You bought a new TV, it’s Super-Duper thin and you are a tasteful and classy soul, so you want to archive the best presentation by hanging that beast. How much do you know about brackets and mounts?
Probably not much… We understand, in a room full of AV, a mounting hardware is hardly the pinnacle of excitement. However, picking the right mount can make a huge difference to your installation and viewing experience. Here are the most common brackets and their uses.
1. The Basic Wall Hanger.
This flat piece of steel hangs your TV as close to the wall as possible. There’s no articulation and no adjustment. Routing your cables is going to be a tight squeeze but you achieve a TV that’s almost painted onto your wall. You are sleek, you are minimalist, and these can look quite beautiful as long as you have the perfect mounting place all planned out. Hiring a custom home theatre installer will ensure you get the perfect look for your home.
2. Articulating TV Wall Mount
For people who want to mount above their line of sight but still have a reasonable viewing experience the single articulating bracket gives you a few degrees of tilt. These don’t snug your TV to the wall but are essential if your only mounting options are elevated. Hide the extra depth by placing this in a recessed area or at the far end of a room.
Double articulating brackets are rare, as most people go one step further and pick a swing away arm. A double articulating bracket gives you tilt and pan for elevated and off center viewing. The swing away arm allows you to pull the TV away from the wall and move it in a wide arc. This makes installing cables easy, and can allow you to float a TV in the corner of a room, or completely reposition a screen to watch from another adjacent space (I use one of these to watch from the kitchen while I cook, then swing it back so I can view from the comfort of my living room.). These also work great if your TV is just a little too far from your seating area, but you don’t want it sitting in the middle of a room.
Full motion brackets add vertical adjustment to the above package. These are intricate arms that use springs and gas shocks to take the weight of your TV. Even so, larger screens are often not supported by full motion arms as they are too heavy and unwieldy. It takes a unique situation to need one of these and the price tag is similarly astounding.
3. Specialty TV Mounts
Finally we come to specialty brackets and my two favorite styles of the category. First, the ‘above fireplace mount’ sometimes known as the ‘down and out TV mount’. Many clients mount above a fireplace (it’s a classy spot) but this means the TV is usually too high for comfortable viewing. The ‘Above Fireplace Mount’ gives you tilt, pan and then pulls out and DOWN for viewing. These are usually spring or gas shock assisted and can drop A TV somewhere around 18 inches. Most screen sizes are supported but smaller displays might not hide the entire framework, making this one of the best full motion TV wall mount’s for 55 inch or 65 inch TV’s. If you are considering elevated mounting this is a fantastic investment in viewing comfort.
And thus we reach the last entry: Motorised mounts come in many varieties but one fact remains the same: They all tuck your TV away when not in use. It’s hard to describe the impact of hitting a button and having your home theatre slowly rise from the cabinetry or drop from the ceiling. It’s impressive; you will get applause. These types of mounts need to be planned-in during construction or renovation to give your equipment somewhere to hide. As you might imagine this makes installation somewhat complex and we strongly recommend using a professional service like our own custom home team. That said, for certain discerning clients, the motorised mount is the perfect solution for a multi-use conference room or a premium home theatre.
There are no bad choices in mount technology; only solutions for different challenges. Consider how you watch and our skilled team will ensure you have the right bracket for your needs. Netflix Marathon!
