Title of thread. How do you find out what kind of mounting hardware you need? I'm lost.

Usually all you need to know is the size/weight of the tv. Go to monoprice.com and find what you want. You will have choices about tilting, swiveling, low profile, etc. That choice is up to you, just make sure you get one appropriate for the size and weight.

As far as mounting to the wall there will be hardware with the mount for typical situations like wood studded and drywall walls.

Huh, it's that easy? I was thinking it would depend on model and such. Well that's a lot easier than I thought!

Unless you have a very unusual tv they all have standard mounting holes. The mounts are designed to accomodate them and include the screws to attach the tv to the mount. The mounts come with an assortment of hardware, your tv manual should specify the size of the screws needed or you can just try out the screws in the holes until you find the correct ones.

Doesn't matter the age of the TV? One is a plasma bought in 2008 and the other is an LCD bought in 2006. They were standardized then?

Should be. It's called VESA, and has been around since the 90s, I believe. Will be 100 or 200mm for TVs, most likely. The mounts match, based on weight requirements. Buy at Monoprice, they have a good return policy if something isn't right.

Note, not all mounts necessarily come with the screws. You should be able to tell from the description or pics. They SHOULD come with screws, but...

Cool, thanks for the information everyone!