I need to ceiling mount a projector in a rented house where I can't run cables through the ceiling or walls. What's the best way to get the power and signal cables up to the projector? I need something that doesn't look too messy but won't require major surgery on the drywall. Screws and nails are OK, just not cutting.

A friend of mine was in a similar situation and ended up going to home depot and buying a couple lengths of white flexible tubing. He then slit it and used one for the power and the other for his component cables. He mounted the flexible tubing along the ceiling and down the side of his wall with some hook brackets he painted white to match the wall and ceiling. It doesn't look as good as if it were actually inside the wall and ceiling of course, but it is much better than just having wires all over the place.

A friend of mine was in a similar situation and ended up going to home depot and buying a couple lengths of white flexible tubing. He then slit it and used one for the power and the other for his component cables. He mounted the flexible tubing along the ceiling and down the side of his wall with some hook brackets he painted white to match the wall and ceiling. It doesn't look as good as if it were actually inside the wall and ceiling of course, but it is much better than just having wires all over the place.Or he could just paint the wires the same color as the wall and ceiling.

John

Look for cable raceways. These are plastic rectangular tubing that has sticky tape on one side and is made to stick to walls, ceilings, etc. They can be painted to match and look fairly good when this is done.

I did a quick google search and found this (from the first link that came up):
http://cableorganizer.com/cable-raceway/

Arbury

One of the problems most of us face is that the room we put our home theaters into is not usually on the top floor of the house, so we arent talking about snaking wires into an attic or crawlspace then running them down the wall. To go through the ceiling and over to the wall on the first floor IS "major surgery".

Any surface mounted wire will show no matter whether it is inside a raceway or just painted and attached neatly to the ceiling. Just do it. How nice does the projector look hanging from the ceiling? Why not recess that as well? It gets to the point where it's like putting lipstick on a pig.

John