What cables should I embed in walls??

C

chrissles

Guest
Hoping someone can help a very ignorant av-novice on how to set up a wall for a plasma tv and simple home cinema set-up.

Basically I want to but a plasma tv and put it on the wall, with wires hidden within the (solid) wall. I also want to have a centre speaker next to the tv, with the wires similarly hidden.

I have found a painter/decorator who has agreed to route some cables in the plaster, just as long as I give him the cables he will need. My question is, "what cables do I need to embed?".

My set-up is planned to be:
Panasonic DMR-E50 DVD recorder
Sky+ Box
Acoustic Energy Aego P5 home cinema kit

The plasma brand/make is yet to be decided upon.

I am unlikely to want to set up to an outside aerial - I will rely on satellite for outside pictures.

I am also concerned about precisely where wires should come out in relation to the plasma wall bracket - I'm worried that the cables might be inaccessible once a wall bracket is factored in. Am I being paranoid? And presumably I should route a power supply up to tha plasma?

Any advice anyone can give would be much appreciated. The decorator arrives next week!!
 
OK Simplest option is go to your local CEDIA member they will be able to supply cable off the reel and terminante it for you.

DIY depending on the plasma either have a channel of coduit into backboxes to run the cable or run a cable from every connection on the screen back to a point. I suggest at least a VGA cable S-Video cable a Component cable and 2 scarts. You can do what you want with just one scart but that seriously limits future upgrades!!!!
Good quality Speaker cable for the centre and then the correct video cables.

Minimum of one scart one S-Video and one composite.


Naturally running cables you will never use is a waste of money but find you need i more cable and running after deroation can cost as much as the original install also pick your plasma sharpish as they all use different ways of connecting Tuner boxes direct to screen etc etc


EG:
panny PA20 all to screen
Panny PW6 with tuner box all to tuner then tuner> screen on dedicated cable
Panny PW6 no tuner direct to screen but different choices of connection!!!!!


Try here for more ideas (confusion)
http://www.tevra.co.uk/acatalog/Installation_cable.htm

http://www.hificables.co.uk/acatalog/SCART_to_S_VHS_Cables.html

http://www.hificables.co.uk/acatalog/Cable_catalogue_SCART_to_SCART_cables_7.html

Bandridge Profigold are good value cables if you go down the run everything i could ever need route....


HOpe this helps some what...Sounds like you need some Pro advice though!!!
 
To embed cables in the plaster is IMHO not a good idea, I would run them in flexible plastic trunks (looks like a hose) embedded into the wall itself, that way you can later pull them out or replace / add new ones (if space allows the latter).
 
Thanks to both of you. I was going to get him to put some plastic trunking in the wall so that I had the opportunity to change cables, but obviously changing cables, feeding them through the trunking, may not be the easiest job in the world! Therefore I thought I should get a good idea of what cables might be needed!
 
If you ensure that your trunking is large enough, feeding extra cables isn't that hard. What you do, if you want to add one, is attach a piece of string or other cable to the end of an existing cable, and then pull it through. Then, attach the (now removed) existing cable AND the required new one to the string (etc) and pull it back.

However, it is worth mentioning:

Aside from loudspeaker signals - pretty well any other signal protocol can be conveyed using one or more coaxial cables. Example:

Analog audio uses two (left & right)
Digital audio uses one.
Composite video uses one.
SVideo uses two.
Component video uses three

etc.

So you could simply embed (say) seven or eight coax cables into the wall, and then terminate them with whatever connections are needed, from time to time.

By the way - some Plasma TVs have a separate tuner and connections unit, which drives the screen via a proprietary umbilical cable. If your intended purchase is one of these, it is the umbilical cable that will need hiding.

For the best/most flexible/easiest to access method, how about a bit if DIY?

If it were me, what I'd do is place, in front of the wall, a large piece (or pieces) of something like MDF, spaced away from the wall by about an inch (on wood rails) - a false wall you might say. Mount it with screws, so that you can unscrew it when needed. Decorate it all to match the rest of the room. And put anything that needs hiding between it and the wall. Then, if you need to access anything, just unscrew the panel and do the necessary.
 
Thanks very much - that is very useful.

I hadn't considered the plasma tuner issue. As I want to use the Sky box as the tuner, it makes me think I want a plasma that can use the sky tuner rather than its own.

I'm considering the "false wall" idea, though my dream in life was to have a lovely uninterrupted surface on which to mount the plasma.

Thanks for the advice on the cables - the key seems to be to put cables in trunking that can be adapted to various uses as they crop up!
 
The plasma 'tuner' issue isnt just about tuning; some Plasmas require all external sources (which would include the Sky box) to be connected to the external system unit. So you may need to choose carefully.

And the false wall can be as big as the space it needs to fill....if you like.
 
Thanks very much - that is very useful.

I hadn't considered the plasma tuner issue. As I want to use the Sky box as the tuner, it makes me think I want a plasma that can use the sky tuner rather than its own.

I'm considering the "false wall" idea, though my dream in life was to have a lovely uninterrupted surface on which to mount the plasma.

Thanks for the advice on the cables - the key seems to be to put cables in trunking that can be adapted to various uses as they crop up!
 

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