Super Bowl Survival

And you thought you could just make some guacamole and call it a day. This year those 22 sweaty guys running up and down in shoulder pads and tights are more of an event than ever. You can thank your HDTV for turning your home into a mini SuperBowl Stadium.

Here are a few tips for optimum viewing on the big day:

Clean the Screen: There are many debates about the best way to do this, but for the money I spent on the TV I'm not about to start testing homemade potions (though some swear by distilled water with a touch of vinegar). I splurge on a screen cleaner like Klear-Screen. For dusting the TV and the tower of stuff that seems to be growing around it, I've had luck with 3M's Cleaning Cloths and the Swiffer (for those tough spaces between stacked components).

Buy an HDMI Cable: This piece of advice by way of RadioShack, which put together an entire YouTube video on SuperBowl tech. HDMI is the fully digital cable that's all wrapped neatly in one package. It looks more like a USB cable than a video cable. If your device supports it, HDMI transmits both audio and video over the same cable. It's less messy, faster, and the best quality available. HDMI has other features, including a tie into HDCP and copy protection, which checks that you're not making illegal copies of the content.

Use a Home Theatre Surge Protector: Weather or electrical problems could wreck your game viewing and possibly your components. Take precautions with units like this one from Belkin that condition the line, removing power spikes, surges, and interference from your AC power. There are other even fancier models with indicator lights, alarms, ground check, and line conditioners.

Make Sure You're Not Going to Tumble: Consumer Reports provides tips on your TV furniture so that you don't.

Fine Tuning the Picture: One school of thought is to take a DVD of a sporting event and watch it until you're comfortable with what you see. Others prefer a more studied approach. We bought Digital Video Essentials, but there's also a program called Avia. You can find a comparison of the two on HDTV Voice. With DVE, you put the DVD in your DVD player and it walks you through set optimization. However, walking through the interface for DVE on a DVD player was torturous and complicated. Eyeballs work better as far as I'm concerned.

Setting Up Your First Home Theatre: Here's some good advice on overall setup from eCoustics.

Seating: If you're dead serious about your home theatre, you'll want to visit AudioVideo Interiors. The rest of us will want to make sure our seats don't go too far to the side of the screen or too close to the screen. Crutchfield offers some nice tutorials for optimizing seating and lighting as well as sound.

Now about that guacamole. Last year fans consumed more avocados during the SuperBowl than on any other day of the year—an estimated 49.5 million pounds.

For more see:

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