HD TV & HOME THEATRES
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What’s the best location for my new HDTV?
One of the first steps many customers encounter when they buy a new HDTV is where to place it.
The old TV location may no longer be appropriate simply due to the lack of space.
Whereas the old TV was a big 36” the new replacement will most likely fall into the 42”-60” range and the old cabinets offered expanded height but not width.
Many consumers are forced to give up or change entertainment centers.
This, along with the desired “picture like” clean applications has prompted the increase in wall hung units.
This offers the benefits of the sexy-clean look along with increased room and reduced clutter.
It’s not uncommon now for the equipment to be located in another area of the room or in another room altogether.
And the box speakers have been replaced with in-wall or in-ceiling models to further increase the room space and reduce clutter.
Ideally the HDTV is at eye level, or slightly above when seated in your favorite chair.
It should also be located in an area that minimizes glare from ambient light sources like windows or lamps, and yet remain viewable to all seating locations.
After all, you need enough room for the family and friends.
Other things to consider would be the ability to provide the necessary cabling to give your new HDTV the best possible signal sources.
If this is to be a “theater style” room, will the noise generated bother adjoining rooms? Several customers opt for a more formal HDTV room when surround sound isn’t a requirement,
and then have a full blown dedicated media/game/movie room elsewhere in the house or basement.
As popular as “above the fireplace” is for HDTV mounting, it should be considered a last resort.
The height is usually too high to provide comfortable viewing for extended periods and above a heat source is never ideal for electronics.
This type of mount can also hinder accessibility for cables and power depending on the materials used on the fireplace.
However, sometimes above a fireplace is the only place available, for both aesthetics and special reasons.
In these cases, there are products like tilting mounts that help alleviate the shortfalls.
What kind of HDTV should I chose?
Once the location is chosen, the next step would be what equipment to use. Plasma or LCD? DLP or maybe DILA? How big? Are questions often asked.
Plasma TV’s offer a wide variety of viewing angles with little to no distortion if seating locations are at a premium.
They often have richer colors and a faster refresh rate to reduce motion artifacts.
LCD’s have also come a long way in reducing motion artifacts and offer a brighter picture for rooms with more ambient light.
They are also available in a wider size range than plasmas.
As far as size is concerned,( 20% to 25% the viewing distance) x 2 is a good estimate for the proper diagonal size.
(IE. 10ft away= 20%-25% of 120” = 20”-30” x 2 or 40” – 60” would be the range.)
With today’s 1080P sets we encourage customers to “round up” in size and go for the larger set.
The picture clarity won’t be compromised and you’ll enjoy the larger image for what is usually a small increase in price.
While 1080P seems to be the standard on sets less than 60”, the advantages are often debated.
And currently only Blu-Ray/PS3 and HDDVD/Xbox 360 media provide a true 1080P source.
It does seem however those other sources could head that way and that at least 1080P will be where it stops for now.
For the majority of us, the human eye has trouble discerning resolutions greater than that.
Will my new HDTV work with any of my old equipment?
Other things to consider when choosing equipment, is the ability of that equipment to integrate with all your other components, even your home computer or laptop.
Does your A/V receiver switch to HDMI? Or will you use your HDTV as a video switcher, and you’re A/V receiver has the audio switcher?
Does your equipment have enough inputs of the appropriate type to connect all your devices correctly?
Does it allow for future expansion? Does the equipment offer discreet Infra-Red control to ease in the day to day operation?
An often overlooked aspect of the new HDTV setups is control.
How do I turn it all on and off? There are several styles of remote controls available that will replace your many remotes with one single remote.
This will greatly increase your confidence in operating your system, after all, if you can’t operate your new system, is it really better?
What about hooking it all up and the adjustments?
Often the final step after the location, equipment and control issues have been addressed is the physical hook-up, configuring, and calibrating of your new hardware.
For instance, many DVD players need to be setup to output Dolby Digital.
Or the satellite box might need to know the resolution of your display as well as to output in Dolby Digital.
Even when all your equipment is cabled up correctly it does not insure that it is set to optimize your equipment.
Then we have to think about calibration. Many new AV receivers come installed with some form of computer software that automatically sets speaker size, distance,
and level and even adjust for specific room EQ.’s. This can also be done manually with the use of a tape measure and SPL meter.
There are a variety of DVD’s available to help calibrate the video settings of your display. All designed to fine tune and make your viewing experience the best possible.
View the article at WEAU TV 13
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