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How to wall-mount a TV
This is my personal experience wall mounting my TV. A few years back I bought a 60” 3-D Panasonic plasma TV, mainly because of the 3-D and it was less expensive than the LCD and LED TVs on the market at the time. The unit weighs 85 lbs and takes 2 people to hang onto a mount because of its bulk. Knowing nothing about mounting a TV, I went researching. I discovered that there is a standard for TV mounting called the VESA Standard. VESA is a standard adopted by all-important television manufacturers. The VESA Interface Standard defines the distance in millimeters between the four mounting holes on the back of a TV (distance horizontally x distance vertically). Luckily, a 3rd party manufacturer makes a wall mount that met my needs for my TV model for a corner TV. My major concern was ensuring that the 4-3” Lag screws were in the center of the 2×4 stud. I just did not want 85 lbs of TV to fall of the wall one day. So, with a stud finder, tape measure, and pencil (and engineer’s paranoia, I set about locating the 2 studs on which I will mount the mounting bracket. In case my stud finder malfunctioned, I double-checked the location by using the fact that the studs in my house are 24” on center, so if I measured from the corner out 24” wan the center of my first mounting stud, and 24” beyond that was my second mounting stud. Of course, I checked by using a 6-penny finishing nail to ensure that I hit the stud. I marked and drilled the mounting holes and mounted the wall attach portion of the mount. Then I attached the mounting rails to the back of the TV. The TV hung from the wall mount, so all I had to do after putting the hardware in place was to hang it onto the wall attached portion on the wall mount. The mount allows the TV to slide for a small distance left and right, tilt, and sit flat against the wall. The next task was cable management. I didn’t want the multi-colored strips used to cover wires. Instead, I found a cable management kit that has an opening for signal cables and power cable between the 2 parts. Like installing a power receptacle box, you cut one hole in the drywall behind the TV just below the wall attached portion of the wall mount, and the other box is mount approximately 3 feet down. After mounting the boxes I had to run a length of string from one to the other through the signal cable holes to pull the HDMI signal cable through. All that was left to do was to attach the cables to the wall mount so they won’t hang down into view and could move with the TV without being pinched or stretched. I used the old school lacing tape to attach the cables to the wall mount arms. I used lacing tape because if I had to move a cable, I didn’t want to cut a plastic cable tie. Besides, the lacing cord is renewable and comes in a big spool and I can use as much as I want.