It is a common problem. The cabinet in your living room was built for an older TV and you are ready to upgrade to a flat panel TV. What do you do? Call Sound Ideas! Our client had an existing cabinet custom built for a 65″ rear projection TV. The cabinet had a front piece built so that only the TV screen showed. They wanted to upgrade to a 65″ flat panel.
First we removed the old TV. That left us with this giant opening. The width of the cabinet allowed for a 65″ flat panel, but we needed a way to mount it. We also needed to cover all the empty space below the TV.
Next we built a false back and painted it black. We installed this inside the cabinet to mount the flat panel.
Then we designed a new front panel and matched the existing cabinet’s paint to achieve this fantastic final result. Some cabinets require a lot of work, some require only a little. If you are ready to upgrade your TV, let us look at modifying your existing cabinet to acommodate it.
Our client loves sports, and he wanted to be able to watch 3 different games at the same time. He already had 3 Panasonic 50″ Plasmas and a surround system. What he needed from us was an installation plan, mounting system and a control system. We used a Chief flat panel mounting system that allowed us to place all the TVs side by side with no gap in between them.
The first step was to run cabling and power to all three TVs and then layout the bracket pattern.
Next we began to hang the TVs.
Once all three TVs were hung and the speakers mounted, we installed the AV gear: a surround receiver, a Blu-ray DVD player and 3 Direct TV satellite boxes. We used a RTI T3V and a ZRP6 to control the system. With the T3V, the client can change the channel on any of the TVs and switch the audio to any of the TVs without any crosstalk or inteference.
The final result - command central for the ultimate sports fan!
Have you ever watched a commercial and thought “they must think I am an idiot.” That happens to me every time I see an ad about electronics – TVs in particular. There are some pretty ridiculous ones out there. (Exactly how can I tell that your brand of TV has a sharper picture and better color when I am watching the commercial on my different brand of TV? Holy Carp! That TV has a 7 million to 1 contrast ratio with supra in-plane pixel switching and a 690 Hz motion refresh rate.) This has been going on for a lot longer than we care to realize. Here is the commercial for the very first flat panel TV from Phillips.
In their eagerness to sell you something, advertisers tend towards three approaches. 1. They over simplify the product to highlight a single feature. 2. They exaggerate or make overboard claims about what the product can do for you. 3. They include too much information about the product. Most of it being technical jargon that means nothing to the average consumer.
In the case of the Phillips TV commercial, they chose number 1. “The TV is flat like a picture. It can hang on the wall like a picture. So let’s show some cool young hipsters hanging it on a wall like a picture, and then enjoy watching a flat TV hanging on a wall like a picture! Cool! Totally Awesome!”
I see the commercial and think there is no power on the wall for the TV. There is no cabling for the TV. There are no video sources in the room for the TV. Where is the mounting bracket for the TV? That window is going to cause some wicked glare off that TV.
The coolness of the TV being flat is lost on me because the commercial does not depict the TV in a realistic way. Am I expected to believe that I can take the TV, hang on the wall and start watching TV? Really? C’mon! Advertise the TV in a real world application and then I might say “Awesome!”
Brian Mitchell at eCoustics.com wrote an article titled “Ten Reasons why 3-d TV May Fail“ about the problems with 3-D technology in the home. Are people really going to want to put on 3-D glasses every time they watch TV? Are existing systems compatible with 3-D or are we going to have change every component? What about the lack of content? While he is not saying that it will fail, he makes several valid points as to why it could.
Stephen Hopkins over at CEPro.com feels that Mitchell is blaspheming and counters with the article “Ten Reasons Why 3d Will Succeed.” He argues each of Mitchell’s points such as stating that 3-D glasses are temporary until auto-stereoscopic technologies develop, but he does not really say why 3-D will succeed. Hopkins subtitled his article “Why 3D will find an important niche in the home theater experience” but fails to address this at all.
Take a moment to read through the articles. Both Mitchell and Hopkins make good arguments, but they missed a few. Here are my top 5 reasons why 3d could go either way.
1. Avatar looked amazing in 3-D on a giant screen. It was very realistic and totally immersive. At times I had physical reactions like motion sickness and vertigo because of what was happening on the big screen. I do not think the move is going to look the same or even come close to achieving the same effect on my 47″ TV. So how big a TV do you need to have until a 3-D movie or program gives you the same feeling it did in the theater – 50″, 65″, 80″, 100″?
2. I already wear glasses to watch TV as do millions of people. I hate having to put on a second pair to watch a movie in the theater. Doing that at home just to watch TV? No way! If I only had to wear one pair? Maybe.
3. Right now content is limited but that will change. The bigger question is will 3-D strive to be the standard format or is it going to become a feature used for special events and movies? Is everything I watch like the local news eventually going to be in 3-D or will only programs like the Super Bowl or the Olympics be broadcast in 3-D? I think 3-D will be adopted more quickly if only certain programs are in 3-D.
4. Gamers will be among the earliest adopters and will become the biggest proponents for 3-D technology. Gaming, even more so than movies, is all about achieving an immersive experience. Gamers want to lose themselves in the Game and that is what 3-D does the best.
5. The novelty might wear off quickly. 3-D movies have come and gone for decades. We stand at the cusp where 3-D moves from being a gimmick to a legitimate story telling tool, but for every “Avatar” there will be a dozen “Clash of the Titans.” Home technology fads come and go – it is too early to tell if 3-D will work in the home.
Here is the before shot. This is a common problem. Notice the large CRT TV that has it’s own base that goes down to the floor. If you wanted to put a flat panel in its place, it would be impossible to find a base that would match.
Above is the after picture. We created a bottom piece that would match the existing cabinet and we mounted the flat panel to a floating false wall. Everything matched very nicely even though the existing cabinet was a manufactured cabinet with a weird stain. In the end the cabinet modification we did was seamless and looked like it had always been like that.
Posted by David on Monday Feb 8, 2010 Under Need to know
Ok, its getting kinda crazy, but it seems that the price of flat panels are countinuing to fall. There is really no better time to get your hands on a flat panel. We carry a lot of the same brands that you find at Best Buy, Costco, Sams and Conns. In fact, we price match those stores, so why go through the hassle of fighting the traffic and loading? We can bring it to your house, mount it on the wall and teach you how to use it all with just a simple call (817)346-4500
