Hi-Fi Guides

Your old TV has finally given up the ghost and you’ve decided to splash out and spoil yourself on a fantastic new model. Before you go out and buy the first thing that you see, there’s more to buying a new plasma or LCD TV than meets the eye, and once you’ve decided on the TV and found a great deal, you’re still not home and dry. The next important thing you need to decide is on the type of wall mount you choose. Bear this in mind before buying your TV as size and style can make a great deal of difference. Though you might think it’s a foregone conclusion and all wall mounts are virtually the same, they are not and you need to take plenty of things into consideration before deciding on which one is right for you and your new TV.

There are four basic designs of TV mount; let’s look at them all individually.

The Fixed Mount

These mounts are simply a means of fixing your TV against the wall, and it will fit flush in the same way as you would hang maybe a picture or a mirror. Whilst they are generally the cheapest and easiest method of mounting your TV screen, you do need to be sure that you have chosen exactly the right position for your TV, as you will not be able to tilt or adjust its position later and may find that you cannot see the screen properly when sitting in a comfortable position. You don’t want to have to strain your neck in order to see your new TV screen now do you?

The Tilt Mount

These mounts give you the added flexibility of tilting (as the name suggests) the screen once it is mounted on the wall. This can be extremely useful, especially if there is a glare on the screen at certain times of the day from a nearby window, you can simply tilt the screen when necessary in order to avoid the glare and see the screen more clearly. These may cost a little more than the fixed mounts above, but for many people are well worth paying that little bit more for.

The Tilt and Swivel Mount

These mounts also do exactly as they say, and you are able to tilt your TV screen either up or down, and also swivel it around horizontally. These are especially useful if you like to watch TV from different positions in the room, and also allow you the flexibility of rearranging your furniture without having to re-mount the TV or lose ease of viewing.

TV Arm Mounts

These are usually the most expensive, but for many the only way in which to effectively mount your TV onto the wall. The arms can fold away so that the TV can be pushed against the wall when not being used, and pulled away from the wall and positioned in any way to get the best viewing angle.  These are particularly useful if you want to say, occasionally watch the TV from an adjoining room in the house or while you are busy at the other side of the room. Remote control arms are also available, and whilst these are again more expensive can be invaluable for gadget lovers and people who like to be able to do things ‘at the push of a button’.

Before choosing your new TV make sure that it is suitable for mounting with your chosen method, as not all TVs are compatible with all mounting systems.

HDMI have certainly made an impact in the home entertainment systems market, and all new hardware is now manufactured to include HDMI ports, however, although the single cable system makes the connection process and the picture and audio quality much better over the shorter distance, if you need to have a longer cable then there is real deterioration in the quality. Developments and improvements are being made constantly, but even with the highest quality components and the most expensive cable, there is still a limit of around 40 to 50 feet for full effectiveness of the connection quality.

So what can you do if your HDMI cable needs to be longer than the optimum 15 feet? Well, fortunately there are other means to boost the signal strength and retain picture and audio quality. These vary quite a bit in both cost and suitability, so it is important to find the best option for your particular circumstances before forking out lots of cash for something which will make little or no difference.

Signal Boosters

These do exactly as you would expect, boost the signal. They are designed to boost the signal strength so that it can remain stronger over longer distances, you can then attach a number of short cables together and maintain picture quality, this can often work out cheaper than buying one completely line of cable.

Signal Restorers

This is a small separate device which can be attached to the end of the HDMI cable and enable the signal to travel over a much greater distance, even over 100 feet in some cases. The weak signal is, in effect re-synchronized back to the full quality you would expect to receive from your HDMI cable.

Signal Extenders

These work in a similar way to the signal boosters above, and mean that you can attach multiple shorter HDMI cables together and effectively extend the distance that the signal is able to travel.

Fibre Optic Cable

If your HDMI signal needs to travel over very long distances then you will need to invest in fibre optic cable.  This makes transmission possible of over 1500 feet, but is the most expensive option available. If you need your signal to travel this sort of distance though, you will need to invest in fibre optic cable.

So you see, there are options available to you if you need to make your HDMI cable work effectively over greater distances. Maybe with future developments some of these options won’t be necessary, but until then you really need to discuss your requirements with an experienced home entertainment specialist who can advise you on your best and most cost effective option. There have been remarkable innovations over the last few years and new techniques are still arriving constantly onto the marketplace. If you are in the market for a new method of connecting of home entertainment equipment, then HDMI cables are still typically the most cost effective, easy and efficient method of connecting your equipment. When used correctly the picture and audio quality is much higher than with many other methods.