If you’ve decided to go for a wall mount for your new flat screen TV, you still have to make up your mind regarding other aspects, such as the color the price and thew type of the mount. Here are the three TV wall mount types you can choose from:

Flat mount: the simplest and the cheapest solution for hanging a flat TV on the wall, this mount doesn’t allow any movement of the screen once you’ve placed it into its final position. It can’t be installed very high on the wall, because it needs room in the upper part for sliding down the TV set. However, if you don’t wish to change the viewing angle, this solution is a very elegant and practically invisible one. Your screen will sit on the wall pretty much like a framed painting.

Tilt mount: this is a bit more sophisticated than the previous one, as it allows the TV screen to tilt either downward or upward around a horizontal axis. Because of this additional movement possibility, the TV set is placed a bit further from the wall, even when not tilted at all. Therefore, if your room is not very tall, you’re probably not going to need your TV set to tilt downwards, so you’d better choose the flat mount which is not only more elegant, but also a bit cheaper. However, if your television set doesn’t have a flat back, this type of mount is the best, as it allows you to access the plugs and other interfaces in the backside box of your TV set.

Articulating mount: this is the most versatile system, but also the most expensive one. Basically, it features an articulated arm which allows the TV set to swivel left and right and to tilt up and down. If you have a very large room, with couches placed in different corners, this could best suit your needs, as you’ll be able to adjust your TV screen for optimum view wherever you may want to sit. A simpler version is the swivel mount which allows a maximum 90 degrees swivel.

Apart form these three types, there are mounts that get fixed on the ceiling and others which can be mounted under the kitchen cupboards. Prices may vary with the size of the mount, which is influenced by the weight of the TV set. The weight is influenced at its turn by the screen size. You don’t need to learn any weight-size correlations, because the weight is usually written on the TV screen box. Besides, the shop assistant would surely help you in indicating the most appropriate wall mount when you buy your television set.

When we say “flat screen TV”, most of us usually don’t think further. We are concerned solely with the fact that TV sets are flat and we also care about the screen size. However, there’s more to talk about when it comes to choosing a new TV set for your living room.

First of all, flat screen TVs are of two types: plasma and LCD. The difference between an LCD TV and a plasma one is rather in the technology that makes images possible rather than in the look and feel of the TV sets. In a plasma TV, there are two glass panes which are sealed together and the resulting space between them is filled with plasma, which is a gas that’s electrically charged by electric impulses, determining color changes that finally compose the image as we see it on the screen. LCD screens are based on a totally different technology: two polarized, transparent panes are stuck together, one of them featuring a thin layer of a polymer containing liquid crystals. When electric impulses pass through this material, the crystals are polarized, thus composing the images on the screen.

Many people ask themselves if they should buy an LCD or a plasma TV. It’s not the purpose of this website to enter in such details. Basically, both variants come with their advantages and drawbacks, but regardless your final decision, you’ll still benefit from a great viewing experience. One small consideration, though: with LCD TVs becoming available in Full HD resolution, they’ve gained a significant competitive edge over plasma screens.

From the wall mount point of view, you should be aware that plasma TVs are heavier, therefore at the same screen size, you’ll have to buy a sturdier support. This would add a little bit to the cost, but taking into consideration that you’ll have to take a lot of money out of your pocket anyway, the difference is not that important and it shouldn’t be a selection criterion.

The LCD TV or flat screen TV market has become extremely diversified and accessible to a broad category of consumers. Prices went way down compared to five or six years ago, when a plasma TV had the price of a room in a small apartment. Newer technologies and manufacturing methods made such television sets to replace more and more the old, thick models which are now so out of fashion and which take a lot of room.

Unlike classic TVs, flat ones need to be installed in their place and not just placed on some furniture piece you’ve already had in your living room. There are two ways of doing this: hanging them on the wall or incorporating them in a special piece of furniture called a TV stand. Either way, an additional purchase is necessary: a TV wall mount or a TV stand. The wall mount is cheaper and it is very useful if your room is relatively small, so you can save some space for other furniture items. Stands are more expensive, but they look very stylish and many of them come with incorporated speakers and with a special place for the DVD player, thus you can set up your home theater system in a neat and clever way.

Both methods allow matching the frame with the color of the TV set: if your flat screen panel has a black frame, you can choose a black wall mount or a black stand. If the frame is silver, you can go for a silver wall mount or stand.

Depending on the budget you can afford to spend, you can choose a wall mount that’s been manufactured with all details in mind, or a rough one. The cheaper ones usually have visible screws and joints, but otherwise, they can provide almost the same functionality as the more expensive ones. However, if you can afford the extra cost, buying an expensive wall mount would offer you the pleasure of a very well-finished piece of furniture, with hidden screws, with channels and tracks for hiding the cables and with more tilting and panning possibilities. For example, a wall arm mount would allow positioning the TV screen in the best position for optimal view much better than a mount that’s not adjustable in its distance against the wall. If for some reason, you can’t use the walls for hanging your LCD TV, a ceiling mount is exactly what you need. Some of these ceiling mounts come with an extension column which makes it possible to have the TV screen positioned at the desired height.

As a conclusion, I can’t say that one solution is better than the other. My personal choice would be to buy a stand, but if the space was small, I’d go for a TV wall mount any given time.