Home improvement

Everybody has a giant TV now. Hide yours!

At the rate that technology is advancing, it is becoming more and more common to see a big, flat panel TV hanging on the Living Room wall of your average household. Just like microwaves back in the 80′s, what was once a luxury item is now becoming commonplace. Dirt cheap deals for plasma and LCD TV’s can even be found at Walmart.

I remember seeing my first plasma TV. It was hanging on the wall at Best Buy in Boulder, CO when I was in college in the late 90′s…and the asking price, a mere $20,000. That TV wasn’t even that big, not by today’s standards. Today I am looking at Best Buy’s website, and there is a 42″ plasma TV for sale for $500. Yes, that’s right. The flat screen television is no longer a luxury item.

What once was a status symbol, i.e. an object you would proudly display to demonstrate your wealth and success, is now so commonplace that it has become tacky to have your television on display. Thus, the trend towards the hidden TV. And if you follow the trends, you too are looking for ways to hide your TV.

So how do I hide my TV?

There are so many ways! There are many non-automated methods for hiding your television, but all of my favorite ways are hi-tech, electrical, mechanical, and/or remote controlled.

TV Lifts

The TV lift is the staple of automated TV concealment. The basic idea is that the television is hidden within a cabinet of some sort. It is mounted to a motorized framework. You push a button or flip a switch, and the TV rises majestically into view.

Hi-tech, motorized, remote controlled, perfect picture quality. All the aspects I like.

Two Way Mirrors

A two way mirror is a mirror that is only partially reflective. They are commonly used in police interrogation rooms. A two way mirror separates two rooms. One of the rooms is well lit, and the other room is kept dark. From the well lit room, you can only see your reflection in the mirror. However from the dark room, you can partially see through the mirror. Several companies make framed two way mirrors that fit over your mounted flat screen television. When the TV is off, you see your reflection in the mirror. When the TV is on though, the television picture shows through.

There are a few downfalls to this method. First, the picture quality of the TV will suffer, as you will be watching through a shaded piece of glass. Depending on the lighting in your room, you may see glare and reflection off the mirror. Like the interrogation room, the TV screen must be brighter than your room, otherwise you will get glare and reflections on the mirror disrupting the picture. These work best in dimly lit rooms with people who are not too nit picky about perfect picture quality.

Moving Artwork

This is an interesting concept. A piece of artwork covers your television. It is mounted to a motorized framework. At the touch of a button or switch, the artwork lifts up revealing your television.

Also hi-tech, motorized, remote controlled, and nothing to disrupt your picture quality. The main down side is space requirements. If you don’t have enough room above your television, this method may not be the best option for you.

Remote Control Mirrors

This is another spin on hiding your television behind a mirror. At first glance, all you see is a mirror on your wall. At the touch of a remote control, the mirror splits in half and gracefully moves, each panel cantilevering outward and revealing the hidden television within.

Hi tech, motorized, remote controlled, and perfect picture quality. Again, like the moving artwork, the main limitation is space. You will need enough space on either side of the flat panel TV for the mirror panels to move.

By: Robert Q. Jones

Years ago, we used to watch TV shows in a 12-inch black and white television set. There weren’t so many shows to watch back then. But as years passed by, we can notice how the television has evolved from a simple box with pictures into the newest, grandest design TV sets. Starting with black and white TV to plasma TV then Flat screen TV, a new technology now appears and enters into the market. The newest technology when it comes to television is the 3D TV. This TV will surely change the way we will watch our favorite TV shows.

This year 2010 is considered a gateway for 3D movies. One 3D movie that had a great impact to viewers is the “Avatar” which made over $2.5 billion dollars in the first 66 days of its opening. This implies that shows are now presented in a different and a much higher level of movie presentation. Until now, more and more movies are being produced in 3D versions. This paved way to the creation of the newest, most advanced Television set, the 3D Television set. For the 6 top television companies – Sony, Toshiba, LG, Samsung, Vizio and Panasonic, this is another battle for them to show off their brand, outshine their competitors and prove to the consumers that their brand is the best.

What makes 3D TV different? Just like in 3D movies where 3 Dimensional features are produced, 3D TV also uses the stereoscopic effect in creating its 3 dimensional pictures. This creates an illusion making 2 slightly different images of the scenario for the left eye and right eye, tricking the brain that the flat image we are watching truly has depth in it. The truth is 3D TV technology isn’t new at all, it was actually marketed few years ago but the main problem why people did not patronize it is because of its glasses. During that time, you need to wear 3D glasses for you to appreciate the 3D technology on this type of TV. But because of the continuous research by leading companies, they’ve come up withthe latest 3D TV version which does not need special 3D glasses.

In CEDEC 2010, one of the leading television manufacturers unveiled their newest 3D TV free from 3D glasses. Also, Panasonic announced its released of its own version the Viera VT25 series. Then, later, Samsung also already releases their own brand, the BD-C6900 a 3D Blu-ray Player. In year 2011, it is expected that more versions and brands of 3D Television sets will come out and it’s for consumer to see which company manufacturers the best 3D TV. This technology would surely be a big hit! But of course, there are certain issues manufacturers have to address and one of them is price of this 3D TV. Before the 3D TV could invade every home, they should make it more affordable especially for the middle class.

By: Fred Hardman

How Big is Your Room?

How big is the room your new TV will be in? If you’re going to put your new TV in a smaller den or bedroom, keep in mind how much space is needed. Think not only about watching it, but how it will look in the space. Don’t forget to include other components like speakers, home theater receiver, cable box, DVD player, etc.

What will you be watching?

The type of programming is important because a lot of TV is still not Hi Def. This type of programming is not going to look as good on your HDTV and the bigger the screen is the worse the imperfections will be. This applies to old TV shows and movies. Are you a big fan of the Turner Movie Channel or TVLand?

On the other hand, new TV shows and especially DVDs or BluRay discs are going to be fantastic on your big screen. Ditto sports, etc.

How far away will you be sitting?

If you’re sitting too far from a small TV you aren’t going to get the maximum advantage of the picture quality. This has always been the case from the beginning of TV time. A little TV is a little TV, Hi Def or not.

Today’s picture quality has become so good that it can be a disadvantage to sit too close to a large TV. In the old days of cathode ray picture tubes, there was no such thing as a pixel. Now, your television picture is made up of tiny units called pixels. Because the quality of the TV picture is so good, these individual pixels can be seen when viewed closely. That’s not a good thing. If you’re sitting too close to a large TV, particularly a plasma TV, the individual pixels can become annoyingly distracting. This has been dubbed the “screen door effect” because it actually looks as though you’re looking at the world through a screen door. That’s not what you paid your hundreds or thousands of dollars to see.

Use the rule of 2 to 3 to determine the optimal size of your new TV. To do this, measure the distance from your viewing spot to where the TV screen will be. Measure in inches and keep in mind that a flat screen TV will probably be up against the wall. Now divide that distance by two. For example, if the distance was 70 inches, 70/2 = 35. Now divide that same number, 70, by three and you’ll get 26.6 or 27 when you round it off. The optimal size for a TV when the viewing distance is 70 inches would be between 27 and 35 inches.

How will you be getting your new TV home?

Don’t laugh. It’s a good idea to check the size of your vehicle before trying to tote your new HDTV home. Have your ever seen someone with a mattress strapped to the top of his car? Don’t be that guy.

By: Robert M Matthews

I recently finished an exhaustive month of doing intensive research on what kind of big screen TV or home theatre system to purchase. I mean, it is time. The tube TV is just not cutting it anymore, especially with a large room where TV is typically watched. I learned a lot in the process – not all from talking with sales people, but in writing down things the sales people told me, then verifying those facts. The interesting thing is that many times those “facts” were incorrect, and it made me wonder how many other people were basing a purchase decision on the “facts”.

For me, the first cut came in considering plasma versus LCD. With projection TV’s and even with the DLP technology which appears to deliver an outstanding picture, there were two things that made me eliminate these options in the first cut:

1. The size of the TV. With projection TV’s, and also with DLP TV’s (although to a slightly lesser extent), size is a consideration. Plan on the unit sticking out from the wall at least 18 to 24 inches, perhaps even more, which severely cuts down the overall size of the room you will be using to watch TV. Plasma and LCD TV’s, by contrast, are about 4 to 5 inches thick, and wall mounts can optionally be purchased to actually mount the screen on the wall.

2. The viewing angle. With projection TV, and again to a slightly lesser extent but still present in DLP technology, the clarity of the picture starts to decrease dramatically when you start moving away from viewing the screen head-on. If the room you are going to use to do your TV watching can accommodate this, it may not be as big of a negative point for you, but for me, this was huge.

So my choices are narrowed down to plasma or LCD. Looking at all the choices available in plasma and LCD however, I did not feel that my choices were all that narrow, so I needed more criteria to further narrow my choices.

First cut, let’s consider plasma versus LCD and define the technology we want to shop for. I was able to relatively quickly choose LCD over plasma for multiple reasons. With today’s technology, plasma screens will typically reach “half life” within about 5 years. That is the point where the screen brightness is about half of what it was when it was new. By contrast, LCD life expectancy is about twice that, so this was a definite factor.

Your criteria may vary for other reasons though. For example, today’s consumer LCD TV’s max out at around 46 inches. This was fine for me, since a larger TV would almost overwhelm the room I will be using, but with LCD, be aware that you are not going to get the 50 or 60 inch units that are available in the plasma lineup.

Although I live pretty much at sea level, also note that if I ever anticipate moving to a high altitude area, most plasma manufacturers will not warranty plasma units at more than about 5000 feet above sea level. Really! This has to do with the way the air movements happen to create the picture, and this cannot be done as effectively at higher altitudes. This is not a factor for LCD technology.

Next is the resolution. I recommend a resolution of at least 1366 by 768 pixels. That is even more than today’s cable companies broadcast at, but should keep you in line with the broadcast technology over the next few years. Even the movies you rent at Blockbuster are not going to show up in higher resolution than that. There are some top end units (Samsung and Sony, as well as others) that have 1920 by 1024 resolution, but the reality of it is that you will end up paying a premium for that higher resolution, and the ONLY way you will ever be able to use it is connecting your computer to your TV. That resolution will NOT be used for DVD movies or broadcast, or even HDTV broadcast, it is simply not there. So in essence, you are going to be paying for bragging rights, and those are some pretty expensive bragging rights.

Get something that is at least 1080i and 720p. The “i” indicates “interlaced” and the “p” indicates “progressive” scan. While cable TV broadcasts may do 720p, some units can interpolate that to 1080i. Again, you will pay a premium if you opt for a unit that can do 1080p, and again, that is for bragging rights only. Even a video professional with a microscope would be hard-pressed to differentiate between 1080i and 1080p with today’s movies or cable TV broadcasts.

Considering all the criteria above, this should narrow your choices to less than a half dozen units. So your last step is to search online for reviews. See what other customers think of the unit and read their online comments. While I am not necessarily a big fan of paying for a specific brand name for the sake of it being a brand name, there is also some wisdom associated with that.

Lastly, as opposed to many other things, I would recommend the store’s extended warranty. If you elect to go with just the manufacturer’s warranty, note that you will need to keep the original box that it came in, and will need to ship the unit to the manufacturer in case of a problem. That means being without the unit for a minimum of two weeks or more. The in-store warranty from Sears, Best Buy, Circuit City, etc, are usually ONSITE warranties, and typically cover almost any problem, not just something that may be termed a “manufacturing defect”. This is probably going to add about $12 to $15 per month to the price for a 3 year or 5 year warranty, but when you are spending this kind of money for a consumer electronics device, I believe it makes sense, especially when you consider that if the backlight needs replacing or the unit needs recharging, the parts and labor involved in performing that work if not under warranty are likely to exceed the cost of simply replacing the entire unit.

By: Jon Arnold

When considering the history of plasma television screens, you have to understand the history that is behind this remarkable invention. The first plasma screen television has come quite a long way. However, the reason for the invention was not simply to provide men with amazing sports viewing.

The plasma TV developed as a result of the computer generation. It is incredible that this based viewing device is not a new idea. It has been around for quite some time. Perhaps a bit of a history lesson is in order for you to understand how this application came to be available for the masses.

It all began in 1964 at the University of Illinois. At this time, computer monitors were simple televisions. You have to realize that the televisions at this time were cathode ray tubes. They had to continuously refresh themselves in order to display correctly.

That was a big problem when using a television as a computer monitor. Sure it was okay for watching tv shows, but the resolution for computers was terrible. By the end of the year the first plasma monitor was in operation.

Today’s plasma TVs have millions of cells that comprise the color and resolution of the screen. That initial plasma monitor was only one cell. However, it was still a step in the right direction.

There was a set back, though. Liquid crystal displays became the more acceptable method and this technology was put on hold. Fast forward a few years and flat screen television sets became widely popular.

Plasma TV has made a huge impact on how people watch television and use their computers. HDTV has become a very popular item, as evident by the sheer number of plasma television screens in retail stores.

The price, once a huge problem due to how expensive they were, is now becoming much more affordable. There are a large number of people who now own these remarkable flat screen televisions.

The world owes the scientists at the University of Illinois a great big thank-you. Had it not been for their need to have a new computer monitor, the world may never have seen a plasma TV.

The big screen television sets would still be the TV of choice and a clear picture would still have been a dream instead of a reality. Those scientists did it and now people around the world can enjoy great television viewing at a great price.

By: Mike Selvon

What happen to the old fashioned TV? The old fashioned TV couldn’t handle the modern day user. Therefore modern technology has brought us into the future with the popularity of LCD and plasma TVs. These TV’s are awesome with the look and the ability to show TV and Movies in HD, it make the TV experience far beyond your parent idea of just seeing color and eating TV dinners. So with many people, have been left with a real dilemma, how to display their new TV. The most popular is a wall bracket which enhances the viewing experience but creates other issues. Purchasing the bracket becomes expensive, and if the TV wasn’t expensive enough, the installation costs can certainly break the family budget. Further costs can include hiring an electrician to install a reverse outlet in order to hide the power and cable cords.

An alternative to the wall mount option is enhancing the unit with a piece of furniture that both displays and offers design features to flow with the style of the home. There is now a large selection of modern TV stands. They come in compatible shapes and configurations for all sizes of LCD or plasma TV’s. If you are on a limited budget, don’t worry, there are modern TV stands out there that are still stylish and sturdy. If the budget is limited, and you don’t want the expense and hassle of a wall mount, consider cabinets or wall units that double as modern TV stands just with added cabinet space.

Getting a modern TV stand for your LCD or plasma television is a great solution for where to keep your new TV. Modern TV stands are made to accommodate these types of TVs. They have style and functionality. The TV stand will hide all the cords and doesn’t have to be a bulky furniture piece takes up a large portion of the room. Today you can purchase TV stands in all different wood finishes, glass and even modern design metals. You can also find them in the older wooden styles. These TV stands have fasteners on them to secure your flat panel TVs to them so they will not fall and distribute the weight evenly.

All TV stands today will take care of all your concerns about weight, size, functionality and style. You might not want to have your LCD or your Plasma sticking out in the room and this could be distraction to your style scheme in your living area. If this is an issue for you, you may want to consider getting a modern or traditional TV cabinet that is not bulky, today’s options allow the cabinet to fit nicely with the television without compromising space and design. A TV cabinet would hide your TV, give the room a stylish look, and offer height and stability to your media center. These modern cabinets are still considered a type of stand will help you to take the focus off of your television and maintain the style of the room.

By: Timothy C Roberts

The kitchen space has undergone a revolution. Gone are the days when the kitchen was a place for work and everyone was entertained separately in the living room. Now kitchens are open planned and guests are being entertained on barstools at breakfast bars and half tables. The preparation of the meal has now become the entertainment with guests being asked to help out with simple tasks while refreshments and nibbles are consumed. Gone too are the days of spending solitary confinement in the kitchen. Kitchens have now become more communal with all the electronic entertainment making its transition from the living areas of the home. One of the most important pieces of entertainment has been the television set or commonly known as the kitchen TV. The television has now become more common place in the kitchen. Just think there is nothing worse than trying to cook a meal and missing out on the evening news or even worse, a cooking demonstration by Jamie. This is where a kitchen TV has found a place.

The television in the kitchen has also evolved beyond a budget 14 inch box perched on top of the refrigerator with funny rabbit ears. With the cost of LCD and plasma TV’s coming down in price, the smaller ones are becoming highly favoured for use in the kitchen. The new technology screens are so flat that they can easily be mounted anywhere, where there is a vacant space. There are also water proof versions available. The kitchen TV can be mounted directly onto the wall in a fixed position or onto a hinged bracket that can be swiveled for optimum viewing. If available wall space is a problem, then there are kitchen TV models that can unfold from the ceiling and swivel.

Technology has also solved the overall size issue and extra stuff is packed into a small package. You can now get a television that has a built in DVD player. Optional extras can be hard drive storage to USB connections for mp3 players or ipods. Because of the kitchen TV there is no longer a need for a hifi system. The sound quality on most kitchen televisions has enough volume and quality for even the discerning ear.

Safety is always an important consideration with all electrical equipment. To avoid electric shock be sure to mount a television far enough away from any wet areas such as sink benches or dishwashers. The rule is that you should not be able to touch both wet area and kitchen TV at the same time. Even if the television is not faulty it is possible to build up a reasonable static charge on the plastic surface, which will discharge through you to any earthed objects such as a kitchen sink bench. Water proof models are a good choice if you are considering installing a television close to a wet area.

A useful tip is to always use a remote control for your kitchen TV. Cover the remote control in plastic wrap or put it into a plastic bag. This will keep the remote control clean and protect it from water and oil spills. When installing your kitchen TV, remember to position it where you can see it clearly in the part of the kitchen that you work the most. This is because you can watch pre-recorded or live kitchen TV shows of cooking demonstrations to help you along the way. You can follow the demonstration as you cook. Have fun in the kitchen.

By: Robert Taylor