Home AV Setup

[maff]

As the tiny people have grown a bit and are not everything electrical needs to be kept out of their reach its time for a bit of a redesign at home, to free up some space. At the moment all the AV equipment is on a desk at one end of the room, up out of little fingers reach. What I am going to do is mount the LCD on the wall on the chumney and run the cables up through the roof to an AV cupbard, this will have the advantage of cutting down the volume of noisy XBOXs and the media server.

So here it all is atm:


Heres a layout of the bugalow:


1)Desk where tv and AV Stuff sit ATM
2)Wall where the TV is going
3)AV Cupboard

Ive ripped out the horrible old tiled fireplace and heres my first attempt at plastering:


A little more practice required methinks. I'll have another go tonight.

Anyway, current kit is wired up like this:


Now im sure there are some maximum run lengths and things to consider, but between the AV Cupboard and the TV < 10m, and the idea is that only the TV and the speakers will be in the sitting room, everything else in the AV cupboard.

Problems so far:
1)Sky+ box is old sort with no HDMI, 10m of scart may be a problem.
2)XBOX360 and Wii both Component, switchbox manual, and getting up sucks.
3)Remote control signals.

Solutions:
1)Upgrade to Sky HD, get an HDMI sky box.
2)New XBOX 360 Elite? so it becomes HDMI?
3)http://www.keene.co.uk/electronic/ebode ... PM10C.html

I'll keep this little project updated, anyone who knows AV and can offer some simple advice, it'd be much apreciated.

[Stuart]

Sky HD= yes
Any 360 console=HDMi
Those remote 'eye's are pretty good and will work easily for you

You could also use a flat SCART cable too rather than the conventional round cabled jobbie.

Will have a think about the other bits you've mentioned

[Mr Fletcher]

my only contribution would be http://www.avforums.com/

cool idea mate:)

[maff]

Sky HD= yes
Any 360 console=HDMi
Those remote 'eye's are pretty good and will work easily for you

You could also use a flat SCART cable too rather than the conventional round cabled jobbie.

Will have a think about the other bits you've mentioned

Excellent, didnt realise scart would be happy at 10m but aprently it is, so its where to get the cables from

CPC Products look good. Any other sugestions other than the dreaded eBay.

Jason, yeah ive spent a while trawling AVForums looking at peoples home cinema builds, some good stuff.

[Tonynos]

I've bought my cables from these guys http://www.tvcables.co.uk/

[Jon]

For custom cable advice it's well worth talking to Alastair @ Signals.

http://www.signals.uk.com/about.html

I've spent far more with him and Chris from Sevenoaks sound and vision (now closed) over the years than on my car!
All the demo kit is in his house and he is willing to spend as much time as needs be to swap various cables over (from basic Chord to very expensive Nordost) so you can make the right decision on what sounds and suits you best. Despite what some people say, Quality cabling is very important.
Most of the audio/visual equipment he has is very high end, But as he updates his stock there's usually some deals to be had...

http://www.signals.uk.com/deals.htm

He had a very nice home cinema setup last time I was there (a few years ago) and also sold the hollow skirting boards etc to hide any cables.
I haven't bought anything from him for a few years now, But I'm confident he will look after you.

[Bladerider]

Why put all that crap through your tv when you should run it via a decent AV amp and then benefit from upscaling, simplicity, control and improved audio.

Also, quality cabling helps, fractionally, on really expensive stuff that has the ability to articulate the improvement, for anything under 3k I would just make sure you get some of the more budget end of the "high quality" cables if I were you and spend a few more quid on that amp !!



Oh and check out AVForums sales section for bargains, and dont be afraid of stuff that second hand off there as its usually pretty well looked after.

J.

[maff]

Quality advice, chears guys.

An AV Amp as the hub of it all with just a single HDMI out to the TV would be perfect, I'll have to see what budget allows, are there Amps that will take SVHS or SCART and Component in and mix it all to HDMI out?

The Onkyo speakers on the TV make a nice sound, so ive had a look at a couple of Onkyo amps, I'll do some more reading. And check out AV Forums.

Last night went well, the extra skim of plaster looks a lot better, but its still far from perfect, you really apreciate the skill these tradesmen have when you have a go yourself.

Wall mount bracket up:


The wall bracket was Argos's own brand 42" bracket for

[maff]

Onkyo TX-SR605/6 Looks good.

HDMI in/Out
Multi Component in/out - bye bye manual switch box
SVHS in - So Sky+ in

and a single HDMI to the tv.

[Bladerider]

Personally,

I didntgo for a an Onkyo because they are renound for getting very hot and having issues with power supplies, and I prefer the sound of Denon to the flat hard sound the Onks tend to give.

best bet is to try out a couple of slightly higher spec models in your nearest sevenoaks/richer sounds/other av shoppe and then hit AV forums for a good second hand one or possibly the Richer Sounds website for end of line stock on that previous model. If I only had