THE SMALL STUFF

• April 16, 2018

You know, Dynamiq AV isn’t just about creating the perfect man-cave for yourself, or entertainment room for your family. (Remember your priorities: if you are happy, that helps you to be a great parent.)

They do the basic stuff as well, and that will keep you out of trouble.

Here’s what $99 gets you:
Lifetime Warranty on Workmanship
Inspection of equipment for damage and defects
Consultation on placement and system setup
You can buy your own wall-mount or purchase one from them
My personal favorite is:
TVS-ALF113-B1 Sanus Accents Full-Motion Wall Mount
$169.99 at Target (good thing it’s not $170, won’t fit in the budget)
Holds TV from 32” to 70”
Holds up to 100 pounds
Horizontal Adjustability: 45-degree turn
Vertical Adjustability: 10-degree tilt
Securing your TV on the wall (they sell all these TV’s too)
Connect up to three additional video components
(game console, cable/satellite box, blu-ray, apple TV, Roku, etc.)
Testing and tutorial of how to operate TV and remote that came with it
($30 extra for Cable TV remote to work directly with TV and not just the
cable channel changer. $119 extra for the Universal or Harmony
remote, but if you have seen those then you know why.)
Vertical wire concealment
Clean up of job-related debris (just JOB RELATED, they aren’t maids)

(NOTE: receivers, soundbars, theater-in-a-box, and speakers are NOT included)

They can also safely install your TV above your fireplace. That is a big deal to me, and requires expertise.

To be fair, my mother-in-law had a rambunctious group of grandchildren who are now grown with an equally energetic group of great-grand-kids. To my knowledge, the flat-screen TV sitting on the table in the living room has never been bumped, much less knocked over. So maybe I should stop being paranoid about this.

But me, I’m a belt-and-suspenders kind of guy. Let me tell you why I want my TV mounted on the wall. Consider these facts: children, grand-children, CATS, and buddies who come over to your house and throw that bouncy-ball to your born-in-Germany German Shepherd. All of these things are a broken TV and pieces of smashed plastic scattered on your floor… just waiting to happen (in my nervous mind).

Now, you might be thinking, “It’s, maybe, four bolts in the wall. How hard can it be ?” AND YOU WOULD BE WRONG !!

I measure the difficulty of any DIY project, not by money, time, or effort, but by how many times I have to go back to the hardware store. (Yes, I am wise in many ways.)

Don’t tell my kid, but my goal for this Christmas is to buy a 50” TV during the after-Christmas Sale. Not for him, for me. But I don’t want him going into Christmas thinking he will be shorted because of the present I’m going to buy for myself. (Well, he will, but I don’t want him thinking that.)

You see, I have a dream. I want to play Civ II Test of Time (you heard me) on a big monitor so I won’t have to squint at the screen to see if that was a Cavalry unit or Dragoons. (Well, doesn’t really matter if you are dug in, but a Cruiser versus an Aegis Cruiser, that’s a different story.) And I get to see the “big picture” as well without moving the map around.

But it has to do double-duty as a TV. And there are many things to consider, such as how high the bottom of the TV needs to be so that when I cross my big feet they don’t block the sub-titles on my Korean romantic comedies. You need to get the correct wall-mount for the size and weight of your TV. Even if the TV you buy today is a 32”, buy a wall-mount that lets you trade up without installing a different one. Not to mention the little things, like making sure your expensive TV doesn’t rip out of the wall or come loose from the mount and fall on the floor.

I am reminded of the time I put in a ceiling fan. It only has four bolts, right. The fan got up to full speed, the electric light-bulb part crashed to the floor and glass turned into shrapnel. Could have been worse; could have fallen on my little boy. It was a while ago, he isn’t so little anymore. But it definitely left an impression on me. (Have I mentioned he is an Eagle Scout ? Don’t worry; I’ll work it into the conversation.)

When I was researching wall mounts for the TV I want to buy I discovered that a particular one, when they tried to match it to a certain model of TV, had a problem with the attachment bolts. With the spacers, the bolts were too short; and without them, the bolts were too long. That’s experience you’ve just gained. Plus a trip to the hardware store. So how much is your time worth ? How much is peace of mind worth ? Give Dynamiq AV a call and let them provide a solution for you.