The reason for the extra supports is to meet code. My greenhouse is large enough that it required a permit. Our area has a max snow load rating of 25 lbs/sqft. The original specs my engineer used showed that to get the required support for that snow load rating, three cross braces between each ratfer would be required in a ten foot run. That being said we can't find the original spec and the compnay has been sold and can't be contacted to send out another. I have looked on the web and the spec info that I have found is sketchy to misleading. And the companies ignore my request for spec info. Some say no bracing is required others say they do. I switched to 10 mil from 8 mil and am compromising by using 2 cross braces instead of three. Does any one have a link to strength specs for poly carbonate? Thanks, jb

Is there a maximum distance for HDMI cabling from, say, a DVD player or receiver to a TV? In my circumstance, my wife and I want to mount a plasma TV on a wall. We plan to hook it up to a receiver and DVD player that will be on the opposite side of the room (17' wide room). Would the most likely hookup be overhead through the ceiling and fish a cable down to the receiver and then to the TV? Or is there some way to remote connect them? We plan to use Comcast cable for standard TV channels. Thanks for your help and input!

My guess would be that the 'inwall' cable has a tougher outer protective layer in order to survive the stress of installation. From WIKIPEDIA: Cable length The HDMI specification does not define a maximum cable length. As with all cables, signal attenuation becomes too high at a certain length. Instead, HDMI specifies a minimum performance standard. Any cable meeting that specification is compliant. Different construction quality and materials will enable cables of different lengths. In addition, higher performance requirements must be met to support video formats with higher resolutions and/or frame rates than the standard HDTV formats. The signal attenuation and intersymbol interference caused by the cables can be compensated by using Adaptive Equalization. HDMI 1.3 defined two categories of cables: Category 1 (standard or HDTV) and Category 2 (high-speed or greater than HDTV) to reduce the confusion about which cables support which video formats. Using 28 AWG, a cable of about 5 metres (~16 ft) can be manufactured easily and inexpensively to Category 1 specifications. Higher-quality construction (24 AWG, tighter construction tolerances, etc.) can reach lengths of 12 to 15 metres (~39 to 49 ft). In addition, active cables (fiber optic or dual Cat-5 cables instead of standard copper) can be used to extend HDMI to 100 metres or more. Some companies also offer amplifiers, equalizers and repeaters that can string several standard (non-active) HDMI cables together.

Fred, Currently I have comcast into my basement and then to my LR. There I have cable modem, router with wifi, tivo. I don't have wired ethernet to anyplace else. Wifi is bad in a number of places away from the router. (This is in a relatively small condo - ~1600 sqft.) My primary goals are to improve wifi throughout, and allow for a tv on a tivo mini upstairs. And secondarily to provide hard wired network access in some key places upstairs and down. (No particular needs for that other than to provide a faster path when doing something intensive.) The key constraint for me is getting wires to the right places, especially from downstairs to upstairs. I recently had some other work done that required pulling thermostat wire upstairs. A place to do that was found next to the main hvac return plenum. I had the installer drill holes extra large and leave me a pull string when doing that. But the holes are still only about an inch. So I am limited in what I can get between floors that way. Hence my intent to pull a single cable and use a switch upstairs. (I will probably pull an RG6 along with the Cat6, just in case it is needed in the future, but I don't have a current need for it.) My intent is to hang the wifi access point on the wall of the stairway from 1st to 2nd floor. It is quite central, and I can wire it through the wall from that upstairs closet. Given the size of my condo, I hope that will give me good coverage in all living spaces, and it won't look ugly. And I can get to that closet from the attic, after running from the basement up there. I will move router to basement (turning off its wifi) along with the cable modem, with a CatN from it to the tivo in the LR. I realize that the the result will only be as good as the worst link. I figure that will be good enough for now - it should still be a significant improvement over my current situation. And I can upgrade other components later if needed. I guess the key question is how good a switch to get, since I don't currently have one. I'm not going to pay $1k. By the time I *need* more than 1gig I can hope that the prices are down. I don't need the switch to hook up the access point. Only when I want to also connect to a tivo mini and to other wired drops upstairs.