Plasma mounting info


I have a Hitachi director series (42") that I have been using for about 2 months now. I am building a wall to mount it to (my walls are 3/4" plaster, 3/4" furing strips then the block). The studs are already set for this wall.
I am trying to find info on the best location (height) to mount the tv, also besides the obvious (HDMI cable and AC wiring) what other wiring to run behind the wall before I put on the sheet rock.
I am going to use a Pioneer surround sound amp that had 2 HDMI inputs with one HDMI output. It also upconverts the other video inputs to HDMI. Currently I don't have anything that is HDMI but I will get high def cable as soon as they offer the phone service in my area.
I will be using the Harmony 890 universal remote that I have already bought so all the components will go into the closet.
Help please I want this project to come to an end soon but I would like some guidance from those who have been there done that.
Bruce
brucec30
In addition to the oracle's advice (can't vouch for Richard Gray, because of lack of experience and general skepticism about such things), I'd advise making sure your visual center is no more than horizontal, preferably a bit lower. Bending your head back to look up at a screen can bring on unexpected nerve pinching.

Before the days of personal computers, I had the screen of my terminal mounted on a shelf where I looked slightly up at it. When I bent over to sign something, I often experienced numbness in my arm. A series of unpleasant tests, including a series of shocks to test neural conductance, failed to uncover the problem, so I was hung with my head in a sling as therapy to no avail. I came across an IBM tech paper that recommended placing monitors so that viewing was slightly below horizontal. The nerve problem has never reoccured after relocating the monitor, and that was nearly 40 years ago.

db
I also ended up running a regular composite video cable to my plasma becuase my receiver needs that to view the on screen display (OSD) controls. Try to leave yourself extra room to run extra or replace cables.

As for height (see pics in my system), I was forced to hang mine pretty high to get over the cabinet and the equipment. It is not ideal, but it has not bothered me in the 2 years that I have had it there. As for the comment about power conditioners, I saw a huge difference in the video quality using a balanced conditioner with my old CRT but not so much with the plasma.
There have been many threads on many forums about monitor height and, obviously, it should be placed so that there is a minimum of next strain. Equally obviously, that depends on your seating and your posture. Thus, sitting in a slightly reclined position on a couch is different from sitting erect at a desk, perhaps with elbows/work on the desktop. So, one should attend not only to eye height but to the angle of gaze. You might experiment with paper panels before drilling holes.

In our case, as we recline on our couch for comfortable viewing, we placed our plasma slightly above eye height as advised by our installer. It has been very comfortable for us.

Kal
My eyeballs are at the center of the wall mounted plasma.
Works great for me, I would go crazy looking up at Maineiac's
system. Email for photo.