Building Custom Displays with Mount Genie: A Hands-On Review

As I began my hands-on review of Mount Genie's built-in display mounts, I was excited to explore the potential of integrating smart displays seamlessly into my home. The process started with planning and research, as I considered various options for mounting my devices. In this article, I will delve into the installation process, features, and potential drawbacks of using these custom displays.

To begin, I assessed my space and determined that the perfect placement would be on the bottom two on the top of the display, allowing me to feed the extension cable or cat5 cable from the back of the display to the Ethernet box. Once plugged in, I could then put the Echo Show 5 into place, which was a solid fit but easy enough to pull out with a bit of force if needed. The Matlock's nicely snapped into place on the bottom of the show five, creating a very secure and flush installation.

As I moved forward with the installation process, I plugged in the Show Five adapter into the Power Over Ethernet adapter, followed by a network cable into the Power Over Ethernet switch. This setup provided me with power for my device while also allowing me to control it from anywhere in the house. One of the standout features of these mounts is the ease of access they provide to various controls, such as the mute and volume up/down buttons on the top and camera privacy switch.

While building custom displays with Mount Genie's built-in mounts offers numerous benefits, there are also some potential drawbacks worth considering. For instance, once mounted, it can be challenging to adjust the position of the camera during video chats, which may require adjusting the mount's angle. Additionally, I initially thought that this might be an issue with sound quality but found that the speaker from the Echo Show 5 was actually situated on the bottom front, minimizing any potential blockage.

I also encountered a minor inconvenience while threading the extension cables through the wall – it did the job but could have looked cleaner if I had used Ethernet cables instead. However, this is a relatively minor issue compared to the overall ease of installation and use offered by these mounts.

Upon completion of the installation process, I was left with a sleek and modern setup that perfectly integrated my devices into my home's decor. The mounted displays not only freed up counter space but also created an aesthetically pleasing visual effect. For anyone considering upgrading their smart display experience, I would definitely recommend checking out Mount Genie's custom mounts.

The built-in displays are slim and offer a clean way to mount your smart device without taking up any precious counter space. The final setup consists of the smart displays being integrated into the wall, wired to the power or Ethernet adapters, which are then plugged into the Power Over Ethernet switch with an Ethernet cable. Upon inspecting the back of the displays, it's clear that they provide users with a seamless and user-friendly experience.

Finally, my hands-on review of Mount Genie's built-in display mounts showed me that while there may be some minor drawbacks to consider, these custom displays truly offer an innovative solution for home automation enthusiasts. With their sleek design, ease of installation, and access to various controls, I highly recommend considering these mounts for your smart display needs.

In conclusion, building custom displays with Mount Genie's built-in mounts was a straightforward process that yielded impressive results. By integrating my devices seamlessly into my home decor, I created a visually pleasing and user-friendly environment that has greatly enhanced my smart display experience. With ongoing research and development, it will be exciting to see how Mount Genie continues to innovate and expand their product offerings in the future.

Video Comparison Coming Soon

I'm also excited to share with you a video comparison of the Echo Show 5 and other devices soon. In this upcoming review, I'll provide a detailed analysis of each device's features, performance, and overall user experience. Stay tuned for more information on this exciting project!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enin today's video we're going to check out the craziest mount that you can get for your Google Nest hub and your echo Show 5 let's get started hey everybody welcome to tech with Bret where I help tech work for you so in today's video we're gonna show you how to install the Google Nest hub and the echo show five built-in mounts from mountain genie Thank You mount genie for setting out these mounts to me to check them out so I have reviewed a few different Mountain Genie mounts in the past but I definitely wanted to check these out as these are one of the craziest mounts that I have seen as these offer an internal way to display these mounts in your wall so here is the built-in mount for the Google Nest hub and it is compatible with the power over ethernet adapter now that is one of the main things with this is you will need to use power over ethernet as it is against code where at least where I live to install a power cord in the wall so this is able to help you do that so inside the package you also have this nest home hub built in template so we'll be using that and then here is the mount itself so this will go inside your wall so the biggest thing about these is it's going to be a big hole so this is the hole that you will cut out and then this is what the faceplate will look like looks really nice and slim so we will be installing this and trying that out so here is your power cord so this will plug into the back of the nest hub and then this would plug into your power over ethernet adapter and then it also comes with some other brackets here and another adapter as well and inside the packaging for the built-in mount for the Amazon echo show five is very similar here you have the template so this is how you will align everything careful do not over cut along this line so you just be careful when you are installing these measure twice cut once and then here you have the little mount so there will lock in so that it doesn't fall out and then this also has a power adapter so that you can plug this into the back of the echo five and then use the power over the ethernet adapter here and this also comes with the extra brackets now let's talk about how to how are these devices so here is a Power over Ethernet switch so you plug in the ethernet cable into here and then on the other end where you will plug in your smart display you will use one of these so this is the mount genie power over ethernet adapter so then this will plug right into the Ethernet the ethernet will come into here and then you will take this and take the cable that came with the mount and you will plug that right into the back of the nest hub or the echo show v and that is how you can get power within the wall to these adapters so that's pretty much it on the back of this this is where you will plug this in to give it power so now let's go ahead and get this installed the first step is to choose what height to mount the display if I mount it too low the kids will want to play with it I'm going to choose about four feet where my arm naturally rests when I touch the display on the back of this sheet there's a list of detailed instructions first we're going to use the template to trace the hole and cut it out second we're going to slide the mount into the hole and then attach the metal backers third we're going to connect the power cable and adapter and fourth we're going to plug it in the power over ethernet switch first I'm going to mark where the template will go then I'm going to use my stud finder to make sure that no studs will be in the way of the hole then I'm going to use my level to make sure the template is level after tracing the template I will then cut it out making sure not to get too close to the edge I suggest getting a sheetrock knife but my razor did the job carefully remove the cutout portion of the wall then place an me mount there are four metal backers to put on to go on the bottom and to go on the top once these are placed test to make sure that the mount is firmly in place let's move to the most difficult part of the install routing the necessary cables inside my ethernet box I'm going to add another hole to the back so that I can route the new cable to the hub depending on your wall you might have a 2x4 in the way of the wire you may need to get a long drill bit to add a hole in that 2x4 so that you can route your wire now there are two possible ways in which you could route the wired from your display the first method this is the one I used was to plug in the extension cable that came with the mount and feed it through the wall then at the bottom I attach the nest hub adapter and then the mount genie power over ethernet network adapter then I plugged in a cat5 cable into the adapter and then plug that into the power over ethernet switch and immediately had power to the nest hub the second method is to plug in the nest hub adapter directly into the back of the hub followed by the mount genie network adapter then you can take a cat5 cable and plug it directly into the adapter behind the wall and route that directly to the power over ethernet switch both of these methods work the same it all depends on how you want your cables to be routed once it is plugged in we are then ready to place in the nest hub it just rests on the bottom and then press the top until it locks in for my install it did not lock in as well as I would have liked it to but that may be because during my install I made the hole a little too big so be careful when cutting yours out once it's installed I can then use the nest hub like normal it is very easy to change the home view settings and navigate through the device you can also activate Google Assistant very easily one of the problems with the nest hub is that when it is mounted you are not able to use the volume buttons on the backside but you can easily get to those by using the on-screen controls by swiping up from the bottom of the display the second issue is you cannot switch the mute switch on the back but you can pop out the hub by pulling on the top and then you can adjust the mute switch when listening to music on the nest hub the speaker is actually at the very bottom of the front of the display and it is very easy to hear even when it is mounted here on the wall now let's move on to the echo show 5 the following steps are very similar so I will highlight some of the changes find the right height make a starting line check for studs make it level trace the template then cut out the hole then we're going to place in the mount you can tell that this time it was a bit more firm when I put it in and then we're going to put any for metal backers to lock it into place to on the bottom two on the top then we need to feed the extension cable or cat5 cable from the back of the display to the Ethernet box once plugged in we can then put the echo show five into place the Matlock's nicely into place on the bottom of the show five it then snaps in and has a very solid fit but is easy enough to pull out with a bit of force if needed then I'm going to plug in the show five adapter into the power over ethernet adapter then a network cable into the power over Ethernet switch and we have power one nice thing about the show five is that when it is mounted you easily have access to the mute and volume up and down buttons on the top you are also able to easily switch the camera privacy switch now there are a few issues with the show five as well when it is mounted one is that because it does have a camera it is hard to adjust the position when you are doing a video chat if you mount it for the perfect type for you it may be better but then worse for anyone else that might try to use it as for the sound at first I thought this was going to be an issue but after mounting the display I noticed the speaker from the show v is actually on the bottom front so the speaker is not being blocked in any way with the built-in mount it is harder to access the auxiliary port on the back but I am sure that you will be able to figure out another way to wire that if it is needed after these are installed this is how I ended up threading the extension cables through the wall it does the job but if you thread Ethernet cables instead you could have a cleaner finished look down here at the bottom with the ethernet wall plate and here's a look at the built-in displays they are very slim and offer a very clean way to mount your smart display and here's the look at the final setup the smart displays are built into the wall they are then wired to the power or Ethernet adapters and then the adapters are plugged into the power over ethernet switch with an Ethernet cable and here's what the back of the displays look like for anyone that is curious and just like that we now have our built-in mounts for the nest hub and the echo show v so going through the installation process there really wasn't anything that was too difficult the hardest part is putting a massive hole in your wall as well as feeding the cable from the hole down into the box where you would use for the power over Ethernet now I know my temporary wall here isn't the perfect situation to test these out but it really gave me a good idea of how cool that these mounts are it's really nice to have this completely flush up against the wall and then it doesn't take up any counter space or anything like that it's also at a nice angle so if you had it lower the kids could use it if you wanted them to or higher then the kids can't use it but it's a nice angle for you to be able to see one of the only weird issues about the angle is if you are trying to video chat on the echo show 5 it was a little bit hard I would have to sit down or something like that to make it a little bit more user-friendly or again I just need to mount it higher and the echo show 5 again you have the mute switch on the top the volume buttons and then you do have the shutter button right there for the camera so you still have all the controls right there it's just not as easy to use certain things like the home control over on the echo show 5 isn't as good as the nest hub so you win some and you lose some full video on a comparison of these coming soon now on the echo show 5 I'm really impressed with how this is able to fit in it is very solid it's not moving at all and it almost looks like it was made to fit in your wall now you don't have to see that big speaker on the back but this looks really perfect with the aligned border around the outside on that mount it just looks really really nice so if you've been looking for a mount like this to get your devices off the counter and move them up a little bit higher so they're easy to control I can definitely recommend checking out the built-in mounts by mount genie if you guys have any further questions about these please let me know in the comments below and if you'd like to pick them up or the power or Ethernet switch or anything like that I will leave a link to those in the description below and make sure you tune in next week where we learn how to patch massive holes in your wall or you can also check out the other mounts that I've reviewed I'm over here on the side thank you guys so much for watching we'll see you on the next onein today's video we're going to check out the craziest mount that you can get for your Google Nest hub and your echo Show 5 let's get started hey everybody welcome to tech with Bret where I help tech work for you so in today's video we're gonna show you how to install the Google Nest hub and the echo show five built-in mounts from mountain genie Thank You mount genie for setting out these mounts to me to check them out so I have reviewed a few different Mountain Genie mounts in the past but I definitely wanted to check these out as these are one of the craziest mounts that I have seen as these offer an internal way to display these mounts in your wall so here is the built-in mount for the Google Nest hub and it is compatible with the power over ethernet adapter now that is one of the main things with this is you will need to use power over ethernet as it is against code where at least where I live to install a power cord in the wall so this is able to help you do that so inside the package you also have this nest home hub built in template so we'll be using that and then here is the mount itself so this will go inside your wall so the biggest thing about these is it's going to be a big hole so this is the hole that you will cut out and then this is what the faceplate will look like looks really nice and slim so we will be installing this and trying that out so here is your power cord so this will plug into the back of the nest hub and then this would plug into your power over ethernet adapter and then it also comes with some other brackets here and another adapter as well and inside the packaging for the built-in mount for the Amazon echo show five is very similar here you have the template so this is how you will align everything careful do not over cut along this line so you just be careful when you are installing these measure twice cut once and then here you have the little mount so there will lock in so that it doesn't fall out and then this also has a power adapter so that you can plug this into the back of the echo five and then use the power over the ethernet adapter here and this also comes with the extra brackets now let's talk about how to how are these devices so here is a Power over Ethernet switch so you plug in the ethernet cable into here and then on the other end where you will plug in your smart display you will use one of these so this is the mount genie power over ethernet adapter so then this will plug right into the Ethernet the ethernet will come into here and then you will take this and take the cable that came with the mount and you will plug that right into the back of the nest hub or the echo show v and that is how you can get power within the wall to these adapters so that's pretty much it on the back of this this is where you will plug this in to give it power so now let's go ahead and get this installed the first step is to choose what height to mount the display if I mount it too low the kids will want to play with it I'm going to choose about four feet where my arm naturally rests when I touch the display on the back of this sheet there's a list of detailed instructions first we're going to use the template to trace the hole and cut it out second we're going to slide the mount into the hole and then attach the metal backers third we're going to connect the power cable and adapter and fourth we're going to plug it in the power over ethernet switch first I'm going to mark where the template will go then I'm going to use my stud finder to make sure that no studs will be in the way of the hole then I'm going to use my level to make sure the template is level after tracing the template I will then cut it out making sure not to get too close to the edge I suggest getting a sheetrock knife but my razor did the job carefully remove the cutout portion of the wall then place an me mount there are four metal backers to put on to go on the bottom and to go on the top once these are placed test to make sure that the mount is firmly in place let's move to the most difficult part of the install routing the necessary cables inside my ethernet box I'm going to add another hole to the back so that I can route the new cable to the hub depending on your wall you might have a 2x4 in the way of the wire you may need to get a long drill bit to add a hole in that 2x4 so that you can route your wire now there are two possible ways in which you could route the wired from your display the first method this is the one I used was to plug in the extension cable that came with the mount and feed it through the wall then at the bottom I attach the nest hub adapter and then the mount genie power over ethernet network adapter then I plugged in a cat5 cable into the adapter and then plug that into the power over ethernet switch and immediately had power to the nest hub the second method is to plug in the nest hub adapter directly into the back of the hub followed by the mount genie network adapter then you can take a cat5 cable and plug it directly into the adapter behind the wall and route that directly to the power over ethernet switch both of these methods work the same it all depends on how you want your cables to be routed once it is plugged in we are then ready to place in the nest hub it just rests on the bottom and then press the top until it locks in for my install it did not lock in as well as I would have liked it to but that may be because during my install I made the hole a little too big so be careful when cutting yours out once it's installed I can then use the nest hub like normal it is very easy to change the home view settings and navigate through the device you can also activate Google Assistant very easily one of the problems with the nest hub is that when it is mounted you are not able to use the volume buttons on the backside but you can easily get to those by using the on-screen controls by swiping up from the bottom of the display the second issue is you cannot switch the mute switch on the back but you can pop out the hub by pulling on the top and then you can adjust the mute switch when listening to music on the nest hub the speaker is actually at the very bottom of the front of the display and it is very easy to hear even when it is mounted here on the wall now let's move on to the echo show 5 the following steps are very similar so I will highlight some of the changes find the right height make a starting line check for studs make it level trace the template then cut out the hole then we're going to place in the mount you can tell that this time it was a bit more firm when I put it in and then we're going to put any for metal backers to lock it into place to on the bottom two on the top then we need to feed the extension cable or cat5 cable from the back of the display to the Ethernet box once plugged in we can then put the echo show five into place the Matlock's nicely into place on the bottom of the show five it then snaps in and has a very solid fit but is easy enough to pull out with a bit of force if needed then I'm going to plug in the show five adapter into the power over ethernet adapter then a network cable into the power over Ethernet switch and we have power one nice thing about the show five is that when it is mounted you easily have access to the mute and volume up and down buttons on the top you are also able to easily switch the camera privacy switch now there are a few issues with the show five as well when it is mounted one is that because it does have a camera it is hard to adjust the position when you are doing a video chat if you mount it for the perfect type for you it may be better but then worse for anyone else that might try to use it as for the sound at first I thought this was going to be an issue but after mounting the display I noticed the speaker from the show v is actually on the bottom front so the speaker is not being blocked in any way with the built-in mount it is harder to access the auxiliary port on the back but I am sure that you will be able to figure out another way to wire that if it is needed after these are installed this is how I ended up threading the extension cables through the wall it does the job but if you thread Ethernet cables instead you could have a cleaner finished look down here at the bottom with the ethernet wall plate and here's a look at the built-in displays they are very slim and offer a very clean way to mount your smart display and here's the look at the final setup the smart displays are built into the wall they are then wired to the power or Ethernet adapters and then the adapters are plugged into the power over ethernet switch with an Ethernet cable and here's what the back of the displays look like for anyone that is curious and just like that we now have our built-in mounts for the nest hub and the echo show v so going through the installation process there really wasn't anything that was too difficult the hardest part is putting a massive hole in your wall as well as feeding the cable from the hole down into the box where you would use for the power over Ethernet now I know my temporary wall here isn't the perfect situation to test these out but it really gave me a good idea of how cool that these mounts are it's really nice to have this completely flush up against the wall and then it doesn't take up any counter space or anything like that it's also at a nice angle so if you had it lower the kids could use it if you wanted them to or higher then the kids can't use it but it's a nice angle for you to be able to see one of the only weird issues about the angle is if you are trying to video chat on the echo show 5 it was a little bit hard I would have to sit down or something like that to make it a little bit more user-friendly or again I just need to mount it higher and the echo show 5 again you have the mute switch on the top the volume buttons and then you do have the shutter button right there for the camera so you still have all the controls right there it's just not as easy to use certain things like the home control over on the echo show 5 isn't as good as the nest hub so you win some and you lose some full video on a comparison of these coming soon now on the echo show 5 I'm really impressed with how this is able to fit in it is very solid it's not moving at all and it almost looks like it was made to fit in your wall now you don't have to see that big speaker on the back but this looks really perfect with the aligned border around the outside on that mount it just looks really really nice so if you've been looking for a mount like this to get your devices off the counter and move them up a little bit higher so they're easy to control I can definitely recommend checking out the built-in mounts by mount genie if you guys have any further questions about these please let me know in the comments below and if you'd like to pick them up or the power or Ethernet switch or anything like that I will leave a link to those in the description below and make sure you tune in next week where we learn how to patch massive holes in your wall or you can also check out the other mounts that I've reviewed I'm over here on the side thank you guys so much for watching we'll see you on the next one\n"