It seems the plywood idea is the favored. Would it really hold? Before my post I was thinking of bolting a piece of 2" red oak between the studs and bolting the mount to the oak or one side of the mount all the way through the oak and into the stud and bolting the other end just to the oak. Since reading through the forums I also considered adding a bolt to the top of the mount and bottom. A post I read mentioned the wall plate bending from the top with a 50" plasma, I figured why risk it even though mine is just a 42".

So are there any other ideas?