If you ’re scan this article , there ’s a expert probability you ’re considering get on at TV above your fireplace . You ’ve seen it done a million time on real estate or interior aim shows , so why not , good ? We might not be experts when it come to home interior decoration , but we know a thing or two about telecasting and we ’re here to set the phonograph recording straightaway : Mounting a TV above a hearth is a terrible mind .
We get it : a hearth is often the focal point of a room , so throw yourbeautiful new TVin the same locationfeelslike the right matter to do , specially if you havelimited space . Even some video manufacturers appear to endorse the idea ( just look at some of the exposure in this clause ) . But before you startdrilling wall - mountain holes , grant us to number the many reasons we ’re beg you to reconsider this decision .
Heat + electronics = bad
And regrettably , most open fireplace give off a caboodle of rut — that is , after all , their original intention . Heat does n’t just threaten TVs when there ’s magnate operate through it . If your TV is constantly exposed to the temperature variation of having a fireplace nearby , its home components can go through cycles of enlargement and contraction which will also extend to failure over time .
Electronics do n’t care for heat , and they worry for smoking even less . Have you ever insure the window inside the car of a fag smoker ? Unless the smoke driver is an equally habitual windowpane washer , those windows are covered with a hazy photographic film of filth . divulge to the smoke of burning wood , a like moving picture can make up on the component part inside a TV console . As that particulate builds up , so does the heat generated by the TV .
To ensure we are n’t just blowing smoke , we spoke to Brian Sevigny , proprietor of Portland , Oregon - basedA / V installing armed service Digital Connex . He tell us he gets require to install television over fireplaces frequently . When we ask him if he encouraged or discouraged the drill , he was quick to jump in . “ Discourage , ” Sevigny read steadfastly , “ in the first place because of the heat and the smoke . ”
Smoke may only affect TVs mount up above Sir Henry Joseph Wood - cut fireplaces , but the only way to avoid the heat is to instal an electric open fireplace and keep it on flame manner only ( as opposed to flame+heat ) .
It’s a pain in the neck
Placing a TV up high or above a fireplace be active the persona you ’re try out to view well above center storey , forcing you to tilt your head back . imagine back to the last sentence you went to the movie theatre and had to sit in one of the front three rows . luck are you walked out of the theater with a stiff neck . Craning your neck opening for an extended flow will cause temporary discomfort , but doing so for even unretentive periods , daylight after day , can have lasting effects , like inveterate headaches .
Neck headaches become a problem when you startle protruding your mentum forward with that “ look up ” posture .
We speak to Brad Simpson , a physical healer and clinical music director atLife ’s Work Physical Therapy . Simpson ’s clinic deal patients with multiple type of musculoskeletal trouble , and he is an expert in ergonomics . Simpson says that repeatedly sitting in an unnatural spot can have lasting recoil .
“ It ends up putting your body in a position where your cryptic - neck stabilizer , muscle - wise — it ’s kind of like the core of your lower back , but up in your neck opening — are n’t able to function . That position where you have to press your top dog forward and up to look up at the television compromise those muscles , ” Simpson said . “ Having your head forward like that stimulate a shearing force within your mid - cervical spur . That ’s where a lot of pain ends up coming from … you lose the ability for your neck to stabilize . ”
Muscle pain is n’t the only matter you may digest from . Just like star down at our smartphones for hour a mean solar day can make neck vexation , so can looking up , which causes us to protrude our chin forward , Simpson sound out . He also indicated that this pitiful position leads to improper respiration , which causes us to overuse sure brawn , becoming yet another source of pain . The chief takeaway from our interview : It ’s not worth the pain .
Six degrees of separation from a beautiful picture
On this event , there is no debate . We survey many TVs every twelvemonth , and the viewing slant on LED / LCD TVs remains a problem , even amongthe best tv set .
The cause is the LCD matrix — the part of the show that creates the image — and it ’s used on allLCD , LED , and QLED tv set . The matrix is made up of many tiny , shuttered window . These shutters open and close to get the TV ’s backlight through . The trouble with these windows is that they have a narrow ideal viewing angle . Their sweet spot is dead - centre , both vertically and horizontally . If you move too far left , right , up , or down , you see only a fraction of the produced igniter . The resultant role is a washed - out , lifeless picture — barely what you had in mind when you laid out severely - earned cash for a new television .
Related :
The upright word here is that you have some option to palliate this job . The first is to grease one’s palms a rampart mount with enough downward tilt to give you a more perpendicular view of the screen . Even better is amount that will fell the boob tube downcloser to your eye level ( check that the fireplace is n’t in use , though ) . Either option will better brightness , colouring saturation , and dividing line .
The 2d option is to purchase anOLED TV(not to be confused with a QLED TV ) , which has a nearly infinite viewing angle and will look amazing no matter how in high spirits you grade the TV . There are heap of other intellect why OLED wins in theOLED vs. QLED TVbattle . If an OLED TV is n’t an option for you , consider anLED television set that habituate an IPS LCD panel — these have extensive view angles than the competing VA - style of dialog box .
It’s just not stylish
While we may have the purpose sense of a gloss - unreasoning hippopotamus ( no offense to hippopotamuses , but theydospend a pot of time in the clay ) , we ’re really good at finding experts on just about anything . So we give out to Garrison Hullinger , owner ofGarrison Hullinger Interior Design . We ask him if he had a TV mounted over his fireplace . “ No , I live in a 100 - plus - year - sure-enough home and would never put a TV in my formal living room over the hearth , ” Hullinger told us . “ We also have a beach sign with a open fireplace in the formal livelihood elbow room , and take not to hang a telly in that elbow room . ”
Again , though , most modernistic homes have room built around this idea . Hullinger told us about 25 % of the homes he has walk into had one wired fix and were ready for a television receiver over the fireplace . Sevigny echoed that estimation when he evidence us that almost all of the new construction he has seen “ will have electrical and coax connections already put in above the hearth . ”
We can think of only one way that would importantly diminish the inherent ugliness of a giving , grim rectangle floating above your mantle : purchase a boob tube that can do double - responsibility as an prowess frame when you ’re not watch over it . Samsung ’s models of lifestyle video , theaptly named The Frame , can exhibit a wide variety of artwork , or information screens , when not in use . LG ’s best - in - year OLED TVsare another option . If your fireplace paries has an especially unequalled appearance , you’re able to even mirror that appear on the filmdom instead .
Since this article was first compose , we ’ve made a point of keeping an optic out for well - thought - out counterarguments . So far , most of them derive down to , “ these problems are n’t really problems if you use the right-hand TV mount , ” which we suppose is mostly rightful . But the right mounting technical school is only part of the solution .
But I have to (or want to) anyway. What can I do to make the best of it?
In an ideal earthly concern , you would place your television inanother room purpose - built for love TVand maybemake euphony the focusof your principal living surface area . But everyone ’s space is unique and amount with dissimilar limitations , and some quad might not give you an alternative to mounting your TV over the fireplace . Or you might just like the face of it , irrespective of the issues it poses . If you perfectly , positively insist on ignoring our advice from above , we ’ve got a few suggestion for do the best of it .
