[Nice Swan]

Below is a rough plan of the living room of a new house me and Miss NiceSwan have bought. [Including the couch furniture that will be fitting in there] We would like to get the living room up to speed AV wise and give it a contemporary feel and have the new AV equipment as a large focal point of the room. I dont know anything from what cabling [scarts and general cable] is needed - or how to best approach cutting out the wall and putting the wiring in there and feeding it from TV to boxes. I have a mate who is a spark and a plasterer so the helping hands are there for me. Luckily.

As you can see form the pictures of the house [taken from the web listing]. The people who own it already have a wall mounted panel, but not much else going on, and to be honest - im not sure about the whole look of it. The panel they hve up is a 42", but its mounted too high above the fireplace - Id have it only a couple of inches above the fireplace.

To be honest - this thread isnt to argue the pro's and con's of "above fireplace" installs. Im limited to where I put the panel, and this is the only place - so try to avoid the "Hows the creek in your neck going to be"

Ive just bought a Samsung PS50Q7H and it will be delivered this week, and also got Sky HD being fitted over the weekend. The TV will be nigh on 4m from where we'll be sitting. At the minute we have a Sony DAV-SC5 [pictured below]. Although this isnt brilliant, we are on a budget to get the room completed before we change this. So thats the last thing to be done after all TV units/furniture etc etc.

Basically, what I was thinking was wall mounting above the fire place, similar to as it is now [a few inches lower]. The fire surround can be painted, or changed completely, but the plynth and fire itself are staying. To the left/right of the fire I was wanting a contemporary looking low unit to store the sky box, dvd etc etc. Any shelving ideas welcomed. I quite like the ones on the links below - but think i'd prefer black or a shiny black/piano like finish. Also want something between 1m and 1.5m long and only about 50cm-75cm deep.

These are just examples.
Unit number 1
Unit number 2
Unit number 3

What cabling would I need to get?
I need to install Home cinema, Sky HD, put something there for when use PS2, possibly something to hook my laptop to the screen when I occassionally need to. Also any surge/safety things I may need.
What scarts? [my existing IXOS scarts are only 1.5m long and hence not going to be long enough?]
What cabling in General?
What would look tidiest?
Any general info would be superb, or links to sites or thread on here that will help.

The final ideas will be inplimented and then chronicled on here including pictures and so on.

So please.....fire away. Just one thing........

- If you suggest items, please link so that they can be viewed and/or bought....

Muchos Gracias.

NiceSwan's.

[Nice Swan]

[Nice Swan]

Thanks everyone.

[richard plumb]

where are the pictures of the house?

Have you spent some time reading other threads to get some ideas on what you want? Thats a good place to start.

[inzaman]

As above, have a good look around the forums, but as follows;

What cabling in General? - What connections does the Plasma and the all in one system have?

What would look tidiest? Channelling the cables into the wall will be the far tidiest once complete.

[Nice Swan]

Originally Posted by inzaman

As above, have a good look around the forums, but as follows;

What cabling in General? - What connections does the Plasma and the all in one system have?

What would look tidiest? Channelling the cables into the wall will be the far tidiest once complete.

Plasma [Samsung PS50Q7H]:

# Connections
# 1 x HDMI
# 2 x Scart Connection
# 1 x Component
# 1 x S-Video
# 1 x RF Input
# 1 x PC VGA Connection
# 2 x RCA Out
# 1 x Headphones

Home Cinema [Sony DAV-SC5]:

Inputs = Composite x 2 • Analog Audio x 2

SCART Connectors = Output x 1 • Input x 1

Outputs = Composite x 1 • Analog Audio x 1

[louishm]

Originally Posted by Nice Swan

At the minute we have a Sony DAV-SC5 [pictured below]. Although this isnt brilliant, we are on a budget to get the room completed before we change this. So thats the last thing to be done after all TV units/furniture etc etc.

make sure you put cables in for future use, If you plan on upgrading at some point, i.e reciever/new spks/games consoles, etc etc etc. take this into consideration when cabling.


paul

[Nice Swan]

Originally Posted by louishm

make sure you put cables in for future use, If you plan on upgrading at some point, i.e reciever/new spks/games consoles, etc etc etc. take this into consideration when cabling.


paul

Indeed. Good point.

[leef1234]

As above, any new device will probably use HDMI, component or VGA so bear that in mind if you are burying cables.

I had a similar sony all-in-one when i 1st started out.

Those cabinets look nice. I dont know if you've looked, but quite a few people here have used idea, they have quite a big range for this type of thing, and they are cheaper than the ones in your links (if you want to try and save a few quid).