Monday, April 28, 2008

Another supplier part 2


Here's another source for decorative tv frames.


a good overview article

Vicki Churchill writes about choosing/mounting plasma tvs. Good writeup.

QFX Robotic Frame


A designer picture frame that surrounds a flat panel tv and comes with a robotic arm that adjusts the tv's position. See this blog post for more info.

TV Frame or Room Divider? Both.


Here's one for the fabprefab fans. Check it out, a room divider with a TV that swivels.


Sanus Optical Mirror Kits


Alot of the solutions out there have an optical mirror incorporated into the tv frame. The idea is when the tv is on, the mirror effect goes away. But when you turn off the tv, the mirror begins to function again. Here's a good picture showing the effect:


Sanus Decorative TV Frames


Here's another manufacturer of not just tv frames but lots of tv mounts & cabinets, etc. Here is the section with decorative tv frames. Many units include an infrared repeater kit.

And here is a Sanus reseller.



Sunday, April 27, 2008

Framing your Television


Here's a very good overview article with 5 tips to follow when planning to frame your TV.


The pic on the left came from a California company's website. Nice, I like it.

Another supplier

Link to plantation homes offering of tv frames for flat panel televisions.

Mounting view


In case you're thinking of creating your own frame for a flat panel TV, here's a decent clue.



It's coming from this webpage.

Wholesaleflatscreenframes.com: I like it



Here's another company manufacturering frames for flat panel TV's. They've got a pretty good gallery of how things will look after you place your LCD in a frame. They claim to offer the lowest priced custom hand made frames for flat panel TVs in the USA.








Westinghouse Decor Frames

I guess if you check the date on this announcement and believe the copy, Westinghouse was the first manufacturer to release a flat panel TV built to accomodate framing. I think this quote from Douglas Woo, president of Westinghouse summarizes the consumer sentiment very well for TV's that look more like furniture than traditional TVs:

"Westinghouse Décor™ frames are an extension of the popular ‘skin’ concept for consumer electronics products today which enable consumers to customize the look of their cell phones, car radios and MP3 players"
-Douglas Woo, president of Westinghouse Digital

Here was the original presss release back in 2005 made during CES 2005.

What's dissappointing is you can search Westinghouse's website for days and you wont find anything...at least I couldnt....about the frame choices. Here's a youtube review too of a frame ready westinghouse.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Sony picture frame style HD TV's


Here's a reghardware review of Sony's picture frame TV's. This is the Bravia W4000 line of televisions.


Why is this particular TV mentioned on this blog? The TV's come with the ability to display art uploaded from USB or bundled along with. So, get your frame elsewhere but use this TV since it offers a cool feature that saves 35% energy over a TV that's actually displaying video.

Of more interest however is the just announced E4000 that specifically pits itself as a Picture Frame with a TV attached. See photo appended herewith.


Older Chip Chick review


Chief Manufacturing review from Chip Chick on frames for lcd or plasma tvs. A little dated but we're trying to pull all the television frame info together in one blog here. Here's the manufacturer's link as well.

Crate & Barrel TV Stands




From Crate & Barrel we find not so much a frame per se but a piece of furniture that allows for a stylish mounting of an LCD or Plasma TV. It's called the Loop Media center.


Here's a similar offering called the Kyota Kona Entertainment center.






Pottery Barn TV Frames


Here's the link to Pottery Barn's TV Frame offering. Two colors in 3 sizes which accomodate 37", 42" and 50 " flat-panel TVs.
Prices range from $399 to $599 as of April 2008 with $75/shipping.


Panasonic Plasma TV Frames




Here's a gizmodo review on Panasonic's television frame offerings. Panasonic offers consumers 8 frames to choose from and the underlying TVs cost anywhere from $2500-$3000. Also covered by beststuff.




WBZ-TV on TV Frames for LCD or Plasma

Very good local tv news piece covering the whole phenomena of Television frames.

Westinghouse LCD TV

Here's a HomeToy's review of Westinghouse LCD TV's which feature the ability to snap on what they refer to as "Art Frames." These include the acoustical mats and do not interfere with the infrared signal for the remote.


Excerpt from the article:


Hanging televisions on the wall is a cultural phenomenon that continues to expand, as consumers increasingly desire transformation of their living space as well as of their entertainment experience. Entertainment is transformed by all of the options available through the LCD TV platform, whether it be surfing the Internet, reading email, playing video games, or watching movies, or cable, satellite or broadcast television. Home décor is transformed by the Art Frames, as the television now adds a stylish touch to any room in the house.



Review: FrameMyTV.com

I first discovered frames for LCD or Plasma TVs via items found in Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn catalogues. And in future posts, I will link to those items. But it seems quite fair to launch this blog by highlighting what appears to be the company or website most fully developed to deliver frames for LCD or Plasma TVs.



The site is http://www.framemytv.com/



The site contains a style gallery and a wizard based system to design your own custom frame to match your LCD or Plasma TV. Simply click on your TV brand and model, and the site automatically shows you pictures of Frame styles you can choose from. It automatically detects if your Tv has specialized speakers and provies you with an acoustic mat to mask their appearance and allow the to function optimally in the frame. Yes, choose your own color, style, etc but there's some very crazy options like putting your TV behind a smoky mirror that dissappears when the TV is on and returns when it is turned off. Tell me that is not awesome!!



This is really great stuff here but yes, there is a small catch. Compared to the price of your TV, it can be somewhat expensive....I priced out a 47In HP LCD with mirror, etc and it came out to over $1000. But, if you compare the life of your current LCD or plasma TV to previous TV's you've owned, I think you can see that the investment could possibly last much longer and thus be well worth it! Also, compare this to a Philips TV with built in mirror feature which helps bring the TV cost to over $8000.



There's alot to this website/company, so you can expect to see other posts tagged as framemytv.



By the way, can someone please tell me how to invest in this company?????? I'm serious.

Frames for LCD TVs, Frames for Plasma TVs

The purpose of this blog is to track all things related to LCD/Plasma TV Frames that are becoming more popular and stylish. To that end, we will post the latest news and reviews of TV frames as well as post links to places you can purchase these TV frames.


I started this blog because there arent alot of internet resources focused on where to acquire frames for TVs. Yet, in 2006, there were 57mil TVs sold of which 40% were LCD or Plasma. That means something like 20Mil TVs sold in 2006 could benefit from the visual enhancement that a TV frame can provide. An enormous submarket indeed!