[Spook E]

Have bought myself a swanky plasma tv (panasonic) and want to mount it on the wall, hoping for a little guidance from the brains-trust on this one. Am looking at one on ebay and was wondering if it is anygood.

Is there much difference between brands of brackets? They retail locally at about $130AUD, but they're on ebay for $65 shipped. The ad doesnt really have a brand name attached to the bracket, but it looks much like any other one i've seen in the flesh. The ebay listing is here: link

and here's a picture of it:



Also, the house i've bought has plaster board walls, and i can feel a horizontal stud (or whatever it's called where plaster board is nailed to the crosssection of wood in the cavity). Is it ok to just screw the bracket into this? I've only ever had a double brick house where you can go nuts drilling holes in the wall and it will hold it up, so am not familiar with doing stuff with plaster walls.

Thanks guys and girls

[Captain Obvious]

Hire a GC or someone with experience to do it.

Does it really sound like a good idea to go for the cheap corner cutting route to mount a fragile 2K electronic device yourself?

[Paco500]

The absurd cost of flat panel brackets is exceeded only by the absurd cost of HDMI cables. I'd go for the cheap one. I got the least expensive one I could find online, and four years, 5 TV's and three houses later, it's still fine.

But it's not bad advice about getting a contractor to hang it. I've always done it myself, but I gots mad skillz (which is a street way of saying I'm really cheap).

[moonmonkey]

I bought a 10 USD bracket for my 42" and its fine, drilling into concrete though.

[Spook E]

Sweet, thanks fellas. Yeah the cost of these things a bitch, i would've preferred the TV to come with a free wall bracket instead of the pedestal stand thing.

The gfs uncle is a sparky, and being DIY disabled myself i'll rope him into helping put it in and wire it up.

[smacintush]

No, do not mount it to a horizontal brace. You need to lag-bolt it to real studs.

Link.

I did mine myself and it wasn't really a big deal. Most important thing is to remember to get the lag-bolts centered into the stud.

[alligator]

You will need to anchor it into a stud or preferably two studs. The bracket usually comes with directions. It's not rocket science. More importantly is how you will run the power and video/audio cables so they are hidden.

[ghporter]

Studs are the vertical timbers in the walls. There are often horizontal timbers between studs, but those are not nearly as strong structurally. You need someone with experience in finding the actual location of each stud to fasten the vertical brackets to the wall-and fasten them with the appropriate type and size of fastener. In spite of being "compact and light-weight", your plasma box is probably a heavy mother. It's also probably fairly evenly weighted on the vertical (the bottom may be heavier but not by too much), so you really, Really, REALLY want the bracket to be extremely solidly fastened to structural parts of the wall.

And being a chicken, when I get my flat panel, I'll be placing it on a stand, rather than hanging it from the wall.

[sek929]

Funny story:

We worked for a doctor a few years back that just bought an enormous plasma TV. Turns out he screwed the mount into nothing but drywall and during the night it ripped out of the wall and shattered on the ground.

Dumbass.

If you have baseboards in your house look for the nail holes and level up, whoever did your finish work should have nailed the baseboards at each stud.

Of course I'm so damn good I can usually just tap with a hammer and listen to the sound change in order to find studs.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by sek929 

Funny story:

We worked for a doctor a few years back that just bought an enormous plasma TV. Turns out he screwed the mount into nothing but drywall and during the night it ripped out of the wall and shattered on the ground.

Dumbass.

If you have baseboards in your house look for the nail holes and level up, whoever did your finish work should have nailed the baseboards at each stud.

Of course I'm so damn good I can usually just tap with a hammer and listen to the sound change in order to find studs.

Does this story get you a lot of play at the bar?

[sek929]

Nah, bar girls go for guys that work in offices and make new forum sigs every couple of days.

[analogue SPRINKLES]

Originally Posted by Paco500 

The absurd cost of flat panel brackets is exceeded only by the absurd cost of HDMI cables. I'd go for the cheap one. I got the least expensive one I could find online, and four years, 5 TV's and three houses later, it's still fine.

I think the price difference comes from the ones that angle. I have seen cheap ones that only angle 5 degrees but the more expensive ones angle further or have more than one moving joint.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by sek929 

Nah, bar girls go for guys that work in offices and make new forum sigs every couple of days.

THAT IS A LIE!

[phantomdragonz]

everytime I hear people talk about HDTV I get the urge to keep them from getting ripped off buying HDMI cables...

I have no input on mounting them to the walls... but for gods sake buy your cables at monoprice.com

I have them and they work awesome, it's a digital signal it ether works or doesn't... go cheap!

(not affiliated in any way with monoprice.com)

-Zach

[sek929]

I forgot, you need frosted tips too.

and a popped collar.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by sek929 

I forgot, you need frosted tips too.

and a popped collar.

I can't do the frosted tips, though, because I can't afford the diesel pick-up truck required to carry them around town.

[sek929]

It's nice that you remember the little things, Dakar.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by sek929 

It's nice that you remember the little things, Dakar.

I never forget your penis.

zing! followed by uncomfortable silence!

[sek929]

...and with that we ruin yet another perfectly good thread.

I had some real advice, what's your excuse?

[- - e r i k - -]

My money is on frustration from not getting any bar girls.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by sek929 

...and with that we ruin yet another perfectly good thread.

I had some real advice, what's your excuse?

Poor judgement?
Well, that joke was waaaaay to easy. And I couldn't say no.