You’re home from the electronics store, twitching in anticipation of opening that slim box and pulling out an even slimmer, brand-spanking-new flat panel TV. It’s high definition. All the bells and whistles. You pull it out of the box and figure it will take you about an hour to get it mounted in perfect picture frame TV mount splendor… an hour later and it’s up, but when you sit back on your couch all you see is a blinding glare from the window and a distorted image.
So what went wrong? You were promised a crisp, clear, high-definition image and all you got was distortion or glare. Even the picture frame TV mount you bought to frame it with looks a little out of place… but why?
There are so many considerations when hanging your flat panel TV that it’s best to get the lay of the land before you even pull it out of the box. Where are your couches and seats in the room? What’s the optimal viewing angle for your particular TV, and how can you achieve it? Where are your windows located?
First: location. The be-all-and-end-all of flat screen mounting. You’ll want to mount your TV so that the center is just about eye level with you when you’re sitting where you’ll spend the most time watching the TV. Although it might look great placed artistically up above the mantle, that’s not going to let you get the most out of your image. And if, for décor or practical reasons, you simply cannot place the center at eye level, always opt for placing it higher rather than lower. Try the bottom of the screen at eye level and you should be able to view comfortably with only having to look up slightly.
Now onto the second culprit of sinister wall mounting errors: glare. The last thing you want to do is settle in for a nice Sunday afternoon movie only to have the setting sun in your eyes rather than the show itself. Take a minute to sit in the couch you’ll be using to watch TV, and check the wall. Is there light reflecting back at you? If so, is it something you can change? If it’s a lamp that could be moved, or even a window with curtains, that’s fine. If it’s something unavoidable, you’ve got two options: either reconfigure your arrangement so your TV is placed somewhere else, or get a wall mount that swivels and/or tilts to move it when the light is affecting picture quality.
The size of your TV will also determine placement. For instance, if you have a 46-inch TV, you should place it anywhere between 5.75 and 9.5 feet away from your couch. If you have a 70-inch TV, it should be mounted about 8.75 to 14.75 feet from your couch. This will ensure that you get the best all-round image, and that you’re not sitting so close that you can pick out the pixels, but not too far that you can’t tell if the main character is a person or a large dog. For TVs with higher definition, the closer distances should be used as a guideline, and for TVs with standard definition, try sitting a little further away so you avoid looking too closely at the sometimes blurry image.
Getting that new TV is a wonderful experience, and you want to maximize on that. By calculating how you place your picture frame TV mount before you jump in, you’ll be able to enjoy the sights, the sounds and the entire package worry-free.
Tags: Home Theater, Install, Intel, Mounting, TV Frame
