In-wall wiring of console A/V in hdtv setup?

[eastside]

Looking for advice,

Has anyone attempted a wall mount of a flatscreen hdtv in which they successfully ran the A/V wiring in-wall?

Please share what you did.

thanks.

[skate323k137]

It's not too hard, unless it's an outside wall of the home (i.e. an insulated wall). most hollow drywall walls you can mount the tv bracket on a stud. if there is a an electrical outlet below the mount point on either side of said stud, you're going to want to "fish" your wires on the other side of that stud so you don't risk frying yourself. your holes will be behind the tv and behind the stand where you're setting your components, should be straight below the hole behind the TV. get a couple flat outlet covers, and carefully cut holes smaller than the outlet covers, leaving drywall for the screws that mount them, that way the holes can be covered if need be. its easier to run the wires top to bottom, and use a bent coat hanger to pull them out at the bottom. if you're having troubles with that , try sending something like a tape measure down the wall, then take that out at the bottom. tape your wire to it, and pull it on up. If you've got a LOT of wires, you may need some fish sticks/rods. basically, they're long really thin pretty rigid rods that you can tape a wire to the back of.

summed up:

mount bracket for tv.

fish wires, pull out at bottom and leave slack.

attach all wires to tv.

mount tv while someone else slowly pulls the slack out at the bottom.

install entertainment center/game systems.


PS: 2 REALLY easy places to do this;

basements where the wall is only finished on one side

wall against a stairway that is unfinished on the other side

[eastside]

It's not too hard, unless it's an outside wall of the home (i.e. an insulated wall). most hollow drywall walls you can mount the tv bracket on a stud. if there is a an electrical outlet below the mount point on either side of said stud, you're going to want to "fish" your wires on the other side of that stud so you don't risk frying yourself. your holes will be behind the tv and behind the stand where you're setting your components, should be straight below the hole behind the TV. get a couple flat outlet covers, and carefully cut holes smaller than the outlet covers, leaving drywall for the screws that mount them, that way the holes can be covered if need be. its easier to run the wires top to bottom, and use a bent coat hanger to pull them out at the bottom. if you're having troubles with that , try sending something like a tape measure down the wall, then take that out at the bottom. tape your wire to it, and pull it on up. If you've got a LOT of wires, you may need some fish sticks/rods. basically, they're long really thin pretty rigid rods that you can tape a wire to the back of.

summed up:

mount bracket for tv.

fish wires, pull out at bottom and leave slack.

attach all wires to tv.

mount tv while someone else slowly pulls the slack out at the bottom.

install entertainment center/game systems.


PS: 2 REALLY easy places to do this;

basements where the wall is only finished on one side

wall against a stairway that is unfinished on the other side

awesome.

Thanks for the detailed explanation!

Questions:

1)Outlet covers are for cover-up only, right? Is there any kind of neat A/V specialty cover that could be used to finish the hole?

2)If you are hooking up multiple consoles should you zip tie their wires together and fish them all together, or is it better to fish each wire seperately?

3)Flat mount vs. swing arm or folding out mount? Any preference? Swing-arm looks more accesible but I like the look of a clean flat mount better.

4)Cable tv -- I have a cable tv outlet right below the mount point at the bottom of the wall. Should I try to send it back up the wall? Or try to pull it out mid-wall? Unfortunately it is also my cable internet so I just can't cut the cable mid-wall unless I do a mid-wall splitter, I guess?

Thanks again!

[eastside]

Oh, another question:

Did you have any problem with cable length? TV will probably be 4 feet up the wall, I'l probably need 5 or 6 feet of cable.

Do you know how long the Sony HDMI and Digital optical out's are?

[ZenLogikos]

I recommend Crutchfield.

http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/ca/lea ... anelTV.pdf

[fox099]

you can actually get hdmi brackets, so you run your hdmi cable down the wall between brackets. they have av-ones as well. the easiest thing to do is to have a single hdmi going to your tv, and have the rest go to an a/v receiver.

[skate323k137]

Questions:

1)Outlet covers are for cover-up only, right? Is there any kind of neat A/V specialty cover that could be used to finish the hole?

2)If you are hooking up multiple consoles should you zip tie their wires together and fish them all together, or is it better to fish each wire seperately?

3)Flat mount vs. swing arm or folding out mount? Any preference? Swing-arm looks more accesible but I like the look of a clean flat mount better.

4)Cable tv -- I have a cable tv outlet right below the mount point at the bottom of the wall. Should I try to send it back up the wall? Or try to pull it out mid-wall? Unfortunately it is also my cable internet so I just can't cut the cable mid-wall unless I do a mid-wall splitter, I guess?

Thanks again!

1- like someone else said, if you have a reciever its easiest to have one or two types of outputs from that going up the wall to the TV, and wire stuff to the reciever. in the method i first described, yes, the wall plates would only be used as covers should you move your setup. You may have to shop/ask around for ones with the connections you want if you're going to try to go that route. I'm sure you could actually make them for RCA connections but as far as things like the power wire for the TV it's a whole different ball game.

2- it depends on the method you're using, the rigidity of the wires, and the shape of the "fittings" on the ends of the wires. if you sent a fish rod through the wall you may be able to pull everything through in one trip, but if youre fishing them out with a coat hanger you'll have to do a couple at a time or you'll never get them out of the wall. One time, i made a Loop of wire; (i.e. wallfish one wire, and tie it together in front of the wall) with a loop you can constantly pull one way or the other. you can tape your wires to that one at a time and just keep sending the loop in circles. I hope that makes sense.

3- as far as mounting tv's, you'll want someone elses advice on that. I'm a cable guy

(I would think a swing arm mount would make the project far easier though.)

4- Being a cable installer myself, I would have someone from the cable company come out and deal with the cable situation, otherwise you could very well risk screwing up your internet. technically there should be two seperate cable lines, one for TV and one for Internet, but if there's a splitter there it's not the end of the world assuming that there is a good strong signal to begin with. like i said, the ideal situation is to actually have two dedicated cable outlets.

[eastside]

you can actually get hdmi brackets, so you run your hdmi cable down the wall between brackets. they have av-ones as well. the easiest thing to do is to have a single hdmi going to your tv, and have the rest go to an a/v receiver.

Hdmi brackets? Trying to envision those, do you have a link to something like that online? Yeah, I thought of the receiver solution it might be the best way to good. I would be hooking up 4 consoles to it....what kind of a price range am I looking at for a middle of the road receiver? I have to buy a gaming stand and a bunch of other stuff, so I'm a bit price consious right now but eventually I might go with that.

[eastside]

1- like someone else said, if you have a reciever its easiest to have one or two types of outputs from that going up the wall to the TV, and wire stuff to the reciever. in the method i first described, yes, the wall plates would only be used as covers should you move your setup. You may have to shop/ask around for ones with the connections you want if you're going to try to go that route. I'm sure you could actually make them for RCA connections but as far as things like the power wire for the TV it's a whole different ball game.

Yeah, I don't think I will complicate my life with the fancy wall plates.... and I'll just leave all the power cables on the floor. Is there a surge protector you really trust, btw? Receiver is something I will definetly look into in the future, I'm just consious of extra costs right now.

2- it depends on the method you're using, the rigidity of the wires, and the shape of the "fittings" on the ends of the wires. if you sent a fish rod through the wall you may be able to pull everything through in one trip, but if youre fishing them out with a coat hanger you'll have to do a couple at a time or you'll never get them out of the wall. One time, i made a Loop of wire; (i.e. wallfish one wire, and tie it together in front of the wall) with a loop you can constantly pull one way or the other. you can tape your wires to that one at a time and just keep sending the loop in circles. I hope that makes sense.

Well, I'm going to attempt to thread a total of 4 consoles: PS3 (hdmi and optical), Wii (component), DC & Saturn (VGA and SVideo respectively) to give you an idea. That would be a total of 13 a/v cable altogether. I was just wondering if I could zip tie or rubber band them together and drop them down the top hole to fish them out of the bottom. I see what your saying in your loop of wire and maybe I'll just have to see what works best at the time of installation. Thanks for the suggestion.

3- as far as mounting tv's, you'll want someone elses advice on that. I'm a cable guy

(I would think a swing arm mount would make the project far easier though.)

Easier, but I like the cleaner look of a flush flat mount... I think Iwill go for the challenge

4- Being a cable installer myself, I would have someone from the cable company come out and deal with the cable situation, otherwise you could very well risk screwing up your internet. technically there should be two seperate cable lines, one for TV and one for Internet, but if there's a splitter there it's not the end of the world assuming that there is a good strong signal to begin with. like i said, the ideal situation is to actually have two dedicated cable outlets.

I'll probably just go the safe route and try to run the cable tv from the cable tv outlet to the bottom av hole and out the top av hole in the wall.

thanks again.

[eastside]

I recommend Crutchfield.

http://akamaipix.crutchfield.com/ca/lea ... anelTV.pdf

Thanks, those installation instructions provide a good visual aid along with some valuable recommendations. (I'm gonna print those out) This is definitely going to be my first install of this type and my neighbor, who is kind of a handy man, is going to be helping me with it. I would like to gain the experience and save some money that way rather than go the professional install route. I don't really see anything that is going to be a monunmental challenge, I just want to do as neat of a job as possible with the minimum of holes and extra work.