Hanging TV; which sockets?

Astec

After stripping our living room wallpaper, we've decided that the room will need to be skimmed (old house, lumpy walls).

We were planning on wall mounting the TV anyway, so thought it'd be good to have all the related sockets and cable put up so there will be no trailing wires for the telly and for speakers. Once skimmed over we'll have a nice clean finish!

So, what do we need?

Currently there is no ariel in the room as it comes into the back room (which has already had laminate fitted), so we'd most likely get a new ariel from the front of the house. I assume we'll still need this for freeview etc.

Power socket, single I assume?

Which other connectors? Currently use scarts for freeview and dvd player, but that's because current tv/dvd is a few years old (no hdmi etc). Should I get rj45, component video etc? Also, where will the opposite end (ie non tv) of the cables go?

OK_Sauce

I would move this to the techie forum above, you'd probably get more responses.

However to get a better answer you may need to submit more information. Type of tv...do you plan to upgrade to HD? How is your tv connected now, do you have a satellite or cable box? Do you want to 'futureproof' your connections??

sancho

I would plan on a HDMI, Optical (in case you want surround sound) and Network. I'm sure someone will add more, but those three are essential imo

aa4466

You might also want to consider a brush type outlet that allows you to put all sorts of cables down some conduit and then out through a brush plate. If you need to change the cables in the future then you might be able to just feed the new cable down the conduit.

I tried to post a link with a picture but I'm too new. Search for 1 gang brush plate.

totalsolutions

Power socket (twin) Ethernet cable, Sat cable, Aerial Cable, just done it. Buried in wall to ceiling for bedroom use with standard faceplates.

Nilrem

My suggestion would be, if possibly run the cabling in conduit behind the plaster, that was if one of them ever gets damaged, or you find in a couple of years you need a different cable type you can probably run the new cable with ease

However totalsolutions suggestion is about the minimum, especially the ethernet cable (put two or three in, they can be used for HDMI, speakers etc* as well as network).



*You can buy relatively cheap HDMI extender boxes that use standard ethernet cabling to carry the signal, then convert it back, likewise you can get USB over ethernet boxes.

Astec

Thanks to all for the replies. aa4466 - loving that! The wall was a fireplace (solid brick higher up) and is an angled wall. Was thinking to fit some kind of drain pipe slightly wider than a scart socket head (as that's the biggest thing) into the wall, so those brush plates can finish it well. That would mean I can drop anything down there.

OK Sauce - Yep, want it futureproof. Current telly is HD ready and 3 years old. Will change at some point in the future. Don't have sky/cable/console at present, but may at some point. Do have 5.1 receiver, so will be fitting speaker wires too.

For ariel was planning to fit some kind of junction box in corner next to outer wall (opposite telly) with cable running near TV. Which cables would it be for sky/virgin? Ie the cable that runs from outside to the box as I could fit these in the wall too.