Home Theater Install
- Started
- Last post
- 11 Responses
- mg33
I'm curious if anyone here has ever either:
1) Hired someone to do a home theater installation consisting of running speaker wire through walls and getting things set up to connect components to a wall mounted TV, or,
2) Done the above yourself.
Any stories/advice/warnings on either process? I have no idea how much it would cost to have someone come out and do the actual work; fortunately my fiance's dad does electrical work and contracting, so it might be something that we can partially do ourselves.
Thanks!
- d_rek0
I would never pay someone to do it unless you have money to throw away. It's really not all that hard to do, but I will warn if you don't possess basic electric / carpentry skills then you run the risk of making a relatively simple job a nightmare.
As with any home improvement / renovation at least have a basic plan of attack before you start drilling holes, running wire and getting yourself into a mess.
Having a little electrical know-how is helpful for routing the wires, making sure they're properly joined and shielded and also that they're hooked up correctly.
Carpentry is good avoiding gouging your drywall and ruining your carpeting. Also for patching and finishing the job.
You can find some pretty good tutorials online about this very topic. I would search around and see if it's something you want to take on yourself before dishing out cash for it.
- brandelec0
+
+
+
(stained black)
- only see 1 wire (surge) running to the wall tucked in carpetbrandelec
- my only problem with the routing is that it can get expensive quickly if you have a lot of space to coverd_rek
- oh.... it's a 'wireless' subwoofer and 'soundbar'd_rek
- soundbars are absolutely the worst shit sound money can buydoublespaced
- Knuckleberry0
if you are in the LA area my wifes uncle & cousin (dad & son) do this sort of thing for a living.
- mg330
Well, this setup is going to go on a wall, above a fireplace that we are going to have renovated. We're hoping to close on a new condo in early December. The best place for a TV is above the fireplace, so we're going to update it to do it right. It'd be a pain to run speakers to the back of the room (hardwood floors) so I thought about wireless rear speakers, of course.
But also thinking soundbar for simplicity's sake, though the room is about 18x20, so I'd have to have one that sounded correct. If we could do:
1) left, right, and center speaker install through the wall ourselves, and
2) wireless rear speakers but power routed through the wallI think I'd be in favor of that if it were affordable.
- mg330
And I will mention that I really am not into TV's being above fireplaces, which is why we're going to update this one to lower the opening of the fireplace so the TV can be more of a correct height for regular viewing. I see flat panel tvs near the ceiling in some houses and all I can think is that those people are NUTS.
- Boz0
Did it myself. I had just the Best Buy guys come and do the HDMI cable routing through my attic because that was an absolute bitch.
I did the speaker wire under the carpet and all that stuff and set up the wall mounts for components (glass thing).. Laying down speaker wire needs some getting used to as you need to work with those special hooks (can't remember how they are called) specifically for that.. You can get those at Home Depot or Lowe's.
I was contemplating whether or not to take the components and put them on the other side of that wall (as that's my huge walk in closet) and set up just an IR eye type of thing and program universal remote to control the devices. That way you wouldn't have seen anything but I decided not to because I really needed some flexibilty switching things in and out and just easy access.
if you fiance's dad does cabling and understands electricity you should be in very good shape.. It comes down to your creativity, budget and what you want to get.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boz…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boz…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boz…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boz…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boz…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boz…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boz…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boz…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boz…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boz…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/boz…
- doublespaced0
This stuff is pretty cool. I used it to run surrounds.
http://www.taperwire.com/
- mg330
doublespaced,
Didn't know they had flat HDMI cable yet, that's great. I've seen the flat speaker cables and would consider them for sure if I was running cables across a room, connecting them to the baseboards
- utopian0
mg33 > if you decide to install your home theater by yourself, be sure to get a strong fishing wire to run your cables, this is key.