Hello fellow sufferers,
I became fed up of waiting for Philips (we "will answer your question within two business days" - I'm still waiting days later!) so I made my own adapter bracket to go between the back of the 17PF4310 and a Vesa mount. I guess I could've swapped the tv for a different model but this one looks so good!
I bought an OmniMount 75/100-CL cantilevered arm mount for £99 but you could use anything with a Vesa mount.
http://www.omnimount.com/product.asp?p=40
A word of warning - I've done this now and it's worked fine for me, but it's your own responsibility if you decide to follow suit. I am a qualified engineer though and I did think this through before going ahead
. Anyway, Im much more worried about fixing the mount to the wall than I am about my bracket.
The instructions sound more complicated than it really is so I've attached some photos, numbered along with the steps. You'll need a drill and an M5 tap - anyone who knows their way around a workshop will do this easily. Be careful drilling holes into plate.
BE CAREFUL: you must hold the plate in a vice or a workmate or use a pillar drill, a drill can make a plate whip round hard and cause you some real damage.
I used the keyhole shaped holes in the back of the tv to fix the mount. This involved no modification to the tv at all and uses mounting holes that Philips put there themselves so warranties should stay valid.
1. Make a bracket plate. I used 8mm thick aluminium plate, but 6mm should be fine - I made mine beefy because I want to push and pull the tv out from the wall regularly. This was well within the weight limit of the OmniMount but you should check whatever mount you use can carry the weight of your bracket plus the tv (6kg).
It should be 160mm by 120mm.
2. Drill 4 off M5 threaded holes to take the Vesa mount. The centres of these holes are at the corners of a square of side 100mm - right where the Vesa dimples are in the back of the tv, the ones that Philips put there to taunt us
. The 2 top holes should be less than 10mm from the top of the bracket plate.
If you follow the OmniMount link above you can download a specification sheet that shows you the dimensions of the mount.
3. Drill 2 off 5mm diameter holes to take the M5 bolts that we're going to put in the keyholes. The centres of these holes are 25mm down and 20mm across from the centres of the 2 top threaded holes you just made. You might also want to make these holes vertical slots to give you some adjustment later on if you're a bit off in your measurements.
4. Fit the Vesa mount to the bracket with 4 off M5 bolts - make sure they're short enough not to poke through the bracket and make contact with the tv when it's bolted on.
5. Fit 2 off M5 bolts into the keyholes on the back of the tv. Standard M5 bolts fit snugly up into the holes - choose ones long enough to stand proud through the bracket plate when you fit it. I then made some plastic bungs to fit in the large part of the keyhole to stop the bolts slipping down.
This seems pretty important to me, especially if you're using a moving mount - you don't want the tv slipping off these bolts when you grab it!
6. Drop the bracket over the 2 M5 bolts , pop on washers and nuts and tighten it all up. You might need to hold the tops of the bolts with a pair of pliers to stop them turning round as you tighten the nuts. Don't overtighten them or you might damage the plastic on the back of the tv.
And there we are. As I say, it's worked for me, but I can't be held responsible for your own handiwork or if I've got it all wrong.
Do let me know how you get on if you decide to follow suit or if you come up with another solution.
Good luck!
Steve
