Pavel314 wrote:
We had new carpet installed last week. One of the major complications was
that we had to unhook all the home entertainment devices and move them
out before the installation; TV, cable box, X-Box, Blu-Ray, old VSH
player, etc. Before unplugging, I took a picture of how the wires were
hooked to the back of each device with my wife's iPad. It made re-assembly much easier.

I'm going to do dis-assembly pictures on any complicated repair from now on.

Paul

While a picture is a good idea, labeling the cables works pretty well too.
No worries of a cable hiding behind another in the picture, etc.

Labeling can be as simple as masking tape and a Sharpie or as fancy as
this...

http://www.ncusa.com/labeling/images/whitecable.JPG

For example, I have 5 inputs into my surround system and 5 speaker outputs.
All of the wires are labeled making it very easy to move stuff around when
I have to.

Of course, only certain things can be labeled, so you're idea of
pre-disassembly pictures is a great one.