Gadgetory

hello and welcome to CNET's the fix this show about DIY tech and how-to on Donal Bell and I'm Sharon Vaknin this week we're focusing on all things related to your television including some super useful tips on how to mount your TV to your wall and how to get the best sound quality but first Eric Franklin tells us how to pick the right size television to maximize your viewing experience hey guys Eric Franklin here now when buying a new TV one of those important things you're probably thinking about is screen size so how do you figure out what's the best screen size for you well thx recommends a 40 degree viewing angle in order to get the most immersive experience from watching movies and TV shows in high-definition now there's a very simple formula to figure this out and I'm gonna show you exactly how to do it so first I'm gonna measure the distance in inches from where I want to place my new TV to where I'll actually be sitting I'll take that number multiply it by 0.8 4 in order to get this screen size for the optimal viewing experience so in this case I'm gonna measure from the TV I'm gonna put back to where I'll actually be sitting which equals roughly 77 inches now that'll give me the optimum viewing angle for the most cinematic experience now if you take that 77 inches and then multiply it by 0.8 4 you get roughly 65 inches which is the exact size of this screen now that may be too big for you but CNET recommends home with at least a 50-inch TV for a livingroom area but also pushing it to about 60 or even more it's gonna be even better the overall takeaway here is that long as you're not sitting really close to your TV it's always better to go big you get a bigger TV you get a bigger TV everyone gets bigger TVs thank you very frankly all right we're going to do a quick break but when we get back we're tackling a DIY project on putting your TV on your wall with a mount that will only cost you 30 bucks plus some tips on dramatically improving the sound quality of your TV welcome back did you know I just bought a new place Oh how's that going for you pretty great it's a blank slate right now but I figured I'd be doing this anyway so show everyone how to wall mount a flat screen TV oh it should be good that's a little measuring a little drilling but all in all pretty easy process here's how to do it step by step and on a budget so here's the deal we've got a new place got a new TV and this time gonna do it right I'm gonna wall mount my television instead of having it sitting on a you know console so I bought this one on Amazon it's the cheetah flush tilt wall mount $30 leave reviews it sounds like a good deal I've got the wall mount that's gonna go on the wall and then I've got the brackets if you're gonna go on the back of my TV and attach to the mount alright so the first thing I got to do is find the studs in my wall I hope they exist to locate them I'm gonna use the stud finder this is a magnetic stud finder which is convenient cuz it's no batteries to replace studs are typically around 16 to 24 inches apart all right lining them up with the stud marks I made on the wall that's pretty good now we're attaching the right size drill bit for our screws here goes now we're gonna put the frame up on the wall and use the bolts to actually get that thing into the studs hopefully nice and secure so now I've got all my bolts in is looking pretty good I'm double-checking against that level the bubbles right in the center all right now this thing's rated to hold a hundred and sixty-five pounds that means I should be confident enough to give this thing a tug I feel like it's not gonna come right out of the wall now for the next step we're gonna want to put the braces on the back of the TV before we do that though I'm gonna need to take the band off the bottom here give it a new life as a wall-mounted TV you're free so here are the two braces here where they're gonna go the main thing you want to be able to do is be able to conceal the braces behind the TV so if you have a smaller TV you knees are poking out the top you have some wiggle room here to get the right fit feels solid it's just solid confident so the idea is that these hooks on the back on the braces are gonna hook right over the lip and hang down from there and that can use a little security screws to really lock it into place down below time let's put this sucker up on the wall oh yeah there we go let's check it out on the back the hooks are over the frame now the cool thing is that this can slide on the track so I can scoot it over if I want to get the perfect placement it's on we're almost done last thing I want make sure it's right dead center and then I'm gonna screw in the security bolts and lock it in place beautiful it's on the wall looks like an art piece all right I am considering this a success everything looks great let's play some video nice all right now the kid assembled really easily it only cost me 30 bucks and I did it all by myself this is how you wall mount your own television oh not too shabby Donald thank you mama I love the look of a wall-mounted TV well as most of you know and have probably experienced an HDTV offers an incredible picture but a lot of times these thin pretty TVs have thin sound too but there are ways to make it better the biggest mistake TV owners make is not investing in audio these flat panel TVs look great but the problem is they don't leave much room for booming sound so today I'll show you three ways to add audio to your home theater system the easiest and fastest way to do it is with a sound bar they're cheap easy to install and look undeniably good underneath the flat panel TV with sound bars that you can go low-end or invest your money in a higher end sound bar in this case Vizio is affordable and still sounds good especially for movies the drawback with sound bars though is that they're well-known not to perform as well with music however lots of them come packed with features like bluetooth and they usually come with a sub like most high achievers the Huayra is a little bit different from all the other kids in the playground for the richest home theater experience a 5.1 surround sound system is your answer in this case sound hits you at every angle with two front speakers a center speaker two rear speakers and a sub woofer now there are some drawbacks to consider for starters the speakers alone can easily cost you $2,000 and then of course you want to factor in the cost of a receiver to on top of it all 5.1 systems requires some planning because you want to consider placement concealing the wires and in some cases you might even want to install the rear speakers in the ceiling if you don't want to go all out with a 5.1 system the best solution is two stereo speakers and maybe a sub it's one of the most underrated options but you get great sound for music movies and it's really easy to set up you'll still have to spend a few hundred bucks but the good news is that these speakers can last you up to ten years and they'll still sound just as good as when you bought them setting up stereo speakers is really easy in this case I have a compact amp that gets plugged into the TV with a digital audio cord then these two bookshelf speakers plug right into the back with regular speaker wire it's really that simple so whether you go for low-end speakers or invest in something more high-end there's always a way to add audio to your home theater system for an amped-up viewing experience that's it for this week's show thanks for watching if you have any ideas for is any tips we really want to hear from you you can tweet me at samel and i'm at sharing back next week we have a whole show dedicated to smartphone photography we'll see you then back