Alot of this depends on your system design, and components you have in your system.
In my case on one of my flatscreens I have a single HDMI cable (and a power plug of course) to provide signal to the screen, but that setup has a newer HDMI switching Reciever which snags and decodes the audio and handles switching sources. In that instance I just installed a pair of Hdmi wall plates each in a single gang low voltage retrofit wall box for a clean looking install.
In my last setup (main media room) I'm was running a much larger system, which changed gear frequently and is based off an older reciever which does not handle HD video switching, so I ran the video sources direct to the TV then audio out from the TV into the reciever so the TV is controlling the source switching while the reciever handles audio only. This means I have 2 sets of component, 3 HDMI and audio return going to the TV, rather than have a huge busy wall plate and multiple gang boxes I trimmed out a single 4x4 hole in the wall as a pass through, and plugged it with a chunk of foam cut from an old auralex bass trap, it allows lots of room for cables, fast component/cable switching, and generally worked well, but looks much less appealing(to wives at least) than a single HDMI with a nice clean wall plate.
My new setup eliminates the wall problem all together as I installed the TV in front of a large nook to house all the gear, and will be building in the amp racks ect so nothing is visible other than the TV but if you pull out on the TV all the source gear is directly behind it and easy to access.
Erik
In my case on one of my flatscreens I have a single HDMI cable (and a power plug of course) to provide signal to the screen, but that setup has a newer HDMI switching Reciever which snags and decodes the audio and handles switching sources. In that instance I just installed a pair of Hdmi wall plates each in a single gang low voltage retrofit wall box for a clean looking install.
In my last setup (main media room) I'm was running a much larger system, which changed gear frequently and is based off an older reciever which does not handle HD video switching, so I ran the video sources direct to the TV then audio out from the TV into the reciever so the TV is controlling the source switching while the reciever handles audio only. This means I have 2 sets of component, 3 HDMI and audio return going to the TV, rather than have a huge busy wall plate and multiple gang boxes I trimmed out a single 4x4 hole in the wall as a pass through, and plugged it with a chunk of foam cut from an old auralex bass trap, it allows lots of room for cables, fast component/cable switching, and generally worked well, but looks much less appealing(to wives at least) than a single HDMI with a nice clean wall plate.
My new setup eliminates the wall problem all together as I installed the TV in front of a large nook to house all the gear, and will be building in the amp racks ect so nothing is visible other than the TV but if you pull out on the TV all the source gear is directly behind it and easy to access.
Erik
