So... home wall mounted TVs - what have you done about your wires?

[Evilchap]

I am about to decorate. There, I said it, I have come to terms with the madness of this idea.

I would like to tidy up the wires behind my TV. My question is do I make face plates on the wall behind the TV, and one at the back of the AV receiver.

Or, do I post wires through the wall, and just got plug to plug with a direct wired connection...

Or do I do something much cleverer I haven't considered, having never done anything like this before?

Thanks for any helps! I have I think, but will confirm later, 2 HDMI and 1 Power going to the TV I need to hide, I dont think anything else though at present.

[sideways14a]

Plates, pro: Tidy looking, easy to connect your kit up to, can run different lengths to and from tv/audio unit.
Plates, con: More fiddly to fit initially, more expensive.
Cables, pro: Cheep, easy to do
Cables, con: Looks a bit cheep, if you want to change cable lengths its all got to come out.

Personally i would use wall plates.

[Mattie]

I have mine on the wall and have plugs behind the fireplace (just a show thing never actually use it) and it looks neat enough and easy to swap over or add things when it comes to it

[Joe1989]

Is it platerboard or a brick wall?

If your about to decorate and its platerboard i'd just put a hole being the tv and one when the receivers are and sort out the beam and plasterer if required!

[Evilchap]

It's a plasterboarded cavity wall, with 1 huge hole already where a fireplace used to be

[Ghazoobe]

If you can put some kind of pipe in there to put the wires through it'll help you in future if you ever need to add/change one

Can't really see any benefit to a faceplate behind the TV, how often do you look behind there?

[Asht_200]

Plate it. You'll only end up regretting it if you don't. And you'll need HDMI, Power, Ethernet and possibly Audio. You may want to add as many HDMI sockets as you have in the TV etc

[shogun]

And then in a year or two you buy another larger TV with different needs...

I would install electric wire tubes in the wall and put an interface plate on the wall behind the tv.
One or more plates with the needed sockets on them (as stated above).

Another quick fix is a cable channel with a detachable cover mounted on the wall itself. Cover it with the same wall paper or paint as on the wall. It will blend in rather well.

[Si]

I used 32mm waste pipe, and brought it out through a combination of brush plates and sockets. Mine isn't strictly cavity, but it's insulated plasterboard, so a similar sort of deal.
The problem with sockets is that you can only fit so many before you end up with a massive wart on the wall.
Decent wuality cables in the wall for all the needs you currently have, then all the things you think you'll ever need.

As above - HDMI x as many as you can, at least 2 ethernet, phono for audio, component video, aerial in and out, power, and then a few more phono for goo measure!

Worth doing though - TVs hung on the wall with cable trailing out and no thought to tidying it look awful IMHO.

[Evilchap]

So I have double checked, and the only other wires are for the Wii and Kinnect... which I dont really use, so I'll just put them away and solve the problem, and get them out if/when I need them.

I dont need many HDMI things etc, as only picture is sent to the TV, 1 directly from the Sky box, one from the AV receiver. All sound goes through the AV receiver, the TV will never be doing that.

I was thinking a double HDMI socket and single 3-pin power should be plenty? Are new TVs going to have different wires though, as one day I would like a 4k curved TV, as I have seen them, and love them, but it's a couple of years off at least...

[sideways14a]

I would put in a double hdmi, power and maybe an rj45 connection (as i hate using wireless)

[Evilchap]

I suppose an upgraded TV might use Ethernet, so yeah, adding that would be cool

[Jonny Wilkinson]

I bought a unit for the wall that takes the telly, signal booster, HDD, Wii, Video and DVD player.

The unit came from Ikea and is strong enough to support a 48in Plasma. All the wires run behind the unit so nothing shows unless you lift the telly off.

I liked the idea of the unit as I wasn't happy to hang it off a plasterboard wall. The unit is free standing.



EDIT: You can see one wire on the left hand side which is for plugging in a laptop and its visible coz the kids didn't tuck it away after using it

[Evilchap]

Would something like this be horrible?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vanco-1206...item2c7b8f27c7

It wouldn't actually be seen, so I am not sure I need to spend millions - or indeed one of the bruch plates that's a hole with a brush covering it?

[Evilchap]

Just to update this one... I made some holes, and covered them with those brush thingies - the long and short is this:



I am going to declare it a success, I am very happy with it, and if I have to change wires I can easily use the ones I put in as pullthroughs with no trouble