How to Hide Your Home Theater

While TVs continue to get thinner and more beautiful and soundbars are making surround sound more discreet, the components we connect to them—our Blu-ray players, cable boxes, game consoles—have largely remained dull black or silver boxes. And there are still all those ugly wires to manage.

There’s an easy solution, and it doesn’t involve hiring a home theater installer, drilling into your walls or any other costly, messy steps. With a wireless HDMI kit, you can get your gear out of sight by moving it into a nearby closet or cabinet and using the HDMI kit to transmit audio and video to your TV.

Wireless HDMI kits have two boxes: one that you plug your components into and one that you attach to the back of your TV. They can transmit a Full HD 1080p signal up to 100 feet, and installing one is easy for even the most tech-challenged.

Or, if you’re simply looking for a way to operate your components while they’re behind the closed doors of your media cabinet, an inexpensive IR blaster will relay your remote’s commands while your gear stays out of sight.

IR Blaster Only

Just looking for a way to operate your components while they’re behind closed doors? You can get an external remote sensor like the Sewell InjectIR. It plugs into the HDMI cable on your TV and sends commands from your remote back to your components.

Price: $54.95 on SewellDirect.com, $44.95 on Amazon.com

Multiple Components

If you use HDMI cables to connect all of your components, the Belkin ScreenCast AV4 is for you. It has four HDMI inputs, wireless 1080p streaming and an IR blaster. It’s small and attractive, and can even be mounted behind your TV.

Price: $249.99 on Belkin.com, $226.13 on Amazon

Legacy HD Components

The IOGEAR Wireless 5×2 Matrix video has five inputs—one component (red, green, blue and stereo audio) and four HDMI-—making it the best option for streaming content from old DVD players and other older HD components you may own. You can hook up components via an HDMI cable to a TV in one room and stream to a wireless HDMI receiver in another room.

Price: $399.95 on IOGEAR.com, $288.99 on Amazon

One Source, Multiple TVs

If you have one component you connect with an HDMI cable and want to stream it to more than one TV (so you can use one cable box for both the living room and bedroom), the ActionTec My Wireless TV is the most economical choice.

Price: $229.99 for a pair, $125.62 per additional receiver on Amazon

This article was written by Suzanne Kantra and originally appeared on Techlicious.

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