Hi everyone,

I have a client who's wondering if it's possible to place a 15" LCD tv behind a 2 way mirror in his master bathroom. My questions are as follows:

1) How do you change channels through the two way mirror?

2) Are there any 15" LCD tv with speaker outputs that would allow you to hook them up to a stereo in-ceiling speaker?

Thanks,

Anthony

,

IR will pass thru a two way mirror ... use a local source (A-Bus or equivilent) to pipe it to your in-ceiling speaker ... works like a champ ... We did this in a showcase home and the response was great ... TV was a CRT (20") ... people asked ... is that a flat screen/plasma/LCD? (you know how consumer's are ;-)) ... LCD may be overkill

You also have to consider lights, if you can look in the mirror and see room lighting in the reflection it kills the image.

It will definitely work, I agree LCD is overkill. Make sure you seal the TV up as much as possible to prevent steam from showers damaging television. AudioVideo Interiors had an article on a install like this. I can't find the Issue. If I do I'll get back.

I did one years ago. Make sure there is NO light coming from behind the mirror. We put a 13" tube in a sealed closet, and then put black paper as a mask around all but the tube to further seal it from light.

We cranked the brightness up to compensate for the loss of picture going through the mirror. It was still a bit dim, but not unwatchable. Definitely would be concerned about lcd, as depending on brand might not output enough light.

It works great; customer showed that off first thing, rather then the MacIntosh THX theater we had built.

I've done this with a Sharp 20" LCD panel, where there wasn't quite enough room behind the mirror for a CRT.

Yes it will work. And yes, if there's a lot of windows, the glare will be a distinct problem.

Ya know I saw a smaller really cheap (like $200) LCD at "best But!", use that with a outboard tuner from Viewsonic for about $100 more and try it out. You would have to remote the tuner somewhere but it would be a simple audio connection that way. Would be kinda neat to build a "Medicine cabinet" type of thing and be able to demo it or even patent it and make a billion dollars, then get bought out by Micro$oft and get sued by Bose because they thought of it first!

LOL I kill me.

Thanks everyone for your help.

This is the first time we've ever attempted something like this (even after being in the industry for 8 years).

I'm glad to hear this may work out without any disasters!

Anthony

Pardon me for being nosy, but what's the point of having something behind a two-way mirror? This means if you look at the mirror from one side you see through it (like a piece of glass), and from the other you see your reflection (like a mirror), right?

So in a bathroom, if you look through the glass side at the TV, you won't see your reflection as you shave, brush your teeth, whatever. If you look at the mirror side, you see yourself, but not the TV.

So what's the point? If you want to see the TV, just put up a piece of glass.

Pardon my ignorance.

SamG

Anthony,

Make certain that before the two-way mirror is installed that the drywall is painted BLACK. I mean a few coats of black. I have done many of these types of installs and if you dont paint the drywall when the lights(primarily vanity lights strips) are on you will see the big black globs of mastic that hold the mirror to the wall. I have gone so far as to modify the sets internal power supply to trigger a relay when turned on that turns off the vanity lights. That was a special situation in which the customer wanted the tv behind a mirror that wasnt used while doing make-up or shaving etc.

SamG,

The point is to hide the tv behind the mirror. The reflective side of the two-way glass mirror is in the living space. The see-through side of the two-way glass is up against the drywall, except the area that has been 'boxed' out for the tv. When the tv is off the mirror looks like a normal bathroom mirror, turn the tv on and now you have a floating picture effect inside the mirror surface. With a large bath mirror the effect is very cool.

Obiwan,

Mission speakers already has what you describe. A 'medicine cabinet' looking mirror that has a built-in lcd monitor and NXT technology speakers. Kind of ugly in my opinion but a ready to install se-up so no custom work is really required. I saw that piece at CEDIA.

Sam, you are not exactly right. The two way mirror works a lot like a window at night. For instance you have a person on the porch and a second person inside the room, if the porch light is on and the room is dark the guy outside sees his reflection and the guy inside sees the guy outside. But when the guy inside turns on the light the guy outside can see him. A two way mirror works the same way, if the plasma is on, the light will come through the mirror and you see the picture, on the other hand when the Plasma is off you see your reflection

OK. Thanks. Now something else I want to sell to my wife! lol.

SamG