Parents are upgrading to Flatscreen and HDTV

I never thought I would see the day... it took about 20 years for
them to get touch tone phones, and now I get an email saying they want
a flat screen TV and HD service from Comcast.
I had to read it twice and call them up to make sure they weren't
joking.
They're not.
Now, I have some questions. Mom won't want wires hanging all over the
place. I'm thinking we should have a contractor come in, install an
outlet where the TV will hang and fish some various A/V wires in the
wall down to the dcorner where we'll have the VCR (yes we still need
it) DVD and cable box.
The reason they're upgrading is they hate the BIIIG hutch the TV is
in. If you view the video below you'll see why. Its in the way.
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=3y7gz2s

The wall I think they want it on is the one between those two lamps.
The TV right now is on the left near the brick wall.
The house is a rancher so its all on one level with a basement, so we
can access the area under the tile floor somewhat easily, in most
areas.

So what wold be the best way to go about this? We're looking for a 26
inch TV and the best way to go about hooking it up, without the room
looking like a computer center with cables all over the place.

"Edward" wrote in message
oups.com...
I never thought I would see the day... it took about 20 years for
them to get touch tone phones, and now I get an email saying they want
a flat screen TV and HD service from Comcast.
I had to read it twice and call them up to make sure they weren't
joking.
They're not.
Now, I have some questions. Mom won't want wires hanging all over the
place. I'm thinking we should have a contractor come in, install an
outlet where the TV will hang and fish some various A/V wires in the
wall down to the dcorner where we'll have the VCR (yes we still need
it) DVD and cable box.
The reason they're upgrading is they hate the BIIIG hutch the TV is
in. If you view the video below you'll see why. Its in the way.
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=3y7gz2s

The wall I think they want it on is the one between those two lamps.
The TV right now is on the left near the brick wall.
The house is a rancher so its all on one level with a basement, so we
can access the area under the tile floor somewhat easily, in most
areas.

So what wold be the best way to go about this? We're looking for a 26
inch TV and the best way to go about hooking it up, without the room
looking like a computer center with cables all over the place.

Rather than cut up a wall, you might want to check out furniture designed
specifically for table-top placement flat screens. The demand is for this
type of furniture is creating excellent choices. These pieces are very
attractive and come in depths as narrow as 16" - your TV sits on top using
its own stand, your VCR, satellite receiver, DVR, etc is placed beside or
below in glass doors.

The reason I would hesitate cutting up a wall is that it is permanent, and
also you would need in-wall plumbing with enough space to run all the wires
(and ends) through and also would want to option to add different cables
later. They may decide to upgrade to a DVR later on and this would require
more component or HDMI cable.

I might add that they may want to rethink the choice of a 26" widescreen for
that room and maybe consider something larger. Even though they are getting
HD from cable, most of their programming will be in standard definition and
that will be received in 4:3 ratio which means that on their 26" screen, it
will actually be a 20" diag picture with black bars on the side. The TV
(and maybe cable box) will have stretch and zoom options but they do have
their drawbacks. The stretch feature will spread the existing picture out
but everything will appear fatter - no good (for me anyway). Zoom blows up
the whole picture so the entire width of the screen is used, but it normally
cuts off the top and bottom on the picture - this is OK unless you want to
read the ticker at the bottom of sports and news stations. Also - there is
some degrading of picture quality when zooming. LCD is a bit worse handling
SD signal than plasma.

JimK wrote:
On 4 Mar 2007 09:38:54 -0800, "Edward"
wrote:


I never thought I would see the day... it took about 20 years for
them to get touch tone phones, and now I get an email saying they want
a flat screen TV and HD service from Comcast.
I had to read it twice and call them up to make sure they weren't
joking.
They're not.
Now, I have some questions. Mom won't want wires hanging all over the
place. I'm thinking we should have a contractor come in, install an
outlet where the TV will hang and fish some various A/V wires in the
wall down to the dcorner where we'll have the VCR (yes we still need
it) DVD and cable box.
The reason they're upgrading is they hate the BIIIG hutch the TV is
in. If you view the video below you'll see why. Its in the way.
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=3y7gz2s

The wall I think they want it on is the one between those two lamps.
The TV right now is on the left near the brick wall.
The house is a rancher so its all on one level with a basement, so we
can access the area under the tile floor somewhat easily, in most
areas.

So what wold be the best way to go about this? We're looking for a 26
inch TV and the best way to go about hooking it up, without the room
looking like a computer center with cables all over the place.


26 inch is kind of small for HD (unless your going view from 4 feet
away).

TV size (in inches) divide by 7 equals viewing distance (feet)
http://www.myhometheater.homestead.c...alculator.html


That ratio exists only to sell large TV sets. People were happy with
21 inch diagonal picture tubes for many years.

Using that calculation suggests that viewers of 21 inch diagonal sets
should have been watching from 3 feet away.

Three feet is a good viewing distance for my 9 inch Sony Trinitron.

On Mar 4, 4:12 pm, jack ak wrote:
JimK wrote:
On 4 Mar 2007 09:38:54 -0800, "Edward"
wrote:

I never thought I would see the day... it took about 20 years for
them to get touch tone phones, and now I get an email saying they want
a flat screen TV and HD service from Comcast.
I had to read it twice and call them up to make sure they weren't
joking.
They're not.
Now, I have some questions. Mom won't want wires hanging all over the
place. I'm thinking we should have a contractor come in, install an
outlet where the TV will hang and fish some various A/V wires in the
wall down to the dcorner where we'll have the VCR (yes we still need
it) DVD and cable box.
The reason they're upgrading is they hate the BIIIG hutch the TV is
in. If you view the video below you'll see why. Its in the way.
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=3y7gz2s

The wall I think they want it on is the one between those two lamps.
The TV right now is on the left near the brick wall.
The house is a rancher so its all on one level with a basement, so we
can access the area under the tile floor somewhat easily, in most
areas.

So what wold be the best way to go about this? We're looking for a 26
inch TV and the best way to go about hooking it up, without the room
looking like a computer center with cables all over the place.

26 inch is kind of small for HD (unless your going view from 4 feet
away).

TV size (in inches) divide by 7 equals viewing distance (feet)
http://www.myhometheater.homestead.c...alculator.html

That ratio exists only to sell large TV sets. People were happy with
21 inch diagonal picture tubes for many years.

People were happy with 8 track tapes, rotary telephones and the horse
and carriage for many years as well.

Using that calculation suggests that viewers of 21 inch diagonal sets
should have been watching from 3 feet away.

How close do you sit to your 17 or 19" computer monitor?

I rarely watch a video on my computer, but my eyes are 20" away from
my 19" monitor. It's very comfortable.

Older 21" sets looked like crap from close range because the signal
and the technology was crap, compared to 1080i or 720p. That's the
whole point of HD, you can blow the pic up 5 fold and still have
something that exceeds the older 21" picture.

In article jack ak writes:
JimK wrote:
26 inch is kind of small for HD (unless your going view from 4 feet
away).

TV size (in inches) divide by 7 equals viewing distance (feet)
http://www.myhometheater.homestead.c...alculator.html


That ratio exists only to sell large TV sets. People were happy with
21 inch diagonal picture tubes for many years.

Using that calculation suggests that viewers of 21 inch diagonal sets
should have been watching from 3 feet away.


No, because your 21 inch set was running rather seriously lower resolution.
The calculation is based on the distance between pixels on the screen, and
the number of pixels on a HD screen. If you have a lower-res screen, you need
to be farther away.

It also is based on a screen shape of 16:9 for a 4:3 size, you need to adjust
so multiply by 1.225 to correct for that.

The resolution of a SD screen is about 2.25 less per inch, so you need to be
3 * 2.25 * 1.225 = 8.27 feet


Three feet is a good viewing distance for my 9 inch Sony Trinitron.


By the same formula, 3.54 feet would be recommended.


Alan

On Mar 4, 1:51 pm, "Stevie" wrote:
"Edward" wrote in message

oups.com...





I never thought I would see the day... it took about 20 years for
them to get touch tone phones, and now I get an email saying they want
a flat screen TV and HD service from Comcast.
I had to read it twice and call them up to make sure they weren't
joking.
They're not.
Now, I have some questions. Mom won't want wires hanging all over the
place. I'm thinking we should have a contractor come in, install an
outlet where the TV will hang and fish some various A/V wires in the
wall down to the dcorner where we'll have the VCR (yes we still need
it) DVD and cable box.
The reason they're upgrading is they hate the BIIIG hutch the TV is
in. If you view the video below you'll see why. Its in the way.
http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=3y7gz2s

The wall I think they want it on is the one between those two lamps.
The TV right now is on the left near the brick wall.
The house is a rancher so its all on one level with a basement, so we
can access the area under the tile floor somewhat easily, in most
areas.

So what wold be the best way to go about this? We're looking for a 26
inch TV and the best way to go about hooking it up, without the room
looking like a computer center with cables all over the place.

Rather than cut up a wall, you might want to check out furniture designed
specifically for table-top placement flat screens. The demand is for this
type of furniture is creating excellent choices. These pieces are very
attractive and come in depths as narrow as 16" - your TV sits on top using
its own stand, your VCR, satellite receiver, DVR, etc is placed beside or
below in glass doors.

Good point.
Ok, thats the infor I need. No holes int he wall.
The problem is the woman effect - no wires can be visible.
When I had my first apartment there was a set of composite cables
running along the wall to the PC. She tells me "No girl will take you
seriously with a wire goign accross the place." I leave and come back
and notice there is a new Vietnam of plantlife along that wall - for
the sole putpose of hiding those wires.
The plants lasted all of two weeks.


The reason I would hesitate cutting up a wall is that it is permanent, and
also you would need in-wall plumbing with enough space to run all the wires
(and ends) through and also would want to option to add different cables
later. They may decide to upgrade to a DVR later on and this would require
more component or HDMI cable.

I might add that they may want to rethink the choice of a 26" widescreen for
that room and maybe consider something larger. Even though they are getting
HD from cable, most of their programming will be in standard definition and
that will be received in 4:3 ratio which means that on their 26" screen, it
will actually be a 20" diag picture with black bars on the side. The TV
(and maybe cable box) will have stretch and zoom options but they do have
their drawbacks. The stretch feature will spread the existing picture out
but everything will appear fatter - no good (for me anyway). Zoom blows up
the whole picture so the entire width of the screen is used, but it normally
cuts off the top and bottom on the picture - this is OK unless you want to
read the ticker at the bottom of sports and news stations. Also - there is
some degrading of picture quality when zooming. LCD is a bit worse handling
SD signal than plasma.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


I'm suggesting they go with 36 inch, I forgot the screen will be wider
than it is high.
Another question, how many HDMI ports will there be on the back of
most sets?
I'm hoping at least two, one for the DVD player, one for the cable
box, then a few composite and component plugs for the VCR.
One unit I checked out at Best Buy.com has composite OUT - which would
be nice for video capturing - youtube and the like. But that's
irrelevent.

jack ak wrote:

That ratio exists only to sell large TV sets.

Agree

the sizes are ridiculously big using that formula

On Sun, 04 Mar 2007 13:12:09 -0800, jack ak wrote:

JimK wrote:
26 inch is kind of small for HD (unless your going view from 4 feet
away).

TV size (in inches) divide by 7 equals viewing distance (feet)
http://www.myhometheater.homestead.c...alculator.html


That ratio exists only to sell large TV sets. People were happy with
21 inch diagonal picture tubes for many years.

Using that calculation suggests that viewers of 21 inch diagonal sets
should have been watching from 3 feet away.

Three feet is a good viewing distance for my 9 inch Sony Trinitron.

A 21" 16:9 is a lot smaller than a 4:3 21" set, so you would need to
closer to the 16:9 set to the image appear as large as the 4:3 set.
Roughly 25% closer. And overall, there's less viewing area on a 21" 16:9
set than a 21" 4:3 set. Roughly 20% less. Also, images aren't proportional
to viewing distances. IOW's, There's a large difference between 2 and 5
feet, but not so much from 5 to 8 feet. Find what you like and use it.
there's is nothing other than that that matters.

--
Want the ultimate in free OTA SD/HDTV Recorder? http://mythtv.org
http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html Usenet alt.video.ptv.mythtv
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Edward wrote:
I never thought I would see the day... it took about 20 years for
them to get touch tone phones, and now I get an email saying they want
a flat screen TV and HD service from Comcast.
I had to read it twice and call them up to make sure they weren't
joking.
They're not.
Now, I have some questions. Mom won't want wires hanging all over the
place. I'm thinking we should have a contractor come in, install an
outlet where the TV will hang and fish some various A/V wires in the
wall down to the dcorner where we'll have the VCR (yes we still need
it) DVD and cable box.

Any reason not to have a chase made that would go up the outside of the
wall from the top of the baseboard and open behind the display. Power
and multiple signal cables would fit easily in a 2"x6" chase. Painted
the same color as the wall a chase would essentially disappear.

Matthew

--
I'm a consultant. If you want an opinion I'll sell you one.
Which one do you want?

I'm suggesting they go with 36 inch, I forgot the screen will be wider
than it is high.
Another question, how many HDMI ports will there be on the back of
most sets?
I'm hoping at least two, one for the DVD player, one for the cable
box, then a few composite and component plugs for the VCR.
One unit I checked out at Best Buy.com has composite OUT - which would
be nice for video capturing - youtube and the like. But that's
irrelevent.

Most 720p sets have at least 2 HDMI/composite inputs but it varies. You
have the right idea - at least 2 HD connections (composite or HDMI) and one
or two component inputs (video/audio) and also one or two coax antenna
inputs. So besides all the other factors involved in picking out a TV, the
number of inputs will affect your choice. Here's the big thing to consider.
Plasma or LCD? Most all plasma screens are highly reflective which means
that if there are windows in the viewing angle, it could make the set
unwatchable. Plasma does handle standard definition (SD) signals better
than LCD. Even though your parents will be getting HD, most stations will
still be in SD. LCD screens are much less reflective and window reflections
will not be a problem. However, LCD screens tend to produce more artifacts
(imperfections) with SD with a less clear picture. So there is a trade-off
with each type.

I chose LCD because of all the windows on one side of my viewing area. I
don't regret the LCD decision one bit.

The window situation in the room should be evaluated and they can do this by
putting a similar-sized mirror where the TV will be placed. Look at it from
all possible viewing angles to see if a window can be seen.

Also - when in the show room, have the salesman switch the TVs to standard
definition so you can see the real-life differences between LCD and plasma.
Stand back away from the sets too so you can get a fair look at what you
will be seeing, It's tempting to make a decision based on what you see at
2' range but be realistic about viewing distances.