November 9, 2012 I bought a Sony KDL46EX645 46-Inch 1080p 120HZ Internet Slim LED HDTV. Mrs. L.A. and I were blown away by the improvement over the 26" Philips I had. In the last few months, she’s been commenting that it would be nice to have a bigger TV. So she ordered a Vizio E60-E3 SmartCast 60" Ultra HD Home Theater Display TV that arrived today. (She paid less than the one in the link, though.)
Unfortunately, she did not look at the base, as I did before ordering the Sony. The Sony has a central base, and the Vizio has legs on each end. The Vizio won’t fit on the shelf where the Sony is. We have a table that can be moved, but the Vizio’s legs are a quarter-inch wider than the table is. So it looks like wall-mount time. I happened to see wall-mounts at Harbor Freight yesterday, and it seems they have pretty good reviews. The wood paneling in the house is an inch thick, so Mrs. L.A. says I don’t need to find the studs. (I was thinking the same thing, as I mentioned needing to find the stud-finder.)
So assuming installation and setup goes well, it looks like we’ll have a giant TV to watch tomorrow afternoon.
You could go to your favorite lumber department and buy a board long enough to support the new TV’s legs. Stain or paint it if you want. Maybe you’ll find a finished shelf that will work. Place it on the shelf that supported your old TV, and your installation is complete without drilling into those nice wooden walls. This is an inexpensive and perhaps more aesthetic option.
You should have waited for the KDL46EX646 to come out, it was a great improvement. A legendary machine, that model name has become a household word. The KDL46EX645’s are nothing but trouble.
I let the wife pick out the TVs for the new house. The sweetheart put a 48" LG in the study for me, and a 65" LG in the family room! I love my wife! We were too scared to put the big one on the wall, so it sits atop a solid oak table with plenty of strapping holding it in place so the cats can’t knock in over rough-housing.
The downside is watching old shows on meTv or such is really painful.
We went to Harbor Freight and got a wall mount. It started out well, but the lag bolts provided needed to be screwed into studs. I looked for my stud finder and couldn’t find it. I went to the hardware store and bought the best one they had ($50). I came home and tried to use it, but the wood panels are so thick it couldn’t find the studs. I tried to interpret it anyway, drilled a hole, and there was no stud. So I got out the ball peen hammer and started tapping. Aha! There’s the sound change. Drilled a hole, and… No stud. I tapped again and drilled again, and still nothing. Back to the hardware store. I got eight anchor bolts (with the expanding flanges) and put the wall mount up. Mrs. L.A. helped me put the other half, which I’d attached to the TV, onto it.
There’s no coax connector on the TV, so I used the HDMI cord. (The HDMI had problems before.) The Blu-Ray player is hooked up. A six-cord composite cable is hooked up, but I don’t know what it’s to. Probably the cable. The PAL DVD player doesn’t have HDMI, so I couldn’t hook it up. But we have few PAL DVDs.
For cord hiding I got this Velcro cable wrap. Works well with our situation: white upper wall, dark lower wainscoting. White wrap from the TV down to the wainscoting. Black side from there. Nice for cable control in general.
I’d like to run the wire behind the wall (the back of which is accessible) but it’s a real pain to run the power and keep with code. Going non-code isn’t an option for me. (Just because they sell products that do this doesn’t mean they’re all within code.)
The thing about the new TV is that it interfered with chores. A couple of trees snapped in December, due to weighty snow. I finally had a chance to cut them down a couple of weeks ago. Friday, I was planning to saw the larger pieces into 16" logs for the fireplace next year. Saturday was sunny. But the TV came, and I had to spend Saturday getting the wall mount (50 mile round trip), making two trips to the hardware store, putting everything together, and hooking it up (after making the traditional hashbrowns, bacon, and eggs for breakfast). This morning we awoke to snow. Who knows when I’ll get to cut the logs?
Heh. My parents built their retirement home themselves (with help from a small army of various relatives). Progress slowed down some when they moved in before it was complete. It really slowed down when they got a TV and couches.
The house is now approaching completion asymptotically.
Bad idea. Especially with an articulating mount like that. When extended it causes a twisting motion away from the wall. The dry wall anchors aren’t great at resisting that. Having 1" worth of panel between the dry wall and the mount makes it worse. I’d put that bad boy into studs even if I have to hire someone to do it.
