[Katsunami]

Because of poor eyesight, I need large sheet music. and A3 prints are becoming unwieldy. (Ever try to play a high-speed piece, needing to turn a page every 30 seconds? Now try it with A3.)

So, I've been looking into digital sheet music options. The main problem is turning pages; it needs a touch screen, or a foot pedal. 10 years ago, not much was available. Now, a lot can be had. So, I settled on a 40 inch TV (2x A3+ size, side by side), an air mouse to control a HDMI stick computer, and a pedal to turn pages. Tested out the software on the computer screen and all, and it works fine. (I'm just using SumatraPDF with a custom, locked configuration, not any special sheet music software.)

Now I just mount the 40 inch TV to the wall after I order it, and be off, right?

Wrong.

First: I took measurements before the TV arrived, using the documentation of the TV and the wall mount so I could just screw the mount to the wall and be done with it. Mounted the TV... and it didn't fit. The instrument didn't fit beneath it. Why not? Because it's a Philips. And they have 'feature', specifically engineered to display their logo. The lower bezel looks like this:

-----\_____/-----

So, the bezel has a 'droplet' in the middle, which is NOT included in the measurements; at least not for this model. Taking this into account, the TV should have been about half an inch higher on the wall. I also didn't see it in pictures, as the black extension is invisible against the TV's foot.

Case in point is that I can't put the back of my instrument against the wall anymore. Without that fracking droplet thing, it would have fit under the TV with about 0.25 inch to spare. Now it doesn't, because that droplet is about half an inch long.

I don't mind about the looks of the TV, because the TV is the cheapest 40 inch I could find, and it's in the hobby room. So, I just mount the TV half an inch to an inch higher on the wall, by fixing the drill holes and making new ones. Then it will be OK. Right? Wrong.

Second: After mounting the TV, the wall mount is discovered to have a HUGE amount of play in the brackets that are screwed behind the TV. It can be titled forward, but the system has play from side-to-side. The TV hangs askew, either to the left or the right, depending to which side I push it. Even though I don't really care about the looks of the TV, I don't want to have it hanging slanted on the wall.

Well... then I'll just return that wall mount, and order an omni-move one (a mount that moves in every possible direction); one with 47 five star reviews. That should solve the problem, right? It can be set in whichever way I want, and it's construction will be perfect, as it has 47 rave reviews. Right? RIGHT?! Wrong.

Third: After the new wall mount arrives, I look at the drawing and the materials, and the first thing I think is: No. Not gonna happen. The part against the wall is mounted with 4 screws, the TV with VESA 200, also four screws. Then, you stick the TV onto the wall-mounted part, and secure it with... ONE FRACKING TINY BOLT, less than half the size and thickness of the ones used to mount the parts to the wall and the TV.

Maybe it's OK, but it's not gonna happen; I just don't trust that construction. I don't care one whit about that TV. If something would happen to it, I can always replace it. The costs of that device are trivial to me at this point in time.

However, the instrument below that TV is about 15 times more expensive than the TV itself, and that is NOT trivial to replace.

So after almost a week of jackassing around, ordering, returning and moving mounts, the TV is still not mounted to the wall, as I'm now waiting on yet another wall mount; this time, I'm getting one that's completely rigid: two bars behind the TV, and a bar against the wall, without any tilting or anything.

If even THAT has play in it, I declare that that the entire manufacturing industry only exists to frustrate me. I haven't been able to buy anything for YEARS on end which was just RIGHT out of the box, and I always buy in the higher middle-class to lower upper end, so it's hardly because I get cheap stuff.

(Even the instrument has a problem. When I set a string bass, it forgets these settings, while every other setting is remembered. The manufacturer says: "This is by design." No, it's not by design, it's a moronic bug that should have been fixed when the instrument was released three years ago, as I now have to reset those those string bass settings at power-on. Granted, it only takes about 5 seconds to move some sliders, but still...)