Help/Inspiration required

[dirty boy]

Hi all.

Below is a picture of my lounge (before we moved in) albeit we have a 42" plasma sitting on the floor at the moment

Now.

I've put an X where the nearest socket is, the plan, is to mount the TV where indicated and chase a power cable along the wall, up the chimney breast and locate the socket up (hidden) in the breast.

(don't worry, it's not a stack, everything above the breast has been removed, it's purely aesthetic)

Now, I have one problem. The wife doesn't want to see my bits <snigger> I have a sky box, surround sound (thin one) and a dvd player.

Can anyone think of the best way to locate them out of sight? Could I mount them vertically in the breast on some sort bracket? I know they're not designed to run upside down as such.

I could then simply run the small wires out the side for my surround. This needs to be neat otherwise the wife won't allow it. Otherwise i'm going to have to have freeview only and no av of any kind.

Thanks

[StevieBee]

As the chimney breast is aesthetic, the most obvious solution would be to build some form of shelving within this, assuming there is sufficient depth. However, this would render operation and remotes difficult to use plus you need to consider ventilation as well.

You don't want to position the various components too far away from each other so the simplest solution would be a nice cabinet where the box telly is at the moment.

[dirty boy]

StevieBee said:

As the chimney breast is aesthetic, the most obvious solution would be to build some form of shelving within this, assuming there is sufficient depth. However, this would render operation and remotes difficult to use plus you need to consider ventilation as well.

You don't want to position the various components too far away from each other so the simplest solution would be a nice cabinet where the box telly is at the moment.

That's the problem, the breast isn't deep enough for shelving, and SWMBO doesn't want shelving in the gap.

So can I vertically mount as long as I put ventilation in ?

I was thinking of putting a 'magic' eye in a corner somewhere, and just having a 'lid' to open up for when I want to put a dvd on.

[DavidY]

Load DVDs into a tray based player vertically is a pain, ok with a slot based player though. Wherever you put the gear you are going to need access to all three remote sensors, or get three suitable magic eyes.

A small neat rack in the corner would get my vote (but then I'm not a nitpicky wife!), fortuantely my wife is a techie and whilst she does appreciate all the 'black' boxes she does appreciate the resultant sound and picture. You're going to end up with the sourround speakers on show anyway, so it's not like it's all going to be hidden

davidy

[headcase]

I have some of the installs i have done in a facebook photo album, feel free to take a look for ideas.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86560&id...

[ndg]

No one has yet mentioned that you may not be able to turn a corner on the mains wiring without a visible face plate (I think) look up acceptable zones). You may be able to get away with it as it's horizontal from one end and vertical from the other, but it's certainly not good practice! Much better to lift a few boards upstairs and enxtend the ring down the old flue?

As for the AV feeds how about an AV rack in the corner with an upscaling HD AV amp doing the switching, feeding an HDMI cable to the plasma? This is how I'm planning on doing ours when I can afford a new AV amp. Until then the DVD etc will be stitting with the TV!

N.

[dirty boy]

ndg said:

No one has yet mentioned that you may not be able to turn a corner on the mains wiring without a visible face plate (I think) look up acceptable zones). You may be able to get away with it as it's horizontal from one end and vertical from the other, but it's certainly not good practice! Much better to lift a few boards upstairs and enxtend the ring down the old flue?

As for the AV feeds how about an AV rack in the corner with an upscaling HD AV amp doing the switching, feeding an HDMI cable to the plasma? This is how I'm planning on doing ours when I can afford a new AV amp. Until then the DVD etc will be stitting with the TV!

N.

Thanks for the ideas guys,

ndg, coming from upstairs is definately a better option, thanks for that!

[Plotloss]

Ask the Mrs to choose a cabinet with solid doors that she likes the look of that will house your AV gear.

Then buy a remote with an RF to IR gateway like some of the Harmony line or a Pronto.

Easy.

[FlossyThePig]

headcase said:

I have some of the installs i have done in a facebook photo album, feel free to take a look for ideas.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86560&id...

Why should I register for facebook to see your work?

[satans worm]

Plotloss said:

Ask the Mrs to choose a cabinet with solid doors that she likes the look of that will house your AV gear.

Then buy a remote with an RF to IR gateway like some of the Harmony line or a Pronto.

Easy.

Can I just confirm, you can put AV equipment behind solid wood doors and with a funky remote it will still 'speak' to the equiptment?

If so I'm a happy man!!

(Which all in one remotes will do this?)

[headcase]

FlossyThePig said:

headcase said:

I have some of the installs i have done in a facebook photo album, feel free to take a look for ideas.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86560&id...

Why should I register for facebook to see your work?

You shouldnt have to, the album share status is se to 'all' so anyone should be able to see it.

[headcase]

oh yeh!! thats a bit crappy isnt it, you do have to login even when its set to share.

[Plotloss]

satans worm said:

Plotloss said:

Ask the Mrs to choose a cabinet with solid doors that she likes the look of that will house your AV gear.

Then buy a remote with an RF to IR gateway like some of the Harmony line or a Pronto.

Easy.

Can I just confirm, you can put AV equipment behind solid wood doors and with a funky remote it will still 'speak' to the equiptment?

If so I'm a happy man!!

(Which all in one remotes will do this?)

Pronto 9300/9400/9600/9800

Harmony 1100 (used to be the 895 as well but that appears to have gone EOL)

[dirty boy]

Sorry to drag this up again. We're now settled in the house, and so the TV situation has cropped up again.

Couple of things i'd like to confirm.

Can I put one HDMI cable in the back of the TV and run that to a Sky HD box. Then plug, say a PS3 into the Sky HD box and that'll still send the signal, or will I require to run two HDMI cables?

I'll also need a pretty long HDMI cable, are these commonly available as my local TV shops etc only seem to stretch to about 2mhave googled some.

I'm going to house a Sky HD/PS3 (as a blu-ray) in the corner opposite the TV, so will need around 6m (ish - guesstimate)

note - i've not bought the Sky HD/PS3 yet.

Edited by dirty boy on Tuesday 15th September 16:52

Edited by dirty boy on Tuesday 15th September 16:53

[Plotloss]

You can put one HDMI in if you use a HDMI switch or an amplifier, if you intend to use the two sources seperately then you'll need two seperate cables.

[dirty boy]

Plotloss said:

You can put one HDMI in if you use a HDMI switch or an amplifier, if you intend to use the two sources seperately then you'll need two seperate cables.

Will this do the trick?

http://www.digitaldirect.co.uk/yamaha/rx-v365-blac...

You'll have to excuse me, my awareness of technology has dropped ten fold since i've had children.

I do appreciate the help.

[Plotloss]

Yes, if you only have two sources.

That is an amplifier as well as a switch though, so if you're going to have surround speakers its the way to go.

If not, then a switch is cheaper (but not much for a decent one)

[Tiggsy]

although if you have surround, speaker placement will be fun with the tv on your left (unless the viewing area is not in shot?)

[dirty boy]

Tiggsy said:

although if you have surround, speaker placement will be fun with the tv on your left (unless the viewing area is not in shot?)

There's a 3 seater facing directly opposite the TV.


I'll get the amp, as I have some speakers from an old sony surround sound set, piss poor probably, but sounded a lot better than standard TV