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May 24, 2008

scorco9517 (Illinois)

This is a great mount, very easy to install and if you want to turn it into an articulating mount you can add an arm to it. Which make a very inexpensive articulating mount.

I originally bought this because of the mounts I researched, this one appeared to hold the TV the closest to the wall while still offering the tilt function. I had intended to hang my 46" Sharp LCD above my fireplace but unfortunately did not properly investigate the spacing of the studs in the wall, assuming that the wall was built to conventional standards (16" on center). As it turned out, the studs were spaced further apart than the TV was wide so my first reaction was that I had made the wrong purchasing decision. Fortunately Atdec also offers a separate swing arm kit (Swing Arm - Upgrade Kit) that permitted me to mount the TV to the adjacent wall and effectively make it "float" in the corner of the room next to the fireplace. I hesitated to buy this additional kit based on the other review for this product but I found the mount and swing arm to work as advertised; note I did have to crank down on the allen bolts that prevent the TV from tilting down in order to hold it at the desired angle. It was a bit itimidating to mount a $1500 TV on a bracket that mounted to a SINGLE stud (I'm talking about the swing arm, as the tilt mount alone is in fact to designed to mount to two studs), but after one month there's no sign of sag or settling (like drywall cracking), which would of course be very bad. Note that I was VERY careful to determine the edges of the stud and I predrilled pilot holes for the four lag bolts that mount the swing arm to the wall. This is an important step as if you force the lag bolts into the stud w/o the holes to relieve the stress, 1. you'll have a real hard time getting them to go in and more importantly 2. you can cause cracking in the wood that could lead to structural failure. Also, do not over-torque the bolts as you do not want to strip the wood fibers that are in contact with the bolts' threads. Another tip, a laser level that attaches to the wall and can project a true vertical line (again for the swing arm; a level horizontal line would be essential for mounting the tilt mount w/o the swing arm) is a HUGE help in ensuring you TV is aligned properly. That said, the swing arm does allow to adjust the tilt in all three axes (see Atdec's website) if you don't quite get it right. In short, I am very satisfied with the two Atdec products I purchased. They seem to be innovators in the field and the quality is as good as can be expected these days.

When used in conjuction with the telehook extension arm it can't hold my 50" plasma plum. TV is too heavy for tilt angle bracket. I'd like to get my money back but its not worth the hassle of returning.