Yesterday I took a look at the Vizio 47" LCD HDTV, and even though it’s less expensive than others out there, it still costs quite a bit of money. I’ve got three children ages 3, 7 and 8 years. The older ones are to the point where they basically know not to bother with my stuff, especially something like a 47" TV, but the 3 year old is more rambunctious in that he sometimes just decides to do whatever, whenever he wants to. Three days after I got the Vizio I was playing Star Ocean The Last Hope on the Xbox360, my son loves this game and asks me to play it all the time, this is the 3 year old. So I’m playing and he decides he’s going to help me kill the monsters I was fighting, this involved him taking his toy golf club and whacking them on the TV screen, needless to say I think, but I wasn’t too happy about this battle tactic of his. Thankfully I stopped him before he got in a second swing, and even more thankfully is that there was no damage to the TV from the first hit, it was just a light toy golf club after all, even so I think another swing or two would have done some damage. I’ve also got a Wii as well, and we know of the horror stories of people smashing their TV’s with the remotes, Nintendo has since come out with better straps etc for that problem, but there’s still a chance of damaging your TV while playing, so care should be taken to follow the recommendations. If you’ve got small children, accidents can happen that will damage your TV as well, even if they’re just trying to help…
So you’ve got a nice new big HDTV that you spent quite a bit of cash on, but how do you protect it? If you have small children, and even if you don’t you should be thinking about ways to protect your investment. Most warranties don’t cover damage to TVs, so if something happens to you new HDTV, then you’re pretty much out of luck. With the Wii, we’ve heard stories of people destroying their TVs, and children have been known to throw things as well and cause some damage, but what is the best way to protect your HDTV? I’ll tell you, a TV Screen Protector from a company called TVScreenProtector.com. They’ve sent me over their 47" Screen Protector for review and I’ve got to say that I’ll sleep better now knowing that this thing is protecting my new HDTV.
Considering this is a screen protector for a 47" HDTV, it comes in a very large box.
Inside we find the protector very well packaged with a lot of bubble wrap all around it.
The screen protector is essentially a large 1/4" thick piece of shaped and sized plexi-glass to fit your size TV, it comes covered in a removable brown paper covering as well to further protect it from damage during shipment.
At four points on the protector you’ll find rubber bumpers, these keep the actual protector from actually touching you TV screen, it basically hovers over your TV.
The protector is ‘L’ shaped, and has two straps that secure it to your TV, it rests on the top and the bumpers touch the border of your TV. The straps are attached to the top and the bottom and go behind your TV to keep them out of site, if your TV is black in color, as the straps are, then you won’t even notice them there.
The straps themselves are a basic belt style and allow for easy installation, but yet they work well to secure the protector to your TV.
On the top, or the part that rests on top of your TV, we find the web address and two black rubber bumpers. These are a textured, non-slip rubber to prevent the protector from moving.
Specifications:
Width 44" Height 27" Thickness 1/4"
1” black nylon straps and buckles
Price: $159 plus Shipping
Key Benefits
• Protects your TV Screen from Damage
• Relax when the kids are near the TV
• Easy to install
• Maintains a High Quality Picture
• Saves you money!
Who uses our TV Screen Protector?
• Thousands of Moms across America
• The US Air Force
• Lockheed Martin
• Sacred Heart Hospital
• Shriners Hospital for Children
• Dalhousie University – Just to name a few
TvScreenProtector.com is a leader in the design and manufacture of innovative TV screen protective solutions for a wide variety of customers and applications. Our team located in St Petersburg FL continues to pioneer products to better protect your TV. Our mission is to save you money by protecting your TV before an accident happens.
Installation is fairly easy, I did it myself in about 15 minutes, but I would recommend having someone help you with it as it is heavy and big, and not to mention your maneuvering this large piece of plastic over your expensive TV. To install it you’ll need to extend the straps out a bit to make it easier to get fitted to your TV and put it in place, then you just slide on side over the end of your TV, and repeat with the other, then just tighten the straps and you’re done.
Here’s the top view of it installed on my TV, as you can see it does reflect quite a bit. You can see the top rubber bumpers here and the top of the straps.
From a side view we can see where the other bumpers touch, and you can see there is a gap between the TV and the protector. Also here are some pictures of the straps on the bottom, you really can’t notice them at all on the black border of my TV, unless you’re looking for them or using a flash as I did.
I’ve got my TV in a corner on a stand so it was pretty hard for me to get a good picture of the straps on the back, but here’s a semi-decent one:
Watching movies or playing games while the protector is in place is not a problem really, it’s clear and does not affect the picture. Here’s two pictures, one with flash and one without, the TV Screen Protector is reflective, and actually when the TV is off it’s almost like a mirror.
Here’s just a few different shots while watching the intro to Star Ocean The Last Hope, with flash and without:
Well all seems good right? Sort of…I do have a couple complaints, the first being one that I mentioned already, the glare. TV Screen Protector does sell another version of this product that is anti-glare, but they sent me the original for review. I’ve got a large window to the left of my TV, and when the light comes in it brightens everything up as expected, but this causes everything to show up in the reflection much more prominently, so I usually have to close the curtains or blinds to cut down on the glare. Depending where I’m sitting as well, the overhead light in the living room can cause a glare as well.
Another complaint is dust and lint, in the pictures above, especially the close up ones, I’m sure you noticed lint on the protector. I just cleaned the protector not even 5 minutes before I took those pictures, and already lint was accumulating on the protector, it’s like a magnet for it really. Every couple days I’ve got to go and wipe it off. That’s not the bad part though really, the problem comes in when the lint is on the back side of the protector, or the side that is closest to the screen, it’s impossible to clean that side without taking the protector off, and that’s just a big hassle, especially for me with my TV in the corner.
The complaints aside though, this product is very good, it will protect your TV, there is no doubt about that. It’s 1/4" thick and should be able to withstand most anything thrown or swung at it, within reason of course, don’t try and throw a brick at it please.
The clarity is perfect, there’s no difference between using and not using the protector.
The model I’ve got for review sells for $159, with shipping it comes to $204 for me, considering the cost of replacing the TV, it’s money well spent I believe.
Conclusion:
The 47" TV Screen Protector is well worth the cost to truly protect your TV from most any type of accident. It not only provides peace of mind, but it’s well made, easy to install and it’s clear so it won’t interfere with the view.
As we know most any product isn’t perfect, this does have a few flaws, but overall it’s an excellent product that I can recommend to anyone looking for a way to protect their investment.
Pros:
Clear, does not interfere with picture
Excellent protection for your investment
Doesn’t touch the screen
Easy to install
Cons:
Heavy
Hard to clean back side
Attracts dust
Lots of glare
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