Hiding the cords for AV

[FunkMaster]

Hello Again -

So will be mounting a 60" (maybe 65") on the wall and am or have been trying to work out how one hide things.

The power cord seems the easiet, just hide it behind the TV, perhaps next to the mounting bracket ... but what about the other things:

Optical + TV Ariel, they seem straight forward enough; from the conduit under the floor, up a conduit in the chased wall, out a brush plate (fitted the other side of the bracket).

HDMI - from reading other posts, it would appear that it's connector top is to big to squeeze down a 20mm conduit, what other options are there?

 

[Tigercubrider]

A larger conduit - or a smaller cable with an adaptor fitted afterwards

If I was considering chasing a wall then I would make the chase quite big as cable technology changes and to me it makes sense to allow for modifications later without massive upheaval

 

[Nozzle]

You can get HDMI cables with smaller moulded connectors on the end though still nigh-on impossible to pull them through a conduit. Also, consider using a brush output plate rather than one with a socket (which then needs a short adaptor cable on the back, which can be hard to house)

Nozzle

 

[Lucid]

Conduit and trunking comes in a variety of profiles and sizes: round, oval, square, rectangular and even semicircular. Something flatter and wider works best for hiding in-wall. Look up mini trunking 38 x 25mm. CPC does a cable trunking in 54 x 28mm profile. What's going to work best though very much depends on the wall construction.

This week I've been on an install that included relocating a 50" Panasonic plasma to the kids play room and adding a sound bar. The wall construction was Dot 'n' Dab. This is where tennis ball sized blobs of plasterboard adhesive are dotted over the bare brick and then pieces of 8'x4' plasterboard are pressed against it. The result is there's an air gap between the solid wall and the plasterboard. Sometimes that's big enough to pull cables through including those with HDMI connectors. In this case the gap was unusually generous at almost 30mm. I found out why. The gap concealed space for a copper central heating pipe running diagonally(!) across the wall. It wasn't a big deal to cut a small access hatch over the pipe where the cables were to cross it then replace the divot and fill to make good.

On other installs that gap hasn't been as big or was uneven. I've been to jobs where the wall is timber or metal framework and the plasterboard has thermal insulation bonded to it. Then there are the walls made of brick with a base and top coat of plaster. So you really need to know what you're dealing with as a wll before you can plan the best way to hide the cables. If there's a power or light switch socket on the wall then you could try removing it to see what is revealed. The back box will either be metal or plastic. The plastic ones can be popped out easily by levering the lugs. Metal back boxes will be screwed to the solid wall backing. Once they're out of the way then you can see what you're dealing with.

Did we help? Then use the THANKS button on EACH of the posts that was helpful to you. It's free and it marks good advice for other readers

 

[FunkMaster]

Once again @Lucid what a fantastic description.

Let me go and figure it all out ... no doubt I will be back

 

[eddieed]

Once again @Lucid what a fantastic description.

Let me go and figure it all out ... no doubt I will be back

Not quite true, you can have a fused spur on a lighting circuit to run for example an extractor hood, I have previously had this situation in a house.

 

[winston1]

Not quite true, you can have a fused spur on a lighting circuit to run for example an extractor hood, I have previously had this situation in a house.

Don't know where this off topic comment came from from but it is misleading.
Fused spurs are not used or required on lighting circuits. An extractor hood can run straight off a lighting circuit.

 

[eddieed]

Don't know where this off topic comment came from from but it is misleading.
Fused spurs are not used or required on lighting circuits. An extractor hood can run straight off a lighting circuit.

Funk master changed his post he previously stated they didn't understand lighting circuits as it had a fused spur...yes they are not needed but I have seen them added, as I said I had one which allowed me to turn off mains power to an extractor.

Edit...sorry my fault I have posted I. The wrong thread.

 

[Doggit]

Exactly what is you're setup though. If you're getting a 60" screen, then you're going to be running it with 4K, or HD. HD would be sky, so you don't need the aerial cord, and 4k would mean netflix, so you'd be going through the router, but I'm sure there are other options. If you've got a sound bar such as a Sonos, then you'd just have an optical cable to the TV, so you'd just need that and the power cable. Add in an HDMI cable for the Blue ray player, and you should be able to get away with a 38x16mm trunking chased into the wall, or a 50x50mm to play safe, but that would require bedding it in about 60mm.

There are still loads of SD channels, and these will very likely be very poor with a 60" screen, and even worse with a 65", so make sure you order it over the internet, then you can send it back if necessary.

 

[winston1]

HD would be sky, so you don't need the aerial cord, .

He never said anything about sky. HD is available via aerial.

 

[Doggit]

Wow, I never realised that Winston, should I add a thanks for that.

Now try thinking outside the box.

 

[winston1]

Now try thinking outside the box.

What's that supposed to mean?

 

[Doggit]

I'm well aware that there are HD chanells via the aerial, and there was no need for you to point that out, so why did you bother to.

I was well aware that FM didn't mention getting SKY, but if you'd read my post, you'd have seen that first asked him what his setup was, and then tried to show that there's a lot more to consider than just getting a cable chased into a wall. Even HD isn't going to look that great on a 60" with just an aerial feed.

 

[winston1]

You said that if he has HD it would have to be sky which was blatantly wrong.

You are now saying that HD via an aerial would not look good on a 60" TV which is also wrong.

 

[Lucid]

Guys, before this gets ugly, it's probably useful to know that FunkMaster had a thread running previously where he described his plans for sources and such. Have a read here: https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/move-virgin-wall-box-and-network.484538/

I normally prefer it if an OP contains all the relevant info rather than asking the readers to rely on knowledge of past threads. However, given that the questions related simply to hiding AV cables which is then mostly about wall construction, then I think that the related background info was sufficient to answer the question. The thread has been taken in a different direction by some of the subsequent replies, and it's perfectly understandable why. It probably hasn't helped though that some posts have been edited which makes other replies look a bit odd, and there appears to be a completely unrelated post in here too ... lol.

Anyway, just to keep things on track, FunkMaster's sources are likely to be a Tivo box (SD, HD, Netflix psuedo-4K), Apple TV (4th Gen is max HD 1080p only, 5th Gen may do 4K when launched later in the year - tbc), PS4 (pseudo 4K). Unless there's plans to add an AV Receiver with multiple HDMI in and a single HDMI out to the TV then the sources will wire directly to the 3 or 4 HDMI inputs on the telly. This of course means that the conduit/trunking must be large enough to host a network cable, possibly an optical, and at least two HDMI cables and still leave room for a 3rd HDMI plug to be pulled without snagging on the existing cables. Personally I'd also include an aerial coax, but that's a choice for FunkMaster. The answer then is either one very large trunking, or two or three smaller ones.

Let's try and leave out any rather pointless debates about whether HD comes from only Sky or elsewhere too. We've had HD in the UK long enough for any serious contributor here to know that Terrestrial, and the boxes from Sky, Virgin Media and BT Vision all deliver versions of HD.

As to whether HD will look good or not on a 60-65" TV then the answer is Yes/No/Maybe. There are a lot of factors that can swing the result one way or the other. These include viewing distance; TV quality; picture set-up; source quality - and this includes the quality of the original material and the compression applied for the transport stream, and of course the screen size. There are just too many factors to give a definitive and all encompassing thumbs up/thumbs down.