Mom Wants More TV Options

Gina is a mother of two who craves a little downtime. Is that so wrong? No way. Vegging out in front of the TV is a way to relax and let the mind wander back to someplace just south of frantic. 

Gina's problem: her family only has one TV. She likes to watch her shows in bed, but her husband likes to relax in the bedroom reading and enjoying the silence. Can you see the conflict here? 

On top of the bedroom time-share issues, Gina also wants to watch TV in multiple places through the house. With two kids, she spends a lot of time doing chores in the kitchen. She'd love a little entertainment while washing dishes or cooking, but their only TV is in the living room. 

Jon Chase, one of Hook Me Up's technology experts heads out to tackle Gina's TV troubles. Jon's a tech journalist, problem solver and fellow TV addict, so he understands Gina's pain.

Jon has a bevy of cool gear for this family. He starts in the living room—unveiling a Panasonic HDTV. This is a 42-inch plasma screen, and it looks gorgeous in the room. Jon takes the old living room TV upstairs to the bedroom and hooks it up to an existing cable outlet. This plasma pops out of their entertainment center. Their living room is not exposed to much natural light, so plasma is a great choice for the TV's technology.

Plasma TVs tend to look a little better in darker settings. If the room was flooded with light and Gina's family watched most of their TV in the daytime, a brighter LCD might have been a better call. When the family sees the new TV, their expressions say it all—they love it!

To offer Gina more viewing options, Jon hooks a Sony LocationFree TV up to one of the cable boxes. It is basically a 12-inch LCD screen that doubles as a wireless TV. Sony says the TV has a 100-foot wireless range, but in real-world tests with walls and multiple stories, the range is more like 50 feet. For Gina's house that distance is not a problem. The TV gets a signal in the kitchen, the kids' rooms, even in the backyard. 

Most importantly, the wireless TV gets a strong signal in the bedroom.  Jon has a brilliant solution for the "she likes to watch TV/he likes to read" marriage dilemma. Our esteemed technician attaches a pair of Bose Triport headphones to the LocationFree TV. While her husband reads in bed, Gina can snuggle up to him with her headphones and TV.

The LocationFree TV is much more than a wireless monitor, but it's still unclear if it will live up to its potential as an Internet browser and place-shifting device. More on that in my next blog post.