A/V Wall Plate Configurations: Post Yours!

homerb · 06-29-2010, 11:38 AM

I'm curious to see the various wall plate configurations people are using for their wall mounted TV for the connections at the bottom, or for various Home Theater components.

I originally had run a single HDMI up to my wall mounted TV, and used an HDMI wall plate with a coax cable for the cable box. It was clean, and at the time, that's all I needed.

Now, I just wired a 5.1 home theater that connects to my TV via an optical TOSLINK cable. It's one of those integrated-amp-sub systems. Now, for the home theater, I have five speaker wires and an optical cable coming down.

I've been looking for wall plates with speaker binding posts, but they all have more or less connections I'm looking for. Most of them have provisions for a sub, but since my has an integrated sub, all I need is 5 connections. I'd also like to integrate the TOSLINK cable in the wall plate, rather than having it just running through.

I don't see too many toslink wall plates. However, I do have an idea. I was thinking of using keystone inserts on a wall plate with six inserts. They make dual binding post keystone inserts, so I'd need five of them, and they also make an optical keystone insert as well. Voila.

I'll post up some pics when it's finished.

In the meantime post up your setups!

Homer

MagicalHome · 06-30-2010, 10:20 AM

Interesting!!! I'm waiting for your post ;-)

homerb · 06-30-2010, 10:46 AM

Here's a picture I took when I wall mounted a TV at my parent's house.

They don't have a home theater, but it was important that they have flexibility in the types of sources that can be used. They have a VCR and DVD player that are used rarely, but when they use it, it's important.

So, I wired up a plate with an HDMI, component, and composite connections. There's a coax going to the cable box, but I didn't run a coax up to the TV because I didn't want them using it as a shortcut to connect a source. Remember back in the day when we had a VCR, DVD player, and maybe a Nintendo all daisy chained over coax, and how much of a process it was to get them all working and to change sources?

At my house, I have two HDMI cables running up to the TV for the cable box and PS3. I have an optical audio cable running back from the TV to the stereo. And then from the stereo, I've got speaker wires running to all five speakers.

For the wall plate for this setup, I think I'm going to use decora inserts (so they can be reconfigured in single or multiple panels. In this configuration, I'll use two decora inserts, one for the TV connections (coax, and HDMI x 2) and one for the audio connections (optical x1 and speaker pair x 5).

DangerMouse · 09-29-2010, 05:13 PM

Smart!

Looks good!

DM

liquidvw · 10-01-2010, 11:24 AM

This is a nice product for behind a TV.

I didn't need all that space so I'm using the 2 gang box. One side electric the other low voltage.

Mr Chips · 10-01-2010, 11:49 AM

depot stocks something similiar in the 2 gang for around $20

before these were so readily available my buddy used a recessed washing machine hookup encloure and made his own