By Katherine Salant
Saturday, May 5, 2007

A half-century or so ago, the choice in televisions was limited. Only black-and-white sets were available, and the largest screens were 24 inches. The set was encased in its own cabinetry and nestled among the rest of the furniture in the living room.

How things have changed. Today, a homeowner who wants to purchase a television faces mind-boggling choices.

There are different types of televisions, an enormous range in screen size, and nuances in picture quality and resolution to satisfy the most persnickety movie buff or the sports nut who wants to watch instant replay with minimal blurring. And there's a price to fit almost every homeowner's budget.

The old-style set, called a cathode ray tube, or CRT, is more compact than it was 50 years ago, but relative to the newer sets, it's heavy and bulky. It still occupies floor space, either on a table or in a sizable armoire.

A liquid-crystal diode television, usually called an LCD, and a plasma set are, by comparison, extremely compact. With circuitry tucked behind the screen and a depth of about 6 inches, they can be hung on the wall like art. Screen sizes can range from 7 inches to 60 inches.

A rear-projection set is bulky and big, but it's the most affordable option if you have your heart set on a 61-inch screen.

If you're building a house, a critical difference between the old and new televisions is the wiring. It can be concealed behind the walls if you plan ahead and tell your builder where to put your cable outlets.

Where might you want a television in your new house? A recent interview with Dave Wilson, a home technology integrator in Orlando, suggests that there's a set for every household activity. Though you could have one in every room, some locations are more sensible than others.

For example, you may be spending a fair amount of time in the laundry room, especially if you have young children or do laundry every day. A television can be a welcome diversion as you sort loads and fold clean clothes, and, most of all, as you iron (surely the most odious chore of them all). As most laundry rooms are compact spaces, Wilson recommends a wall-mounted, 15-inch LCD.

Another spot you might not have considered is the master bathroom. Wilson's clients often want one there so they can catch the news and weather as they start their day. In the past, he rarely did it because of the challenges and cost involved in trying to install one of the old-style clunkers -- you had to steal space from an adjoining room to create a niche big enough to house the TV.

With the new, compact, wall-mounted sets, however, you can put one almost anywhere in a bathroom, including behind a mirror, Wilson said. The decision for today's homeowners is how many sets in your master bathroom and where.

In some bathrooms, one set will suffice because you can see it from both vanities and the tub. But Wilson said it's not uncommon to install three because the vanities are quite separate and the tub is in its own alcove. To avoid cacophony when both spouses get ready for work at the same time, they have to agree on the station, he added. The set by the tub could be watched during a relaxing soak on the weekend or at the end of a workday. Maybe no one would watch an entire movie, but it's a nice place to watch the evening news or perhaps one show, Wilson said. He uses a 15-inch LCD in the vanity area. For the tub area, many homeowners want a bigger screen, and he's installed LCDs as large as 46 inches.

A television for the home office is another increasingly popular option, Wilson said. Although some people engage in solitary pursuits in their home offices and regard a television as an intrusion, others need to follow the news and stock quotes through the day. The challenge is placing the screen so that you can glance at it without being distracted as you work. Wilson has tucked an LCD into a bookcase by the desk, and he's also hung one on the wall so it can be seen by swiveling a chair or looking up.

Kitchen televisions are also becoming increasingly common. Although that room is the center of family life in most households, it's also a room where the cook is likely to spend a lot of time alone, especially if he or she gets home from work and starts preparing the meal before the rest of the household arrives. In those instances, a television can be good company. Because you will be listening more than you're watching -- chopping vegetables and stirring sauces require your full attention -- a small screen can work well, Wilson said. He likes to tuck a 15-inch LCD that flips down for viewing under a wall cabinet by your food-prep area or, where possible, position a wall-mounted LCD so family members sitting at the kitchen counter can also see it.

The place where the most people want a big-screen set is the family room, and most want the biggest they can afford. Wilson advised that to maximize your enjoyment, you need to consider factors other than size, including the viewing angle, the proportions of the screen, the degree of contrast, glare and the sharpness of the image, which can vary from one set to another.

The salespeople in locally owned, upscale appliance stores or national chains are generally quite knowledgeable on the technical end of things. But they can't predict how well a particular set will work for you without seeing the space where you want to view it. For example, a big screen in the store will often look even bigger in your family room and overwhelm the space, Wilson said. To see if the size you want is a good fit, he suggested making a mock-up of the actual screen size and tacking it to the wall. You'll quickly decide if it looks right or ridiculous.

Viewing distance should also be taken into consideration. The bigger the screen, the farther back you must sit to watch it comfortably. The rule of thumb, Wilson said, is that viewing distance is 1 1/2 to 2 times the width of the screen. For example, a 56-inch screen has a width of 46 to 48 inches and requires a viewing distance of about 6 to 8 feet. For most family rooms, a 50- to 60-inch screen works best, he said.

Another issue with big screens in family rooms is where to put them. Bowing to the tradition of "home and hearth," many homeowners want to arrange their furniture around the fireplace. But they also want to arrange the furniture for maximum comfort while watching television. You can have both if you hang the set above the fireplace, Wilson said. Some homeowners think this looks terrible when the set is turned off. For these instances, he covers it with a retractable piece of art. For this arrangement to look right, he added, the size of the fireplace and the television screen should be similar. If your fireplace measures 42 inches on the diagonal, you would want a 42-inch LCD or plasma set. But other factors can also come into play, he said. If you have a long mantelpiece, a 50-inch screen might look okay.

Katherine Salant can be contacted via her Web site, http://www.katherinesalant.com.

Copyright 2007, Katherine Salant

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