A/V Veteran

The POD system (or one of its competitors) seemed a safer bet than a moving van, though there are never any guarantees. You can pack and lock the PODs yourself, then secure them with the best lock (two each, in my case) you can find. (Hint: make more than one set of keys for the locks and keep them in different places—I made three!).

Two PODS, a 7-footer and a 16-footer, held most of the stuff, including AV gear that included two plasma HDTVs, one projector, preamps, amps, speakers, accessories, and the detritus that’s needed to connect it all together (I’m convinced that detachable power cords reproduce when left alone to their own devices in boxes and drawers). Fortunately I had the original shipping cartons for most of the pieces, including the TVs. I did contract with a separate moving van company for the larger pieces of furniture that I knew wouldn’t fit into either POD. But with a moving van your stuff is subjected to possible unloading and reloading at random points, awaiting the availability of vans heading your way (the van company gave me a delivery window with a span of 18 days!!).

The photo shows the 7-foot POD being loaded onto its truck after I had cleared it out. The key to pickup and delivery is the device the company calls the PODzilla. It’s slung to the truck with its small wheels retracted when on the road, but once delivery takes place the PODzilla’s small wheels (visible in the photo) are lowered to the ground with the POD suspended from the ‘zilla by chains. The POD is then raised high enough for the ‘zilla (its wheels driven by electric motors, with each wheel independently steerable) to move off the truck together with the POD. It moves onto your driveway (or other desired location) lowers the POD, and then returns to the truck where it’s secured once more for road travel. The POD can be left at your house for as long as you need to pack or unpack it. The truck drivers are also trained to maneuver the PODzilla—I guess you could call them PODzilla wranglers.

This isn’t an advertisement for the POD system (nor for one of its similar competitors) but I had good luck with their service. Just be sure your stuff will fit. But be aware that your insurance company may not cover the move—mine covered storage at the entry end (it stayed in California, at extra cost, of course, until I found a new house). I declined any supplementary insurance, imagining it to be about as useful as an extended warrantee on a television or washing machine. But I was a bit concerned. Not just for the electronics but even more so for the approximately 2500 pieces of boxed AV software (LPs CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays) in the PODs, each piece with an estimated replacement cost (if still available) of perhaps $15-$20. Do the math. I know of contributors to Sound and Vision and Stereophile with even larger collections. I did donate about one third of mine before leaving CA just to get down to 2500. I tried to sell my 200 laserdiscs, but ran out of time before finding a buyer with a compulsion for obsolete formats. I still have them. And two players.

But all the boxes arrived with no apparent damage. In fact, the POD pickup drivers (different ones for the 7-footer and the 16-footer, which were delivered on separate days) remarked on how well the stuff was packed; most folks just toss their boxes in without securing them. I guess it’s my engineering mentality. I used reams of heavy rope, extra screw eyes secured into the 4x4s along the POD’s walls, and a half dozen or so ratcheted bands from Home Depot (two of the bands kept the TV boxes securely in place). When I opened the 16-foot POD I was surprised to find a roll of blue masking tape sitting loose on top of one of the last boxes that was put into the POD, just where I had accidentally left it. That, of course, is a tribute to smooth roads and the POD truck drivers, not me!

One of the first items to come out of the POD was my Panasonic TC-65ZT60 plasma. The cable company had been here the week before, but this would be my first real test of local cable reception (Cox, for the curious). It was either cable or satellite, but the covenants of the subdivision I’m in don’t allow satellite dishes, though I suspect those covenants were written back when a satellite dish meant a 12-foot, powered monster.

Antenna reception would be equally dicey, as we’re 50 miles from the nearest over-the-air transmitter. Cutting the cord? Not going to happen any time soon, though with around 100 HD channels there will still be times when there’s nothing on worth watching (which is why God invented the DVR, the Internet, Blu-ray, and, of course, music).

My first reaction on cycling through the HD channels was that the local cable reception wasn’t quite as crisp as the (Charter) service I had in the Burbank/Glendale CA area. I suspect the reason is bandwidth. There seem to be more HD cable stations here (including an equal number of SD channels I’ll likely never watch) than were available in CA from Charter, though I’m not certain of that. If so, however, Cox could be using higher compression. Or older compressors.

It also might be the case that a cable company serving Burbank CA, the tech capital of the movie and TV production business, has to tow the line a bit rather than risk the wrath of all the local talent, production, and technical folks complaining about what Charter is doing to their shows. But the reception here in NW Florida does seem slightly better at night than during the day, possibly because in the evening there are fewer fast moving sports broadcasts stealing bandwidth from films and other shows. A six-hour docudrama on the History Channel about World Wars I and II looked remarkably good in the recreated (full color) scenes, though less so of course in the old (black and white) war footage that was inserted as needed.

The acid test, of course, will be Blu-rays. As I write this I’ll soon be unpacking my Blu-ray players—or at least as soon as I can finish emptying out that 16-foot POD. The next step will be deciding which of the 100 or so boxes I should unpack first. I marked each box when I packed it, briefly noting its contents, and kept more detailed notes on that content. But I lost the notes shortly before the PODs were delivered! At least most of the components, including the players, are in their clearly marked, original boxes.

A bigger challenge than video in my new open-concept space, however, will be audio. That comes next, followed by mounting my projector and screen and, perhaps, ATMOS capability. But more on those adventures in later blogs.