Routing AV cables

[Akshay]

Hi I've just bought some tv unit accessories and due to a change of plan the lower tv unit is too low to sit the TV on and so it will now be going on the wall so I need to run up all the cables I'm going to need. The wall is a solid exterior one with the garage behind it which is now converted into a room. The TV wall is newly plastered.

Rather than channel up on new plaster does anyone advise to instead drill through to the rear, pass the cables through and then run back through behind the TV? The trouble is that to pass through a couple of scarts will require 2 large holes.

Or should I just channel up from TV stand unit below to behind TV?

I'm going to be connecting the TV to:

DVD player (scart and possibly a HDMI)
Virgin set top box (scart)
2 spare HDMI's
USB cable for connect share Samsung TV

Someone told me about Cat 6 cables but I have no idea what they are!

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Monkeh]

You could use D-Line trunking.

 

[ChrisFrost]

If you know what you are doing it is possible to disassemble a SCART plug. That way you'd only be dealing with the cable bundle rather than the entire bulky plug end.

Alternatively, cut a slot in the wall by chain drilling a series of holes. It only needs be a little wider than a SCART plug & cable; about 3.5" wide. Pass one SCART through, then the second, followed by the rest of the cables in descending size order. Fill some of the remaining gap with silicone or caulk, or use a brush plate similar to the ones used as draft excluders on letter boxes.

CAT6 cable - it's computer network cable. You can buy boxes that convert the various types of AV plug in to a signal suitable for transmission over a network cable. Another box on the display end converts it back. Several reasons though why this might not be right for you...

1) bulky - you have to have space for each box behind the TV

2) cost - significantly more than running an AV cable for such a short distance

3) no SCART version - or I should say that I haven't yet seen a SCART version that does RGB which is what you want for quality; there's plenty that do composite SCART but... a) you're throwing away picture quality b) there are cheaper and easier ways of doing composite video (the yellow connector quality)

 

[plugwash]

For scart i'd probablly go for buying the cable and the plugs seperately (maplin sell it) and then fitting the plugs after installing the cable. Scart plugs aren't too difficult to solder.