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Too close to the wall, such a thing?

7K views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  107355 
#1 ·
Hey all...

I'm building a first ever sorta-home theatre - a living room where I'm trying to minimize the impact of the gear - at the same time as I'm doing a gut to the studs renovation in the front half of the house.

We'll be wall mounting a 55" Panasonic GT50 Plasma unit and positioning it low enough such that a slim (no tilt) flush as possible mount can be employed. The back of the unit looks pretty free of protrusions.

Our goal for this room is to minimize the impact if the TV to the extent possible with a big 50"x30" black obelisk mounted on a wall. I'd like to mount this unit as flush and as close as possible to the wall, but noted the following in the documentation on-line:

leave a space of 3 15/16” (10 cm) or more at the top, left and right, and 2 3/4” (7 cm) or more at the rear.
Should I be following this recommendation to the letter? I'd hoped for closer.

Also... once the too-close or not warning is dealt with, any opinions on wall mounts?
 
#3 ·
Large Plasmas must dissipate quite a bit of heat. Hence the need for appropriate "breathing room" (ventillation). You could perhaps consider building a bit of a "niche" in the wall (being aware of the need for appropriate structural compensation if it's a supporting wall), but even then, the proper ventillation must be kept in mind, in that the niche must allow for proper air flow behind the TV.
 
#4 ·
Or instead of 2 3/4" you could place it at 1" and install a low RPM recessed fan behind the unit. Hot air rises so it should be near the bottom to aid in the convection created from the adjacent back panel. Also plasma's are passively cooled and I would think the top vents will expel more heat than the bottom ones.
 
#5 ·
I hear you on heat dissipation. It does seem that newer thinner panels may have been designed to dissipate more from the front of the unit but my unscientific test (hand behind) is, well, unscientific! Ok, I won't mount it too close but may take Panasonic's number as a cover-their-bases (or fit their own wall mount product's spec) number.

Re cabling I have a 2 gang deep recessed wall box; one half will house an outlet; the other half is for various digital connections. I'll be using Ethernet and Digital Optical Audio off the back of the panel; HDMI are side mounted and I've got some right angle connectors of two flavours to help with that. I'm thinking the right angle power on the box will be the least of my worries to plan on using the digital half of the recessed wall box to help accomodate the connector depth and wire bend radius of the two other back connections.

Fingers crossed that measuring and thinking about this forty times before placement will pay off later, but if I have to I can take a drywall knife to the walls that at that point will have just finished building / insulating / covering and finishing and painting... although I'd much rather kick back in the new living room and have a beer when done.
 
#8 ·
I should clarify that my 55" is an LCD, and rightly or wrongly, I didn't concern myself with the heat issue.

I had the option of using right-angle HDMI cables on the side of the unit, but I wanted a completely clean installation. I'm more of a measure once, cut twice kind of guy, so I ended up trying to mount, then cut, the try to mount... you get the idea!

I went with a "flush" mount due to the layout of the house (the side of the TV is visible from the entrance to the family room). How visible will the side of your panel be when mounted?

Keep in mind that a flush mount (with rear connections) will require you to remove the TV from the wall to add any other connections.

Having said all of the above, and gone through all of the effort, I'm glad I did what I did.
 
#9 ·
I'm keen on a flush-as-possible or practical mount for the same reasons. We live in a house built in 1931 with a very small entry way that is off to one side of a ~ 15' x 13' living room. The side of the TV will be visible along that wall as you move into the room proper, as well as being visible when entering the room from the opposite end of the long direction from the kitchen. In short, all our foot traffic to the outside door will pass in front of the TV. We have a lowish not too deep runner table that will go underneath to avoid human-TV clashes.

Our other AV equipment is (will be) located on the opposite side of the room; there is a small alcove to the right of our fireplace where a 36" wide cabinet used to sit; I'm rebuilding that as a floor to ceiling cabinet repurposing the antique glass doors that were on the bottom of the original. AV equipment will go on shelves, including, hopefully, our HD cable box or whatever other source(s) we have for HD in the future. I can't really predict where we'll go with HD - this is our first HD TV.

In terms of other gear going in the cabinet across the room, we have an Onkyo AV receiver and ideally hope to switch everything through it. I bought a good quality HDMI cable which seems to test ok with our current equipment. The fall back is our HD cable box and possibly a blu ray player would be located near the TV in the furniture under it - in that case the digital audio cable is likely to be then used to bring audio back to our AV receiver.

I've also put in a race way from my recessed box that will sit behind the TV down to another box mounted a standard 12" off floor such that we can pass cables behind the wall if that ever becomes necessary. Gutting an old house has its advantages. :D

The digital optical connection is a fall back too; it may never get used if our long HDMI cable proves up to the job as I expect it to; I just wanted to have it buried in the all and ceiling over to the AV equipment shelf.

Speaker and subwoofer cables are also all run through walls and ceiling - finished that off last night.

My inclination is to go with a relatively flush mount and monitor the situation. I can always change out the mount if heat build up behind seems excessive. I'm also not opposed to planting a large diameter PC case fan back there - they can be virtually silent - but might be more willing to move the TV out a little more than going there. Hmnnn.. maybe I should run some low voltage cable from my bell transformer there just in case. ;-) Nah.
 
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