OTHER TECH

The Bedroom Whether snuggling to the sound of a Letterman monologue or retiring to a horizontal position for the final hour of The Two Towers: Extended Edition, almost everyone likes watching TV in bed. Finding a place to put the TV is another matter. Most of us have little space in the bedroom for anything larger than a 19-inch set, and watching a small screen for long periods of time in the dark can cause eyestrain and make claims of "Not tonight honey, I've got a headache" all too believable. Sharp Aquos LC-30HV4U 30-inch widescreen LCD TV ($4,500)

But not everyone can afford to put a 42-inch plasma on the ceiling. Smaller LCDs are cheaper, more practical, and fit just about anywhere. Sets between 12 and 17 inches (diagonal) are ideally placed near the bed, usually on a stand, while larger ones beg for spots on the wall so you can watch TV from across the room. But since all LCD screens are progressive-scan, even the small ones qualify as enhanced-definition TV (EDTV) displays, potentially offering a sharper, more detailed picture than standard analog TVs.

A good candidate for the nightstand is a 15-inch LCD from companies like Panasonic, Sharp, Philips, Sony, and Samsung. The stand on Samsung's LTN1565 ($800, samsung.com) makes placement a matter of finding a flat surface, and the TV's built-in speakers to either side of the 4:3 screen pump out stereo sound. It includes a headphone jack for when one of you wants to actually go to sleep and a PC input so you can also use it as a computer monitor.

Since the stand on the Samsung is 18 inches wide, it's too large to put on top of a cable box. But the one on Sharp's 13-inch Aquos LC-13B4U-S ($600, sharp-usa.com) takes up less room. While a 13-inch set might be too small for anywhere but the nightstand, at least if you plan to watch in the dark, it's ideal for up-close viewing. And if you have a home-security system, you can also wire it through the TV.

Some cable systems don't require a box, but most of us need a cable box or a separate satellite tuner to receive all the stations we paid for. The easiest solution is to place the box under a small hutch with the panel on top so you can aim the remote and change channels. Boxes such as the Dish DVR 510 come with RF (radio-frequency) remotes whose signals pass through walls and cabinet doors, so the boxes can be stashed out of sight under the bed or in a closet. You could also buy an infrared (IR) distribution kit that converts IR signals from your regular remote to radio signals. Panasonic TC-17LA1 17-inch LCD TV $900

You're probably also going to want to watch movies. With bulky tube TVs, adding a DVD player isn't a big deal - the TV is so big that the player doesn't take up much extra room. But flat TVs require more ingenuity with components if you want to keep the sleek aesthetic. One option is to place the LCD on top of the DVD player or VCR, but you could also stash the components in a small cabinet to keep them out of sight. Glass doors allow the control beam to reach the gear. Another option would be to use a portable DVD player with your bedroom TV. When you're done watching, you can put it away. Combination DVD player/LCD sets like 15-inch TC-15LV1 from Panasonic ($900, panasonic .com) take care of extra components and exposed wires nicely. The left side of the set is a slot-loading DVD player - you slide the disc in just as you do CDs in a car system. Best of all, it retains the flat form factor since the disc is oriented vertically.

Built-in speakers can translate the multichannel Dolby Digital and DTS soundtracks from DVDs into simulated surround sound, but you're probably going to want the real thing. You can even turn your bedroom into a second home theater, complete with a small surround sound system, separate DVD player, and the other trappings that bring movies to life. But you'll need a larger LCD or smaller plasma TV, which calls for placement on the wall or in a cabinet. These mini theaters aren't necessarily confined to the bedroom, either. Flat displays can spring up unobtrusively in studies, dens, and elsewhere around the home.

Home theater-worthy sets start at 30 inches, such as Sony's KLV-30XBR900 ($6,000, sonystyle.com). Its "floating" design is almost a work of art in itself, so you won't want to hide it in a cabinet. The set comes with a control center to help alleviate wiring hassles. Instead of hooking the wires from your cable box and DVD player directly to the panel, you connect them to the control center and run a single cable from there to the TV.

Wiring a wall-mounted set does call for some creativity. The most aesthetic solution is to run the wires inside the stud space behind the wall. If you have to string wires along the wall surface, you'll want to paint them to match the background, wallpaper over them, or hide them behind artwork, plants, or mirrors. Whenever possible, run wire along corners or behind molding.

A variety of mounts are available for LCD panels, allowing for wall - or even ceiling - placement. Your dealer will be able to recommend a mount, maybe by the LCD's manufacturer, or you can look online or at an A/V specialty retailer for brands like OmniMount (omnimount.com), Peerless (peerlessindustries.com), Chief (chiefmfg.com), or Sanus (www.sanus.com). Basic "static" mounts simply attach the TV flush against the wall. Pitch-adjustable mounts angle the panel relative to the wall so you can mount it closer to the ceiling. Swivel mounts let you angle the set toward the primary viewing area or away from room lights that can reflect off the screen. (Of course, if you find dealing with wiring, let alone elaborate mounts, intimidating, consider having your display installed by a professional.)

It hasn't always been easy to make a TV fit into the bedroom But wall-mounted panels and LCDs that rest on your nightstand all but make the TV disappear.

The Right Sound

The bedroom. Our sanctum sanctorum. It's been said that we only go there to do two things: sleep and . . . you know. All of that is changing, though, as more and more people use their bedrooms as a place to watch TV and movies and to listen to music.

But the bedroom isn't the place for giant, floor-standing speakers, and many rooms don't even have space for a set of high-performance bookshelf speakers. (The same holds true for other rooms, like dens and studies, that are often used for secondary systems.) So does that mean you have to settle for sonic mediocrity?

Absolutely not. One option would be to go with a higher-end home-theater-in-a-box system, available from a number of companies. Examples include Yamaha's YHT-941 ($1,000, yamaha.com), Panasonic's SC-HT1000 featuring a DVD recorder ($1,000), Pioneer Elite's ES-1000DV ($2,000), Bose's Lifestyle 35 ($2,999, bose.com), and JVC's QP-ES7 ($1,650, jvc.com). The speakers with many of these systems are very stylish and compact but can produce surprisingly good sound. Keep in mind, though, that only the beefiest systems can fill a larger room, and that brings you right back to the dilemma of larger speaker cabinets.

If you really want to keep your speakers out of sight, go with either in-wall or in-ceiling models. Many companies offer these, with some of the better models available from B&W (www.bwspeakers.com), Snell Acoustics (snellacoustics.com), Triad (triadspeakers.com), to name just a few. But unless you're a patient and adept do-it-yourselfer (with an equally patient spouse), you'll probably want to let a professional installer do the mounting and wiring for you.

Instead of hiding your speakers, why not show them off? The slogan of Artcoustic (artcousticusa.com) is "Believe in the beauty of sound," and its unique on-wall designs do their best to live up to this ideal. These speakers eschew utilitarian grille cloth for a variety of designer fabrics that can even include your own artwork or photographs. Unique to Artcoustic's line is the DF-Multi L/C/R ($600), a single speaker the width of a 50-inch plasma TV that handles the front left, center, and right channels.

To power your second-room system - and provide CD and DVD playback as well - you might want to check out the new SD-HX600 ($1,500), SD-HX500 ($1,200), and SD-PX2 ($600) minisystems from Sharp (sharp-usa.com). Thanks to 1-bit digital technology, the systems' amplifiers take up a fraction of the space of their bulky analog counterparts, resulting in on-wall units that take up practically no room. And these systems were designed to accentuate the look of your flat-panel display. With their five channels of amplification and progressive-scan universal DVD players, you won't have any trouble finding a third thing to do in your bedroom! - John Sciacca