Installing RCA wall plates

[Troy711]

I bought myself a TV for the bedroom on the weekend and have mounted it on the wall using a pivoting bracket. I ran some coax cable today to the areial splitter box but now I want to put a wall plate on so I can put the DVD player in the cupboard and not have the AV cables running all over the place. I've lined up a sparky to come and put the powerpoints in (cos I don't touch that stuff myself) but I want to put the RCA plates in myself to save time.

Basiclly, this is what I want to put in...



There will be one behind the TV and one in the cupboard. Mounting the bracket isn't the issue, I just have no idea what cable I run between them and also how it attaches/crimps to the back of the plates. (Picture of back of plate shown below.)



Do I use coax cable, or is there a special cable to use? And how the hell do I fix it properly to the back?

Cheers all!

[maginoodle]

i soldered my joins. i used some old telecom phone line, if you get the right wire it has 8 seperate wires in it and it will do all 3 plugs

[SAV_117]

why not ask the sparky

[Troy711]

Cos he is off for 2 weeks and I can't get hold of him until he gets back from holidays.

Hopefully Garth sees this thread and will have some answers

[tommo82]

Troy,

What video format will you be using? From the wallplates I presume it will be composite video.

For the speakers (red and white), just buy speaker wire. It is possible to buy combined cable (Composite Video + L/R speaker wire) from Hifi stores instead. This is a form of coax (it has a ground braiding around the outside). You will need to separate out the various individual wires from the bundle.

See if you can buy that.

In terms of connecting it, they are definitely solder lugs, so you will need a soldering iron.

One alternative is to remove the RCA connectors and get "back-to-back" ones. Basically, they are normal RCA connectors but on the back of them have another female RCA connector (so the rear of the wallplate also has RCA connectors).

Then you can just buy pre-made cables from the shop (e.g. 5 or 10 metres) and connect it without soldering. You've also got a higher chance of it working properly as well, since the "ground braid" around those cable is very difficult to work with).

[Nanos]

if its going to be for video i would run coax, and for the audio some figure 8 cable.

yes you could use cat5 (telephone cable) but its not that thick. the smaller the cable the bigger the loss. also cat5 does not have much in the way of sheilding so you can get noise(interference) when using it for audio.

just all depends on how far you want to go. if you want cheap and quick fix then cat5 cable will do it.

[Troy711]

Yep, I saw those back 2 back ones on eBay and they looked pretty expensive.

I dunno what type of video I will use, most likely RGB/composite.. so yea.

I also saw these:
RCA TERMINAL GREEN !Use with custom wall plates! NEW.. - eBay, Wires, Cables, Accessories, Electronics. (end time 07-Nov-08 18:45:14 AEDST)
and figured I could just buy a blank plate and put whatever cables I wanted in it. But do these connect the same as normal coax does to an arieal?

[tommo82]

No, that won't work.

They are F connectors on the back (threaded), so you will need properly terminated coax (also difficult, and requires special tools to apply the crimps).

Additionally, the impedance of coax cable is usually 75ohms, so I am not sure of the effect on Composite video.

[Nanos]

Not sure if you have them in the ACT(never been there) but down here in melbourne we have stores called JAYCAR. they will have everything you need and be able to advise you on the how too and also tell you what you will need.

that would be your best bet as you be able to ask all the questions in person. i would stay clear of the shops like JB hifi and good guys etc.. they are all just salesman that are in it for a $$$$.

[commsirac]

No, that won't work.

They are F connectors on the back (threaded), so you will need properly terminated coax (also difficult, and requires special tools to apply the crimps).

Additionally, the impedance of coax cable is usually 75ohms, so I am not sure of the effect on Composite video.

From the pic I looked at in Troy's link they are rca connections on both sides that are screwed together so they can be mounted on a surface up to a cm in thickness.
This would seem ideal if one doesnt want to frig around with a soldering iron. The small diameter cable you need is cheap to buy, but by the time you buy the connectors for the dvd player end it will just cost as much as leads which already have plugs on both ends.

Troy, what run length are the wires. They start charging silly money for rca cables over 10m. The only issue I see with using cables with the rca terminals attached is difficulty in actually threading them through to where they need to go.
Ive never experienced any troubles with interference on the composite video input using ordinary rca cable. Perhaps try a long length of this in the room where you are going to use it and see if there is any problems before going to the trouble of trying to connect up heavy duty coax.

[Julie]

We used rca cables in my daughters room, the tv is only a short length away from the dvd player which is hiding in her built in wardrobe, it all works fine, perfect sound and picture.

[ProphetVX]

For my RCA call mounts I use insulated audio cable on all sockets even video, handles the job perfectly.

Depending on length you don't want to use different types of cable for different types of data because some wire has more resistence than others and you run the risk of having stuff out of sync irrespective of how minimal it may be.
To join the wires to the back, thread the wire through the hole, and solder it on, then cover with heat shrink. FYI the center of an RCA plug is positive, so where the inside pin touches is your positive, the outside bit is negative.

[Garth]

hey troy, i saw the thread, bit late though

those are normal rca connections. just some normal everyday figure 8 cable will do the trick quite nicely.

they arnt f connection type, coaxial isnt needed, all i can sugest, is that some figure 8 cable (aka speaker wire) will use a trace or a lump on one of the 2 cables, use that one as the minus or sheath. what you do at one end, do at the other. and solder those joints. prevents fuzzy looks.