That is exactly what she did...she had one that hurt and is afraid it will hurt again

Wow! talk about one crappy conversation

 yeah, this thread has really gone down the toilet.....or has it?!?!   ^_^

I started a retrofit 5.1 system with 59" Samsung plasma and Artison LCRs.  This job will also have 7 zones of Sonos.  TV's mounted on 8" thick poured concrete wall... had to core drill 2" hole to run cables.



Edit: I burried an emitter in the display and took some photos... this is getting harder & harder to do with the screens getting so thin.  Didn't someone post recently with photos on installing an emitter in a blu-ray?  If someone can point me to the thread, I'll add my pics to it.

Stamp has it posted on his blog I believe

Please excuse my lack of experience but just how did you drill down through a concrete wall to fish cables? And waht is a core drill?

I'm very interested.

Oh and what did I do today? I installed another two speakers in my own house, out in the sun porch by the pool. Added them to the zone two I installed with my receiver. Now I have installed speakers everywhere I wanted them. Ahhhhh.

Thanks, Craig


I just googled core drill. I should have known, I've used one before. Did you go through the wall and down the other side?

Craig

I ran into this with a thin LG. Taking the thing apart was super scary. Felt like i wasn't going to get it put back together again after i had about 20 screws out so i put it all back together and hot glued an emitter on the face. It sits in a weird low cabinet and the bezel is covered so it wasn't a big deal but it got me thinking about the next install. Gonna have to stick to LG and RS-232 as we move forward i guess.

You got it... it's just a hole saw for concrete.  In this case, there's unfinished crawlspace behind that wall and shelving has been built-in to the right of the TV for the equipment.  The hole goes straight through and then the cabling passes behind that wall and into the back of the shelving.



Here's a photo where you can see the shelving on the right:

I didn't have any problem getting the Samsung apart, but the problem with the thin TV's is there isn't any room now between the emitter and inside of the front bezel.  You used to be able to unscrew the board with the IR receiver on it so you could stuff the emitter in there, but on this TV the IR receiver board was attached directly to the inside of the TV with some adhesive.

Here's a picture... it's difficult to see, but that's a very small flat screwdriver on the right that I'm using to pry up the IR board just enough to slip the bare emitter under.  You can see the emitter wire in the upper right-hand corner.

With the emitter board stuck to the TV, there's actually no room between the board and the bezel to stick the emitter unless you pry it up.


The backs on these new Samsungs are so flimsy, I think I could do this next time by just removing the screws from this corner and prying the cover up enough to get in here.

Finished this retrofit system. Media room with 3 TVs and 3 DTV receivers, family room, billiard room, etc. Rack in closet is main network and DTV headend.

Interestingly, this is the first job where we made the design decision that if a component has an ethernet port it would be connected. Man, am I glad we did. The customer called up and said, "wow, this iPad app for DirecTV is great! I can set DVR schedules, see what my kids are watching, etc." He also said "these Samsung TVs are great, we can get apps, Netflix, MLB, etc."


We never showed him any of these features, he just discovered them. Now, if it has ethernet it gets a wired drop and a port on the system.

The photo of the Media Room shows a Pakedge 16 port switch for the: 3 TVs, 3 DTV boxes, Apple TV, BD, PS3 (PS2 in photo, PS3 on way) and AVR (damn-just noticed that I forgot to take off that sticker!) for a total of 10 network ports.

bassale,

Great looking install!  Is it URC control (looks like URC emitters)?  Why not use the IR input on the back of the two AVRs ?  It's a shame not to use the IR input on equipment that acually has it...

Are the in-cabinet racks Middle Atlantic CFR series?  If so, how difficult are they to wrestle in and out of the cabinet?  I haven't used them yet, but have a job coming up where I was considering them over SRSR.

Can you tell us about cabinet ventilation?  I think I might see some vent slots routed infront of the racks for air intake???

Cheers,
Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the feedback. I always look forward to your posts because I know you put a lot of time and effort on your projects. They always show a high level of craftsmanship and attention to detail.

About my project:

Yes, it is URC. Almost all of my projects are.
I know I'm going to take a LOT of flak for this, but I like to see the emitters working. It helps the troubleshooting process (IR working, IR routing, etc.), and I rarely (seriously, almost never) have issues with them falling off.

By the way, your photos of burying the emitter inside the Samsung bezel were impressive. I know how much effort this must have taken.

CFR racks kill, absolutely KILL, SRSR. SRSR only roll out far enough to spin. I can't tell you how many times I needed to reach my arm behind an SRSR but couldn't do it. Unloaded CFR racks weigh almost nothing and when burdened with only a few sources and an AVR can't be much over 75 or so pounds.

My advice is to use the CFR. You won't go back to the SRSR. We install them on almost every job.

The ventilation for the family room rack is a Mid Atl cool cab with vent slots in the toe kick and the fans pulling air into a hallway behind the cabinet. For the media room, there is a Mid Atl cool cab in the inside of the cabinet pulling heat away from the equipment right of the center speaker area and a second fan on the far left side of the cabinet (behind the guitar).

In future, I will try to include these details in photos.

First of all, nice work.
I won't give you too much shit about the emmiters, but my advice is this: install the emmiter for testing, programming, etc., but when done, remove it and use the 3.5mm plug on the back. There is no programming change required, it's just plug and play, and it looks a lot better.

Mario

 CFR's are great Paul, don't hesitate.