AV cables through the basement?

[psquare75]

I think I came up with a solution to get all my game systems going in the living room:

 

Don't hook any of them up, until needed. My plan is to run some AV cables (10 feet should be long enough) through the floor of my living room, behind the TV, under floor (through the basement along the "ceiling") and up again, under the centrally located coffee table. Mount a small metal plate (similar to something that would be used to mount auxilliary switches to the dashboard in a car) under the coffee table, and put some bulkhead-mount female to female RCA connectors.

 

This would give me an easy access panel to plug say, my Intellivision into, when I want to play it, and would also keep it in easy reach to access the controllers and the system itself.

 

Plans are to run

 

Composite Video (Yellow)

Audio L (Red)

Audio R (White)

VGA (My girlfriend plays WOW on the TV, looks amazing!)

a 1/4" stereo phono jack (for hooking the PC to the surround sound)

and an RF cable (for say, my 5200, Intellivision, Aquarius, etc).

 

Thoughts on all this?

[godslabrat]

If you like it, go for it. It's a very elegant solution, I must say. It'd never work for me... one of my only rules in setting up my system was that EVERYTHING had to be hooked up at once. I spent too much time as a kid hooking and unhooking stuff to keep my video games "out of the way". My house, my rules... my electric spaghetti.

 

But hey, I admire the ingenuity.

[psquare75]

I wanted everything hooked up at once, but I will have WAYYYYYYY too many wires, and I can't reach half the systems on the stand from where I sit. If I can't reach it, I won't play it. (I'm looking at you Intellivision) One could say "Why not use extension cables and pull the units out? I thought of that as well. Everything is open behind my AV stands and I don't want 'electric spaghetti' (love the term!!) For the $ I'd be spending in extension cables for all the systems, I could just mount a panel like that and be done with it.

 

 

That's with only a few things hooked up. I didn't bother trying to be neat at that point. My Logitech Remote is pretty useless with the old systems, but I can at least "preselect" the settings while I plug in the games.

 

From what I can see, Video/Audio is ok to run this length, as is VGA. What about RF?? I'm guessing I need to use actual RG6 cable for the RF cable, as opposed to using a typical "RCA" cable with connector adapters?

Edited August 27, 2010 by psquare75

[Chuck D. Head]

I think I came up with a solution to get all my game systems going in the living room:

 

Don't hook any of them up, until needed. My plan is to run some AV cables (10 feet should be long enough) through the floor of my living room, behind the TV, under floor (through the basement along the "ceiling") and up again, under the centrally located coffee table. Mount a small metal plate (similar to something that would be used to mount auxilliary switches to the dashboard in a car) under the coffee table, and put some bulkhead-mount female to female RCA connectors.

 

This would give me an easy access panel to plug say, my Intellivision into, when I want to play it, and would also keep it in easy reach to access the controllers and the system itself.

 

Plans are to run

 

Composite Video (Yellow)

Audio L (Red)

Audio R (White)

VGA (My girlfriend plays WOW on the TV, looks amazing!)

a 1/4" stereo phono jack (for hooking the PC to the surround sound)

and an RF cable (for say, my 5200, Intellivision, Aquarius, etc).

 

Thoughts on all this?

 

Similar to what I have been thinking about. I want to make a coffee table, with a removable drawer that has direct access to the cables to the tv and stereo. The removable drawer would house a game system, accessories and a good number of games for the system. When I want to have a different system for the living room, I pull the drawer and replace with a different "system drawer" from the man-cave. I will have a way to play in the man-cave also, but I like options. All of this, of course, is dependent on getting a new house with space for said man-cave and a living room big enough to even have a coffee table. Morgan

[psquare75]

I have one of these.

 

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60133931

 

 

 

Mounted over the TV. It holds all my controllers and wall warts for now (As well as my Aquarius)

 

I have a Harmony cart, so I don't need the 2600 games out. Flash carts make it extremely easy to keep the game systems out and the clutter to a minimum. I plan to slowly get flashcarts for every system I have, and keep the games downstairs on some DVD shelving units. (I'm more of a gamer than a collector anyway, I guess).

[nightglider1]

It's a great idea. I plan to do something similar eventually.

[Chuck D. Head]

I have one of these.

 

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60133931

 

 

Does the front flip down to reveal the inside? Not clear from the item page. Morgan

[psquare75]

Oh. Yes. the entire front panel folds down.

[Video]

That sounds cool, VGA and AV should have no problem. But if you run cable (for your RCA stuff) I'd suggest running a shielded cable, as the unshielded one would leave you with a bit of static.

[frank_c]

i'm doing the same (but for my A/V system, not games) with keystone jacks and plates i got from Monoprice. prior owners of this house have so many holes drilled in the floor...it's driving me nuts.

[psquare75]

I found a surface mount Keystone box that will mount nicely under the table. If there is some interest I will do a little write up and parts list? I can't be the only one that would like something like this.

Edited August 29, 2010 by psquare75

[psquare75]

I started ordering parts for this. I'll do a write up with some pics once everything is here.

[psquare75]