For JG

[Ralph]

JG, I spent quite a bit of time last week on my vacation and a good portion of last night setting up my television “systems” in the house.

32” flat panel on the wall in the living room with articulating wall mount (went with a 32” – 60” mount to facilitate getting a bigger one down the road) and my older 20” CRT TV on a Vector arm mount in the dining room.

The living room has an older DVD/VCR 5.1 system with component and S-video only........and a Roku box.
The dining room has a Roku box, digital/analog adapter and an RF modulator for the Ruko (yes, the TV is that old!).

Let me tell you, after the seemingly endless trips to Home Depot and Wally World for assorted cables etc., endless applying/cutting off/reapplying cable ties, wires that I forgot where they went and WHAT they went to, which power supply goes to which component, where to put them ALL, and trying desperately not to have each installation look like a “spaghetti factory”……..I have a new found admiration and respect for all in your field!!!

And I am a geek………….but alas, I am afraid to admit, from a slightly different generation.

How y’all don’t lose your friggin’ minds hooking all this crap up I’ll never know!

[JGRobinson]

The new flats are definitely a challenge, rarely just setting them on a TV stand and done! Swing arms, tilt mounts and lots of sources can lead to drunk spider syndrome and trying to find support in the wall exactly where you need it can be a challenge also! A few months ago, I had an install in a huge event room that they wanted a 60" TV hung 20' off the ground on a swing arm, turns out, metal studs in the wall and nothing to fasten too that could support it! We ended up through bolting it to the wall with 12" carriage bolts! The cantilever weight on the thing when extended must have been 3 times the shear weight! What a Cluster F@#$! It did get done, worked well and you can hang a VW off the thing but that wasn't any fun! Now thats a job you don't want to leave yto the Geak Squad! OOps, it fell 20' on someones head? Sorry!!! You should see when we hang 600lb electric projection screens above peoples heads, very tricky buisness, no room for oops there!

Thats one of the reasons I don't have a single installer on my team, every single one is either a tradesperson or a Technician. We did a call a few weeks ago in NYC, a 30lb projector that was hung by one of our competitors came down all by itself, luckily nobody was underneath it. Smashed the projector to smithereens and now we get the job of reinstalling every projector in their college because someone didnt understand fasteners or fastening! Good for us, we will take the work! I will also guarantee that nothing I hang will ever come down without tools or a wrecking ball! Im just glad nobody got smacked in the head by the thing!

Glad to hear you got it done Ralph, no doubt its done well, just is a bit mor frustrating than 40 year's ago when we bought a new 17" B&W, set it on the stand and hooked up a single pair of antenna wires and wait for the tubes to warm up!

Lots of folks are trying the DIY when it comes to Multi Media Systems, most shouldn't!

[clarencebunsen]

Hey, it was only 39 years ago that I bought my first TV, a B&W tube set. Not that long ago in geologic terms. At least once a year I brought all the tubes in a cardboard box to the tester at Radio Shack.

[JGRobinson]

isn't that nuts, we've really moved away from that completely! Hell, even my Mom wouild hit the tube tester before the TV SHOP! Truth is, most tubes would test weak or even bad yet that wasnt always the problem! Lots of tubes were replaced that were not bad but they generally were pretty cheap. One of the downfalls of DIY TV repair was it was dangerous! The Hi V regulator, Horizontal sweep, Flyback Xformer and a couple others could knock you on your ass if you became part of the circuit!

True Story- In 1986 ish I was working at New hartford TV learning the trade. A bunch of us were in the shop working and my boss answered the phone, we only heard half of the conversation but it turned out that it was the wife of a guy who decided to fix his own TV- It went kinda like this- My husband was fixing the TV and he grabbed the Big Red Wire going to the top of the Picture Tube, he got a shock and he's flat on his back shaking, Will he be OK? My boss answered, well if hes still breathing, he's probably gonna be alright but I think you should be calling a Dr not a TV shop! You cant make this shit up...

There are very few things I can repair inside a flat panel and Ive been a component grade Technician for 25 years. The devices are so small only a robot can solder them and almost nobody can remove them without a 20K solder station if you could even buy replacement parts (you cant, just entire assemblies). I still do some power supply repairs here and there, seems to be a weak point and the parts are still somewhat common.

Sadly, the Day of the TV repairman is gone! Throw it out and get a new one, its cheap and fast! Luckily, I saw it coming a long time ago and made a shift in my pedagogy, Im still fixing things, they just cost 50K now instead of $399 plus tax! Hell, half the timer I have to ask what it is before I fix it now. The rest of the Q & A sounds exactly the same as it did 25 years ago.

What does it do that that it didnt when you got it, does it do it all the time, can you force it to do it, when do you need it by. Just like the ladies with their Soap Opera VCR's, PHD's always say they need it ASAP!

[chris]

My BFF's husband created his home theater and it made the Home theater Magazine...he is a magor geek when it comes to anything electronic

[Clipper]

I told Kathy when we purchased our 50" flat screen that I would not wall mount it. It makes a permanent installation and confines the TV to that one spot, if you want it to be asthetically pleasing, you have to bury the cables in the wall, and if the TV goes to hell, you are stuck with that same mount for whatever you buy to replace it. Our 50" is heavy enough that I would not want it hanging from the wall. We have two basic configurations that we can enjoy if Kathy wants to rearrange furniture. I have drilled a hole in the floor on each end of the living room, and all I have to do is crawl in the crawl space and poke the cable coax up through the floor at one of the two locations and move the TV and stand.

[Ralph]

Fortunately I know fasteners, some of the stuff they send to mount these things on the wall I wouldn’t hang a picture with! i.e. the Vector wall mount for the older TV they say will support 100 lbs……..with 4 – 3” #12 wood screws………oh boy, good luck with that!

I was very happy with the wall mount for the flat screen. Appropriate fasteners and the instructions were pretty clear. Of course where I wanted it to go was off center of where the studs are….grrrrrr. But the mount allowed for me to mount it off center on the studs and then slide the TV down the mount to center it.
Was hard to tell which was heavier, the TV or the mount!!! But if I upgrade in the future it will hold pretty much whatever I want.

The TV in the dining room was the biggest challenge because of all the crap that went along to hook everything up. Had to have an ant input switch as well so I could run the Roku and the convertor. Not crazy about all the wires and power supplies as my closed circuit camera system runs on the same line, but both systems are run through surge protectors and I shut the whole mess off when we’re not using them.

I knew what I was getting into when I started, but unless you do this stuff every day you never have everything you need on hand!

[Clipper]

Wow, I can't believe they would expect you to mount it to the wall with 3" wood screws. That might have worked in your house because it is old enough to have been built with some quality lumber for studding, but I would want much more than that if I were screwing to the cheap assed Lowe's studs that they build with today.

[Ralph]

Below is what I was working with Clipper. The mount is a good solid mount, swivels 180^o, angles, etc.
But the screws that came with it would never cut it. Not going through ½” plaster, 3/8” lath and then on into a REAL 2x4.
But you have to be careful not to overdo it either…there were four holes staggered in a mount about 10” long, so too many lag bolts will just degrade the 2x4 and the whole thing will eventually pull out of the wall….as well as the security TV above it!

To top it off this mount has to hold not just the TV, but all the junk underneath it and the wireless camera box on top of it. (Sooner or later I’ll get rid of that stupid door bell hanging next to it as well!)

I settled for a nice 3/8” x 4 lag bolt in what I figured was the hole with the most stress on it and then the rest were some good 4” deep thread wood screws that made what came with it look puny. It isn’t going anywhere and the stud retains its integrity.
Not happy with the “spaghetti factory” of wires, but I wanted to keep everything on the VCR shelf as we want to move one of the Quakers cages to the space to the right of the TV…….and they’ll make short work out of anything near them!

This install wasn’t so much about aesthetics as it was to make it easier for Betty to deal with as well

[JGRobinson]

Chris, that link doesn't take me anywhere, please repost, love to see it!

Looks pretty good Ralph, not an easy retrofit and cable management is tough through old walls. If you ever feel like doing it again, Consider stacking them in the corner, works nice for cable management and corners usually containing big studs, your mounts rotate so you still get the same perspective on it. I cant help myself, every time I walk into a room, My AV Engineer mind goes into overtime, I see six different installs all at once then pair it down to the one that make the owner happy and ensures a safe install.

I hate to use the stuff but sometimes a piece of lick and stick wiremold can clean things up nicely, just remember that once its on, it wont come off unless you dont want it too and if you put a couple fasteners through it before you populate it, it will stay much better! The mounting points on lots of the less expensive brackets are way too close together and do not make for secure fastening. My swing arm brackets are almost 75 LBS a piece but once mounted correctly, will hold 4 times their own weight easily (Steel studs make that tough to do)! Often I actually cut out a block of wall, expose the studs and mount a 3/4" plywood rear backer board to get the support I need to sleep after I walk away from an installation.

You should see my fastener cart, I stock and carry no less than 10 completely different systems in different sizes and lengths, even then, I occasionally have to run out to Fastenall or Lowes and try to find another! We fasten to Steel, Concrete, Wood, Composite, and anything else architects can dream up! Some of the lifts we have installed are 200 lbs and must be absolutely plumb and Square, even then they can be marginal.

[chris]

The link is to the photo (at Webshots) I took a photo of the magazine article...there are 2 that are related to the article. You should be able to click on the photo to expand it enough to read the article and then click for the next photo to complete the article. (underneath the photo is a + to expand the photo). Just look for the navagation bar. There are 3 photos total...1st is the cover of the magazine next two are the article.

[JGRobinson]

Looks sharp, No touchpanels? Haha!!

[Ralph]

I would have gone the corner route JG, but that little jog behind and to the left of the TV is 140 year old brick chimney, and you know how that goes. I won’t even hang a picture on it!
I am going to go back through everything and do the wiremold later on, I need to shorten up a few of the cables and make sure it’s going to work exactly the way we want before I run it all again.
1:00 am in the morning doesn’t bode well for sitting down and making new patch cords!!

[JGRobinson]

Ha ha, Ive been there for sure! No chimney mounting, you would end up with most of the chimney in the Room and a tv in the pile underneath it!

[Ralph]

Either that or Betty would go over to switch something and I would come home to find the chimney, the TV and her all in the cellar.

And Skipper sitting on the edge of the hole saying, "step up, step up".