Can I get a home theater consult?

Welcome to my living room:

I have an antenna in the attic over this room. The time has come to connect it and lose the cheap little flat antenna in the pic. There is no chimney behind the TV, so the plan is to install a remodel box, and drop a coax line down inside the wall behind the TV. Seems simple enough. It might also be nice to have a receptacle so I don't have to see the cord plugged into the outlet in the mantle. Again, same procedure as the antenna except with romex instead of coax. I think I'm good with that part of it, but feel free to chime in if you've got something applicable.

What I'm totally out of the loop with, is if there might be anything else worth doing "while I'm in there"? We're not technophiles, which you probably could've discerned from the TV that's 10 or 12 years old. We just use the TV for some infrequent, general TV watching. There's a PS3 that might be used for a BluRay from time to time, but we've survived without it for the last 3 years too. We're not hardcore gamers or anything that need the fastest possible connections with no dropout. That being said, this is going to be a long term house for us so some future proofing might not be a bad plan. Should I be considering ethernet hookups, or HDMI run in the wall? Or is everything moving forward going to be wireless, streaming, etc and a few USB ports on the TV will be fine moving forward? I guess I could cut the back of one of the bookshelves for a box and fish power/HDMI hookups through to have whatever device on a shelf nearby, but I'd hate to only use those things for the next few years and then have to look at unused outlets and stuff in the back of my bookcase for another 15-20 years until we go to sell the place. I guess I'm trying to avoid doing anything that will become an outdated eyesore fairly soon, especially if it's going to be a pain to undo sometime in the future.

I can't see your living room.

I think you are fine with just a power outlet. Everything is wireless now except for electricity.

I wouldn't bother with the HDMI cables. With all the HDCP garbage built in to devices and cables now, you'd just end up needing to replace it in a few years.

It makes me unspeakably angry that I have a PS4 Pro, a proper Onkyo Receiver, and a 4k TV..........that I've had to manually set the PS4 to 1080p, because even though I have all the correct hardware, trying to use the PS4 for gaming or watching movies, it constantly flickers. 

So that's 2 votes for keeping it basic, and I learned a little about HDCP.

Learn the ways of CEC and ARC.  It's a protocol built into most modern A/V stuff that uses the HDMI cable to directly control other components.  I have a 55" smart TV with a Yamaha A/V receiver.  I only ever use the TV remote.

When it comes to audio, don't focus on big, focus on adequate.  I have a simple surround setup using two C-note speaker kits for my F/R L/R, a good powered 10" sub, and a Polk center channel.  The whole splurge (TV, receiver, speakers, sub) cost me less than $1000 thanks to a couple Crutchfield open box specials.  It really sounds amazing.

If you want to go with an all-in-one home theater audio kit, stick with a good brand.  Don't skimp.  Right now my go-to is Definitive Technology.  Velvety-smooth frequency flatness but without the Klipsch tax.

Bluetooth is nice to have for streaming audio, but I personally detest bluetooth.  It is old tech, and the latency is frustrating. BT into the receiver is fine for modest quality playback, but BT out to another device is annoying.  I have a BT mini amplifier in the kitchen that runs out to some outdoor speakers.  The delay is painful.  Its fine when you're just outside, or just inside, but in the kitchen when you can hear both it makes me want to drill out my ear drums with a 3/16" bit.

I'm a big fan of KISS with home theater.  I often go just 3.1 (front, center, and sub) for most watching, and only go 5.1 for certain movies.  Many times the surround that TV shows and lower budget movies do is just a kitchy afterthought and doesn't really give you much more other than random noises from the rear.

TCL Roku TV will get you HDR, 4KHD, and CEC/ARC for a rock-bottom price.  Mine has been bulletproof for two years with one update causing some glitches, but its fixed now.  Killer picture, great features, Roku awesomeness, cheap chinese price.

If I were doing it all again, I would still likely do exactly the same thing as far as Audio is concerned.  I might choose a TV with a higher refresh rate.

Definitive Tech Sub Don't let the 8" drivers fool you.  20hz is easy for this thing and it really makes more volume than you need.  Nice compact size, mega bass.

C-note speakers Two sets of these, plus glue, plus a bit of solder = some really lovely satellites.  I was beyond impressed at their flat frequency response.

C-note center channel Wish they had this kit before I splurged on the Polk center channel.

Yamaha RXV385  I have the 383 that this one replaced.  If the 385 is as good, you won't be disappointed.

All of it is controlled with one remote, it sounds like a million bucks.

CEC has been around forever.  My TV from 2011 would control everything from one remote.  Every once in a while you will come across some werid device that does not support it (*cough* xbox one WTF).

That said, always run ethernet if you can.  The more stuff you keep wired, the less you need to deal with wireless.  Wired connections don't drop, become unpaired, reduce the bandwidth of other connections, etc.  If its not moving, wire it.

I have one of the over the fireplace boxes in my house that was intended for an old CRT.  Its a nice place to tuck my modem, router, a few raspberry pis, blue ray player, ps classic and genesis classic.

I agree with ProDarwin, wired is the way to go. Add a Cat6 or 7 ethernet cord, maybe 2, and an HDMI to the box behind the tv with the coax, even if you don't plug it into anything on the other end yet. Your next tv will probably be a "smart" tv and that gives you lots of options. Maybe run the other end of one inside your wall to your bookshelves to connect to something. Or you could put it in another room at that point. But on the mantle would be easiest, direct short cord.

Improved sound is easy, get a good soundbar to put on your mantle. Samsung makes great ones, get one with a wireless subwoofer that you can put down low out of the way and you'll be set. If it has Bluetooth you can play music from your phone easily.

Or if you want to get serious about sound, those blank wood panels beside the tv would be a great space for in-wall speakers.

-from a fellow antenna user

I would keep wired options, and would think about ways to either hide them behind the wall or else make it easy to switch to new technology. 

We're not really worried about audio for now. Like I said, we watch some basic TV for a couple of hours per week, so WAY below average usage. Between work, school, child rearing and house/yard projects we don't have the time for major gaming or frequent movies that would benefit from higher end sound.

I think initially, we're just going to do the cable/power box like so:

That will get us in business, and those things will always be needed to some degree so I'm good with coupling them in the same place.

From there, we'll weigh our options. If we do decide to run power to the shelves for other devices, I'm leaning toward using a couple of passthroughs like this for the low voltage stuff:

I think I'd run 2" PVC conduit between the shelves and the TV so cables could be fished through the wall/attic with minimal effort when things needed to be added over time. There are more aesthetically pleasing options than having a passthrough in the shelves, but they wouldn't give us the same level of flexibility moving forward if we want/need wired connections.

Does that seem reasonable?

i have a TV location above a natural fireplace on an exterior brick wall, and a shelf on an interior wall on the opposite side of the room for components.  when i started my install, there was no crown molding in the room, so i used a pass-thru plate at the component end and one of those recessed 2-gang old work boxes at the TV end (it s a duplex receptacle plus a pass-thru), then popped the wires (1 cable, 1 HDMI, 5 speakers) back thru the drywall at the top plate and stapled them along the ceiling/wall corner.   When i got to a drop location for an in-wall, i poked the wire into the wall and fished it down to my speaker hole.  for 110v i cut a horizontal strip of drywall out of the TV wall, from directly above an existing duplex to behind the TV next to the wall mount.  augered through the wall studs, fished my wires, put nail plates across the face of each stud, and patched the drywall.  it helps that the room was due to be painted, so i didn't have to blend my patches.  finished it up by installing 4" crown so there are no visible wires.

i may be upgrading the TV in that room for Christmas.  If so, i will pull down part of the crown and add one of those new-protocol cables.  Future-proofing wasn't my forte in 2011.

In reply to AngryCorvair :

That's a nice solution with the crown molding. We'll likely end up with a new TV soon too, which is part of what spurned this thread in the first place.