TV Wall Mounts

Over my 25 years of hanging TV’s and speakers and all other hang-able things, I have come to appreciate well made mounts which are both strong and easy to use and not too expensive. These 3 concerns do not often come in one package. There are so many manufacturers of mounts now, which makes it is more confusing to a client who wants to buy one and install it themselves.
Over the years, there have been the great American brands, like Peerless, Chief, to name a couple. Then came Omni Mount, Sanus and a few others. Peerless and Chief build extremely high quality products and should be commended for their ongoing commitment to high quality American made products. But we like it cheap, so Omni Mount and Sanus are both newer companies which also build very nice products. I am very fond of Sanus tilt mounts. They have a nice quality plate which bolts to the wall and has the hangers which will adapt to most any TV except for those which have a very large distance vertically between the two mounting holes.
Sanus mounts also have a screw adjust level which is nice because often, even if the plate is installed perfectly level, the TV might appear not to be level due to other lines created by the ceiling or cabinet which may not be parallel to the top, bottom or sides. In this case a slight adjustment out of level will make the TV look more correct even though it is now not as level itself as it was. Proving that what looks right is right.
There are many brands of TV mounts which are flimsy or which don’t come assembled, and it is like assembling an erector set just to get the mount ready for installation. Costco mounts, which are built like no others, come assembled but are less that desirable overall. Their tilt mounts are flimsy and have a very strange tilt mechanism which has only a clip to hold the TV flat or parallel to the wall. This has proven to be unreliable. Their cantilever mounts, although they hold the TV very close to the wall, have a sliding scissor style configuration which is difficult to move when loaded and limits the off-axis capabilities, due to the two arm configuration.
I prefer using a single cantilever arm when possible, which on today’s TV lineup is most of the time due to the lightweight of modern flat panel sets. The single stud cantilever mount does hold the TV farther from the wall (perhaps 3 inches). But this space allows for finger touch tilt of about + or – 5 degrees. And easily pulling the mount away from the wall and stretching out the arm can allow for up to 45 degrees of in-line off-axis viewing. The point is that you cannot have a TV which hugs the wall and also gives off-axis viewing without building a custom in-wall enclosure for the wall mount. Indeed, we often build these on custom installs where the client wants that very custom look. Sanus and other manufacturers do build steel recessed boxes which contain the mount and allow for a very custom look. You must, however, pull the TV away from the wall before any off-axis movement is possible.