Wall Mount TV and MD - Need help finding a solution my wife will allow

[B34N]

My wife has given me permission to get a new TV, provided that In finally get LMCE running seamlessly with the TV. The TV will be wall mounted and it will need to look "pretty" with no cables and boxes visible around the TV. Basically she wants it too look like a framed painting hanging on the wall.

• What the best way to mount a TV and MD on the wall? Are there and compatible VESA mount systems that work well as MDs? I'm a bit concerned with heat.
• The TVs that we are looking at (Samsung LEDs) have USB 2.0 inputs. Can the TVs be controlled by the MDs through USB?
• What do people do with wall mount TVs if they need to connect things like Blu ray or cable boxes to them?

After i get the TV and MD sorted out I will need to get her Galaxy S phone setup as an orbiter. I'll also need to finally get my Hauppauge 2250 working with MythTV or break down and buy a dual tuner card that is proved and handles clear QAM

Thank you for your assistance.

[totallymaxed]

My wife has given me permission to get a new TV, provided that In finally get LMCE running seamlessly with the TV. The TV will be wall mounted and it will need to look "pretty" with no cables and boxes visible around the TV. Basically she wants it too look like a framed painting hanging on the wall.

• What the best way to mount a TV and MD on the wall? Are there and compatible VESA mount systems that work well as MDs? I'm a bit concerned with heat.
• The TVs that we are looking at (Samsung LEDs) have USB 2.0 inputs. Can the TVs be controlled by the MDs through USB?
• What do people do with wall mount TVs if they need to connect things like Blu ray or cable boxes to them?

After i get the TV and MD sorted out I will need to get her Galaxy S phone setup as an orbiter. I'll also need to finally get my Hauppauge 2250 working with MythTV or break down and buy a dual tuner card that is proved and handles clear QAM

Thank you for your assistance.

Hi there,

There are two basic approaches to 'de-clutter' the installation in-room;

* One is to hide the ancillary hardware that needs to be connected to the TV either behind it or in a piece of suitable furniture close to it. In either case you will need to run all the necessary cables in the wall. If you go with hiding the equipment in a piece of furniture then typically that would be where you would also locate the AV Amplifier too - this has the additional advantage that you can then use the AV Amp as the audio video 'switcher' for all of the sources you might want to have available. So you connect the MD, BluRay, Cable box etc to the AV Amp and then have the MD use rs232 control to select the input source. The monitor out of the AV Amp would then be connected to an input on the TV using either long HDMI cables or a pair of HDMI-CAT5 Baluns that allow for longer distances between the TV & the AV amp and transmit the HDMI signal over a dedicated CAT5 cable (or pair of cables). One additional advantage to this route is that the MD does not need to be as compact or even perfectly silent (but its best for it to be silent for sure) and all of the hardware for the room is located locally so that you can get at it easily if needed.

Alternatively you can locate your MD behind the TV and do the switching by controlling the TV's input via RS232. You then need more cables because you still need to get the audio signals back from the MD/TV to the AV Amp and you still need to control the AV amp too so an additional rs232 control capability is needed. All in all this is messier to be honest.

* The other approach is to locate all of the system equipment centrally at the 'Hub' of the system and use HDMI-CAT5 baluns to transmit the video (and possibly audio) to the TV screens in each room. You will also in this type of system need to have long speaker cables run to each room from the 'Hub' and possibly long rs232 or in-room IP based rs232 controllers - either of which will require more CAT5 to be run to each room. The advantage of this topology is that everything is out of the room apart from the TV & the speaker systems and so there is zero clutter, all cables can be neatly run in-wall/ceiling and there is no issue of fan noise or other 'noise' from the system components as they are all remote from the room.

Anyway I hope the above helps.

All the best


Andrew
 

[B34N]

Alternatively you can locate your MD behind the TV and do the switching by controlling the TV's input via RS232. You then need more cables because you still need to get the audio signals back from the MD/TV to the AV Amp and you still need to control the AV amp too so an additional rs232 control capability is needed. All in all this is messier to be honest.

Thank you for taking the time to put together such a detailed response.

You mentioned an AV amp in each option. Since it's not going to be used as a theater setup, I was planning on using the TV's internal speakers. If I only need a MD in this setup (since I don't use cable boxes and I don't need a DVD), are there good VESA mount options that would just be between the mount and the TV?

The TV doesn't have an RS232 input. Can I control it using USB? It has two USB inputs. Or do I need to use IrDA from the MD?

* The other approach is to locate all of the system equipment centrally at the 'Hub' of the system and use HDMI-CAT5 baluns to transmit the video (and possibly audio) to the TV screens in each room. You will also in this type of system need to have long speaker cables run to each room from the 'Hub' and possibly long rs232 or in-room IP based rs232 controllers - either of which will require more CAT5 to be run to each room. The advantage of this topology is that everything is out of the room apart from the TV & the speaker systems and so there is zero clutter, all cables can be neatly run in-wall/ceiling and there is no issue of fan noise or other 'noise' from the system components as they are all remote from the room.

My system (what little of it there is so far) is actually just a hybrid core in the basement. I have wired the home with Cat6 and there are speakers wires going from the core to in-wall speakers in the Living and Family rooms. So far all we have used the system is for zWave (over 20 devices) and playing audio/Pandora to the in-wall speakers. I'm anxious to get MythTV part working within LMCE so can decommission my standalone Mythbuntu and cleanup the gnarly setup we have in the master bedroom (so far the only TV in the home)

The setup I'm trying to get done will likely be a 32" or 40" TV on a wall in the family room. Ideally, it would go on the wall facing towards the family room from the kitchen and would be able to extend out and turn 180 degrees to face into the kitchen. If I pull that one off, my wife will be REALLY happy.

[totallymaxed]

Thank you for taking the time to put together such a detailed response.

You mentioned an AV amp in each option. Since it's not going to be used as a theater setup, I was planning on using the TV's internal speakers. If I only need a MD in this setup (since I don't use cable boxes and I don't need a DVD), are there good VESA mount options that would just be between the mount and the TV?

The TV doesn't have an RS232 input. Can I control it using USB? It has two USB inputs. Or do I need to use IrDA from the MD?

My system (what little of it there is so far) is actually just a hybrid core in the basement. I have wired the home with Cat6 and there are speakers wires going from the core to in-wall speakers in the Living and Family rooms. So far all we have used the system is for zWave (over 20 devices) and playing audio/Pandora to the in-wall speakers. I'm anxious to get MythTV part working within LMCE so can decommission my standalone Mythbuntu and cleanup the gnarly setup we have in the master bedroom (so far the only TV in the home)

The setup I'm trying to get done will likely be a 32" or 40" TV on a wall in the family room. Ideally, it would go on the wall facing towards the family room from the kitchen and would be able to extend out and turn 180 degrees to face into the kitchen. If I pull that one off, my wife will be REALLY happy.

If there is not going to be an Amp then the locating the MD in room or remotely is still and option. If the TV is going to be mounted using its VESA mounting points then you can't use the VESA mount points for mounting your MD. Its possible to mount the MD onto the Arm of the VESA baracket but that will depend on the make/design of the bracket. The alernate approach is to use an MD that will mount flush to the wall directly behind the TV you can then use a short HDMI cable to the TV and the power supply etc can be mounted with the MD. This type of mounting approach needs a TV that is reasonably large to provide enough space to hide the MD behind it.

If the TV has no rs232 the IR is the only approach. The IR will not be Irda but will blastable using and MCE Blaster, USBUIRT or GC100 for example. The USB ports will not be intended for control and will most likely be intended for adding mass storage to allow the TV to record TV shows direct to HD or Flash from its on-board tuner or it might be to allow the TV to playback audio/video recordings stored on HD or Flash. You might also be able to add a usb Wifi dongle if the TV is Internet ready.

All the best

Andrew

[Marie.O]

And a word of caution: Do not put the MD in until after you had it running elsewhere without any problems for a while. SWMBOs are like elephants when it comes to highlight stuff not working. You will probably have two failed attempts before SWMBO will kick LinuxMCE out the door for media.

[totallymaxed]

And a word of caution: Do not put the MD in until after you had it running elsewhere without any problems for a while. SWMBOs are like elephants when it comes to highlight stuff not working. You will probably have two failed attempts before SWMBO will kick LinuxMCE out the door for media.

Never a truer piece of advice given! ;-)

Andrew

[tkmedia]

http://lmcecompatible.com/#ecwid:category=280114&mode=product&product=839087

Might be a good option for you.




Tim

[purps]

I agree with everything that has been said.

If you do intend on chasing cables in, my advice would be to just tack it all in place and use it for a few months, even years, and then chase the cables in when you next decorate. It really is best to get the system work properly and exactly how you want it before spending time and money physically integrating everything into your home.

You might decide to use a Z-wave light for example as well, which sometimes requires a deeper back box, so you could sort that out at the same time i.e. bury the back box, fill, sand etc, and then decorate later.

Living with unfinished walls and cables tacked visibly to the wall may not be ideal, but it makes more sense than putting everything in in one go only to find something doesn't work, or at the other end of the spectrum, having loose cables trailing about the place. Then once you have lived with the system, and are happy, chase it all in and decorate.

Cheers,
Matt.