Does your home theater set up have a rats nest of cables?

Kevin thought this was worth mentioning said Thu, Jun 9th 2016 at 8:41am ET

Mine does, I have two power strips daisy chained together, a more HDMI cables than devices, and Ethernet cables that aren’t plugged into anything. Not to mention all the dust it has accumulated.

I want to clean it up and make it look nicer, does anyone have suggestions? Or perhaps knowledge of some kind of magical product that solves this problem?

13 comments, 3 replies
Comment

carl669 said Thu, Jun 9th 2016 at 10:13am ET:

but then where will the rats live? i named mine. i call the big one “Bitey”.

seriously though. i have the same issue. but, at this point, it’s too much of a time commitment to fix. if i ever have to move the entertainment center, then i might bundle the cabling to make it look nice and neat. until then though, it’s all behind the tv and components, so i can’t see it. and if i can’t see it, fuck it.

7
- Reply
- Whisper
hallmike said Thu, Jun 9th 2016 at 10:15am ET:

Buy strategic furniture to hide it all.

10
- Reply
- Whisper
- Exactly. You can tidy it up with velcro straps, but it’s folly. Sooner than later you’ll have to change a component or track down something that stopped working and it will revert back to it’s former mess.
  ("/giphy law of entropy" seemed to return mostly random stuff. Go figure.)
  
  walarney said Thu, Jun 9th 2016 at 11:01am ET
  - 3
  - Reply
  - Whisper
- Dang. That apostrophe is going to haunt me forever now.
  
  walarney said Fri, Jun 10th 2016 at 10:44am ET
  - 4
  - Reply
  - Whisper
tomvarela said Thu, Jun 9th 2016 at 10:50am ET:

/image Line Cable Tidy Tube Cable Trunking

7
- Reply
- Whisper
daveinwarsh said Thu, Jun 9th 2016 at 12:07pm ET:

I’ve tried velcro strips, wire loom, tape, nothing works.
They just tangle again.
You get everything looking nice & you need to change out something.
You’re screwed.
I have lots (lots) of equipment leading to power management systems & power strips & stuff going to the UPS. It’s a mess & I think some of the wires are taking on a mind of their own. Some of them were trying to grab me & I think there may be a dead cat in there somewhere.
Beware.

6
- Reply
- Whisper
djslack said Thu, Jun 9th 2016 at 8:57pm ET:

I had a nicely written reply and don’t know what happened to it. But what others are saying is correct. It takes a commitment to keeping it right or its wrecked the first time you upgrade a component.

As for products, cable loom, velcro straps, or zip ties. Gang your wires together, keeping AC power away from signals, and run them like interstate highways, with clearly defined entrances and exits near your components. Use the right length cables where possible, and coil up and zip tie those you can’t. If you use cable loom, you can run thinner cables away from the destination then back to where they need to go to eat up extra length too.

You can also get cable clips that will attach to your furniture and let you just clip them to it. This can help keep routing neat while not being too much of a pain to do.

Then commit to keeping it neat. If not, you’ll be back where you started quickly.

4
- Reply
- Whisper
jbartus said Thu, Jun 9th 2016 at 9:08pm ET:

Daisy chaining power strips is not advised, especially not surge protectors.

As far as rats nests go I have given up on maintaining order until I can live alone with no roommates as nobody else gives a shit and invariably my setup gets tampered with and left a mess

5
- Reply
- Whisper
ACraigL said Fri, Jun 10th 2016 at 11:16am ET:

I had that problem for years and when I remodeled our family room I ditched all the spaghetti AV equipment in favor of a soundbar with a wireless subwoofer. Simplistic, and sounds just fine. Way happier now.

4
- Reply
- Whisper
mfladd said Fri, Jun 10th 2016 at 5:35pm ET:

Oh Hell Yes! But that is who I am and wouldn’t have it any other way.

(not my pic, but just as bad)

3
- Reply
- Whisper
- @mfladd My house! My house!
  
  lisaviolet said Fri, Jun 10th 2016 at 7:11pm ET
  - 3
  - Reply
  - Whisper
smartr said Fri, Jun 10th 2016 at 6:30pm ET:

This is the best way to clean up that wire mess.

3
- Reply
- Whisper
f00l said Sat, Jun 11th 2016 at 12:44am ET:

No, just a normal Rats Nest.

0
- Reply
- Whisper
G1 said Sat, Jun 11th 2016 at 12:52am ET:

The only good advice I can offer - outlet strips have ways to screw them down. I mounted my outlet strips to the back of the entertainment furniture, in a high spot, but hidden from casual observation. My old method was to pull on an AC line to lift the strip off the floor, and pull it through the rats nest. The new way is more betterer.

My careful cable-dressing, tie-wraps, etc., lasted about 3 whole months before I had to undo it, so that was pretty nice.

1
- Reply
- Whisper
Foxborn said Sat, Jun 11th 2016 at 12:58am ET:

www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/90289836/
www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/business/16195/

1
- Reply
- Whisper
RiotDemon said Sat, Jun 11th 2016 at 6:36am ET:

Nobody looks behind the cabinet besides me, so it’s ok. I agree that it’s bad to daisy chain the power strips. You can get power strips that have 8 outlets, and then there’s usually two outlets behind every tv. What are you running that you need so many?

I have a battery backup because of all the power outages, brown outs, and surges we have. Things connected: tv, Xbox, ps3, modem/router, subwoofer, receiver. Unfortunately only 4 of the outlets are on the battery backup. My sound system is probably 14 years old, so that doesn’t get the battery.

1
- Reply
- Whisper