Few home theater enthusiasts are blessed with a viewing environment that’s perfect. There might be a structural beam in the spot where a video projector should go, or a bank of windows that let sunshine streak onto the TV screen. If the room is wide, it could be tough to see the on-screen action from all vantage points. Then there’s the issue with seating. Maybe it’s not exactly on-plane with the TV. A wall mount can overcome these and many other common problems encountered when designing and enjoying an entertainment system. Read on to learn how:
The Problem: The Glare on Your TV is Awful
Your home was blessed with lots of windows and your living room has incredible natural light. So, what’s the problem? All of that natural light is ruining your TV picture. Even with a matte flat-panel television there is bound to be some light bouncing off the screen and it’s even worse when the sun moves across the room at different times of day.
The Solution: A Swivel and Tilting Mount
Mounting your TV on the wall will save space, give your room a polished look, and for those sunny rooms you can get what’s called a full-motion or tilting mount. A tilting mount allows you to do just that: Tilt the screen down or up to avoid glare and achieve the ideal viewing angle. But for those really sunny windows that seem impossible to avoid, you can put your TV onto a full-motion mount and pivot the TV screen away from facing the window so that the reflection goes elsewhere. The ability to tilt a TV up and down or swivel it side-to-side can eliminate unwanted reflections on, resulting in a better picture.
Other Benefits:
A full-motion TV wall mount gives you the ability to tilt and swivel your TV in various directions, so you’ll get that optimal viewing angle no matter where you sit. For example, a tilting mount can ensure high picture quality when you’re watching TV while lying on a bed or viewing a TV that is not mounted at eye level. Tilting mounts also highlight the thin look of many popular LED TVs on the market by allowing them to be placed extremely close to the wall.
Mounting a TV to the wall also frees up valuable floor space, eliminates the need for furniture, and creates a clean and sleek appearance. Plus, you’ll never have to worry about the TV tipping over; a mount keeps the TV and people safe and sound.
The Problem: My Audio and Video Cables are Out of Control
Are too many cables, cords, and wires wreaking havoc on your otherwise tidy media setup? If you said, “yes,” you’re not alone. Cables are a necessary evil of an entertainment system, supplying power, audio signals, and video signals to all of our A/V components. So we definitely can’t go without the cable—not yet, anyway. To preserve the style of your media room, you’ll want to hide that HDMI cable, along with all the other cabling that rains down the wall from your wall-mounted TV.
The Solution: A Cable Management System
For the easiest possible way to hide your wires, use an on-wall cable management system or a conduit beneath the TV wall mount. On-wall cable management systems are great because you don’t have to cut any holes in the walls and they’re inexpensive. As far as solutions go, there are a lot of options—some are sleeker than others—but in most cases, you can paint the covers to match the color of the wall. Some solutions can even be cut to size. On-wall cable management systems also offer flexibility to swap out and add components without any huge wiring hassles. Hidden inside an on-wall cable management system, the wiring is easily accessible.
Another Solution:
However, for a look that’s more polished, have the mount professionally installed and the cables hidden inside the wall. This does require some cutting into the wall, but it doesn’t always require a pro to do the job. Running the wires through the walls can be as simple as feeding them up to the attic (or down to the basement) and then back up again near power and A/V components. To help get the cables where they need to go, there are in-wall cable management systems, some of which come with a template to tell you exactly where to make the cuts in the wall.
The Problem: The Only Place to Put my TV is in the Corner. Now What?
Figuring out where to put the television in a living room can be a little tricky. If you have the perfect wall (spacious wall area with no outside glare, and in perfect alignment with your seating arrangement), then you don’t have much of a conundrum, but few homeowners are lucky enough to have this ideal setup. In many cases, the corner of the room is the only option. And this is not necessarily a bad thing. Placing your TV there preserves the flow of the room, makes furniture placement more flexible, and saves wall space for paintings, mirrors, and other wall decor. The issue is getting the display to fit nicely into that tight space.
The Solution: A Full-Motion Mount
There are specially designed cabinet units that you can use to slide your TV perfectly into a corner, but there are far less pieces to choose from than rectangular ones, and you might be hard-pressed to find one that matches your decor perfectly. A better option (more cost effective, safer, better looking, and space-saving) would be to place your TV in the corner on a full-motion mount. This type of mount allows the TV to be pulled away from the wall and swivel in various directions. You might not have the wall space to hang a huge TV in a prime viewing position, but if the arm of a mount can be extended a good distance from the wall, you’ll be able to go as big as you want, just as long as the mount can support the weight of the TV.
There are a couple things that you should remember when mounting a TV with a full-motion mount in the corner: Check how high your TV will hang once it’s mounted, as this will affect your viewing comfort. Try to keep it close to eye-level. After you’ve found the perfect height, check the distance. Yes, it’s in a corner, but make sure it’s not a far distant corner, or that when you pull out the full-motion mount, the TV doesn’t come out too close to the seating area.
Other Benefits:
Another benefit of mounting your TV in a corner is that you can easily place small A/V components directly behind the screen. All you need is an IR repeater and you can put your surge protector, cable box, or Apple TV right behind the TV. EH
This article is courtesy of Sanus, a manufacturer of quality TV mounts, as well as equipment racks, A/V furniture, and speaker stands. Find them at www.sanus.com
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