home improvement=lots of dust, little sleep

Our projects are coming along well.  ish.  Hittin a few too many speed bumps for our taste. 
Initial plan:  build wall across a corner in our living room to cover up the offending hideous rocks (which, by the way, i had to stand with my face an inch away from them and a few are sporting--mildew.  um gross.  our house is not damp enough for that to even occur.  im hoping it's just disguised spotty soot.), mount the TV on the wall up top, fire place below.  Awe... doesn't that just sound lovely? 
  So, anyway,  every component that is hooked to our tv has been sent to a separate cabinet across the room.  Which means:  drill hole through floor behind the tv, run 7 or 8 fat cords through the inch wide hole, pull them through the crawl space (just the term brings visions of mice and spiders scurrying around you while you slither on your belly through spider webs and mouse poop in the dark), into the basement, and up through another inch wide hole into said cabinet.  Tedious job.  I can't complain because i did not have to go near the dreaded crawl space--i was the cord shover and puller.  My giant husband had the priviledge of donning the haz-mat suit and strapping a flashlite to his head and sliding around on his belly.  What a trouper. 
  so, long story short--we had special order 2 HDMI cables (50 footers) for the XBOX and our satellite receiver (aka cable box).  We connect everything, and....   TV picture looks like crap.  The screen is 'sparkling' with static and loses the signal entirely every 10 -- 20 seconds.  Oh my word!!  are you joking me!  2+ hours of work and the television is unwatchable.  Awesome.
  apparently, it all boils down to-- the cables are too long for capabilities of our TV.  I'ts like 3 yr. old--50 ft HDMI cables make it look like dinosaur.  great. 
  Dave's friend who deals with this typ of crap all the time tells us that buying a new tv is not necessary (that was the first fear-striking idea that popped into my head), we just need a couple HDMI amplifiers.  $40 a pop.  you sh*ttin me!  Geez!
  Whatever, the TV works now.