I just purchased my first projector (Marantz VP-8600). I am thinking about ceiling mounting it. My problem is that my theater is already finished, and I can't see me tearing up the drywall to run the cables through the wall/ceiling. I can run the cables under my floor, and up through a hole at the rear of my theater. If I ceiling mount it, the HDMI cable and the power cord would need to be run up the wall to the projector.

Does anyone install their ceiling mounted projector this way. I am imagining it being pretty unsightly. Any thoughts?

Thanks
Greg

The key to this looking ok is to make sure the color of the ceiling is close to the color of the wires. You can look around at lowe's for some paintable conduit to run the wires in as well. I had good luck with a very dark burgandy paint on my walls and ceiling. The dark color and poor light reflection properties really make it difficult to pick up the wire runs unless one is really looking for them. I have this in a dedicated room so the WAF was a non issue for me.

Fellow Marantz owner as well (VP4001 though)....

Here's what I did......shelf ceiling mounted my PJ with a shelf that I bought from HD. Also found some wire hiding plastic panel in the 'wire management' aisle. The plastic conduit came in different sizes and the longest was about 5 feet, I think......its about $34 if I remember correctly.

When I painted my HT room, I primed and painted the shelf/wire panel as well. Works well for me as my handyman skills are very limited!

http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/751/dsc00966in3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/dsc00966in3.jpg/1/w640.png (http://g.imageshack.us/img291/dsc00966in3.jpg/1/)

Thanks guys. That actually looks pretty clean Fragster.

Redskin -- Home Depot, Menards, Lowe's, OSH, etc. are your friend. They have lots of options on molding, wire covering, etc. - but you do have to look around the stores for it (and may have to go to a couple of stores before you find what you need).

There are also rubber floor covers (for wiring) that are about 2"-3" wide, but relatively flat (big enough for at least an AC power cord and an HDMI cable, or 3 component cables). These can be glued to the wall (with something like silicon rubber adhesive - I got mine at the local hobby shop) and painted.

The key to this looking ok is to make sure the color of the ceiling is close to the color of the wires. You can look around at lowe's for some paintable conduit to run the wires in as well. I had good luck with a very dark burgandy paint on my walls and ceiling. The dark color and poor light reflection properties really make it difficult to pick up the wire runs unless one is really looking for them. I have this in a dedicated room so the WAF was a non issue for me.

I use conduit in my installation, too. At first, MAF (Mother Acceptance Factor) was low, but then she stoppped noticing it.

Check the video of how it looks:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1017641