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LG has announced its newest and largest OLED TV – a 55” panel with some pretty amazing specs. OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) technology has, in the past, been limited by smaller screen sizes and expensive price tags. However, according to LG’s press release, their 55” panel has overcome these obstacles.

The diodes in OLED TVs self-generate light and send electric signals at a rate far faster than LCD. In turn, the TV has a clearer picture and a wider range of colors. LG uses white OLEDs overlaid with color diodes to produce an “ultra definition” picture. Concerned that all this great technology may lead to a bulkier end product? Think again. The TV is a remarkable 5mm thick – thinner than a pen! Not only will the TV impress techies, but environmentalists will also approve – the diodes in the screen can be turned on or off to account for lower power consumption than most mainstream TVs.  LG’s 55” OLED TV will be unveiled in January at CES 2012 in Las Vegas. There is no word yet on

Film Director Peter Jackson is bringing us back to the Shire yet again, with his latest movie, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  This movie tells the story (with a few twists) of J.R.R. Tolkien’s novel, The Hobbit which is the prequel to the Lord of Rings film trilogy.

For those Lord of the Ring enthusiasts, this is another chance to escape into the realm of Middle Earth. Jackson has brought back some of the original cast from Lord of the Rings, with Elijah Wood playing Frodo, Cate Blanchett the White Witch, Orlando Bloom as Legolas and Ian Holm as Bilbo.

The novel is being broken down into two parts.  The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is the first part of the story.  The second movie is called The Hobbit: There and Back Again.  The first movie is scheduled to be released on December 14, 2012 with part 2 coming out a year later on December 13^, 2013.  It may be awhile for these movies to make it to your TV lift cabinets, but great films are always worth the wait.  I expect

The Crystal Pointe XL has all the bells and whistles of the regular sized Crystal Pointe, but can also accommodate up to a 55” TV.  TV enthusiasts will love this cabinet for the sheer fact they can get the larger screen.  This beautiful TV lift cabinet has intricately carved corner pillars, rounded edges, and a rich mahogany veneer finish.  Finished on four sides, it is geared to be used as a foot of the bed cabinet.  However, the cabinet can be rotated to be used against a wall so that the bottom drawers become accessible from the front.

The Crystal Pointe XL comes with built-in Infrared Relay System consisting of the main unit, flush mounted infrared sensor eye, and four high output flashers.  The Infrared Relay System allows TV watchers to operate their electronic equipment with the drawers closed.

Apple has made it no secret that they plan to enter into the television market.  In Steve Jobs’ biography titled “Steve Jobs”, Jobs mentions how he felt he had finally come up with the solution to enhance the standard HDTV.  It makes sense for Apple to use their existing technology for ipads and iphones and apply it towards the television.

The ultimate Smart TV would have features such as wireless streaming capabilities, voice and motion controls and the ability to share content across multiple devices.  Consumers would be able to stream content from their ipads directly onto their Smart TV inside their TV lift cabinet.  According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is currently in discussions with media executives to discuss their progress on developing a Smart TV.  It will be interesting to see what features Apple creates for their new Smart TV and when this TV will be released to general public.

Are you one of the millions of Americans who find themselves startled by excessively loud commercials while watching their TV lift cabinet? Well, good news! The FCC is finally cracking down on commercials that are much louder than TV programming. FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski made the announcement on Tuesday. The new act, titled The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, means that loud commercials will no longer interrupt programming. Commercials will be required to be the same volume as programming and news.

After years of complaints, Congress finally got the ball rolling a year ago when it passed legislation regarding intrusively loud commercials. It was then up to the FCC to create and implement rules to keep commercial volume in check. FCC Commissioner Michael J. Copps elaborated: "I cannot tell you how many hundreds of citizens have told me — personally, through emails and letters, at public hearings, even across the family dinner table — how obnoxiously intrusive they

It seems lately many consumers are opting to stream videos to their TV lift cabinets instead of paying for the high priced cable plans.  It may be a sign of the times, with the economy in a current decline, but many see it as the way of the future.  Streaming videos allows consumers to watch what they are interested in watching on their own time schedule for a very affordable price.

This shift in consumer behavior has many communication giants wanting a piece of the pie.  One such communication company is Verizon.  Verizon Communications, the second-largest U.S. phone company, has recently announced in an investor conference, their plan to expand into the video market.  Verizon just this past week has been rumored to be discussing a bid to purchase Netflix Inc.

Netflix, a subscription-based company for video streaming and DVDs by mail, saw its shares rise 1.2 percent to $76.13 two days ago in New York trading. This was a direct result of the rumored talks that Verizon might buy

Add Xbox 360 to the wave of set top boxes and streaming apps for your TV lift cabinet. Microsoft has announced a long list of apps which are now available for download on the Xbox 360 console. Youtube, Verizon FiOS TV and MSNBC.com are a few of the U.S. available apps.  Beginning in early 2012, more apps are set to be rolled out, including Comcast Xfinity and MLB.tv.

The app selection is not the only exciting thing about Microsoft’s announcement. The technology itself sounds pretty impressive. With the help of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, users can simply say what they are searching for and Bing will pull up the results. Bing on Xbox voice search is already available in the US, Canada and UK.  Now whatever movie, TV show or game you are looking for is simply a voice command away – no need for a remote control!

Some of the other apps listed on the Microsoft press release include:

-          ESPN on Xbox Live

-          Vudu

-          HBO Go

-          Hulu Plus

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We love receiving pictures from our customers showcasing their TV Lift Cabinets at home.  Check out this nice Remington TV Lift Cabinet photo we received last week.

The beautiful Remington Fireplace TV Lift Cabinet blends in seamlessly with this customer’s existing mahogany stained bookcases.  At first glance, you might think this is one large wall unit.  When in actuality the bookcases are separate from our TV lift cabinet.  Quite clever!

Are you a “Do-it-Yourself” person?  Then perhaps building your own TV Lift Cabinet and installing our lift mechanism is the best solution for you.

One of our customers, who purchased our Uplift 3700 Lift mechanism, recently shared his project results with us.   He was able to convert a birch dresser cabinet into his own TV Lift Cabinet.  He removed the dresser drawers and installed a center compartment for his speakers.  In the back of the cabinet he installed our Uplift lift Mechanism directly behind the speaker compartment.  The end result is one impressive home-made TV Lift Cabinet!

This customer did, however, have a question regarding our 12-Volt Trigger feature.

Customer Question:

How does one use the 12-volt power outlet located on the lift mechanism?  I am trying to devise a way to get IR commands into the cabinet to activate a receiver, the lift mechanism and a 42-inch plasma TV.

Our Answer:

To use the 12 volt trigger you will need a 1/8” stereo jack.

We know it is hard to purchase furniture online.  Will the scale of the TV lift cabinet fit in well with my living room?  Is the stain going to match my existing furniture?

We hear these valid concerns from our customers quite frequently.  To help our customers determine if the TV lift cabinet will work for their home, we provide our customers with free wood stain samples of our cabinets.  We also provide detailed specification sheets on each of our product pages so that our customers can accurately gage whether the cabinet will fit within the space they had in mind.

But, sometimes even that is not enough to help our customers with their decision.  They need to visually see the final result.  That is where we can step in and go the extra mile.  If our customers send in a picture of their room with room and ceiling dimensions, we can scale the desired TV lift cabinet to the room dimensions and send back the new room photo with cabinet.

Check out the before and after photos