Advice on wall-mounting a plasma TV

[ToTo Man]

My dad's slowly coming to the realisation that he's going to have to mount my 50" Panny plasma on my wall or else it's going to remain cluttering up the hallway indefinitely. (We removed it from my room when I was rearranging my hifi and I'm refusing to allow it back in unless it's wall-mounted above my speakers so that it doesn't spoil my imaging!)

I've had a look at tall TV stands but I'm struggling to find one that's tall enough (I need the bottom of the TV no less than 110cm above the floor). Also, they're not the prettiest of things to look at, and my dad is concerned about their strength/safety. He's also concerned about the safety of hanging the 23kg TV on my wall, particularly because said wall has a chimney behind it (the wall is plastered and wallpapered but has a slightly hollow sound when you knuckle it, unlike my other three walls which are plaster over solid brick).

We'd appreciate advice on how to go about mounting a TV bracket onto a wall like this? The parts/tools required and precautions we should take?

I've watched two videos on YouTube showing a TV bracket being mounted onto an exposed brick fireplace. In the first video the installer drills into the bricks, but in the other video the installer drills into the mortar line and says "you don't want to be drilling into bricks"! As my wall is plastered and papered we're effectively going to be drilling blind.

Also, given that the TV is going to end up pretty high on the wall, it probably makes sense to use a bracket that allows the screen to be tilted down a few degrees. However I'm concerned that this will result in the TV sitting further away from the wall than if on non-tilting bracket. I also have my concerns about whether a tilting bracket is subject to more strain so would appreciate advice on this too.

Cheers!

 

[gintonic]

give up, get a proper good OLED, much lighter, much easier to mount, energy consumption lower and more importantly the picture is better.

We couldn't give our Plasma away, ended up at the tip

 

[wacko]

Since you ask: Don't do it.
Take the easy option and get a shelf that will also hide most of those wires and get your amp off the floor.

 

[Amber Audio]

Peace of mind - pay a pro to do it, most handymen/joiners/sparks are used to doing this - you'd get the cabling chased/hidden/trunked same time - looks much better/tidier - no need to buy the tools/fixings just a decent bracket

Thought about a new telly - often can get a deal that includes a wall bracket and free/discounted mounting and recycling of the old Plasma (I gave our Panny 50 and LG 60 away to friends/family for console gaming duties)- LG 48A1 is often on offer and an excellent pic, or move to a nice 55* loads of choice. Plasma burn thru electric and are hot so a win there too.

PS - brackets by Vogels and B-Tech are good and not stupid money

 

[Ian G]

My dad's slowly coming to the realisation that he's going to have to mount my 50" Panny plasma on my wall or else it's going to remain cluttering up the hallway indefinitely. (We removed it from my room when I was rearranging my hifi and I'm refusing to allow it back in unless it's wall-mounted above my speakers so that it doesn't spoil my imaging!)

I've had a look at tall TV stands but I'm struggling to find one that's tall enough (I need the bottom of the TV no less than 110cm above the floor). Also, they're not the prettiest of things to look at, and my dad is concerned about their strength/safety. He's also concerned about the safety of hanging the 23kg TV on my wall, particularly because said wall has a chimney behind it (the wall is plastered and wallpapered but has a slightly hollow sound when you knuckle it, unlike my other three walls which are plaster over solid brick).

We'd appreciate advice on how to go about mounting a TV bracket onto a wall like this? The parts/tools required and precautions we should take?

I've watched two videos on YouTube showing a TV bracket being mounted onto an exposed brick fireplace. In the first video the installer drills into the bricks, but in the other video the installer drills into the mortar line and says "you don't want to be drilling into bricks"! As my wall is plastered and papered we're effectively going to be drilling blind.

Also, given that the TV is going to end up pretty high on the wall, it probably makes sense to use a bracket that allows the screen to be tilted down a few degrees. However I'm concerned that this will result in the TV sitting further away from the wall than if on non-tilting bracket. I also have my concerns about whether a tilting bracket is subject to more strain so would appreciate advice on this too.

Cheers!

Have you seen anyone about your duvet fetish ?

 

[ToTo Man]

give up, get a proper good OLED, much lighter, much easier to mount, energy consumption lower and more importantly the picture is better.

We couldn't give our Plasma away, ended up at the tip

If I was upgrading to an OLED I'd want 55" minimum, possibly even 65". The LG model that everyone's raving about at the moment, the 55" weighs 18.5kg, which isn't that much lighter than my 23kg plasma. The 65" version weighs 24kg.

 

[Ian G]

Joking aside, to do the job properly will cost money, as you require decent support for the hifi I second the idea of a cabinet to stick the TV on

 

[ToTo Man]

Since you ask: Don't do it.
Take the easy option and get a shelf that will also hide most of those wires and get your amp off the floor.

Joking aside, to do the job properly will cost money, as you require decent support for the hifi I second the idea of a cabinet to stick the TV on

I spent the last 10 years with a big 'ole hifi rack stuck between my speakers with TV on top and am in no hurry to go back to that arrangement as it's not very conducive to strong phantom centre imaging IME.

Going from this:

To this:

Was an improvement in terms of imaging but I could definitely hear some glare in the upper frequencies caused by sound reflecting off the TV screen that wasn't there when the TV was high up on top of my hifi rack.

The centre imaging in my current setup is the best I've heard in the 10 years I've been in this room, therefore the open wall space between the speakers shall remain sacred. If I do put anything here it will be acoustic treatment, not a TV or hifi cabinet!

 

[Amber Audio]

Left field - Short Throw PJ Not sure if that’d suit for day to day TV as much as a normal screen telly but it would keep things clean/tidy.

 

[Ian G]

If this is your preferred route then first work out the construction of the wall,
is it plastered brick, counter battened or dot & dab ? How deep is the cavity, age and type of brick, double skin or otherwise.
23 kilo isn't really an issue, obviously a tilting bracket moves the top away from the wall further. If you have a decent, (50mm or more) cavity you could sink the TV into the wall to reduce its impact.

 

[Amber Audio]

If this is your preferred route then first work out the construction of the wall,
is it plastered brick, counter battened or dot & dab ? How deep is the cavity, age and type of brick, double skin or otherwise.
23 kilo isn't really an issue, obviously a tilting bracket moves the top away from the wall further. If you have a decent, (50mm or more) cavity you could sink the TV into the wall to reduce its impact.

Recessed TV works well in some places but remember to check ventilation, also orientation/position of sockets.

 

[ToTo Man]

Left field - Short Throw PJ Not sure if that’d suit for day to day TV as much as a normal screen telly but it would keep things clean/tidy.

The TV is used approx 3hrs a day (9pm-12am) for a mix of general broadcast drivel, films, and as a display for my Mac for watching music concerts etc, so heat and energy consumption isn't a concern. (It draws 185W max on its 'showroom' settings but I have it dialled way back, and living in Glasgow the heat emitted is welcome for at least 11 months of the year! I hear England is in the midst of heatwave? ).

I was tempted by the Samsung projector RicherSounds are pushing at the moment but the minimum projection size is larger than the distance between the speakers so I'd need to raise the projector up quite a bit so that the image thrown is above the speakers. Also I'm not sure that my textured wallpaper is the ideal display surface so I'd need to factor in the cost of an ALR screen.

Thanks for the pics BTW. I joked to my dad that we can put our lighter-weight 50" LCD on the bracket for the first couple of weeks just to make sure it holds ok before putting my plasma on it, - he said that's not a bad idea!...

 

[gintonic]

your plasma will probably only last a few more years then you'll have to go through the shenanigans again.

Get a new OLED, and get a pro to fit the mount

 

[Amber Audio]

The TV is used approx 3hrs a day (9pm-12am) for a mix of general broadcast drivel, films, and as a display for my Mac for watching music concerts etc, so heat and energy consumption isn't a concern. (It draws 185W max on its 'showroom' settings but I have it dialled way back, and living in Glasgow the heat emitted is welcome for at least 11 months of the year! ).

I was tempted by the Samsung projector RicherSounds are pushing at the moment but the minimum projection size is larger than the distance between the speakers so I'd need to raise the projector up quite a bit so that the image thrown is above the speakers. Also I'm not sure that my textured wallpaper is the ideal display surface so I'd need to factor in the cost of an ALR screen.

Thanks for the pics BTW. I joked to my dad that we can put our lighter-weight 50" LCD on the bracket for the first couple of weeks just to make sure it holds ok before putting my plasma on it, - he said that's not a bad idea!...

Even the newest TVs pump out a bit of heat, last I looked average new 55” uses about 80 Watts when on (presumably much less when tweaked and eco modes on) and pretty much nowt in standby, couple watts. With the heatwave down south pretty happy over here in Ballater don’t think we’ve seen much more than 23C yet, nearer Aberdeens been toastier I think.

Still think of a PJ as an “event” device, old house had a cinema room, proper ceiling mount PJ and motorised drop screen with a big plasma on the wall to use day to day with the screen back in the roof. New place is too small for it so went for a 77” and in a couple/three gens likely go for around 100” LG or whatever is flavour of the year.

My mate hangs off the bracket to test it, he’s about 6’3” but much narrower than me

 

[martin clark]

If this is your preferred route then first work out the construction of the wall,
is it plastered brick, counter battened or dot & dab ? How deep is the cavity, age and type of brick, double skin or otherwise.
23 kilo isn't really an issue, obviously a tilting bracket moves the top away from the wall further. If you have a decent, (50mm or more) cavity you could sink the TV into the wall to reduce its impact.

Just on the 'how-to' side, this is spot-on.

23Kg / 50lbs isn't that much, at all; providing you dont want to swing it out of plane, just keep it flush.
NB there are specialist fixings from companies like Fischer (likely also Hilti), that can put huge loadings into just plasterboard, so don't worry about having to drill to the centre of the earth. I had one project where we were concerned about wall cabinets (Healthcare work) and so did a test with sandbags loading the mounted carcass - result , no failure at >120kgs into 15mm wallboard, no pattress behind. I was impressed.

 

[Ginger]

Is it a hollow sound all over the wall? It can't be - if it's plasterboard it's fixed to the wall behind somehow. 'Corefix' fixings come in a range of sizes. One of those would hang a telly, let alone six or so screws. I've hung a couple of TV's, including on mounts that pull out and angle etc. Not a millimetre of movement. As for drilling into brick: no reason not to, unless it's a concern about the hole that's left the day you remove the fixing. Easier to cover in the mortar, but can be covered in the brick - the right colour mastic will hide it from a couple of feet away and if the eye isn't drawn to it, no-one is likely to notice. That's probably what the comment meant. And drilling in brick: don't start with the sized drill for the plug, start smaller, in case the brick is soft.

 

[ToTo Man]

Is it a hollow sound all over the wall? It can't be - if it's plasterboard it's fixed to the wall behind somehow. 'Corefix' fixings come in a range of sizes. One of those would hang a telly, let alone six or so screws. I've hung a couple of TV's, including on mounts that pull out and angle etc. Not a millimetre of movement. As for drilling into brick: no reason not to, unless it's a concern about the hole that's left the day you remove the fixing. Easier to cover in the mortar, but can be covered in the brick - the right colour mastic will hide it from a couple of feet away and if the eye isn't drawn to it, no-one is likely to notice. That's probably what the comment meant. And drilling in brick: don't start with the sized drill for the plug, start smaller, in case the brick is soft.

Yes, it sounds mildly hollow over the wall. It's an external wall. The house is sandstone, built circa 1895, before plasterboard had been invented. From what we can see from poking around in the attic crawl space the internal walls are red brick. We've lived here for the last 20 yrs but it was my grandparents' house before that, they bought it in the early 70s and as far as we know did not do any structural work in any of the rooms, so the wall as you see it in the photo hasn't been messed with for over 50 years. I know there's a chimney behind it though as there are pots on the roof and I sometimes here the odd bit of debris falling in behind the wall (I believe the seagulls who enjoy perching on the chimney pots drop stuff down it to piss me off!).

 

[garyi]

Bin the plasma uses loads of leccy!

 

[ToTo Man]

Bin the plasma uses loads of leccy!

Mine doesn't (see post #12). At current leccy prices my TX-P50GT50B costs approx of 5p per hour to run on its brightest setting. That's £73 a year for 4 hrs viewing each night. Hardly extortionate!

 

[garyi]

According to the specs it draws 400 watts, at current pricing of circa 29p a KwH that's around 15p an hour, 60p a day at 4 hours, 18 quid a month, nearly 220 quid a year.

A Panasonic 50 in 4k ultra in todays world average draw of 86 watts. I have no skin in the game but stand by my original comment, Plasma's use a lot of electric (this is not a controversial point, its well known!)

Also do you have a reason that prevents you doing it yourself? My dad would have stuck it in the bin if I placed such demands