Socket for Chimney breast mounted Plasma

[Don Guido]

Hi folks,

After some thoughts here.

What do people do with the power lead for their plasma's when mounting them to a chimney breast?

In short we have a goddam ugly fireplace in the new lounge which is going to be sledged and refitted with a modern fireplace - real fire oooooh - the Pio will be mounted to the chimney breast above the fireplace.

All the eq obviously can't sit on a stand beneath the tv now because for obvious reasons it would melt so my plan is to get some sort of eq stand/rack and sit the eq in the lefthand corner of the room.

I will get a track or some trunking put in the chimney breast to carry speaker wires and hdmi + aerial lead to the tv. But my question is what on earth do I do about the power lead to the TV? Is there anywhere where you can buy much longer power leads? or should I get the electrician to hide a socket in the fireplace - the fireplace will be in use at some point

What have you guys done, or would advise? I'll try and take a piccie later to clear this up if that would help.

Also, what leads would I need to go to the TV. I am the proud owner of an Onkyo 605, a PS3 and Monitor Radius Speaker system. I was thinking the following:

Hdmi from amp to TV
Aerial cable to TV (so I can use DTV when dont want sky; just in case)
Power lead

Would it be better to get two long hdmi leads and run one from the amp for the ps3, and use another to go from the Sky HD box directly to the TV but sending the optical out from the sky box to the amp?


I'm newish at this stuff and dont really know what the best way forward is and don't want to cock it up especially when plastering etc is involved!

Thanks folks

Guido

[Richuu]

Not sure about the positioning of a power socket, but assuming your TV has the usual 'kettle' type plug (IEC something or other), you can get longer power leads, or make your own up to suit.

As for the other connections, I would run a cable from every connection on the TV to where your rack is going to be - fill every socket on the TV - Scart, HDMI, Component, PC, audio in / out, S-Video - the lot! Even if you only use budget connections, especially for the lower quality connection types, at least they're in place and run in the conduit in case you ever need them. It'll be much harder to run them neatly after everything is installed (depending on how 'hidden' the wires will be).

[jtotheb]

I'd agree about the comment on filling all the sockets. That's exactly what I did.

However, what I did differently was that I ran the cables outside! The wall my 46" LCD is mounted on is an external wall so, in order to avoid messy redecoration, I went straight through the plasterboard / breeze block / brickwork to the left of the chimney breast and came back in at the corner of the room. It's made for a very neat installation and the cables are really well hidden on the external wall.

PLUS, just a small amount of filling to be done and a tester pot of the same colour as our lounge and job done!

[Don Guido]

Yes its a pio 428 so normal kettle lead, not sure about the other connections as I dont really have anything else I'd want to plug in to it!

Cant run though the back wall, as it would be going into the kitchen

Guido

[MarkP80]

Well, there's as many opinions as there are folk - I ran only a scart and HDMI to my plasma, as I reckon that's all I'll ever need.

For your electrical supply, I would recommend you get a socket fitted in the wall behind the tv. I actually ran in a switched spur, so that you don't need to squeeze your fingers up behind the tv if you want to turn the mains off for any reason - the spur switch plate is then at floor level next to my other sockets.

Think about where you put the socket - look where the connection is on the tv, and put it somewhere near that, but not directly behind in case the gap isn't wide enough! Then, you can make the power lead the right length so that you have a spare loop you can tuck up by the bracket when you mount it. You won't see the socket when the tv is fitted, but it makes taking it down easy for decorating etc.

I also made sure the mains cable was in a separate channel to the video cables (for me it was mains tc&e anyway, so it was obvious to do). I used screened video cables, but didn't want to plaster it up to find I was getting interference.

HTH,
MarkP

[SurreyFox]

Hi all

Great to read this as I want to do the same thing. I think my installation should be quite simple as my understairs cupboard sits between the chimney breast in the living room that I am planning on putting the LCD onto (and I could well be putting another screen onto the chimney breast in the playroom on the other side of the understairs cupboard too).

I am planning on putting all my AV equipment under the stairs and I have ample power points in there to feed the TVs and AV equipment.

My question is around the conduit to put the cables into as it would be so much tidier and easier to feed the cables straight through the chimney breasts to the TVs rather than channelling out the L of the chimney breasts and going through the walls to the side of the chimneys.

Both of these chimneys have working real fires, so what conduit should I be using to protect the cables from fire/heat damage?