a large window directly behind your TV!! (or is that your TV displaying a window) :P

Now just get rid of the flowers and vases and add more equipment.

I went through this with the supervisor. She didn't approve of the Polks I got so I ended up selling those and getting a nice set of Home Theater Direct Flat Panels and Midi's in white and they are mounted to the wall with the center in black in front of the TV. I was reluctant but they sound pretty darn good. Having all the equipment behind closed doors in a cabinet on the wall adjacent to the TV was another thing for WAF but now I actually like it. It is out of the way and looks like any other piece of furniture and not an AV cabinet. I had it custom made to my specs and it is actively cooled.

I went through a WAF upgrade/sidegrade last year after getting a 65" GT30 Panny plasma 3D TV. I ended up wall mounting the TV (properly fishing the wires) even though it would have worked just fine on the cabinet. Then got rid of my low WAF tower speakers and went with a Definitive Technology XTR-SSA3 Ultra Slim LCR Speaker Bar wall mounted under the TV and replaced the two rear channels with four Definitive Technology Mythos Gem Satellite Speakers. In the end I like it better and also went from 5.1 to 7.1. The old SVS PB12-Plus/2 sub is fine because it is a cherry finish and down-fires so I use it as my side table and nobody realizes it isn't another piece of furniture. I also update the AVR because there was a good deal and the old one was lacking for 3D (HDMI 1.2 I think, Onkyo 805).

The next step is to get rid of the old cabinet and get something nicer looking. Now that my son is older I can remove the "child proof" latches I installed on it. Nothing like him discovering the power buttons to all the equipment.

I would ask my wife to "rate her waf as it pertains to my equipment" if I thought she wouldn't laugh hysterically and post it on facebook.

Congrats on making everything "not an eyesore"

I've been fortunate with the WAF. My bigger concern is guest usage as well as wife/parents

I harp on remote usage a lot, but to me it's the most important part of anything that you want to take place of TV. HTPC is supposed to be the answer since you can avoid changing inputs on anything. Unfortunately that was only step 1

Ever since getting past step 1, I've been struggling to shove everything into WMC or XBMC. Having 2 is not good enough. The XBMC integration isn't good enough. The MB plugin is borderline, but if it would populate individually named menu items on the main WMC screen I could have stopped there. Live TV in XBMC is almost 95% of the way there.

Either way has been working well enough, as long as everything can be done with arrow keys, back, and enter then you should achieve high acceptance. If you hand someone THIS, your HTPC is a complete fail to the non-tech world. My $.02

Anyone who bashes a system that has achieved WAF does not have to deal with WAF and their bashing is inconsequential. Congrats dude!
Best definition ever!

(I fully agree with StardogChampion.)

I'm with you there. I'm fortunate that the only areas I need to deal with a WAF are in the family room on the main floor. For that I have a SFF Dell Zino HD that works with a HDHR Prime for TV viewing. As long as the wife can turn on the TV and change channels, she's happy. If something isn't set right and the TV picture doesn't come on, all hell breaks loose. My wife is of the mindset that if something doesn't work you keep pressing buttons until it does. If that doesn't work then beating it senseless seems to be her next course of action. Of course, she usually ends up making things worse and I have to undo whatever damage she's done. I figure I'm OK as long as I don't hear the remote bouncing off the wall. If you haven't already guessed, she has zero patience with any type of technology.

My primary HTPC and home theater is in my finished basement (a.k.a. the Man Cave). Right now it looks like it's occupied by hoarders because of all of the crap that's accumulated there. I'm on a mission to clean it up, but it's a long process. I hate throwing things out because, the minute I do, I'll need it for something, even though it's been sitting there unused for over 20 years (it's uncanny just how often this occurs). I finally bit the bullet a couple of weeks ago and just started chucking things out. I tend to keep every retail box that comes with computer parts or other CE devices, so I have them stacked in every nook and cranny. I started getting rid of them over the past couple of weeks and I've already filled up our huge recycle bin twice and made a trip to the county landfill and it hardly looks like I've made a dent in it.

Did I just post under your login?

LOL.

As soon as the warranty expires, chuck the box. Even write the date on a sticky note if that helps.
Edited by Sammy2 - 3/8/13 at 10:21am