Flat screen mounting?

Don't buy mounts or cables at Best Buy, they have 300-1000% mark up on accessories. I know I used to work for a major computer/electronics retailer in business to business sales, so I had access to all the wholesale prices on equipment for negotiation purposes. I use a site called MonoPrice dot com. (not sure if this site lets you post URLs) The prices they have on there are wholesale prices for the mounts, coax and hdmi cables. (I'm sure everything else as well, but that is the only stuff I've bought) Their $15 mount will cost you $75 in Best Buy.
These are wholesale prices because I used to compare them to my wholesale prices and they were pennies difference, with them usually having better prices than my wholesale cost and i worked for a company that sold $3 billion annually in electronics.

Also if you are ever shopping for computers, electronics, etc try Provantage dot com. They use to beat me in bids all the time. Their web prices are listed 3% above cost. They drop ship everything from disty so they have no warehouse overhead. Sometimes you can find better deals at the major retailers because they will agree to take say 10,000 units that the manufaturer is trying to move and get a really good price no other retailer can touch, but for about 90% of products that everyone has the same wholesale price on with a minimum 10% markup Provantage will always be 3%.

 

its true! When I bought my HDTV they tried to sell me a HDMI cable for almost $100 and I Laughed at the guy and said "no thanks I'll go across the street to Harbor Freight and get one on sale for $15.99" and then like 5 other people came over to ask me where to go and get one that cheap, the guy at best buy was pissed! But to be fair I just gave him a $1800 sale so he can KMA...




American Trucker

 

I love Harbour Freight but even their $15.99 hdmi cable is only $3 at MonoPrice. That being said i do buy a lot of my tools at harbour freight. No need to pay 3 or 4 times more for a tool at the big box stores that i'll only use once or twice a year.

 

I also have a cheaper hdmi cable however after working for a few years as a custom home theater tech I will say there is a difference. It comes down to the transfer rates. This will play a part in overall picture quality. The better the rate the better the picture refreshs and looks to the human eye. Just my two cents but hey the cheaper cable works fine for my tv as it is a cheaper tv. Glad to have helped.

 

At a new company now and have a new tv mount setup. I built a wood frame in the cubby hole and drilled mount onto it. Biggest problem was keeping the wood frame in place without having to drill holes. Will post other pictures later as to how I did that. I basically used a wedge between the frame and the top shelf but still looking for something like an expandable post support. Something like a 16 inch load bar is needed.

 

That is the same mount I put up in my Pete. Bought tv and mount at best buy. The LED tv's draw less wattage than the LCD's.

 

Speaking of cables and stuff...how much of a difference does the gold plated contacts make?
Also, transfer rates, is that advertised in the cable spec?

 

not enough differance to make the extra money worth it, UNLESS your building a home theator. aside from your living room i wouldnt waste the money. I have all the gold AV cables and gold speaker wire in my living room, but in my bedroom and truck i just use the cheap stuff.


I'd also recomend your useing a 1080P HDTV with HD signal






American Trucker

 

As AT said Paul, the only time the extra "gold" is worth the cost is when putting together a VERY GOOD home theater. It will be noticeable with the right tv, media player (blue-ray), and a high-def surround sound system. If you're springing for all of that then I recommend Monster Cables (personal preference on brand). Other than those situations a standard HDMI is going to be good enough.

 

I still consider this a "temporary" solution, though, I've had it like this for 8 months. So who knows. I haven't had any problems. I was sent a PM asking about it so have posted this follow-up with video. I still think it would be better to connect some brackets with holes to match up with existing holes in cabinets. And I'm sure there are better ways. This is a lightweight 22" lcd by the way.