When we buy a house, the living room is usually one of the places that can cost us the most to organize to our liking; especially if the living room has a strange shape. If this is not too large, the previous owners may have made some sacrifice at the level of placing some devices. The Smart TV , unfortunately, can lose out in this process.
The fireplace is the worst place to put a Smart TV. Currently, most households mount the television on a custom-made cabinet, with the correct position, or even hang it on the wall at a reasonable height. The problem is that many people hang it in the fireplace to save the furniture and thus be able to have the advantages of having a heat source nearby and the television in the same place.
Having a television to see it there on time or to have it as an environment in meetings is not a great inconvenience. However, the problem comes whether we watch television a lot there , or if we use a lot together with the fireplace in winter.
Angle of view: say hello to neck pain
Beyond the wiring, which can be difficult to carry through the stone, there are other, much more serious problems. The first is the viewing angle . The television has to be, without any other remedy, above the fireplace, which is above your straight line vision. This creates a problem similar to sitting in the front rows at the movies : a very uncomfortable pain in the neck.
For two hours in a movie you can hold on, but imagine having to suffer that pain every day. At first you may get used to it, but soon the pain and negative health consequences will begin. This can be partially avoided if you are too far away from the TV, or if you tilt it down a bit. Even so, you will end up having neck problems in the long run.
A partial solution can be to be practically lying down when you see it , either on a sofa or a bed with a slight angle of inclination. To watch TV while lying down, the fireplace can be a good place. If you are going to see her sitting down and not from very far away, then your neck is going to have a very bad time.
The best place to place the TV is slightly below our straight line of sight when seated. In that position, the neck is in a natural and relaxed position.
Loss of image quality
Neck pain is not the only problem. When it comes to watching a television, the fact that we are not watching it in a straight line inevitably affects the image quality.
While the OLED maintains a uniform image quality and color even when you look at it from the side, in all models of televisions with LCD panels (QLED included), seeing it from another angle causes the image to lose quality, either in brightness or color. Tilting the TV can help you fix it, but you still have the same neck problem.
Worse HDR and lower durability
Finally, another serious problem that in this case affects the television is the heat from the fireplace . Putting a heat source behind the TV implies that it will operate at a higher temperature than normal, which can shorten its life and reliability, affecting for example the LEDs , which can die prematurely.
This heat also affects image quality. Today’s televisions reach very high brightness levels , and these levels can only be maintained for a few tens of seconds with HDR content before the panels start to get too hot and have to lower the brightness to cool down. If we have a constant heat source behind us, the brightness level will not be so high and we will not be able to enjoy movies, series and games in HDR normally.
