HDTV mood lighting
Everyone wants the movie theater experience at home, and the best way to achieve that is through controlled lighting. You may be tempted to watch movies in complete darkness, but unless you have a big-screen projector or are sitting at the minimum optimal viewing distance, this can cause eyestrain.For bright plasmas and smaller, direct-view sets, the ideal setup is to place a dim light directly behind the TV and leave the rest of the room dark. Look for special "daylight" bulbs that glow at 6,500 degrees Kelvin. You also should prevent any light in the room from reflecting off the TV, as glare will hamper image fidelity. Watching at night is best, but if you watch during the day, thick curtains will really improve the picture.
Before you make any picture adjustments (color, saturation, tint, and so forth), always set the room lighting. For viewing in brighter environments, try the HDTV presets, such as Standard, Sports, or Vivid, and reserve the custom settings for when there is optimal lighting.
Programming your TV's remote control
Reducing the work of several remotes to one will make your home theater system easier to operate. Universal remotes may be either preprogrammed (with an internal library of control codes), learning (capable of transferring commands from other remotes), or both. Higher-end models can be programmed via a PC interface.
Better remotes have a macro feature that can group several commands under one or two keystrokes. Use macros to handle recurring command sequences, for instance: Turn on TV, turn on receiver, turn on DVD player, open DVD player drawer. Or: Power down all these components.
Cabinets and other TV mounts
Unless your room is huge, avoid putting a large TV display in a cabinet. The cabinet will bulk out even larger than the set itself, making the room seem smaller, while sound quality will suffer grievously. Allow space for other components such as discs and tapes; consider the equipment’s ventilation and cabling needs; and don't forget that TVs with side-mounted speakers will need extra space on the sides.TV mounts: Flat-panel and smaller direct-view sets can live on swivel mounts. In the kitchen, look for flip-down flat panels and under-cabinet tube TVs.
Manufacturers have been very creative in terms of housing television displays. LG offers a fridge with built-in 13-inch LCD TV (and radio). Philips has introduced an LCD television that is built into a bathroom vanity mirror.
