Plasma Installation

[zeke]

I hope this is the right forum for this question.

The wife & I are looking into installing a plasma television in our living room.

There are several options for installation such as putting all receivers in the lower level & running the wires up the wall to the plasma, getting a sleek entertainment center to house the boxes & putting the plasma on the wall or just putting the plasma on the entertainment center.

My number one choice is putting the boxes in the lower level, but I would like to have someone familiar with installing plasmas & running wires through the wall give it a look.  Does anyone know of anybody that would do a consultation for me?  Of course, I am more than willing to pay them for their services.

Ideally, the person would also do the install since Im looking at buying the plasma via the internet because it could save us about 1000-1500.

[oz]

Call or visit Flanners. When I was building my house, they created an entire plan for wiring my house. That consulting was free and they let me keep all of their plans and pricing information. In the end, I decided not to use them and just do it myself because they were VERY expensive.

After showing my wife their price, she agreed to let me spend a lot more than we originally planned.  I was still able to keep the total under 20% of what the Flanner's quote was. Still, I know that the people there know what they're doing and they do good work.

[jlegge]

OK.. now you know I have to defend us.......

Originally posted by oz
Call or visit Flanners. When I was building my house, they created an entire plan for wiring my house. That consulting was free and they let me keep all of their plans and pricing information.

This is not common practice. Typically we will not release this information until a deposit has been made and the job has begun.

In the end, I decided not to use them and just do it myself because they were VERY expensive.

We are not expensive.
1) We are directly in line with the industry average for the midwest, if not a hair lower than the Milwaukee market as a whole. Did you get quotes from any other competitors? This would have been made apparent then.
2) Our expertise is expensive and time consuming to come by. We put in a lot of hard work and time away from our families for training and the like.

After showing my wife their price, she agreed to let me spend a lot more than we originally planned.

Lucky you!  

Still, I know that the people there know what they're doing and they do good work.

That line confuses me.... We appreciate the compliment but it's directly in contradiction with the rest of the post. We DO do great work, we DO know what we are doing. It's just not worth anything? :bang:

Again, each and every individual is entitled to their opinion and under no circumstances am I holding anything against Oz. He did what he felt was best for himself and his family.

:wave:

[JoeK]

I wall mounted a plasma I bought over the internet last month.  There is quite a bit involved in doing it right.  I put a surge protected electrical outlet behind the unit and pulled 16 cables through the wall.  This may seem excessive, but I could of pulled 6 more.  I didn't put in a dvi and audio or s-video and audio.

I have seen quotes of $700 for an install of this nature and that won't include the electrical outlet relocation.  I wasn't sorry I did it myself, but I beleive there is $700 dollars of work involved.  Mounting the plasma on the wall is a two person job because of the weight and size. (42" Panasonic)

The clean look of a wall mounted plasma is the way to go IMO, but  sitting on a stand or cabinet in some living room settings is a good look also.  This one is in a bedroom and I'm very pleased with the look.

[zeke]

Appreciate all the replies.

My main concern is that I need someone to come to look at my place that has done installations before I make the final decision on whether or not to buy a stand.  I have various ideas of where to put the DTV boxes, but I need to see if it is doable.

Does anyone know if it would be any easier if I bought a Plasma that has a media box (like the Sony 42XBR950)?  It sounds like you just need to run 1 wire.

[jlegge]

The 950 has a 2 cable umbilical system (and an ATSC tuner!). Depending on where you mount this TV it will definitely make the install much easier and not sacrifice any performance. Sony does make available a 30 ft umbilical replacement if the supplied 10 ft (I believe it's 10 ft.) cable is insufficient.

[zeke]

Thanks John-

Do you possibly know how wide the cable is?

What I really need to know is if it would fit through a 1 inch diameter hole.

[jlegge]

The cable itself is fairly small, but the head on it is 1 1/2" wide. You will defineitely need a bigger hole than one inch.

[oz]

Hee hee, I forgot about Flanner's being on the boards. I actually did get a quote from American too. They were about $3000 less expensive. The quote I got from you was around $10000, no doubt that included a lot of work (more than I needed). I'm not going to go into the details, but it was plenty of work and hardware.

I didn't mean to sound contradictory. I think your place is great and I have purchased a lot of quality equipment from you, but "high-end" is often synonymous with "expensive" and I'm just a cheap bastard. I didn't have any intention of using you for your quote and then running somewhere else. The quoted price just encouraged me to look at the alternatives.

[jlegge]

Fair enough. Obviously competition is a good thing!

[drgingras]

Originally posted by zeke
Do you possibly know how wide the cable is?

What I really need to know is if it would fit through a 1 inch diameter hole.

I'm in the process of relocating my wall-mounted plasma, similar process to what JoeK described. Needed 2" PVC to provide barely enough room for my 15-cable bundle ( everything except speaker wires, they were direct-run to in-walls). The DVI cable end alone would not have fit through 1". And this can be a real challenge if you're working with existing construction.

Also, keep in mind that electrical code prohibits the in-wall use of standard power cables, thus the outlet JoeK mentioned. A dedicated, surge protected and conditioned line was run for my install, with a recessed outlet behind the plasma.

I know where you're coming from with the wall mount. The "cool" factor is part of the whole plasma thing, that's why I went through all the work and expense.

That being said, we'll be parking a nice a/v cabinet right below the plasma.  :bang: Had the unit (with stand) on this cabinet during construction and it looked fine. It just wasn't as cool as a wall mount. :cool:

If you want to go with your first choice, I'd recommend Flanner's. Since you're willing to pay for consulting, go with the experts.

Dave