Hide cables to a Flat Screen TV plus Sky Box

Masala

Hi. Am looking at installing a Flat Screen TV plus option to put a Sky Box on a large wall. I show a pic above and there is currently a picture hanging in the area that I am looking at hanging the TV.

how would people hide the power cables etc if you were doing this job.

Irish Steve

If the wall is a solid block wall, you could be in a world of pain to hide the cables, HDMI cables are not easy to thread through trunking, and if that's done, then you may have to chase a channel in the wall to hide it, and the other cables that will be needed, and there may be several.

If it's a timber stud wall, it may be possible to put cables down between the studs, but even then, there may be problems getting past the horizontal members, depending on how the wall was constructed.

There is also the issue of the dish cable/s and power for the sky box, and maybe network cables to consider, so there can be quite a few cables to hide, even more if you want to add things like a sound bar, or DVD, or other devices.

I did something similar a while back, but the simplest way was to use a multi unit wall unit, and space it away from the wall to give me space to put all the cables in, but that may not work for you. There is a WiFi wired hub on the top, and the units in the cabinets are all connected via Cabled Ethernet (for performance), and that's the TV, Sky Box, DVD, Free to air sat box, and sound bar, with all the needed cables coming in from above, as I had the advantage of being able to get access from above, as this is a dormer bungalow, so I could get into the crawl space to get everything in. The units (Ikea) are spaced off the wall by a 4 x 2 frame, which makes for a large space to put everything in. There are power sockets above the units for the hub, router and the TV and sound bar, the rest of the items have sockets in the back wall of the unit, and there are 4 satellite feeds to the different devices (Sky x 2, TV, Free to air box. Each device has wired Gigabit Ethernet from an 8 port hub, and the router on the top is also a WiFi repeater, cabled back to the main incoming Modem/Wi Fi unit that is upstairs, with the hub also connected to it. The Sound bar has rear speakers and a sub woofer that are connected by bluetooth, so there's no other external wiring on the unit.

Sorry to bring negatives, but what you want to do, even in it's simplest form is not an easy install, because of the number of cables that are involved, unless you can live with some form of trunking on the wall, or can cut a slot in the wall to put the trunking in.

Masala

Many thanks.... comprehensive reply and confirms my concerns as to just how difficult this could be. So might just be a non-runner for me altogether.

Back to drawing board then.

Thanks for all the effort in replying..... hope other Boardsies get the value from it as well

2011

Good post Irish Steve!

I like the look of a perfectly placed flat screen TV mounted on a bare wall without seeing any cables or trunking so much that I would just bite the bullet and chase the wall. It is worth the pain in my opinion. It should be possible to chase, wire and plaster in one day.

Other points to consider:

1)Is this an outside wall? If so wire surface and then apply warm board, this is a worthwhile exercise for all outside walls anyway.

2) Is this an internal wall? If so what is on the other side?

Final point, for the most comfortable viewing TV's should be placed so that the centre of the screen is at eye level when sitting down. Traditionally many people place flat screens far too high on a wall, then they are forced to look up. This does not make sense. When a screen image is not viewed at 90 degrees the image is distorted, to fix this the screen must be tilted down when mounted high on the wall which looks awful. Many enjoyed flat screens for the first time in pubs where they were installed at high level so that they could be seen over other people's heads. I think that many people have stuck with this idea resulting in suboptimal viewing at home.

I also like to have related kit such as digi boxes, streaming devices, amplifiers etc. mounted well away from the screen. I feel that it adds to the minimalist look providing a cleaner more aesthetically pleasing appearance.

2011

This is what I did with my 55” flat screen. Left, right and below are Bose speakers (somewhat dated but great sound).

The associated equipment is housed in a press to the left. It includes a Bose bass speaker, Marantz AV amplifier (5.1 speaker is wired to this), Apple TV, free to air satellite box, DVD player and Ethernet switch. It has been designed so that additional kit can be added with ease.

Masala

2011.....nice work on the walls!!

But do you need to have the cabinet drawers opened while watching TV so that the remote controls can work etc???????

2011

I need to have the cabinet doors open anyway so that the sound of the bass speaker is not muffled. This does not bother me as I have the room darkened when watching TV anyhow, I like the "cinema experience" of high quality picture and sound. Generally this TV is just for mvoies, another one in the kitchen is for day to day stuff.

It is possible to get IR extenders so that remote controls will work through closed doors, but I would not bother. I generally have the dors closed when the TV is nto in use i.e. most of the time.

The TV power supply and speaker cabling was installed pre-HDMI becoming mainstream. When I went down the HDMI route I ran the cable surface in trunking on the other side of the wall as this is only a utility room. Will post a photo of this shortly.

mickdw

I did ours on a solid wall.

Rebated rear of skirting to run cables to point directly under tv then chased a channel out of wall up to centre of tv.

I just used a back box and cover behind tv.

Chasing channel out of wall is not a big job.

Fill wall and paint.

Probably not to spec to run power cable behind skirting like that but it doesn't bother me in that scenario.

2011

HDMI run surface in my utility room. Not that pretty but neither is the dirty washing that can be seen in the same photo!

cloneslad

2011

^^** That looks very well!

Fair play! I think the message here is do whatever damage is necessary and run the cables in, it is worth the hassle.

cloneslad

Irish Steve

An easier fit in one respect, but an older TV, so needed a scart cable for some devices, which is even bigger than an HDMI cable, the other side of the wall is a utlitly type area , so I ended up drilling a couple of holes with a suitable hammer drill core bit, and getting extended cables to avoid problems with connecting them in difficult places. This set only has a Sky box attached to it, so not as many cables to find a route for.