Decorating, flat-screen TVs, wireless & genius.

Just before Christmas we updated our old telly (circa 1945) and got one of them new, trendy flat-screen TVs, which I duly mounted on the wall above our fireplace.

Smashing.

Except the TV works off electric (power cable) has 3 HDMI connections (Freesat box, DVD player, PS3), a SCART cable (PS2), a VGA cable (lap-top), a PC sound cable (lap-top again) and a video cable (Wii), and I might want to add an coax cable in September, when we get terrestrial digital.

That's a big old wedge of cables, so when we redecorated the house this week I was ordered to find a way to hide them, which turned out to be a right old ball-ache.

What I want to know is why there isn't a little box that I can plug all of those connections into (other than the power cable, obviously) and then have the signal from each transmitted wirelessly to a similar box a few feet away, which I can plug all of my connectors into.

With the rise of the flat screen TV you'd think that somebody would make such a thing. Do they? If not then I'm calling dibs on the idea and anybody who wants to make these things will have to send me a wedge of cash.

Can i place an order for the first 'box'? To save floor space i'm thinking i'll put my tv on the wall when I move into my new place, and i can only think of burrowing out a 'channel' in the wall down to the skirting board and then filling it over afterwards.

In a word...no. Complete pain. Of course you can chase the cables into the wallonly to have the tv break in a year or two and then find said cables no longer reach the sockets!

Better solution is to creat a 2nd platerboard wall and hide everything behind that.

Is that "No, they don't exist", which is a complete pain.

Or

"No, they don't exist, and they'd be a complete pain to make".

A quick answer would be appreciated, as my future fortune now rests upon it.

same dilemma here; I´ll finally choose the old "miner" style too

I read that to be his name for you!!

Thanks Jim Freudiang maybe
The wireless box solution does not exist yet, sorry.

Don't be sorry - that means I can invent it and be rich, rich beyond the dreams of average rice!

Tell you what, as I can't wield a soldering iron without having my eye out, why don't you build it for me and I'll split the riches with you.

The 2nd plaster board / wooden wall usually works well. Had this done at an office and the cables are now nicely routed through the floor.

I've got a contact we've used that's quite reasonable for this type of thing, he uses various boxes to enclose all the cabling.

Alternatively you could sell your shiney new tv for maximum resale (or take it back and get a rear projection) see below..

Flat Screen

Presumably... as you would need a sender/reciever for each individual input to the tv, the magic box would need to be quite large.

It *cant* be impossible though - somewhere I've got one of those sky tv 'sender' thingys, where you can send the sky signal upstairs/to another room without paying Murdoch for multiroom.

Works well enough.

That said, it is a bit of a faff, wires everywhere (around the original box) + a small wire close to the I/R for the remote signal too.

I'd be amazed if there really isnt ANY product on the market that does this, or some version of.



PS MrR, dont forget your old mate Shiny when you make your millions - who is it who is always agreeing with you, and backing you up in your wayward posts...!!

What wall is it mounted onto??

I am due to wall mount my tv at some point (although its 3yrs old and really want it to break, as can't be assed wall mounting it and then it breaks and needing to replaster the wall for new brackets etc etc) and mines backs onto the understairs cupboard.

I will drill a large-ish hole behind the tv and feed all the cables through. Then will be building a shelf below the tv, again with a hole behind the sky box, feed the cables back through into each box/device and then tie up the extra lengths and secure to the wall.

Presume as you havent thought of this is because its an external wall or backs into another room?

Ross

I'm thinking about doing this too. In a few months time my daughter will no doubt be at the same height as the tv and I'd rather she didn't:

A. Cover it in mashed up avocado
B. Smash the screen with a toy
C. Knock the tv over

I don't think so, all you need is a protocol which lets you send the data packet with an identifier for the source/output for the signal, so you could do it all in one box. Theoretically it's quite simple - all it's doing is reading electrical signals from a number of inputs and broadcasting them - there's no reason why something the size of a mobile phone couldn't do it.[/quote]

I guess.

Trouble is, there will always be one wire you cannot do without - the power lead.

Bugger.

The issue with that is that your wall will have studs holding it up, which you'll have to also drill through, which is likely to be troublesome.

I'd have thought that the problem is the bandwidth needed for a HDMI signal ... several Gbit/s.

That would be a challenge over a fixed Ethernet-type network in your home ... let alone some sort of wireless solution!

Now here is my stupidity when it comes to DIY!!! Be prepared.

When sparkyman fitted a new socket, he didn't need to drill through anything... does this mean the wall is probably too thin to support a flat screen?

Ross

It means you have a stud wall, ie plasterboard supported on a wooden framework, the plasterboard itself will not be strong enough to supporting a hummingbird let alone a TV. You will either need to find a stud (wooden beam) and support from that or if you are between 2 studs, you can span a piece of wood across beams and then support from that, just make sure you use at least 1 inch thick wood and big bloody screws

Panasonic used to do a Plasma (Z1) with a wireless tuner/input box that was quite happy with throwing 1080p signals around. Problem is it was £4k and they don't seem to do it anymore anyway.

The best compromise will probably be to buy an AV receiver, (one with an analogue to digital HDMI converter) this should allow you to have all your inputs going into the receiver, with only one HDMI (and the power lead) going to the TV.

You won't find one with a Scart so look for one with component in, as the PS2 can output this.
I would have said a Denon, but looks like they have ditched component on the latest models, but if you could find an old Denon AVR-1611 or equivalent, that would suit.

You could buy an AV amp and sit it next to the wii, bluray and all the other things you have stated above. Then plug everything into the amp, and send one HDMI cable up to the TV.

That way when you switch the input on the amp it will switch to that source, with the added bonus of having a power lead (possibly terresterial cable) and HDMI cable being the only two things going to your TV. Then you can use those cable covering plastics from B & Q for about £3 to cover those wires.

Of course you'll need to spend another couple of hundred quid to get the AV amp. Then it'd be rude not to buy two speakers...


Ross you can buy wall plugs made for plasterboard to hang TV's from, ideally using a stud to locate some of the standard type of plugs. I've done this to hang an old 32" Samsung, it's been up for 2 years so far!

This man, he speaks the truth.

My TV is supported on an external wall which has plasterboard on studs over it, so I just had to buy some coach screws from B&Q that were long enough to go through the hanging bracket, the plasterboard, the cavity created by the studs and then bit into the brickwork of the external wall. Very impressed with B&Q's stock of stupidly long screws and bolts though - I was tempted to get a bolt long enough to go out the other side of the wall and just fit a could of bolts on the outside of my house

I too was going to suggest an AV receiver, as I'm currently looking for one. Perhaps an Onkyo HTS3405.

Is your TV mounted quite high? The in-laws have their's mounted above the fireplace and it is far from ideal. You get neck ache looking up after awhile, but if you have reclining chairs then I suppose it's okay. I have the top of my TV level with my eye-line, so I'm slightly looking down, as you are in the best seats at a cinema.

Sorry for hi-jacking AndrewR.

As this sounds quite complicated for a novice like me (who borrows a drill to put up curtain rails) I think I'll get a mate who's a joiner to fit/build the shelf and hang the tv. Easier that way.

Ross

Is that not also the best height for DSE assessments (for your PC etc)

Oh god I've grown up......

Planning to do this sometime soon too but I have an av amp that can feed all my extra gadgets through a single HDMI lead the the screen so 1 mains,1 hdmi and possible 1 coaxial cable should do the job.

[quote=AndrewR]Just before Christmas we updated our old telly (circa 1945) and got one of them new, trendy flat-screen TVs, which I duly mounted on the wall above our fireplace.






Is that an ok place to mount a tv ? Above a heat source. A tv would just melt above my fireplace.

The mistake (IMHO) that a lot of people make is to mount their fancy-schmancy flat panel TV too high up on ther wall. Unless you will be standing up to watch the TV, it really needs to be low down on the wall, so that when sitting on the sofa, your eyes are level with the middle of the screen, give or take a few inches. I read somewhere that watching the screen and having to look upwards makes us humans feed subconsciously vulnerable to attack of something like that, or at the vert least might cause nech-ache.

As others have suggested, easiest to run everything via an amp or receiver (=amp with radio) with enough HDMI inputs. The PS2 could be a problem, I don't know if amps/receivers typically have Scart, might need to use component input instead. And having separate speakers is surely what you want, rather than using the TV speakers which are normally quite poor? For best "cinema" style sound you want a subwoofer (for big explosions) and a centre speaker (for vocals) too.

Also the VGA input could be a problem to connect to the amp/receiver, can you use HDMI from the PC instead?

For maximum flexibility, I'd suggest gouging out a nice big channel in your wall down/across from the TV, and run a conduit large enough to take a Scart socket and a bit, then cover up and decorate. You could bury a dedicated power socket behind the TV, and all you need to run in the conduit is the HDMI lead and perhaps an aerial lead if you want to use the TV tuner (in which case you need to run an audio lead back to the amp). You could put a long VGA cable and long Scart cable down there too just in case (for the PC and PS2).

Why not just cut a hole at the top behind the tv and one at the bottom, run your cables down behind the plasterboard (including any you might think you'll need in the future)? If you hit a horizontal stud then you'll have to cut a third hole and remove a bit of that stud and then patch it up.

We've had our plasma mounted above our fireplace for over 8 years and it's been fine, apart from when I've had to add cables and the neighbours have complained at the shouty man next door.

You can get HDMI to transmit over Ethernet cat6?
Therefore I would have thought you would only need a 240v feed to power the tv, then use the HDMI over ethernet adapters, pass the Ethernet through a pair of powerline adapters, one plugged in behind tv, the other behind your AV equipment?

Hey presto, not wireless, but done through one mains plug?

Or if you want to go wireless then buy the following: -

Wireless HDMI Kit

or

More Wireless HDMI Kit

or if your not short of a few quid

Gefan Tv Wireless extender / Transmitter

Myself I'd just get the hammer & chisel out

Thats got to be the simplest solution. Hole in the wall behind your TV then plug the lot in next door

Yeah! Off the neighbours' supply

I wouldnt bother with HDMI over Ethernet... your still going to have to chase a cable... infact one cable for each hdmi port.

Im afraid you will need to chase the cables into the wall.

Its worth doing it properly and doing it once andrew...

Thanks all for your advice, but my TV was already sorted when I started this thread, I was just trying to make the world a better place for those following in my footsteps (and also make myself a multi-billionaire in the process).

As it happens all I needed were a couple of small hooks - I bundled all of the cables into a cable wrap and put the hooks in the wall behind the telly to make sure that the cable wrap ran behind the telly, rather than sagging onto the mantlepiece.

We have photos either side of the telly, and one of them hides the point where the cable bundle emerges and it then vanishes behind the 6 foot high cabinet that holds all of our entertainment stuff. I just had to cut a few holes in the backing of that cabinet to allow cables to be fed in and it all looks lovely and neat, with not a single wire to be seen.

I'm rather glad it's that simple, as I forgot to include the PC sound cable when I was plugging connections into the TV, so at some point I'm going to have to take it off the wall again to connect that one.

You can still support a TV on this type of wall if you use the correct bolts, i.e. something like these: Link

And this is how you fit them:

Link