How to Select the Right LCD TV Mount
Maybe you have just bought the latest and greatest LCD or Plasma TV or maybe you have just decided that it is time to do justice to your current television and find the perfect LCD TV mount. You already know that watching TV is going to be so much better with it mounted in the right spot. I know that it took me almost six months after buying my dream LCD TV to get around to taking action and finding the best mount for my TV. Initially I thought this was going to be all too hard and I actually did some online searches for an installer to do this for me but after doing a little more research I realized that it wasn’t going to be that difficult and it is something that I should be able to do with the right information.
Hence LCDTVMount.org was born. I thought that other people might benefit from all of the research that I did into the different types of mounts and some of the technical jargon that you need to understand to get the best outcome. Oh by the way my efforts to mount my LCD TV on my lounge room wall worked out perfectly and I’m so happy each time I sit down to watch the football that I took the time to do the job properly!
Do It Yourself or Hire a Professional
Before you start selecting the right LCD TV mount you need to answer the basic question of whether you think you have the capabilities and resources to tackle wall mounting a LCD or plasma TV yourself or whether you would be better off leaving this to a professional installer? As I said mounting an LCD television on either a wall or a ceiling is not especially difficult but it does take some basic home improvement skills as well as access to some basic tools. If you don’t think you have access to the right tools or have the basic skills than I would certainly recommend that you find a professional installer to do the job.
Location, Location, Location
OK so you’ve decided that you are going to tackle this yourself and so where do you start. Well I think the first decision you need to make is to pick the right location for your TV. There are several things you need to think about before you move forward such as which location gives you the optimal viewing experience … not too much reflected light and a wide viewing angle so that everyone one in the room can view the picture. You also need to think about whether your preferred location will make it easy or hard to install the mount. Is it going to be mounted on an interior wall or exterior wall for example. One hint is that generally interior walls have less obstructions that get in the way and so are normally an easier installation as it is easier to pass the wiring from the LCD TV to your DVD player and other equipment through an interior wall. You also need good access to the location as you will have to lift the TV onto the mount.
What is VESA Compatibility?
The next step in the process is to make sure your LCD or Plasma Television is VESA compatible. VESA stands for “Video Electronics Standards Association“. The advantage of having a VESA compatible TV is that you can be assured that a VESA standard LCD TV Mount will work with your television. Normally you should be able to find this out from looking at the box your TV came in or in the operating manual.
How to Choose the Right Mount for Your TV
Getting the right type of LCD television mount is absolutely critical to making the job of installing your TV on your wall or ceiling easier. You need to select the right TV mount that matches the size of your LCD or Plasma and gives you the functionality you need. TV mounts come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes and the type you select will depend on whether you want an ultra slim mount, one that tilts, an articulating arm mount, or even a fully motorized television mount.
One feature that is recommended that you should strongly consider is to make sure the mount you use will allow you to tilt the television slightly downwards. This will significantly enhance your viewing pleasure. There are a wide variety of different brands available. Some of the most popular brands that we feature on this site are the Cheetah mounts, Hercules mounts, Sanus mounts, Peerless mounts and the Videosecu mounts. However, before we talk about the pros and cons of the more popular brands you need to gain a better understanding of the different categories of mounts that are available.
Flat Wall Mounts
Flat wall mounts are probably the easiest way to mount your LCD on any wall. These types of mounts work great provided that you have a flat surface on which to mount your television. The other downside of these mounts is that you have almost no options to change the TVs orientation or tilt. Normally your LCD TV is mounted very close to the wall with these mounts which for some people can provide a very attractive solution.
Tilt Wall Mounts
The great thing about tilt wall mounts which differentiate them from the flat wall mounts is their ability to tilt your new LCD or Plasma TV either upwards or downwards to better suit your viewing requirements. In my opinion this is the very minimum that I would look for in a television mount. Generally you would mount the TV above the seating configuration and then to enhance the watching experience by tilting the television slightly downward toward the audience.
Articulating LCD TV Wall Mounts
If you are really looking for versatility when you are mounting your LCD television than its hard to go past an articulating mount. These types of mounts have the ability to position your LCD television in a variety of directions. This is particularly valuable if space is tight and if your mount is not directly aligned with the seating than it is fairly straightforward to position the TV to perfectly optimism the viewing pleasure by tilting or extending the mount.
Pivoting Wall Arm Mounts
Similar to the articulating wall mounts, pivoting wall arm mounts also provide you with an ability to adjust your new mount although they don’t have as many degrees of freedom. The main ability of these mounts is the ability to tilt and swivel your television either up or down or even to the right or to the left. These mounts are perfect for the situation where you have a slightly awkward or difficult position in which to mount your TV where it doesn’t quite line up with your seating arrangement.
Motorized LCD TV Wall Mounts
These are normally more expensive than the standard wall mounts. However, these types of mounts can be setup to do some amazing things. These motorized wall mounts are normally of most value when you want to hide your TV behind a painting or in a cabinet. This is really valuable if you would like to minimize the visual impact of the television in the room. At the push of a button you can have your LCD TV tilt or swivel or pack itself away in a cabinet or even under your bed!
Ceiling Mounts
Normally people prefer to mount their LCD or Plasma TV on the wall or position it on a cabinet. However, there are some situations where the ability to mount your TV from the ceiling is really the only option you have or want. The mechanics of mounting your TV on your ceiling is slightly different than mounting on your wall but generally most mounts have the ability to tilt and swivel as you can with many wall mounts.
Under Cabinet TV Mounts
Now this is a different class of TV mounts than the others we have already discussed. The main purpose of under cabinet TV mounts is to mount small LCD type TVs on the underside of normally kitchen cabinets although it could be mounted under pretty much any cabinet. These types of mounts are normally very versatile in that they can be rotated and folded up so that they can be protected and hidden when the TV isn’t really needed. Obviously the main uses of these types of mounts are in kitchens, in RVs or other mobile platforms.
Now hopefully we haven’t confused you too much with the wide array of choices that you have before you. The most important criteria in deciding which television is right for you is first of all a deterimination of which mounts are compatible with your television (for example is your television VESA compatible), a consideration of the physical location where the television will be mounted and finally agreement on what flexibility you want in moving or positioning your television. We have written a more detailed post about this here which should help you with this difficult choice.
Installing Your LCD TV on your New Mount
After you have chosen the right mount for your television you need to position your LCD TV on your wall. Make sure that you can find the wall studs and are able to position the TV so that you can anchor the LCD TV mount into at least one wall stud and preferably two with the anchor bolts. This will give your mounting system the strength it needs to be able to hold the weight of the TV. All you need to do then is to follow the instructions that comes with the TV mount and you should have your LCD or Plasma TV installed and up and running in no time.
We have found a great video from ConnectPro that provides some hints and tips on mounting your television and so we suggest you take a few minutes to have a look at it. There are lots of information available online and to some extent the approach taken depends on the type of television and mount you have. However, we have put together what we believe are the key general issues you should be aware of and you can find this information here.
There is lots of other information available on this website which is designed to help you with your selection of the right mount for your television and so have a look around. We review each of the major brands and then delve into more detail with individual reviews of the most popular tv mounts for each brand. For each mount we have reviewed all of the available information online, compared prices and importantly have assessed the reports from actual users of these mounts both the positive and the negative.
Our research has shown that overall Amazon is one of the best places online to find the perfect mount. They have a large selection of different mounts at some of the best prices. One thing we really like is that most of the mounts have lots of reviews from people that have actually used these mounts and so if you want to access more information from Amazon click here.
Many of the links on this site are sponsored affiliate links where the owner makes a small commission if you buy something after clicking on these links. This helps cover the cost of maintaining the site. The site owner is not a bonafide user of all the products mentioned on this site however we have thoroughly researched LCD TV Mounts and this site reflects this personal opinion only. You can find this site’s full disclosure statement here.
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