[lewi63]

Hi,

After much deliberation over which TV to buy I have finally taken the plunge and purchased a Panasonic TH-42PX70 plasma (to replace my ancient Sony "28" CRT) together with a Panasonic SC-PTPT350 Home Cinema System. I also have a Thomson Sky+ box. I have 1 x 1.5m Scart lead and 1 x 1.5m HDMI cable. N.B. The Home Cinema allows 1080p HDMI up-scaling.

Please can someone let me know which cables I need to connect these 3 pieces of equipment?

Also, the TV will be wall-mounted and I was hoping to bury the cables. Has anyone any thoughts on this as I have heard that the power and signal cables do not always 'play together'? If I did not bury them can someone suggest another way of hiding the cables without it looking too unsightly?

My wife wants to have a fireplace below the TV. As I suspect it will hardly ever be used and she only wants it as a 'focal point' I am trying to convince her that the TV would be the 'focal point'. What height should I place the TV?

Thanks in advance,
Tim

[lewi63]

Any help/advice would be much appreciated

[Jamie]

You sky box will need optical to the amp and ideally RGB scart to your TV.
HDMI from the HT box to your TV.

I'm not familiar with your HT box, if its a recorder and has RGB in plug the sky RGB scart into that and have another scart lead from there to your TV.

Also if you ever use the tuner in your TV instead of the sky box to watch terrestrial TV then some sort of audio from the TV to the HTbox, if the TV is digital then it might even have co-ax digital or optical for sound, providing you have enough digital inputs on the HT box

This is just a preliminary answer. I'll do a little research on specific models when I have time tomorrow and give you the defimitive answer.

EDIT regarding the cables, if your HT box will take the RGB scart from the Sky+ and upconvert them to HDMI then this would be ideal as Digital cables shouldn't have a problem with interference from the power, you'd just need HDMI and power to your TV. If you are burying the cables in the wall and plastering over the top, use some conduit so you can fish other cables at a later time. and have seperate runs seperated by 12" or so, 1 for power and 1 for video audio. I'd also take the opportunity to include any cables you can plug into your TV now even if they don't get used you have options later

[davepuma]

Just run the power cables and video/audio cables separately inside some plastic piping or conduit. It's a good idea to run most cable types and get decent ones, the last thing you want is for a cable to fail and you have to try and pull new ones through. Some folks recommend running cat5/6 data cables for future use and they can be used to pull cables through (they're cheap). You can fit a faceplate like this to tidy up the cable exit point.

As for the height to fit the TV, too many folk's houses I've been in recently with wall mounted TV's are far too high. I think chiropractors will make a few bob out of this new fad....!! Put it this way, the max height of most AV racks for TVs is about 500-650mm ie. eye level when seated. Take a look at the gallery section or DIY forums for a better answer. Fitting above a fire has been done but I don't think I would do it myself.

[lewi63]

Thanks JimBobVFR400 and davepuma, that's really helpful