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Everyone's suggestions have been very helpful. I am suppose to be speaking with an electronics expert that works with the builder to discuss the best options with my floorplan etc... I will let you know what we come up with.
I have my 47inch LCD mounted above my fireplace. Had my builder put a power outlet behind the tv, and add some additional studs behind the tv (behind the drywall obviously) to strengthen the wall to hold the TV. Also ran 1 HDMI cable, and 1 coax cable behind the tv. The HDMI cable goes to a closet, where all of my components are hidden out of view (Denon receiver, Sondy DVD, Direct TV box, Apple TV). I control these components that are out of view with a Harmony 1000 via RF, and control the TV with the same remote via infrared. My wife especially loves the clean look, of just having the TV visible, with no other components.
I have my 47inch LCD mounted above my fireplace. Had my builder put a power outlet behind the tv, and add some additional studs behind the tv (behind the drywall obviously) to strengthen the wall to hold the TV. Also ran 1 HDMI cable, and 1 coax cable behind the tv. The HDMI cable goes to a closet, where all of my components are hidden out of view (Denon receiver, Sondy DVD, Direct TV box, Apple TV). I control these components that are out of view with a Harmony 1000 via RF, and control the TV with the same remote via infrared. My wife especially loves the clean look, of just having the TV visible, with no other components.
I think that's the way that most builders are doing it, now, yes. That's certainly how I would want it setup - with a closet housing all the cable/dvd/etc boxes.
Works GREAT. I highly recommend a universal remote (Harmony makes a great/easy product). Regardless if you go the RF vs. IR route, the Universal makes a huge difference. All my wife needs to do is press "watch TV" and voila, the TV turns on, Direct TV box turns on, Receiver turns on, and turns to TV input.
I replaced 5 remotes with just one, and it is activity based "watch TV", "Watch DVD", Watch Apple TV", "Listen to music" etc.....sooooo simple to use. Any guest that comes to my house can figure out how to "watch tv", just press one button.
One of the worst "trends" that I have seen are TVs above a fireplace. A decade from now, they will be having home shows where these nooks are being covered up for something else.
HDMI cables are all the same. The signal is digital so it either works or doesn't. Don't spend more than 10 bucks for one and certainly don't buy one of the monster brand cables found in the bubble plastic in local stores. They are a complete 100% ripoff.
Wow, $4 for a HDMI cable. Are these the same quality as the very expensive HDMI cable sold at most retail stores? I shudder when I see HDMI cables costing $40 and up.
Yes - the HDMI cables they try to sell you at the box stores (some for over $100) are nothing more than a massively over-priced ripoff. And alot of people are wasting a lot of money on these.
Now - back in the day, when you hooked up your VCR or DVD player to the TV with those two or three cables - that was to transmit an analog signal from point A to point B. So in those cases, yes - the quality of the cables mattered; those big, thick, expensive Monster cables gave you a better picture because they could carry the analog signals further with less of a loss in signal strength than the thinner, cheaper cables you could by for $5 or $10.
With HDMI, you're digital, not analog, which means the DVD player sends out a bunch of 0s and 1s, and then the TV translates those into the picture - as long as the TV gets all those 0s and 1s the picture quality is solely dependent upon the quality of your TV - there is no potential for degredation of signal strength between the input and output like there are with analog signals.
Short answer - don't spend a ton of $$$ on expensive HDMI cables - you can find plenty on-line for under $10 each and the quality of your picture and sound will be equally as good as it would be if you were using the ones Best Buy will try and sell you for $50, $75 or more.
I would think that would apply to an HDMI switch or splitter that someone mentioned. Again, you're not degrading a digital signal by splitting it like you would be with analog so, again, I don't see where it would make a difference (although I've never used one myself).
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