Upgrading Your TV Cabinet

We at Supercalibrations have had the opportunity over the last 20+ years to work with quite a few high quality cabinet makers. In almost any new or remodeled home, a cabinet is built to house the television, associated electronics and loudspeakers. This "Family Room" tends to become the primary viewing area. Hours of family fun! In this scenario cabinet doors can be closed, hiding the equipment, allowing for a nice aesthetic match to the rest of the interior. Although I will say that if memory serves me correctly, these doors are almost always open! The most popular television size for a "family room" arrangement is 50" diagonal or so. Most, if not all of these are of the rear projection variety and until recently very few of them were compatible with HDTV.

In the last year or two we have found ourselves redesigning these cabinets to accommodate the latest widescreen High Defi nition displays including plasma and LCD panels along with HD rear projectors.

Of course, as the term "widescreen" indicates these new sets are much more rectangular than the existing television. So the question becomes: how do I upgrade to HDTV and still maintain the beautiful cabinetry? Well, with the help of cabinet makers we have been able to squeeze in 42" and 50" plasmas (or other designs) into existing cabinets while still maintaining the clean, custom look. 42" displays are around 40" wide with 50" versions approximately 49". We recommend models sans built-in loudspeakers as this saves valuable horizontal space.

Sometimes the new model just drops in and other times surgery is required. We might suggest upgrading electronics as well, such as surround sound amplifi ers, Tivo's and DVD players. All have new features worth considering.

Our standard policy is to gladly off er a free estimate to anyone interested in upgrading an existing cabinet and television to HDTV, etc. As you might suspect, the price to performance ratio is much higher now than a few years ago...

The new model TV might well be less expensive than your existing display with a much improved picture! A nice Christmas gift for the family? We look forward to hearing from you!