Is it possible to obtain a wood-trimmed flat-screen TV?

I love the resolution and compact size of a good flat-screen TV.

I despise the ugly silver-gray color that all televisions today are.

It used to be that televisions could be gotten with wood trim, so that your television could actually match the rest of your damn furniture instead of clashing with it. But it seems like this is no longer an option.

What I’d like to see is a flat-screen television with wood or even fake wood-grain trim around it. Does such a thing exist?

There was a company that was making wood enclosures for PC monitors (they’d take the guts out of a regular monitor case and stick it in a nice wooden one), and if they’re still around (IIRC, there was a thread about them) they probably have moved on to flat panels. The price tag for these things was pretty stiff as I recall.

You could always buy woodgrain contact paper and DIY. :wink:

There’s this Swedish Company.

A bit ugly in my opinion.

This is precisely what I’m looking for, except I wish the sides were straight rather than rounded, and I wish the wood was darker.

OK maybe it’s not precisely what I’m looking for. But it’s damn close.

I have a Samsung Plasma. I think it’s design would be fairly easy to cover with wood veneer. It’s mostly straight edges.

A thin backed veneer, some glue, light sand paper and a sharp knife and you’re ready to go.

Being a DIY-er, I think I’ll opt to apply the veneer myself.

Thanks a lot for that veneer link, by the way. Boy oh boy are there some nice woods there, at great prices. I’m going to be looking around for shit to put veneer on, just because of that site.

Yeah. Watch out for that stuff.

I got into that a few years back. It’s kind of fun and it can make a so-so item look tons better. But pretty soon you start eyeballing cardboard boxes, pots and pans, carpet. …

I’m in a recovering veneer support group at the moment. I don’t like to talk about it.

Modern flat panel plasma screens or larger LCDs typically need lots of cooling airflow. In whatever enclosure you do be careful about enclosing the chassis in any way that restricts airflow.

In addition to the cooling problem, keep in mind that the speakers are located on the sides you will be covering up. If the TV speakers are used, they will be very muffled and have no high frequency response unless numerous small holes are drilled into the veneer, or a speaker cutout and grill are used. This is probably a non-issue as most people who can afford these TVs probably also use a separate audio system.

Way back in the early 80s, I worked for Trimline, a company that did window tints and tape designs on cars.One of the tapes avaiable to us was a faux wood. Used on certain small Ford and Chevy trucks and Chrysler convertables to emulate the look of a classsic woody.

I would imagine that 3M still markets some form of wood grain tape. If so, you could even tape over speaker grills with it and just poke holes in the tape. A web search for 3M (or other brands) woodgrain tapes might be in order.

A little more than halfway down this page.

I have the same problem. Our living room TV is about 25 years old. A Zenith. Made in America (back when many things were actually made in America)

Beautiful cabinet. Got struck by lightning a couple years ago and has never been the same. Wierd colors on the sides and picture is blurry. Hurts my eyes to watch it, even though I do respect the fact that it is still working. (American technology and quality manufacturing ability was exellent long ago you know)

Can I get rid of the damned old thing?

No way in hell. My wife likes it----terrible picture and all.

WHY??

Because it is enclosed in a beautiful wood cabinet, colonial style,-----and the cabinet looks good in our living room.

I bought a brand new Cilnese made TV set ----a 27 incher (bigger than the 25 inch old dog set) Set it up in the living room to surprise my wife.

Do I get Huzzahs??. No way in hell. Beautiful picture from China didn’t mean squat.

“Get that ugly monstrosity out of my living room she said”

And so I did exactly that. Sitting in our bedroom now. Still ugly as hell. But the clarity is wonderful.

That’s the beauty of the Samsung I have. All the vents are on the back which wouldn’t need covering. There is one round power button on the front. 6 round buttons on the lower right side (volume, channel, etc).

It does have front speakers (bottom gray panel) but that would be easy enough. If I were to do this I think I’d put some black frabric over the speakers and cut a design in the veneer. Perhaps round-ish to match the round power button in the center. I don’t really use those speakers anyway.

ombre3: Ever thought of the idea of pulling the guts out of the nice box and replacing it with a new set of the same size?

“Ever thought of the idea of pulling the guts out of the nice box and replacing it with a new set of the same size?”

Be very sure you know what you are doing if you attempt it. Very high voltages exist inside tv cabinets. If you aren’t familiar with safe discharge procedures do not do this.

Besides, I would think it would be very difficult to find a modern TV with a tube that will match the bezel on your own cabinet. Older tubes had much more curvature than newer tubes, and of course now even most tube televisions have a flat screen, so you would have to modify the bezel around the tube at the very least. Mounting the new set inside the enclosure would also present a challenge.

Panasonic has a series of framed plasma TVs. For $400-$500 extra you can can get a decorative frame (like a picture frame) around the set.

Which suggests that you might be able somehow to apply a DIY frame around almost any flat-screen set.

Actually—I found another way around the problem. Bought a Cinego front projection set from Radio Shack-----for about a grand, on sale and with rebate. Excellent 9 foot diagonal HD picture shown on the wall on a pull down screen.

My wife gets to keep her old Zenith for as much as she wants to watch it.

And I get an awesome modern day technology TV set to watch whenever I want to------and it takes up really no space at all.

And I have found that the wife is starting to come over to new technology. She wants to watch the Cinego more and more.

If you’re talking about the Cinego D-1000, it’s not an HD projector. According to this fairly unfavorable review, its resolution is only “854-by-480 [pixels] (slightly exceeding the resolution of DVD video).” It’s 16:9, but not HD.

The only projectors I’ve seen that offer true HD (1080) cost about $10,000. There are less expensive models (around $5,000) that offer 768 resolution, but that’s not real HD in my book.

Probably true about the actual HD part with Radio Shack’s Cinego.

But I get an absolutely awesome 9 foot diagonal picture with what seems to me be excellent clarity with it just playing your ordinary DVD.

Is just like being in a movie theater.

Bring me the popcorn.

And ------for about a grand—I’ll take it. And like it.

I read that fairly unfavorable review----and a lot of it was silly.

The sound from the Cinego is barely adequate for any kind of good surround sound, but it is good enough for the portability of it. (Meant somewhat for salemen or trainers to carry onto the job in a little suitcase and set up in 5 minutes.) ----------but there is an output off the Cinego for the any quality Dolby 5.1 surround sound you might want to add to it.

“Unfavorable” was the fact that most all of the adjustments are found on the tiny remote. Was advised to never lose the remote. Well DUH -----ain’t most electronics today like that? Lose the remote and you are shit out of luck to do anything on anything more than basic stuff on anything made todayl

“Unfavorable” was some problems in the built in DVD player. But you can input any DVD player you want to and forget the built in one. (I think the built in DVD player was designed to be just minimal to add to the portability part of Cinego)

I only paid $1000 for it, (with sale price plus $100 rebate.)

I love the picture, even the slightly blurry 9 foot picture. Set closer it is much clearer. But even at a distance to give a 9 foot diagonal picture-------it is awesome. Even my old fashioned wife is seriously impressed.

Will give you that it is not true HD. Nowhere near 1080 for true HD.

But it does work very well for what I want.

Hey, if you’re happy with it, that’s all that matters. I only glanced at the review. My main concern was that maybe a salesman had told you you were getting HD.

Enjoy.