Comments on: Ask Unclutterer: Cable clutter and wall-mounted televisions

By: A year ago on Unclutterer

A year ago on Unclutterer — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:36:34 +0000

[...] Ask Unclutterer: Cable clutter and wall-mounted televisionsWhat is the best way to eliminate the cable clutter from my wall-mounted flat screen TV in order to give it a clean look? [...]

By: Ianbee

Ianbee — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 18:56:41 +0000

Mounting above the TV or not or the height of the TV is not the issue here. Where ever you want to put it and at what ever height you want it…the cabels are going to be a problem.Even so called “wireless TV’s still need a power cable / cord!! You only have two choices….put the cables inside the wall, or at least buried in the plaster or put them ontop of the wall and put a cover over them..thats it. The problem of putting them in the wall is a) its expensive and disruptive and B) what happens when you need to add a new cable or change a cable ??on the oteher hand if you put them on the wall with a cable cover…do you want to paint it and try to hide it or do you want to make a feature out of it? The iconceal system Abyss mentions above is a perfect solution for hiding cables ontop of the wall covering. Why? It is adjustable so you don’t have to measure it and cut it to length you choose the height you want your TV. Its made of high quality aluminium and not cheap plastic, and it looks great unpainted as it comes in Black or Silver…or the Silver can be painted or have wallpaper / wallcovering put on it.The best bit of all is in most cases you wont even have to drill the wall out to fit it as it bonds to the wall with HIbond adhesive strips….and it’s over 4″ (100mm) wide and will take upto 17 cables!!…it can be fitted in under 4 minutes…see the vid at http://www.iconceal.tv…I got two of ‘em one I painted and the other I didn’t…one product two different looks

By: AbyssUK

AbyssUK — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:26:45 +0000

Hi guys my dad had problems with TV cables.. so he tried plastic pipes and plastic cable hides and they all quite frankly looked rubbish even when painted the same color as the wall. So he made something himself which both hid the cables and looked good, everybody who came around said it was brill and they wanted one.. so long story short he now sells them on his website http://www.iconceal.tv.

Please go have a look see what you think! There is a video on there showing just how simple it is to use too.

By: Sillygirl

Sillygirl — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:36:18 +0000

So what do you do if you mount a tv on a wall but also have a wii or playstation or other gaming system that people on the household use regularly? How do you make the area look neat without having to unhook everything every time? Suggestions? Thank you!

By: Newsreader Showdown -Think[Around]Corners

Newsreader Showdown -Think[Around]Corners — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:52:45 +0000

[...] a while, I found this article in my newsreader inbox: Ask Unclutterer: Cable clutter and wall-mounted televisions. HOW COOL IS THAT? A couple of things to [...]

By: Eva

Eva — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:48:03 +0000

I have a TV above fireplace and never seen a problem with it. It is not uncomfortably high despite the “bad wishers”, when I sit down and rest my head on the couch, it is actually perfect height. The picture is great from all angles (and I don’t have any super expensive TV, just a regular LCD), it never gets hot due to fireplace if it is on, plus who really burns fireplace every day, right? The cables are the only issue and I think I am gonna cut the hole in the drywall, no biggie though. And as an aesthetic statement? I think it looks a lot better than some cheesy paintings and the usual candlesticks most people put on a fireplace. Why hide the tv if it’s something you use often?

By: jimmy

jimmy — Thu, 14 May 2009 03:17:44 +0000

You can always ask one the many installers- Ie http://hdinstallers.com/San-Di.....ation.html

to clean up the cable clutter without alot of expense you may want to try 1 or 2 gang recessed cable plate- some instructions here:

http://www.mosscovers.com/AV_Connect.html

-J

By: Blog Blip: Newsreader Showdown | Leyline Web Promotion

Blog Blip: Newsreader Showdown | Leyline Web Promotion — Mon, 04 May 2009 13:00:02 +0000

[...] a while, I found this article in my newsreader inbox: Ask Unclutterer: Cable clutter and wall-mounted televisions. HOW COOL IS THAT? A couple of things to [...]

By: tod

tod — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:35:34 +0000

I have to agree with Cat on this one, you dodged the real question and went off on the tangent of hanging the TV over the fireplace. While I agree with your recommendation to not put the TV over the fireplace, the article lacks your usual creative suggestions for managing/hiding the cords (the real question I feel was being asked). I found a few in the comments, to which I would like to add decorative molding could also cover the wires and be done in a fashion to match your decor.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:25:43 +0000

There are TV covers to help you protect your TV: http://www.tvcoverz.com/

By: julia1060

julia1060 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 06:57:05 +0000

I second allen’s suggestion. We used a similar product we found at Ace Hardware when we mounted a tv in our family room. It’s like a mini-sofit for the wires and can be painted to match your walls. Simple, inexpensive, functional. We found ours at a local Ace Hardware.

By: allen

allen — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:08:27 +0000

if you want to mount it, but don’t want to A) hire someone else to do the electrical work (that is really just silly work to add this) of making a new outlet behind the TV, or B) don’t want to rip up your drywall, or C) CAN’T rip up your dry wall, becuase your walls are actually concrete covered by plaster from the late ’40s (that’s MY home, by the way), then my i suggest hidding the cables behind paintable, wire-covers, such as:

http://www.wiremold.com/diy/pr.....center.asp

i don’t work for them, but i have used wiremold products from the local hardware store to cover, and run wires in a couple parts of my home. Seems like the much simpler soloution. You can paint these guys too, after you’ve got it all up, and then it just disapears into the wall.

By: Lynda

Lynda — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:30:11 +0000

Bravo to the people who said the TV would be too high; I can’t comment on tilting wall mounts, and would want to see that in a room before purchasing.

Why spend money on a large TV and be dissatisfied with the picture because you’re watching it from the wrong distance or wrong angle?

By: Seriously Tim Gray?

Seriously Tim Gray? — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 03:04:13 +0000

Tim – I am going to respectfully call BS at your statement. First and foremost there is no 68″ plasma. And even thought there are 65″, 60″, 58″ and similarly sized plasmas there is no way in Hades that you are replacing a TV every 18 months due to heat unless you are integrating on one of the polar caps which would require the fireplace to run 24/7 if the homeowner had no other source of heat and the TV was actually over the fire as opposed to being mounted on a wall above it.

I challange any of you with fireplaces to put a digital thermometer on top of your mantle and then put one on the top of the vents on a 50″ or larger TV. My bet is that you will get simiar temperature readings. Also, you must not understand a fireplace works. The heat does not radiate right up the wall otherwise the drywall would likely ingnite long before your plamsa stopped working as surface temps would be outragous.

Finally, while a typical fireplace does not allow for mounting a TV at optimal heights, the tilting mounts available today will mitigate much of the issues with the viewing angle of the TV. The visual look ultimately a matter of opinion.

By: Vince

Vince — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:58:03 +0000

Aside from the installation difficulties of mounting it above the fireplace, you also need to consider that the TV is awkwardly high. Depending on the size of your room it might be like sitting in the front row of a movie theater.

Most people want their TVs at eye level when sitting on a couch. The weird thing is that even if you mount it on a bare wall (no fireplace) at this level, it looks strangely low in the context of the rest of the room. There’s usually a ton of space above it.

I ended up going with setting it on a sofa-table (the kind that usually goes behind a couch.) It’s a little high, but not bad and I already had the table sitting around anyway.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ch.....8418448850

By: Carrie

Carrie — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 04:48:46 +0000

Wands up!

And now I have the SuperWhy theme song stuck in my head again.

We are in the process of finishing our basement, and will be adding extra framing for a future wall mount tv, along with power and cable outlets. We will have the tv over a fireplace, but we are going with an electric fireplace, not gas.

By: AZF

AZF — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 02:05:39 +0000

We mounted a flexible cord cover on the wall, ran the cables through it, and then texturized and painted it to look like the rest of the wall. Most people don’t notice it, or if they do, they mistake it for molding.

By: gerette

gerette — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 01:24:12 +0000

Is it sad that I only came to the comments to see if anyone made “Super Why” references? Loves me some Princess Pea.

By: Big Dan

Big Dan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:39:08 +0000

My cousin recently remodel their craftsman style house and put their flat screen about their fireplace (they only burn candles in the fireplace). They fretted and stressed over what to do with the components for weeks. I happened to be over at their house when they were discussing it and reminded them that they have a closet 12' away from the screen. A little conduit and a IR repeater system from Xantech and the problem was solved. All equipment lives happily in the closet and is out of sight.

By: Erin Doland

Erin Doland — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:14:44 +0000

@Benjamin — That is a great suggestion for a non-fireplace mount.