The simple solution: get component video baluns. Connect to the component video output of the directv box, and send it to the tv over the cat5. Enjoy :).

Monitor Audio W280's. Their 8" C-CAM driver is surprisingly accurate, and you can turn them up. $300 per speaker retail. Do it!

This looks kaoss-orific. It will add true chaos to my so-far-all-yamaha rig. Do it!

How to put this delicately...tonight is May 3rd, not the 4th. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, mmmkay?

Watch out fastharry. THEY could still take you away :)

Obviously, the wiring is all behind the tv. That is why the sound doesn't work, but the tv does. haha!

"kind of puts it out of reach for the vast majority of those that could use it."

Are you kidding? What kind of a/v user needs to extend HDMI over 500 feet AND have fiber optic run in their house AND can't afford a $1500 solution? The only houses I know being prewired with fiber are the mansions outside of my neighborhood. For the rest of us, CAT5e will work just fine until the pricing comes down on fiber.

Is Gefen really trying to tell us that there is a market of people out there who have houses that would require more than $999 in labor and hdmi cable to actually have a physical wire installed to their tv? This is going to niche as hell.

Ummmmm, where is the RS232 port? I see an IR port, but RS232?

A lot of people I know are looking for the end-all solution, the one that ties together the music and movies they have, as well as making it easier to get the music and movies they want without sacrificing the quality they are already at least (or, supreme-being-permitting, allow them access to BETTER quality than they have access to now). VUDU does not yet allow for any sort of integration with consumers' existing movie libraries, whether they be in DVD's, Bluray's, or already stored on a hard drive. VUDU may be successful in selling this to people who don't already have a decent movie collection, and probably have no intention of ever owning a movie themselves, but anyone who has an existing movie collection that I know would be a little frustrated to have a simple-to-use movie box that does not help them integrate the movies they have with the movies they want.