TV above fireplace mounting dilemma - need a TV mount that does....

you can have a look at the VideoSecu Adjustable Tilt TV Wall Mount.

This item is very well made and nicely finished in flat black powdercoat. what's more, it is really cheap.

Crimemastergogo,

Let me try and help you. Lazyman's link only angles down, it doesn't lower. I don't know of any that lower, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Now, to the point of my post. I have an LG 55LH90. I had it wall mounted above my fireplace mantle (before the LG, I had a 47" Vizio wall mounted in the same spot). It was on a tilt mount (aimed about 15 degrees down). We watched TV and played video games on it for quite a few months that way.

The mantle is about 5 1/2 feet high and the center of the TV, when on the wall mount, ended up being around 7 feet high.

We recently rearranged the living room and got this: http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/nav...=5&item=411874

WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!!!!

Not only does the picture on the TV look better because I'm eye level, but when the TV was mounted above the mantle, our necks would get sore and our eyes would dry out. I read that looking up at the TV for an extended period doesn't give the tears in your eyes the ability to flow properly. It sounded like horse-pucky at the time, but I believe it now!

In addition to all that, the TV looks bigger now. I'm basically the same distance away, but since I'm not looking at it with that extreme angle, it seems bigger.

In all, the fireplace mantle idea was a good concept....it gave us some more room in the living room and got the TV out of the way, but it made it about 60% less enjoyable.

My wife and I are both SO happy we decided to move the TV down to eye level.

Good luck and let me know how it works out.

My fireplace setup is similar and I also had reservations about cricks in the neck. There is no way to rearrange my room. After a couple of days we got use to the height and now we don't even think about it.

Future renovations will lower the mantle as much as possible but for now it is NOT uncomfortable and my Lady and I just think the TV "looks" too high..

Well, THAT'S not going to help him!

'just trying to sympathize with the dilemma - and BTW, you didn't help him either...

How about this then? http://www.inca-tvlifts.com/

The reason you get itchy eyes looking up at a tv is that your eyelids are rolled back and therefore don't keep your eyes moist. If you blink every couple of seconds you can reduce the itchy eye problem.
You don't see many/if any adds any more with TVs over a fireplace since the only people that benefited were the chiropracters and the eye doctors.

bump for this thread, I am also in the same situation.

I am also in this situation. We have a huge cutout box above the fireplace for a big screen CRT, and our small 27" CRT is there now. It sucks having to lay back and look up to watch TV. I plan to wall it up. But then the wife wants to put the new flatscreen we will get above the fireplace mantle. The mantle is about chest level, and really can't be lowered due to the heat the fireplace produces. The underside of the mantle gets extremely hot as it is now. If you read some of the forums on other sites about TVs and fireplaces, you'll see a lot of other people end up killing their TV quickly due to the heat.

But she still likes the idea. I did hours and hours of searching and the best non-custom mount I could find was this:
http://www.av4home.co.uk/acatalog/Fu...all_Mount.html
There are other ones like it on the site, but all very expensive, more than the TV.

What you would have to do is turn it sideways, so when operated it would bring the TV out off the wall and drop it down to a more eye friendly level. Then when you were done watching, it would raise back up for that picture on the wall look the wives seem to want.

What I'm talking about the mount doing might seem confusing, but if you look at the pdf Datasheet at the website above, and think about turning it 90 degrees, you will see what I'm talking about.

It absolutely does. Don't do it.

I wouldn't suggest doing that, since the mount is not designed to be used that way, it'll likely fall off the wall.

I felt your pain about 6 years ago when I got my first 42" plasma TV. Since then I designed and built 2 working prototypes of a wall mount to solve this exact problem. The later is currently in use on my wall over a ~64" tall mantle. It rotates out and down in front of the fireplace. The mount is only 3" deep when up and closed, mounts flush to the wall and fully hides behind the TV when the TV is up. It uses pneumatic springs to offset the weight of the TV, 80 lbs in my home application. I am nearly two years into a patent application process and still haven't heard from a patent examiner(backlogged). I can't get any real interest from the major mount manufacturers, which is very frustrating considering the obvious need for such a product. I see posts like yours all the time and design show after design show where they mount TVs over fireplaces at unreasonable heights. If there are more of you out there then please let me know.

If you want to see my design you can find it on the uspto site under description "Wall Affixed Vertically Articulated Flat Panel Display Mount". I would also love feedback on the design. The patent pending design has an option for automatic lifting/lowering with an additional linear actuator.

I still haven't bought a mount yet, so I would still be interested. I googled and found your application page, but no Figures that are referenced. I can't believe no major manufacturers would jump on this because I have seen other threads in other forums on the same topic.

I was at the Toronto Interior design show a few months ago and they had a display showcasing a motorized mount that swivelled out and down from the fireplace. For the life of me I can't remember the name of the company or find a link but it does exist.

My patent searches 2 years ago turned up nothing like my design or really anything specific to raising and lowering TVs from a wall mount. I haven't looked hard since but I check the internet for new products and still haven't seen anything. I have people tell me they saw something like my design but then in follow up they just saw a tilting device. I would love it if some company was selling something that would infringe upon my patent pending design because right now this looks like the most likely way for me to make money of my patent short of starting a small manufacturing company and selling these in fairly limited quantities and custom equipment prices.

Hopefully the attachment comes through and you guys can see my design.

i have a welder and work as an engineer. i could modify a monoprice mount to do what you need easily

Well, the previous illustration I included was the TV mount in the up position. Here is a photo of my first protype in the down position. Slightly different design but basically the same.

That's a brilliant idea. I suspect the reason you're not getting action from the industry is that your claims look to be pretty easy to engineer around (a mount that doesn't have "two pairs of parallel links" and "a pair of telescopic pneumatic springs" doesn't infringe), but that's just a guess.

most people probly wouldnt want a mount like that because in the down position it would show the mount, this problem could be solved though

David,

How much would you charge to build one of those? I just bought a new house and am stuggling to find a place to put my TV in the living room. Above the fireplace is the place it would work best for furniture placement but the viewing angle would be horrible.

Please send me a PM if you don't want to post.

A basketball hoop in front of my house has the exact same mechanism to adjust its height...

Now, with the TV mount - make it motorized and you'll generate some interest from folks with deeper wallets.

Bump with the hope someone has found a mount that can do this... If your interested in building another one pm me and ill get a deposit on the way to you!!!

The guy you are trying to talk to hasn't been here in a while:
Last Activity: 03-18-10

Might try to PM him in case he gets an Email notification from it.

thanks

Has anyone found something to mount a plasma above the fireplace and lower it? The only place I can mount a plasma would be above the fireplace.

I was having the same dilemma. My fireplace mantel rises up about 60" and I have a 55" TV installed on top of the mantel. My solution: I have the TV slightly angled for a better view and I have a high back sectional which supports my neck and head completely. My sectional has the recliner option and works like a charm. I can be watching movies for hours and I don't have any eyes/neck problems.

Btw, it wasn't easy to find a high back sectional sofa. But after some months of research, I finally got one that I'm in love with!! Good luck with your set!

There's a super good reason there isn't a mount that will lower the TV: How exactly would it hold the TV reliably in the "up" position? It wouldn't without a locking mechanism, which would make it that much more annoying.

DO NOT mount your TV above the fireplace. It's awful. It's uncomfortable. It's going to drive your guests nuts even if you have mastered some contortions to be comfortable.

If you have no choice, ltexeira's solution is probably as good as it'll get, but believe me, it's an awful way to set up your TV.

We put a nice piece of Ikea furniture in front of the fireplace. And that was that. No fireplace, but the TV is at eye level.

I thought about that, but the wife doesn't want the fireplace blocked. One of the posters had a good looking design for a mount that lowered the tv in front of the fireplace. I would imagine that there would be something like that available from one of the wall mount manufacturers.

You're going to need to understand the physics of a mount that "lowers" the TV and yet somehow allows is to remain in place "up top". Especially since you live in earthquake country.

Perhaps a simple explanation would do here. You are curling a bar bell. When you lift it up, your biceps are "unloaded" but you still need to hold the bar up with your arms/upper body. That's not a neutral position, but it can be very stable. That's the TV in the up position. Ready to go down at any second, unless it's locked in the upright position.

However, since you can also lower the bar to "load" your biceps -- the TV in the down position -- your mount needs to be unlocked to allow this. At that point, the entire weight of the TV is generating the normal mount shearing forces that you'd experience with any mount. This is also what's dicey about protruding/articulating mounts and why they need to be fastened to wall studs. If not, they'd rip themselves free of the wall (note that it's possible with smaller sets to use multiple drywall anchors to spread the load, but the lesson applies).

In the case of a "lowering mount" however, you're asking the mount to perform the additional task of holding the TV "up" when it's not in use. Again, this is not possible without some sort of locking mechanism or "up and over" mechanism" where to lower or raise the TV you'd need to clear some gate, clip or equivalent.

There is a reason there are nearly no solutions in this realm.