Hi folks,
As I mentioned in my other post, I’m looking for some input for a spring project, and hoping somebody here can give me a nudge in the right direction, or point out problems I need to watch out for.
Essentially we're re-organising the lounge in the new year, which will mean moving the TV, and all the cabling that goes along with that. What makes this a little more complicated are those extra little details that I haven’t had to deal with before:
- We have four devices currently directly connected to the TV via various inputs
- We have two satellite cables running to the Sky+ HD box
- We have an RF out socket on the wall, feeding Sky all around the house
- I want to do a proper job of wall mounting the telly, hiding all the cables
The first stage is moving the Sky+ cables. That at least shouldn't be a problem, I can make up some Coax extension sets and either hide the satellite cables behind the skirting board before plugging straight in to the Sky+ box, or do a proper job and actually terminate the cables in a wall socket. And the same approach will work for the RF lead which we have going from the Sky+ box to a repeater under the stairs.
However, when it comes to the connections to the TV it’s way more complicated. I have four devices feeding the TV with a variety of sockets in use:
- Composite video from XBox which connects to the TV via a SCART adaptor.
- Composite video from Wii which connects directly to the TV
- HDMI from Sky+ HD
- HDMI from Computer
I know you can get some nice panels with Composite video and a couple of HDMI sockets. It’s very tempting to go with something like that, but since I’m hiding all the terminating ends of the cables behind the TV anyway, I’m wondering if it’s really necessary. Should I make up or buy some extension wires and just plug them straight into the TV?
I also don’t know what kind of cable you would need to run at the back if you wanted to wire up a HDMI socket on the wall?
And while I think two HDMI cables is reasonable, it feels like two sets of composite cabling may be a little overboard. I’m wondering if you can get either an automatic or IR controlled composite splitter of some kind?
Finally, if I’m going to all this effort, I’d like to future proof this as much as possible. Is there anything else that’s worth wiring in at the same time?
What would you folks suggest? Are wall mounted sockets worth the effort? What connector types would you run? And what cables would I need?
Cheers,
Myx
As I mentioned in my other post, I’m looking for some input for a spring project, and hoping somebody here can give me a nudge in the right direction, or point out problems I need to watch out for.
Essentially we're re-organising the lounge in the new year, which will mean moving the TV, and all the cabling that goes along with that. What makes this a little more complicated are those extra little details that I haven’t had to deal with before:
- We have four devices currently directly connected to the TV via various inputs
- We have two satellite cables running to the Sky+ HD box
- We have an RF out socket on the wall, feeding Sky all around the house
- I want to do a proper job of wall mounting the telly, hiding all the cables
The first stage is moving the Sky+ cables. That at least shouldn't be a problem, I can make up some Coax extension sets and either hide the satellite cables behind the skirting board before plugging straight in to the Sky+ box, or do a proper job and actually terminate the cables in a wall socket. And the same approach will work for the RF lead which we have going from the Sky+ box to a repeater under the stairs.
However, when it comes to the connections to the TV it’s way more complicated. I have four devices feeding the TV with a variety of sockets in use:
- Composite video from XBox which connects to the TV via a SCART adaptor.
- Composite video from Wii which connects directly to the TV
- HDMI from Sky+ HD
- HDMI from Computer
I know you can get some nice panels with Composite video and a couple of HDMI sockets. It’s very tempting to go with something like that, but since I’m hiding all the terminating ends of the cables behind the TV anyway, I’m wondering if it’s really necessary. Should I make up or buy some extension wires and just plug them straight into the TV?
I also don’t know what kind of cable you would need to run at the back if you wanted to wire up a HDMI socket on the wall?
And while I think two HDMI cables is reasonable, it feels like two sets of composite cabling may be a little overboard. I’m wondering if you can get either an automatic or IR controlled composite splitter of some kind?
Finally, if I’m going to all this effort, I’d like to future proof this as much as possible. Is there anything else that’s worth wiring in at the same time?
What would you folks suggest? Are wall mounted sockets worth the effort? What connector types would you run? And what cables would I need?
Cheers,
Myx