FINALLY hung my TV.
I wouldn't say I have made anything less ugly (yet) but I have hopefully gotten it somewhat out of harm's way.
I used this:
https://www.harborfreight.com/large-til ... 61807.html
It may have been better to get an articulating mount but this seems fine. You do have to unmount the TV to adjust the wall angle which sucks but then you really should only have to adjust it once. Fortunately my visual estimate was pretty close. The reflection of my head is roughly in the center of the TV which means it is the correct angle to me.
I really hope I found studs. I spent a few hours trying to find them and did the best I could. I am not sure I did (I may have gotten one anyway. But with actual wood panel walls, I am not worried that much about it. It seems fairly secure.
There is one downside. The TV effectively got a bit smaller since it is about 2 feet further away now. I could easily do a 65" without even worrying about it. Probably a 70. For the record, my normal seating position is now about 15 feet from the TV.
According to this:
http://carltonbale.com/1080p-does-matter/
For a 15 foot viewing distance, I'd need a minimum of an 85" screen to begin to see the benefit of 1080p and I could take that all the way to about 105". This chart also indicates that I shouldn't be able to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p at these distances. That is kind of depressing. On the other hand, it means everything looks pretty good - even ripped DVD movies.
In 4K, unless I change my room to sit much closer, I would need a minimum of a 125" screen and I don't get the full benefit of 4K until well over 140" (off the scale). Which also means everyone who went out and bought a 4K of, say, 50" and sits further than 5 feet from it, has just wasted their money (aside from HDR which is legit but not available from all sources, or even 4K movies).
So my TV is officially too small, which my eye confirms. I mean 1080p looks fantastic on it and according to the chart, the ideal viewing distance of a 60" TV with 1080p content is 8.5 to 10.5 feet. Said another way, if I put on some 1080p content, and get up from my normal seating position and walk toward the TV, my eyes will detect more and more visual resolution until I get to between 8.5 to 10.5 feet at which point it will start to look worse again (pixels).
I should mention one disclaimer. This assumes good quality source. If you get some compressed garbage from your cable company, that is different. But honestly, Netflix, Prime and even Youtube is very good. And so is broadcast ATSC which also looks great on this TV.
Side note #2: THX recommended viewing distance for my TV is 6 feet. And for my current 15 foot viewing distance, they recommend a 151" screen.