Ongoing Wall mounted HTPC (Now with updated pics) (1 Viewer)

[eetaylog]

Has anyone ever built a wall mounted HTPC? i currently have my antec fusion htpc setup in my living room sat underneath my plasma tv on a tv stand, but i was thinking about moving the media centre into the cupboard that runs next to my living room, and then mounting my antec front panel onto the wall and running all the necessary cables (VFD display cables, USB etc) through the wall and into the antec case. i think it would make the room look a lot tidier, and id be able to mount my tv on the wall above the panel.

anyone done anything like this before??

from this...

To this...

The only problem i can see is finding a way to mount my DVD drive.

 

[MyPVR]

What about an external USB case for the DVD drive and mounting this case into the cupboard?

 

[eetaylog]

not sure about an external DVD drive. id like to upgrade to bluray soonish, and i think ive read somewhere that there are MP issues with external BR drives.

 

[frenzy]

Sounds cool. If there is only the lcd display and the dvd that need to be mounted then I would suggest building a wooden frame on which the two devices will be mounted, bolted on the wall. After you cover the frame with 2-4 mm wooden panels (plywood or something) and paint it the colour of the wall. But for the cables you need to dig a canal into the wall prior to all these. How does that sound?

 

[MyPVR]

Is were a way to modify the cupboard and integrate a smoke glass cover?

 

[rekenaar]

I would seriously recommend replacing the beer with a bar-fridge full of beers

 

[eetaylog]

Is were a way to modify the cupboard and integrate a smoke glass cover?

i can see where youre coming from, but no it wouldnt be possible as the wall has batons running inside it. i would just fix the front panel to the wall (with some kind of gasket to make it stick out very slightly)

I would seriously recommend replacing the beer with a bar-fridge full of beers

that is all that was left of a fridge full of beers!

 

[dcwp]

Can you fit your HTPC behind the TV? If you can set it on its side like a tower and fit a bracket into the TV mount bracket, you could arrange it so that the optical drive is nearly flush with the side of the TV. Then you wouldn't see the client machine, but it would be easily available. Of course this would work best with a slot-style optical drive rather than the tray. Alternately you could go with an external DVD drive (or get a case to mount your current drive as an external) mounted like that behind the TV, then run the cable into the cupboard.

Let us know how this works out. I have been thinking that if I had a little more cash to switch to a smaller case or a laptop client, I would like to mount it behind my display. There's a good 3 to 5 inches of space behind the TV and the wall on the mounting bracket I use.

 

[eetaylog]

for anyone who was interested in progress on this, ive now almost finished installing everything. i wont do a full write up here, ill save it until everything is completely finished (still have to run some trunking inside my cupboard for all the cables, and a few other small things) and do a proper write up in the completed htpc's forum, but heres a sneak peak....

started out like this....

After fixing the tv to the wall, I removed everything from my server setup (2Tb RAID0) and put the guts from my living room Antec Fusion client HTPC (including 2 more 1Tb HDD's) into the server tower, and transfered all my data from the RAID array onto the 2 new disks, then put it all in the cupboard

Then i removed the front panel from my Antec Fusion case, made a wooden gasket for it and ran all the power switch cables & display cables etc through the cupboard wall and into the tower so i can operate it from the living room. It now looks like this...

Ill do a proper write up on the system when its fully complete, but im very happy with it so far, everything works as before, but ive got bundles more space in my living room

comments welcome

 

[jonaskp]

That looks good. Not something I would do I think, but its very unique.
Btw, I guess your TV is a Samsung Q97/96 from what I can see on the screenshots? What size it? I have the same in 42" with the resolution 1024x768. I was wondering, if its the same resolution you have, what signal you are sending to the screen?
I am sending a 1280x720 Resolution with HDMI and to avoid overscan I use the "Just Scan" setting on the Samsung - this makes the picture the perfect size without overscan. Problem is, if the Samsung is turned on when i boot the HTPC, it looses the "Just Scan" setting, because of a different resolution when booting. So I have to wait turning on the tv till I know it has booted into windows.
If you have the 50" with 1366x768 resolution, I don't know if you still have this problem?