Hiding tv cables ‘in-wall’

Will be removing our fireplace shortly and re-positioning wall mounted TV over to where the fireplace is currently.

This area of the wall will be replastered once we’ve removed the fireplace, so have the opportunity to insert some kind of trunking (hidden in/behind the plaster) and entry/exit points for all the cables to the TV while the plastering is being done. Simple vertical drop of about 70 cm.

Don’t know if a simple square plastic trunking with a couple of faceplates in the wall is only option, or if there’s something better. I’m conscious of the need to easily slip cables in, down and out. And more than once!

Would appreciate it if anyone has got any elegant solutions/suggestions?

Your problem isn’t going to be the wires but more likely the plugs on the ends. E.g hdmi which would probably need quite a decent sized conduit.
Like this
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I wonder if there’s an elegant solution where the front can be opened up so you can add cables. That wouldn’t be hidden rather just embedded into the wall.

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You can fit neat faceplates like this so any plugs can be passed through.

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Yep, will be a large aperture trunking, power cable, 3 x hdmi and another to the muso which doubles as a soundbar.

Yep, that’s what I’m trying to avoid and similar to what I have now, though mine’s a little more discreet than that!

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Sorry, hope others will help you more. But yes , I agree, not the nicest way to hide. But however much nicer than visible cables.

Will you be keeping the chimney breast, and for example embedding the TV in the breast area, or going back flush to the wall. If the latter, then presumably you will have quite large void behind.

What I would say, is any trunking you use, also run a piece of string through it and leave it there so that you can feed other wires in the future.

Also wondering if a letter box draught excluder might be an option here for whether the cables enter and exit - loads of room then

In our last place, we had a portion of the wall by the skirting board made from a magnetic removable panel. The panel itself had the same wallpaper and bit of skirting as the surrounding wall. Behind it, it is the plug socket, aerial outlet, and LAN port. The trunking led up to a hole behind the TV. So just ran the cables down. Plugged them in and then replaced the panel. No need to hide a bunch of socket behind a bit of furniture or plant.

I’ve since learned this is very common. The other solution of course (which we will do in the new place) is simply have the socket wall mounted behind the TV directly. So hang TV on wall and plug it in and all cables are behind it. No extra trunking needed at all. Just be very sure you work out a spot that will not interfere with the mounting bracket and will not poke out from behind the TV.

Alternatively, you can do no DIY and just use one of these (which we use in a rental flat). TV still goes as close to the wall as if directly mounted. you can get adjustable shelves for centre speakers etc too.

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I’ve seen people have a fake wall, a board essentially, wall to ceiling a few cm from the actual wall. If designed properly it doesn’t look bad / out of place.

If you’re willing to buy a new TV, you could also look at Samsung’s with their “One connect”. All the connections are on a small box you can put inside a sideboard and then there’s an “invisible” (small and see-through) cable connecting that to the TV. Very inconspicuous.

Me, I just have the TV on a sideboard and replaced all cables to and from it with white ones, which I then combined in a white cable sleeve for the few cm between bottom and sideboard. Probably not what you want.

I suspect the challenge of how to do will only be revealed post rip-out/removal, and being able to see how deep you can chase in to the residual wall – noting you need to give a plasterer something to adhere to and deep enough to avoid cracking (even after using wide scrim tape). Plus, the wall conduit will need to sit away from any drill holes for the TV’s mounting bracket – and these will need to have suitable strength in to the wall/whatever battens you may use?

I did this once too. Floor to ceiling walnut board with about 3cm of air behind. Looked great to be honest. But custom fitted wasn’t cheap. About 5 times the cost of the TV IIRC.

This, but we have far neater versions with a thinner vertical aperture.

Can get any cable end you like through them, HDMI no issue.

Ours are similar to this….

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The brush faceplates are also available in double width.
As for an elegant solution, not so easy. If you are replastering then one option is to chase out sufficient for 32/40/50mm waste pipe which will allow cables with a plug to pass along. Much will depend on the wall itself and available depth. You can either use an elbow at either end trimmed back to the plaster level, or fashion a back box on which to screw the brush faceplate, but the box will have to be adapted to meet the pipe. I had a friendly builder, who was replastering the whole wall concerned, so I installed mine (and separate pipe run for speaker cables) more than a decade ago for my av system. In my case it’s a horizontal run. Worth leaving in situ a draw cord in case of any cable changes, so avoid pulling on a cable itself.

When we reworked our lounge we just built a wall around the kit so it all sits flush including in wall speakers. That means there are no visible cables at all and it’s very easy to add and remove any as required.

A friend used a length of 40mm waste pipe and two oblique elbows to do something similar to what you are suggesting. I think he drilled a big hole in a plug socket wall box for the pipe and drilled smaller holes into a plug socket blanking plate. As I recall it took a bit of swearing and time to get it all connected to his satisfaction, it did however work and allowed him to hide 2 or 3 cables and domestic harmony increased. I think the reason he didn’t use 90-degree elbows was that he was concerned that some longer connectors wouldn’t get around them.

Wall-mounting tv’s has never appealed to me, but I do like that stand as an alternative. What make is it ?

I didn’t post the make because I’m not sure it is available outside Japan but assume they are fairly generic.

That one is made by a company called Equals. They do them in black, white, and walnut veneer. All height adjustable and up to 80" screens. They have brackets round the back for holding hard disks etc. I bought one for the rental flat and have to admit, since owning it, I’m sort of wondering if it is even worth wall mounting again. Sure, you get uninterrupted wall under the TV with wall mounting, but the stands are very tidy.

I think you can go to Japanese Amazon and switch to English mode and search from there. They are not very expensive.

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Fitueyes have some interesting stands in the UK.

The bigger the pipe diameter the better IMO. I installed a 50mm (2 inches for some) pipe with 2 radius corners. If I did it again, I would go 65 or 75mm and would also send it down through the floor and back up through a floor box. (That might not work if you have a strapped masonry wall and/or a concrete floor).
50mm is ok for a few hdmi etc, but some TV’s (like my Sansung) has the power cord wired into the back, which then requires replacement of plug. It won’t go through.
I envisaged one hdmi…but then a TV box came along…then an Xbox…and a link back to the laptop on the couch, plus the optical to the DAC. It gets harder with every addition.
The best draw-cords I found to be nylon straps, the type used for packing around boxes, etc. They push-pull around corners that other cords gave up on. Don’t forget to leave one in their when you think you are on the last draw-through, because there is always something else.
The acoustic ‘ceiling panels’ behind the speakers were installed for other obvious reasons, but they now double as cable concealers for the stuff that should have been below the floor.
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