The next day in Harvey Norman, we just bought the bracket. I had checked with the stud finder, how I love that phrase, and the studs within the wall seemed to be in the right place to mount the tv (Brian or old Lordy, don't you dare). It was cheaper too, $25 less.
Today we decided to put it up. There were many parts and poor instructions, probably why it was cheap. I had to get my head around it before I could proceed.
Eventually I worked it out. I attached the brackets to the tv, the tilting mechanism to the brackets and that was a mistake. The wall plate should have gone up first. I started to put the wall plate up and where the studs were supposed to be and they were not, nothing behind the plaster but some metal shavings on the drill bit. Oh dear. Drill a few more holes and not a stud to be found. Usually they rain from the sky.
Call Brother the Builder, the tradie one. I thought to indulge in some chit chat before demanding of him why there are no studs in the wall. He tackled a dozen graffiti writers last night who daubed his front fence a year or so ago and he ended up with some bruises and a broken and loose tooth. He will get his daughter to extract it tomorrow with pliers. Anyway, Brother the Builder was not very helpful, apart from knocking a hammer along the wall, padded by a handkerchief. He added, not a used one as they can mark the wall. I used a dusting cloth. He did suggest that maybe because it is an external wall, they would not use timber for fire reasons. He builds houses, not large apartment blocks.
So, obviously the stud finder ( I am getting a tingling feeling somewhere) was registering metal straps. There are no timber studs, so we cannot mount the tv on the wall.
Bit disappointed. Dismantled what I had assembled, packed it back into the box, will return it to Harvey Norman next week, and then tidied up. Wasted three hours for a person who is starting to think about a finite number of hours.
Something good did happen though. We had a too large picture, a Miro print, behind the tv and attached to the frame was a picture downlight. The picture must go because it is partly obscured by the tv, but I tried to turn the downlight into an uplight behind the tv. I clamped it the power plug at the back of the tv and it is hidden and gives great uplighting. No lamp to be seen, just a wash of light over the wall.