Need opinions and advice on new childproof AV cabinet setup please

Jammo

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Hi there folks,

Firstly please let me apologise for having such a large first post, but if you could make your way through it and offer some suggestions I'd be most grateful.

My wife and I are currently in the process of doing up our living room, and sorting out our TV and AV equipment is priority number 1. We currently have a 3 shelf black glass stand that our equipment is on, and although there is nothing wrong with it our 19 month old boy likes nothing more than turning everything on / off and putting DVDs and games behind the tray in our home cinema unit. Needless to say this setup needs to be a lot smarter when it comes to detering his mischievous fingers!

Our current equipment is as follows:

50" Panasonic plasma TV (model number escapes me)
Panasonic Home Cinema System (DVD, not Blu-Ray)
XBox 360
Sky+ HD
Unknown brand Blu-Ray player (which I'm looking to replace with a PS3)

At first we wanted to wall mount the TV and have floating wall shelves underneath and out of reach of our boy, but having consulted with an installer who came to the house he seemed to think the shelves would be really low down if the TV was put up at the optimum viewing height, and probably wouldn't withstand him resting his full weight on a shelf. When I asked him whether he thought the TV could be mounted far higher to compensate for this (it is after all a big TV) he simply said no.

So, armed with this knowledge (which may or may not be correct) I've since been looking at the various options and none seem to sit quite right with me. I can't seem to find any (black - high gloss or normal is fine) cabinets that have glass doors instead of drawers, and have a bracket on the back to house the TV and raise it off the cabinet top. Unless these cabinets exist, I see our options are:

1. Buy a cabinet, and let the TV sit on top of it. This to me is an accident waiting to happen unless there is some way of securing the TV to the wall.
2. Buy a cabinet and still mount the TV on the wall. This will make the TV much harder to turn off and also make it impossible to topple over.

I'd like to go with 2 but I'm not sure the extra hassle of getting the wires sunk into the (external) wall and replastering would be worth the final result. Any comments on this?

In terms of what we are looking at for the actual cabinet, we don't really want to spend a fortune, so this is looking pretty good right now:

Tv Stands,Tv Units,LCD Stands,Wooden Plasma Tv Stands,Glass Tv stands,Tv Entertainment Furniture

However, like I say I'm completely open to suggestion on this one!

Also regarding the enclosed AV cabinets, I'm immediately concerned about the cooling / ventilation aspect of it. I'd like to custom fit some fans (as some of you have already done from what I can see) to any cabinet that I do buy, but although I understand the concept being pretty useless at DIY and electrics means putting the idea into practice could be challenging. Many solutions I've read about require rewiring a 12V DC Adapter which I wouldn't be comfortable doing. Assuming I can make a hole / holes in the unit:

1. Would I need holes to let cooler air in, and to let hot air out, or would just getting the airflow moving be enough?
2. Where would these hole(s) best be placed?
3. Would the following setup work?

Fan: NF-S12B ULN Ultra Low Noise 120mm Cooling Fan, 500/700 RPM
Power: AC Power Adapter with Molex Plug
Grill: 120mm Fan Guard 12

4. Is it safe to run these - or any - fans pretty much constantly?

Thanks in advance all, and once again sorry for such a large first post.
 
Hi Jammo

There are quite a few options for cabinets with attached brackets, it can be a bit difficult to locate them online as most models like this have the bracket as an optional extra so are not usually displayed with the bracket mount.

BDI and Gecko are two brands which we deal with that offer the mount bracket as an optional accesory for most of their cabinets:

Gecko Reflect REF1100-GB | Black LCD & Plasma TV Cabinet up to 55"

BDI - Mirage 8224 | Dark Wood LCD TV Furniture Stand | BIG AV

I have suggested two models above that are finished in gloss black, have space for your components and can take a bracket.

As far as the cooling element is concerned, both BDI and Gecko use vented bases on their stands and also have vented rear panels which also act as cable management. You will probably find that this creates enough of a flow through effect to keep the internal temperature in the cabinet low enough to not need a fan system.

Let me know if you need any more info.

Thanks
 

That is one very nice cabinet, the wife loved it too but her first question was "does it come in black?". I've searched around but that doesn't seem to be an option.

Also an excellent thread on cabinet cooling:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/av-s...ding-cooling-your-cabinets-work-progress.html

I have a similar setup using the MiniNG

Hope this helps.

It certainly did, what a fantastic thread! If I've understood what I've read correctly, I'll need the following:

3.5 inch IDE to USB 2.0 Sumvision Aluminum HDD: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo - £15
HFX 112 T-Balancer miniNG Fan Controller - £30
NF-S12B ULN Ultra Low Noise 120mm Cooling Fan, 500/700 RPM - £15 x2
http://www.quietpc.com/gb-en-gbp/products/casefanaccessories/fangaskets - £4 x2
http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=1815&doy=15m11 - £2.50 x 2


Is that correct?

Thanks again!
 
Last edited:
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Hi Jammo

There are quite a few options for cabinets with attached brackets, it can be a bit difficult to locate them online as most models like this have the bracket as an optional extra so are not usually displayed with the bracket mount.

BDI and Gecko are two brands which we deal with that offer the mount bracket as an optional accesory for most of their cabinets:

Gecko Reflect REF1100-GB | Black LCD & Plasma TV Cabinet up to 55"

BDI - Mirage 8224 | Dark Wood LCD TV Furniture Stand | BIG AV

I have suggested two models above that are finished in gloss black, have space for your components and can take a bracket.

Thanks

I love the Gecko but I think with the addition of the bracket takes it well over what we were looking to spend. I can't believe the bracket for the Gecko is close to £200 on its own (although I couldn't find this on your site even though the page said it was available to add).

I'm still trying to pick myself up after looking at the cost of the Mirage!
 
I quite like the TV panel that is available from IKEA here:

IKEA | TV solutions for flatscreen TVs up to 37" | BESTÅ/FRAMSTÅ/INREDA storage system | FRAMSTÅ | TV panel

Does anyone here have one?

I'm currently wondering about pairing it up with one of these:

S&C ZIN422510/BKI Modus Range Beam Thru High Gloss: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo

I can see that unit is 100cm whereas the panel is 120cm, but the difference in size shouldn't be that noticeable as I'm planning on placing the tall speakers from my system alongside.

Actually now I think about it, I'm wondering if it will look too much like it has been cobbled together?
 
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That is one very nice cabinet, the wife loved it too but her first question was "does it come in black?". I've searched around but that doesn't seem to be an option.



It certainly did, what a fantastic thread! If I've understood what I've read correctly, I'll need the following:

3.5 inch IDE to USB 2.0 Sumvision Aluminum HDD: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo - £15
HFX 112 T-Balancer miniNG Fan Controller - £30
NF-S12B ULN Ultra Low Noise 120mm Cooling Fan, 500/700 RPM - £15 x2
AcoustiFan Anti-vibration Soft Silicone Fan Gaskets - £4 x2
Steel Finger Guards : 12V Mains Fans : Maplin - £2.50 x 2


Is that correct?

Thanks again!

Looks good to me, Good luck!!!
 
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Hi Jammo,

What is your budget? I should be able to help you out.

I'm not allowed to talk deals in the forum posts (AVF rules) but send me a private message and I will look at what we can do.

Thanks
 
I've got a wall-mounted LCD and have all the AV gear shoved in a cabinet to the side. The cabinet is a common-or-garden IKEA one, that I took a jigsaw to the back of (2 at the top for the fans and a big one at the bottom for the leads) and mounted a couple of large PC fans in the top of, connected to an old DC phone charger and a variable resistor (came with the PC fans) - everything attached with a glue-gun.
Control of everything in the cabinet (V+, PC, amp, AV switch, consoles etc) is running off a Harmony 900.

All looks quite neat now - as long as you don't open the doors.

Not even sure the fans were required. If I did it again, I'd just rip half the back out and leave it passive. Only thing that caused problems was my initial stacking of equipment without enough clearance around the vents (V+ would overheat with 1U pizza-PC directly on top). Added some spacers (a Wii fits perfectly) and all issues solved.
 

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