Cheetah Mounts TV Wall Mount 32-65" TVs

I purchased this Cheetah Mount APTMM2B flush tilt dual hook wall mount bracket set at the same time I ordered my LG model 47LN5700 47" LED television (which I reviewed earlier) from Amazon. I also purchased the Arlington Industries wall plates to help route the cables into the wall behind the mounted set and then out of the wall behind my credenza. I have yet to install the plates; more about that later. When I ordered the set, the mounting bracket and wall plates, I fully intended to mount the LG set to the wall right away, but didn't. We ended up using the television set on its stand for about a month and finally decided to mount it to the wall. I approached the project as a one man job, eschewing the assistance of my wife, other than to have her show me where to mount the set. To reduce the suspense, I can report that the project went very smoothly, even as a one man job! Let's get started.... First of all, I attached the two vertical metal hook strips to the back of the set using the enclosed Cheetah Phillips screws and recommended spacing washers. I was able to do it while the set was still resting on its stand. In fact, I actually did the 5 minute job while the set was in use. Each bracket matched up exactly to the threaded screw holes on the back of the set. During this phase, I gained an appreciation of the challenge I'd have in routing the cables; see below. The next step was to assemble the four pieces of the wall mount bracket into the rectangular apparatus that is actually fastened to the wall. The bracket is fastened to the wall using the four enclosed lag bolts which are screwed into two adjacent wall studs. Where to position the wall bracket: Looking at the height of set as it was situated on the stand atop our credenza, I had asked my wife how much higher she wanted me to mount the set (vertically) above its current position. She said 10 inches. This meant all I had to do was measure 10 inches up the wall from the TOP CENTER of the set and make a light pencil mark on the wall. Now, I unplugged all the cables, removed the set from the credenza, placed it on its face and removed the stand and then put the set aside until later. It's key to mount the set exactly level and although I have several bubble levels, the bracket kit actually includes two levels, a torpedo level and a small level that clips to the wall bracket. This means I needed only to hold the bracket assembly tightly against the wall, centering on the pencil mark. Then I sighted the level (bubble in the middle of the marks) and drew a pencil line along the length of the top rail of the now-level bracket assembly. Piece of cake. I then found the two studs using my stud finder, marked the appropriate holes to drill, then drilled the four holes (the instructions tell you what size of drill bit to use and how deep to drill). Then I used a socket wrench to crank in the lag bolts, securing the bracket assembly to the wall. The Cheetah folks provide two sizes of lag bolts; the larger two are used to fasten the top rail, the smaller bolts for the bottom rail. Obviously, you will need to drill two different size holes in your wall. BTW, they provide the appropriate anchors if you have masonry walls. The good news is that the 30" long wall bracket assembly is made of stout enough steel so that it won't flex under load even though the bolts into the wall are only 16 inches apart (the distance between the studs). As a result, the TV set (whose brackets' hooks are also 16 inches apart) can actually be moved 13" back and forth along the top rail until you reach the desired horizontal location. Again, the wall bracket doesn't flex one bit; I was very relieved to see this later, because my set had to be at the far right end of the rail in order to center it on the credenza below, exactly where my wife wanted it hung on the wall. Once the wall bracket was mounted, all I had to do was return the set to the top of the credenza, resting it on a couple of bath towels. Then I inserted the six cables into their respective plugs on the set, gathered them together, reached up and hang the set on the top rail. There are a pair of set screws on the bottom of the hook brackets which will be used to further secure the set to the wall bracket once the installation is fully complete, a couple of weeks from now. In conclusion, WE ARE EXTREMELY PLEASED WITH THE EASE OF INSTALLATION AND THE FINAL APPEARANCE OF THE SET UP ON THE WALL. One tremendous benefit of the set being wall mounted is greatly improved audio! The LG, like most really thin flat panel TV sets, has speakers which fire down and back, bouncing sound off the wall. This means the set's sound when on the stand is somewhat "trapped" between the back of the furniture and the wall itself. We always have the "Smart Sound" option turned on, which generates a synthesized surround sound. The set, now being hung on the wall, enables the surround sound to be all it can be; in my opinion, the audio is now 200%-300% better than it was when the TV set was mounted on the stand. FAIR WARNING! Cable management is going to be a challenge since the LG set unfortunately has three distinct locations where cables connect to the back of the set. Believe it or not, the LN Series has HDMI and USB connections actually coming out sideways from near the left edge of the set; others have commented on this in their reviews of the set. Thankfully the power plug comes down from near the center of the set. Unbelievably, the RCA and Optical inputs/outputs point straight back from a site the near the left center of the set. This configuration is the only shortcoming of the LG set. It means that the HDMI cables have to make a 180-degree turn and the RCA and optical cables have to make a 90-degree turn respectively as they exit the set and are gathered together with the power cable which exits downward. I don't think this challenge will be a deal breaker, but it greatly limits the exact location where the top wall plate can be mounted relative to the wall bracket and the set itself. Once the set is mounted, there is just over one inch of space between the wall and the back of the set. The cable bundle (in my case there are six cables) will have to be gathered together, zip-tied and inserted into the small wall plate opening for routing (inside the wall) 30 inches down to a matching wall plate opening behind my credenza where my cable box, Blue-ray DVD player and AV receiver are located. By the way, I plan to cut holes in the wall and install the Arlington Industries cable wall plates and route the cable through the wall at another time, but soon; stay tuned. After I complete that final aspect of the wall-mounting project, including painting the wall a new color, I'll review the wall plates. CONCLUSION... Finally, check out the price of the Cheetah Mounts wall mount brackets! I challenge you to find anything as good for anywhere near twice the price or more! Buy this Cheetah if you have a 32" to 65" flat panel set to flush mount on the wall; it's simple, it's strong (will hold up to 165 pounds!), it's easy to install, and very inexpensive! As they say when you have a happy wife, you have a happy man; and I'm just that!