By now you’ve heard of, and are perhaps even sick of, the pending DTV transition. The government and consumer electronics industry leaders have been pumping out the ads, coupons and press releases galore in the hopes that confusion and panic will be minimized once analog goes dark. If this has all gone on without you, if you think you might’ve missed a step in the transition, or you’re just curious to see how it will really affect what you see on your TV, read on.

Since the DTV transition date was pushed back from February 17th to June 12th, more coupons have been distributed and more Americans are prepared for the switch. The FCC and other organizations have worked tirelessly to educate the public, getting those converter boxes into as many hands as possible and establishing call centers for support. For the latest news on who is still broadcasting in analog and how to get your hands on a converter box, go to the government website set up for this issue: http://www.dtv.gov/.

The first step you should take to prepare your home theater for the switch to DTV is to see if your TV already has a digital receiver. If so, you’re set. No coupon, no converter box, no tuning necessary. So how do you know if you’re one of the lucky ones spared the headache of additional components, cables and setup? Any TV manufactured after March 1st, 2007 must have a digital tuner. You can check with your TV manufacturer to make sure that yours fits into this category, but if you purchased after March 1st, 2007, you’re likely in the clear. However, manufacturers are able to sell older products that they had in their inventory after this date which may not have had a digital tuner installed. To be safe, do a quick search online for your TV make and model code and “digital tuner”.

If you have an older TV, you must install a converter box in order to receive the new digital broadcast signals. And it must be in place by June 12th, or you’ll be in the dark, with no access to local or national programming on your TV set. A digital-to-analog converter box is a device that will convert the digital broadcast to analog signals that your television set can read and display. These boxes are now selling at most consumer electronics stores for about $40 to $80, and the government coupon program (which can be accessed at http://www.dtv.gov/) will help to greatly offset this cost. Once you have your hands on the box, connecting it to your TV is relatively easy, and there are plenty of guides online (http://www.crutchfield.com/Learn/learningcenter/home/dtv.html).

Remember that this transition is not going to affect you if you currently subscribe to satellite or digital cable services. These will not be interrupted, as they do not rely on over-the-air analog broadcasting. Only local TV stations are currently using this analog broadcasting, and it is those 15 or 20 million consumers who receive local TV broadcasts that will be affected.

The transition date is just a little over a week away, so be sure that you understand the facts surrounding this issue. You will save yourself a lot of hassle and headaches if you move on the transition now, and you’ll thank yourself if you can turn on the local news after work on June 13th without a second thought.

Lauren is a contributor to the HD Envy blog. HD Envy creates custom TV wall frame solutions for your home theater. The design experts at HD Envy will work with you to produce a TV wall frame that perfectly matches your décor. Whether you want a leather upholstered TV wall frame or a traditional wood TV wall frame, you will find what you’re looking for at HD Envy. The affordability and durability of the TV wall frame products at HD Envy makes them stand out from the crowd. By including a TV wall frame in your home theater, you will be the envy of all your guests.

Don’t sacrifice safety for style. Your home theater should be a unique expression of your interior design taste, but don’t let the trends dictate your style or make you forget about safety.

As the trends move towards thinner HDTVs, they also move toward thinner entertainment centers to hold them. Our TVs are also getting bigger, and that means they are getting heavier too. And despite the growing number of children who are tech-savvy, not enough is being done to keep them safe in our expanding, and increasingly precarious, home theaters.

In 2007, which was the last year that full statistics were available, there were nearly 17,000 children rushed to the emergency room because heavy or unstable furniture fell on them. And the study that released these numbers claims that since 1990, these types of injuries have increased by 41% – half of which were from falling TVs alone. Three quarters of those harmed by heavy or unstable furniture were children under six, who simply don’t have the knowledge that furniture should not be climbed on. (Read a report on this study here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30686493/

Our flat panel TVs are beautiful things – sleek, thin, stylish. But they are also extremely heavy (often weighing over 100 pounds) and have a narrow center of gravity, making them more prone to toppling over than older, chunkier TVs. A balance must be struck between safety and style – you don’t have to sacrifice your brand new HDTV to keep your home safe, but you do need to be aware that it can be a hazard.

One simple, effective and arguable even more stylish way to secure your LCD or plasma TV is to use a wall mount as opposed to that euro-styled entertainment center. The entertainment center might look pretty sleek, a glossy piano black to match your TV, but it is no doubt a thin, low-sitting unit that is expected to hold the weight of your thin, top-heavy TV, balanced precariously on an equally thin stand. With a wall mount, your TV will not only be out of reach of little, exploring hands, but it will also have a unique style that is unmatched by any entertainment center.

You can use a wall mount TV frame to infuse your home theater with supreme style. And as an added bonus, it is more stable and safe than an entertainment center, if professionally installed. HD Envy offers a variety of wall mount TV frame choices, from artistic wood frames to classy leather frames to fully customizable frames for the most unique look possible.

There is no reason why you should fear that your TV is not secure. By using a wall mount, and preferably one that conforms to the VESA guidelines, your HDTV will be securely attached to your wall – and will enjoy all the benefits of mobility with the tilting, rotating arm of most wall mounts. The HD Envy wall mount TV frame that you use to polish the look uses a bracket system that conforms with industry guidelines, so you are secure in your knowledge that your TV is safely mounted to the wall while you’re watching the latest Disney feature with your kids.

Lauren is a contributing author for the HD Envy blog. At HD Envy, you’ll find a wide selection of stylish, safe and affordable wall mount TV Frame options for your home theater. You can customize the color, size and details of the frame in order to perfectly match your home theater. And because each wall mount TV frame is crafted by engineers using industry guidelines and is based on styles found in contemporary setting all around the world, you will get a product that is long-lasting, unique and secure.

With the advanced display technologies of today, it’s more important than ever that all elements of your home theater are working together in harmony. You know that you won’t get the best image from your Blu-Ray player if it’s not connected with the best cables. But did you know that without the proper calibration, your brand new HDTV might not be living up to its full potential?

Even some in-store displays appear washed out, muted, or overly saturated with color. You walk away shaking your head, thinking that whatever TV that was, it definitely wasn’t premium high-def. However, a simple problem could be at the root of the lackluster performance: it was not professionally calibrated.

Many people will argue that anyone, even those who are uninitiated into the league of the videophile, can calibrate a TV. However, as new features are piled on, such as different modes for different devices and a nearly infinite number of color, level, saturation and other options, many of the tweaks and features will be hidden or too technical for most of us to fully grasp without a few hours spent snuggled in bed with our TV manual.

Calibration is basically a balance between a TV’s color gamut and grayscale, and its minimum and maximum brightness and gamma. The optimized TV will conform to the standards set by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), which tries to match consumer TV calibration with the images that the video cameras filming the media intended.

Calibration isn’t simply increasing or decreasing values on your TV’s menu until things look “ok” to you. Of course, you can do that, but if you’ve invested in a home theater equipped with surround sound, multimedia devices and a flat screen TV wall frame surrounding your HDTV, you want to get the highest video performance possible. Proper calibration rests on the backbone of so much scientific and engineering knowledge, that it is usually best to let the professionals handle it.

The image on your HDTV depends in large part on the ambient light and other factors of your home theater environment. A professional will understand environmental factors in addition to the capabilities of your particular TV and will maximize the picture quality so you are presented with an image that give you the least eye fatigue and the most true-to-the-filmmaker’s-ideal quality that your TV is able to produce.

A professional will understand several things about your TV and your viewing needs. First, he or she understands the fine tuning necessary for many of the color and other options, and knows when, and how, they interact. For instance, changing the gamma affects levels and grayscale, which need to be readjusted every time even the minutest change in gamma occurs. A professional will also have the tools that a proper calibration requires. A color meter is used for every aspect of calibration except levels, and test patterns will be available to ensure that viewing is optimized for all types of media.

Check with the online community whether your TV model is best viewed after a professional calibration, and chances are, you’ll find people happy to tell you that a professional is a good idea. If you want to go it alone, be an intrepid DIYer, go ahead – but in order to save yourself headaches and to get the perfect picture based on plain and simple visual science, go with the professional touch.

Lauren is a contributing author for the HD Envy Blog. HD Envy is a company that provides high-quality flat screen TV wall frame options for consumers interested in adding style and a unique touch to their home theaters. Each flat screen TV wall frame is engineered for easy installation and long-lasting durability. The stock designs for the flat screen TV wall frame products at HD Envy are inspired by some of the most famous casinos and hotels in the world. You can customize your flat screen TV wall frame too, in order to get a look that is uniquely you.

Leather is a material that just radiates class and sophistication. Your home theater likely has a few leather or leather-match items, perhaps some theater seating or leather accents on a table. You can bring it all together and add a boost of style by incorporating a leather TV picture frame. The TV frames from HD Envy are the best way to make your HDTV stand out and to make your entire home theater look unique and stunning.

The Velera TV frame from the Invidia Line at HD Envy uses leather-like material, and real leather with custom orders, to bring the poshness of a high-end martini bar or corporate lobby to your home. You can choose from Cordovan, Black or Brown colors. In order for your new TV picture frame to maintain its pristine condition and long-lasting rich color, you will need to follow several steps for caring for leather furniture.

Leather, like wood or other materials, must be kept clean. This can be achieved by a weekly dusting with a soft cloth to get rid of any dust that might have settled throughout the week. If your leather TV furniture is in need of a more serious clean, you should attach the brush head of your vacuum and get to work – this will remove any dirt, grime and soil that somehow made its way onto your leather TV furniture. Maintaining this routine is the best way to keep your TV picture frame looking good. By regularly cleaning the frame, you ensure that, barring any accidents, it will have a long life
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However, as we all know, sometimes accidents do happen. If something spills on your leather furniture, you must remove it immediately. Do not wipe the stain, but blot it instead. Wiping it will cause it to spread, and possibly become a larger mess. Most leather can withstand a little gentle soap and water, so after blotting the spill you can usually finish the job by rubbing it with a soft cloth that is moistened with soapy water.

Some leathers will require a special cleaning method, especially if a hard-to-clean stain has formed. Check with your manufacturer for more details.

Just like the wood TV picture frame from HD Envy, the leather TV frame must be kept out of direct sunlight. Sunlight will crack leather and dry it out, and cause the color to fade. Any heat source, such as a portable heater, is best kept away from your leather TV frame in order to preserve its rich color and overall form.

A leather TV frame will make your LCD TV even more stunning than the 1080p picture it displays. It will add style and class, and it can easily blend in with your leather TV furniture to create an upscale, warm effect. To keep your home theater looking its best, make sure to care for your leather TV picture frame, and you’ll be able to enjoy that picture in style for years to come.

Lauren is a contributing author to HD Envy’s blog. HD Envy is dedicated to crafting unique, high-quality TV picture frames for your LCD and plasma HDTVs. You can choose from the variety of frames available to order, or customize your own. Your home theater will be complete when you add a TV picture frame from HD Envy.

Having a fully-equipped home theater is a wonderful thing. You’ve got the Blu-Ray player for movies, a couple of game systems, a premium CD player and a cable box all neatly hooked up to your mounted flat panel TV with surrounding TV wall frame. You’re ready to sink back into your favorite reclining chair and enjoy the high-definition sights and sounds… but you can’t seem to find the remote to turn on the Blu-Ray player. It must’ve fallen back behind the TV. After searching for it you come across three complex-looking remotes, but you can’t remember if they are for your TV, CD player and Blu-Ray player or if they are from the previous set up you had in the room before the upgrade. Despite repeated attempts to click on at least one device, the remotes prove unassailable – one is working for the TV, but the others appear to have dead connections. A nice, relaxing evening is then spent on figuring out what the remotes are actually for, and how to turn on your Blu-Ray player without its matching remote.

Sound familiar? With all of the new devices on the market, you’d think convenience would be one of the first things to improve. Without a universal remote, however, you will often find yourself missing out on all the features of your devices. You want to have a home theater that is neat, organized and is your portal to a full HD entertainment experience – the headache of searching for remotes and figuring out which one is which can really detract from an otherwise lovely evening spent in the oasis that should be your home theater.

Universal remotes are a great solution when you find yourself inundated with too many remotes, devices and connections in your home theater. Not all remotes are created equal however, and which one you choose will depend on the devices you own and your entertainment needs.

First on the checklist is functionality. You want a universal remote that does everything you would do with a factory-included remote. If you don’t see yourself adjusting the picture and tweaking the sound every time you sit down, you can opt for a simpler remote: one that controls your devices on the basic level, with a power-on option and not much else. However, if you are the meticulous audiophile who needs to optimize every viewing experience, look for the remote with all the bells and whistles. By remembering what you actually need when shopping for a universal remote, you’ll save yourself money and time in the long run.

Related to the functionality of the remote are the optional functions it offers. You can find a universal remote that will delve deep into the adjustment options of all of your devices, so if you need this level of control, get a remote with many optional functions. Be sure to understand what your devices feature before purchasing the remote, so you don’t end up with a high-end, expensive remote that has many optional features that simply don’t work with your home theater devices.
Depending on your level of experience with tech, or on the experience of those you know will be using the remote, you might want to consider a remote that has larger buttons and a simpler interface. This can be especially good for the elderly or visually impaired. And if you aren’t confident that you’ll be able to tackle the sometimes time-consuming process of programming the remote, look for one that has a list of compatible devices and make sure your brands are listed. Although remotes usually have a manual input option, this is often frustrating and hit-or-miss to the uninitiated.

Universal remotes are a great way to organize and simplify your home theater setup. Be sure to fully assess your needs and the needs of other users before you purchase, and you’ll come home from the electronics store with a powerful device that will make your next evening care-free.

Lauren is a contributing writer for the HD Envy Blog. HD Envy is dedicated to producing a TV wall frame to meet your needs and add unique sophistication to your home theater. The TV wall frame that is right for you can be found in their pre-fabricated models, or you can get a fully customized TV wall frame based on your current décor. With premium engineering and attention to detail, every TV wall frame at HD Envy is a work of art.

All the new, digital image and audio processing today is fabulous for our movie and music experience, but it does require a little extra know-how. Cables and wires can be a confusing lot, especially if you’re new to the modern home theater world that requires multiple cables for the same purpose, or one cable for multiple purposes.

HDMI is a term you’ve probably encountered. It is the standard “holy grail” of video and audio high quality data transfer. But did you know that HDMI can be transmitted over Cat5 cables? Some home theater setups will necessitate this feature, and it is ideal in many cases.

First, some definitions. A Cat5 cable is also known as a UTP cable, which stands for Unshielded Twisted Pair. Basically, this cable creates a differential signal through balanced to unbalanced transformers, or Baluns. A huge benefit to this setup is eliminating ground loops, because a Balun transformer isolates the conduction path from the home theater equipment hooked up at the other end. A transformer also allows for extended length, sometimes allowing for HDMI signals to be transmitted 150 feet or more without loss in quality.

So, why is this system a good solution? First, Cat5 cables are small, smaller than coaxial, which makes them easier to run through the house or commercial building. Also, they tend to be cheaper, which can amount to hundreds of dollars of savings if you’re installing a large project. Terminating a Cat5 is comparatively simple as well. Overall, this solution is easier, cheaper and can run longer distances than many other possible solutions.

You might be asking why every home theater solution isn’t taking advantage of the great benefits of video over Cat5 cables. It’s not the best solution in all cases. The transformer is key to achieving a high-quality signal, and the best transformers (which produce the best picture in the end) often cost upwards of $500. And despite the great distance that a balun system is able to achieve, there is some quality degradation as distance increases. Many manufacturers will advertise that this solution can produce 1080i-grade images at 200 feet, but 1080p can only be achieved at 150 feet or less.

The actual Cat5 cables are sensitive to environmental factors. They cannot be too close to fluorescent lights or to high voltage lines, should not be passively split or run through a hub, and a single Cat5 cable can only carry either data or AV, not both. And finally, a Cat5 solution requires two separate runs of cable, one shielded and one unshielded, so it is not ideal for many retrofit situations.

If your are considering a project that requires a long distance, say 100 feet or more, the balun Cat5 solution is usually the best and cheapest option. There are both benefits and drawbacks to this AV system, so be sure to assess your home theater needs and limiting factors before you start wiring.

Lauren Dugan is a contributing author to the HD Envy blog. HD Envy is a leader in LCD TV Frame production. Whether you need a classy piece for your home theater or custom designs for your commercial establishment, the Flat Panel TV Picture Frame offerings at HD Envy will satisfy your needs. You can work with the TV framing experts to create the perfect mount for your wall, a TV Picture Frame that is uniquely you. And each flat panel TV picture frame is created with easy-to-install brackets to ensure you get your TV up and running as quickly as possible. The modern home theater will become truly innovative with the addition of a flat panel TV picture frame from HD Envy.

We all want that pristine, sublime landscape image we saw on the store display model of the TV we just bought – but somewhere along the line, our cables got crossed and we’re left with a washed-out wasteland. Getting the cables right for your TV hook-ups is almost as important as getting the right features in your TV and your media players, and it can stand in the way of a great looking image if not done correctly. It’s also important to know your cables if you are going to install a wall mount Wall Mount TV frame, because it will make the process quicker and more efficient.

The following descriptions are to give you an idea of what all the talk of digital versus analog is all about, and to clarify what each cable is for. And remember to keep in mind that by using a wall mount TV frame, these cables can be discretely hidden and you can free up a lot of your home theater space.

VGA Cables

This type of cable is found solely on computers, and mostly older models. It is an analog video connector, and because of this, the quality will not be as high as a digital connector. Some newer LCD and plasma TVs will have a VGA input in order to allow older PCs to connect and display their pictures, video and other media.

RGB Cables

The RGB (red, green, blue) signal is often carried through a computer’s VGA port. This is a composite cable, meaning that it is composed of several different signals that are transmitted and stored separately. This is an analog signal, and as such it requires a lot of bandwidth and it is falling out of favor quickly as newer TVs and computers begin to use digital signals. RGB cables can still be incorporated into a wall mount TV frame, and hidden just as easily as their digital counterparts.

DVI Cables

A DVI cable is the standard for transmitting a digital image. It is found on LCD computer monitors, and it allows digital signals to be transmitted between digital devices with converting them to analog. This means a clearer picture, sharper text and overall better quality. A DVI cable cannot transmit digital sound, only digital video, so an adapter is usually necessary when connecting to an HDMI connector on your flat screen TV.

HDMI Cables

This is the standard, best, and most widely-used cable today. It is capable of transmitting both 1080p images and multi-channel audio through its single cable unit. It provides the highest quality image and sound, along with the best bit rate for the smoothest experience possible. These are quickly become the industry standard because of their ease of installation, high-quality and flexibility. And even though their single unit will cut down on cords, you can still use a wall mount TV frame to hide them, and to hang your TV.

COAX Cables

The COAX cable has seen better days, and has been usurped by HDMI cables in newer TVs. It is a video and stereo audio transmitter, and produces comparatively low quality sound and video. Some older TVs have only COAX inputs, so you may need a converter if you are trying to hook up an older TV to newer digital devices.