Hi, I'm currently building a home and going to be mounting a 42" plasma above my fireplace. My builder needs to know what wiring I need in the wall there. Any help would be appreciated. Should I have them run composite video along w/ some rca's for sound??? Thanks again!
You should have more than just composite video and RCAs. Depending on your need...(and your need will change) ...how about antenna, HDMI, DVI, S-video, component video? While at it, might as well run some speaker wires for the center channel and also an electrical plug for the plasma .
Yeah, I spoke to someone at a Magnolia home theatre today. I think I will put in a electrical plug, HDMI, component and RCA's for the audio. Only going to run my DirecTV HD and a prog. scan DVD on it. Going to have my theatre downstairs. One more question...how difficult is it to mount the plasma? Is it worth the $499 I've been seeing to have it done professionally? If I have studs there, is it something I could do on my own pretty easily?
You probably ask your builder to install a plywood backer board (flush with the studs). This will allow you flexibility in mounting the TV location. Without it, your forced to mount it in the location of the closest stud...which is not exactly where you would want it.
Thanks for all the help! If anyone can link me to the best mount for a 42" Panasonic ED Plasma that would be AWESOME! Going to install myself so the easier the install the better...THANKS!
Doug I would not spend too much mounting this darn thing. I know a lot of us have dreamed of a TV installed on the wall, but too many times you will have to get back there to change wires, add new equipment etc. that to me it is not worth the hassel. Think about this seriously before you go forward.
Hmmm - Why would I have to go back there to change wires, or add new equipment? I'll be running M1000DAV HDMI TO HDMI monster cable for the dish, monster video 1 component, and high quality RCS's for the audio for my DVD. As to equipment - are you implying if I end up changing out my plasma for another down the road? Perhaps I might do that yes...but couldn't I just re-mount it in the same spot? Thanks for your input and any constructive cristism is appreciated! Thanks again!
Here is an example. If I was to to this, I would only run 1 HDMI cable to the TV and then route everything else through my receiver. Now there is high probability that you don't have a receiver that has HDMI input and output(forgive me if you do, but I'm just making an assumption because they are still kind of expensive). So in this scenario the TV becomes a dumb terminal and all my audio and vide get's routed through my receiver. In this case you would not need all those wires going through the wall.
Now if you were to buy a receiver with HDMI in the future you could do the above and then rest of the cables and their routing through the walls will be unnecessary expenditure.
Changing TV's with different electronics can be another example. What if you got a TV that requires an ethernet connection?
Of course this is all up to you, but for my taste technology is changing too fast to "hard wire" anything.
Hmm, well, I don't think that you read above that I'm only putting a dish and DVD on this TV. No HT. My HT will be downstairs with a totally different setup. This will only be for viewing in the living room from the couch, evening news, occasional DVD's, etc. I too would only run the one HDMI from my receiver if I was going to have a receiver hooked up to this monitor. As to the unnecessary expenditure of running these cables through the walls - my contractor is doing this for me at no charge, I'm only providing cables. If I end up not needing to use these cables down the road as you mentioned, I'll just remove them and use them elsewhere. Not sure if you understood what I'm doing this for, it's not going to be a full theatre.
Anonymous
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Just run a piece of conduit from fireplace to a/v components. So in the future you can pull any wiring needed. Don't forget to have a pull string so you don't have to fish later. Good luck
ummmm i cant even tell you how many plasmas ive mounted to walls and there is no need to have any wood backing. Sanus makes a lot of mounts for ur tv depending on if you want it fixed or articulating. VMPLS for fixed or VMAAB for artc. anyways there is no reason for a wood backing or anything just measure where u want the tv to go keeping it centered and all that jazz. take the back plate and put it up against the wall and be sure its level then take a pencil and mark every hole in the back plate onto the wall. no matter where the plate ends up on the wall you will hit at least 1 stud and thats just fine for a 42. use lags for the stud and several moly bolts for other side of the plate. this method is fail safe...i install probably 2 a week on average this way and never had any issues with any of them for the last 5 years
I used the Sanus VMAAS (same as VMAAB but in silver) and love it. The way they make it allows you to adjust the position from left to right just incase the nearest stud isn't exactly where you want it. Installing it is very easy like joey said. For me, it took a little more work because I had no studs in my walls (old fashion building). So what I did was...
On the other side of the wall I was mounting my plasma to is my bathroom. I went to Home Depot and bought a 2'x2'x.75" plywood, 8 nutsm bolts, washers, the according drill bit. So I simply drilled 8 holes (the Sanus kit told me to use 8 screws) right through the wall and the plywood. I sandwiched the wall with the board on the bathroom side, and the Sanus mounting plate on the other side. It holds VERY strong. I can hang and swing from the mount (not recommended) with no problem, and I weight over 200lbs. So now the bathroom side doesn't look too pretty, so I just built myself a cabinet/self right there.
I've heard that it is not a good idea to mount a plasma above the fireplace because the heat can damage the plasma. Has anybody ever had any issues with this??
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