Project 1: It's WOW! Ultra TV. Now off to Monoprice for HDMI.

After some deliberation, we went with WOW for all three services - cable/internet/phone. At least at the outset. I'm eventually going to go with DirecTV - probably this summer - but I don't want it installed until we have a better understanding of where the dish would go. (Potentially, on the pergola we're going to be building off the back of the house.)

Despite the odd holes in the channel lineup, UltraTV does have some serious advantages, and I'm looking forward to providing a full write-up after it's installed next week.

Now, it's time to start looking at how all this stuff is going to work together. At the outset, we won't have our built-in shelving to the left and right of the fireplace. That's going to come later. For now, we're working with the same AV cabinet we've used for the last few years, which will sit to the left of the fireplace. The space above the fireplace has a power outlet, and a cable connection. No HDMI. Off to Monoprice.com!

I learned a few things at Monoprice today:

• I won't be wiring my entire house with CAT5 cable. I will be wiring it with CAT6 cable. (Oh, the tech advances you miss when you're focused entirely on wi-fi!)

• HDMI cables are rated by AWG (American Wire Gauge) - and lower numbers are bigger and better, just like with shotgun gauges.

• I'm probably going to need 25 foot HDMI cables at a minimum, just in case I have to go through the basement and back up alongside the fireplace. (Up-and-down wall fishes are easy. Side-to-side, not so much.) They have to be high-speed in order to carry 3D signals, and (based on some quick internet research) 24 AWG is really the highest acceptable number for that distance... So they aren't going to be particularly cheap.

Still, Monoprice has a 22 AWG cable that meets my specs for about $28. I'll take 4.