There was a Twilight Zone episode in which a spaceship carrying highly intelligent beings lands on a distant planet, where a group of colonists crashed 30 years before. When one of the colonists breaks his wrist, the resident physician begins to apply a splint to the man’s arm. But before he gets halfway through the process, one of the advanced visitors waves a wand and the man’s wrist is immediately healed. The old doctor protests in earnest, claiming that the only way to heal a broken arm is the tried-and-true splint method. But after examining the man’s arm, he had to admit: the wand had worked. There was no cogent argument he could make to claim otherwise.
There is a valuable lesson here: conventional wisdom – doing things the way you’ve always done them – is fine, until something better comes along. And there is no better illustration of this adage than with TV mounts.
For the longest time, conventional wisdom has been not to mount your TV above a fireplace. You’ve likely heard all the reasons; perhaps you agree with them, perhaps you don’t. Or perhaps you agree with some but not others. The bottom line is this: the reasons generally cited, while valid at one time, no longer hold water. This is a critical point because placing a TV above a fireplace has always been – and remains – an extremely popular mounting option. The reasons cited are abundant, but they boil down to four main issues.
It’s a Pain in the Neck
Putting the TV above the fireplace puts the viewing angle above eye level. This requires the viewer to crane his or her neck to see the television, which can result in all kinds of health problems. According to the Prairie Spine Institute, “If the TV is…mounted too high, people tend to look up. This could potentially lead to muscular imbalances, and stiffness, particularly of the neck.”
For those who try to avoid the sore-neck issue by using their eyes to look up instead of lifting their head, the problem of dry eyes comes into play as their eyes are forced to open wider. And the eye muscles get tired from working too hard as well. Other sources speak of damage to your deep-neck stabilizers and other scary-sounding medical concerns.
It’s not unlike sitting in the front row of a movie. Staring straight up at the screen for two hours is a highly uncomfortable exercise. Oh, there are a few outliers who proclaim that sitting in the front row makes you feel fully immersed like you’re part of the movie (check out this Time Magazine article for an unconvincing tribute to the immersion theory). But the two hours of immersion hardly seem worth the neck pain you’ll be feeling afterward.
Looking for the “Sweet Spot”
Many video experts claim that in addition to the neck-craning problem, there is the quality of the picture to consider. If the viewer is not looking straight at the screen (if the TV is mounted above a fireplace, they likely are not), the result can be a washed-out image, as the viewer is only seeing a fraction of the light being produced by the TV. To be more specific, the screen has a sweet spot “cone” that shoots over the viewer’s head if the TV is too high, so the colors are not as vibrant when viewing off to the side (it’s even worse from below or above). After paying what was likely a sizable chunk of cash for your new 65-inch, 4K Ultra-HD flatscreen, this is not a compromise you should be forced to make.
The Heat Is On
According to some electronics experts, having an open fire going while your TV is above the mantel can potentially damage sensitive electronic parts. There is considerable disagreement over this issue; even those who agree can’t necessarily agree on what temperature is considered too high and how long a TV must be exposed to it before damage occurs.
The Center of Attention?
Many interior designers are firmly set against the idea of hanging a TV above the fireplace, even if it is the only open space in a room large enough to accommodate it. For many designers, it’s simply a major decorating faux pas, like not fluffing your couch pillows or using too many color patterns in one room. The primary reason cited is that the TV shouldn’t be the focus of the room.
All the above were valid reasons not to hang a TV above the fireplace – until a few years ago when full-motion TV wall mounts were introduced. The fact is, these full-motion wall mounts have played an integral role in virtually negating the above objections. And this is where our Twilight Zone episode example comes into play: doing something a certain way may have been fine – in fact, necessary – for a long time. But when a better way comes along, it needs to be acknowledged and embraced.
Given the capabilities of these full-motion mounts, let’s now re-examine the four previous objections – and highlight the ways in which this decades-old philosophy can be effectively dispelled.
Pain Relief
No one can argue that putting the TV above the fireplace creates a horrible viewing angle. That’s why full-motion mounts – especially pulldown mounts with vertical movement capability like MantelMount – were developed. Full-motion mounts from companies like MantelMount offer a variety of highly desirable capabilities that greatly enhance the TV viewing experience. The keyword (or words) here is “full motion.” There are a number of mounts that offer tilt capability (angling the TV slightly up or down), as well as articulation (side-to-side movement). While both are useful, it is the vertical movement that allows the viewer to mount their TV above the fireplace, pull it down to eye level when they want to watch it, and then easily move it back when they’re finished. No neck craning, no health problems, no chiropractor appointments.
Look Straight Ahead
With a modern, full-motion TV wall mount, picture quality is no longer a concern. Mounts with vertical capability allow the viewer to bring the TV down to eye level; because the viewer is now looking straight at the screen, the problem of washed-out picture quality is eliminated. Even for mounts without vertical movement, they can at least be tilted downward to minimize loss of resolution.
Turning Down the Heat
The fact is, as long as the TV is above the mantel, the mantel will act as a shield from the rising heat. Of course, the situation changes when you have a full-motion mount with vertical movement that allows the viewer to put the TV right out in front of the fire. The solution is actually quite simple: just don’t have a fire going when you bring your TV down. There’ll be plenty of time for the fire after you’ve finished watching “Breaking Bad” for the 15th time.
If You’ve Got It, Flaunt It
While many interior decorators are dead set against the above-fireplace mounting idea, some of the most authoritative interior design voices disagree. An article in Better Homes and Gardens states, “Hanging a flat screen above a mantel or on a brick fireplace’s face results in a dual-purpose entertainment center that becomes a room’s visual centerpiece. The TV/hearth partnership frees up valuable floor space, allows you to focus furniture arrangements on a single wall, and generates pleasing views for channel surfers and fire-watchers alike.”
Further, today’s flatscreen TVs are thinner, sleeker and more visually striking than ever – virtual works of art. Consequently, there are those consumers who want to highlight these attractive electronic devices, not downplay them. The addition of a well-designed, full-motion mount can enhance the TV’s overall aesthetics, or at least not detract from it. Through effective cable management, wall covers, and low-profile construction, the mount can provide exceptional functionality while essentially staying out of the way.
The frustrating aspect of all this is that despite the introduction of full-motion pull-down TV mounts, the number of articles claiming that a TV should never be placed above a fireplace continues to proliferate. With the possible exception of the aesthetics issue (which, as pointed out earlier, is ultimately a matter of personal preference, a high-quality, full-motion mount renders all the objections moot.
Should you decide to mount a TV above a fireplace – or high on any wall, even without a fireplace – remember that most articles strongly recommending against it are not taking full-motion mounts into consideration. To put it in Twilight Zone terms, the authors of these articles are recommending the splint, even though the magic healing wand is right in their faces.
Visit MantelMount.com for more information.
About the Author
Spencer Greenwald is the Chief Revenue Officer of MantelMount, a leading designer and manufacturer of manual and pulldown mounts for flatscreen TVs.
