As a long-time TV reviewer, I firmly imagine that nobody must endure by means of a grainy display screen or gradual, laggy video high quality. There are actually dozens of TVs on the market, at each worth level, that may immeasurably enhance your movie-watching or gaming expertise.
But even I’ve to confess that there’s one main hurdle to purchasing a brand new TV, and no, it’s not the bizarre, misplaced emotional attachment you will have to your 15-year-old Panasonic. I’m the proud proprietor of an 850-square-foot home in Portland, Oregon, and it’s actually my job to mount and watch TVs. But I nonetheless have a pathological worry of drilling into partitions, and I don’t wish to borrow my spouse to elevate and mount a brand new TV each few weeks.
I’d a lot moderately watch TVs on their very own stands. You know, those that come within the field with them. But I can’t, for the dumbest potential cause—they don’t match on my media console. I have to name out TV producers, massive and small, for a critical and customary error in design: For the love of God, cease making TVs with legs to this point aside.
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The Big Problem
We have been utilizing media consoles to comprise gamers and discs and maintain screens since Monica and Chandler have been first courting in prime time. The consoles haven’t modified a lot, however TV sizes positive have.
Over the previous decade, we’ve settled on mannequin requirements of 55, 65, and 75+ inches, which is considerably larger than all however the wealthiest of us have been rocking within the ’90s. Back then, a big TV was round 40 inches. You can barely discover TVs in that dimension now, a lot to the chagrin of my father and his built-in cupboards.
But firms are nonetheless inserting angled legs on the fringe of the TV, as if media consoles have gone by means of an analogous development spurt. It has to cease. When I constructed myself a TV reviewing area, I needed to buy a really costly (but someway nonetheless poorly made) stand to suit this very actual 75-inch TCL on high of.
If I wished to mount a TV this massive to the wall, I’d want to purchase a mount and discover a minimum of three folks to assist me elevate it. I’d additionally have to measure the area and gather a stud finder, affect driver, and varied different instruments that don’t include mentioned TV earlier than spending a good period of time truly putting in the factor. If you actually wish to get slick and have shops and in-wall wiring, the labor alone can find yourself costing greater than the brand new display screen.
Be the Solution
There are a few options for these of us who refuse to switch our treasured mid-century console. The first, and least straightforward for renters, is to simply mount the factor on the wall. Most TVs do have VESA mount holes, however this requires rounding up a few folks to elevate the machine. And some TVs are fairly rattling skinny, which makes them terrifying to mount. I not too long ago broken a overview unit simply making an attempt to get it onto my TV stand—think about making an attempt to mount it to a wall.
A less expensive resolution that I’ve settled on? Buy a pedestal mount adapter for VESA mount holes ($44). This lets you hold utilizing your present furnishings whereas avoiding the distant legs drawback.
But I argue that the best choice can be for all producers to design a easy, flat pedestal mount, like these that include the LG C1 OLED. It’s a easy design change that might make so many lives simpler. Some TV producers, like Hisense, have made it potential to maneuver the legs barely inward so their TVs will match on extra stands. But as screens proceed to develop, that’s nonetheless not one of the best resolution.
You shouldn’t have to shell out for a bit of furnishings to put your new TV on, particularly when the costs for uncooked supplies are increased than ever. For my very own sake, I’m glad I purchased the biggest wood TV stand I may discover on Amazon for my testing room.
That mentioned, there could also be hope but: At least a few of this 12 months’s new Samsung fashions have pedestal mounts, as do the higher-end OLED choices from LG. Hopefully, this improvement will trickle right down to different makers, as these of us with restricted area (and particularly renters) don’t wish to completely scar our dwelling rooms simply so we are able to watch Netflix.
