I was reading online about adding lighting behind your TV and or monitor to alleviate eye strain when using either device.  It was a cheap enough project and I really like how it looks. 

This is a copy and paste of my article on Instructables.comI

was intrigued by the instructable explaining how to add biased lighting to your LCD monitor.
My monitors are CRT and sit in a spot that does not allow biased lighting, but my big screen TV could be a candidate.
Now I can watch TV for hours on end without eye-strain.

1 fluorescent bulb from Lowes that stated it was 9 watts and comparable to a normal 40 watt bulb in regards to brightness. It was the lowest wattage I could find without getting a REALLY low wattage bulb for a appliance. I didn't know what size to get since the LCD was much smaller then my TV, so I had to wing it.

(I ended up using a even smaller bulb.  I found one that was comparable to 20 watts so it was a 4 or 5 watt fluorescent)

-1 light-bulb socket. One of those cheap-O 99 cent ones.
-1 old extension cord with its head lopped off.

-1 clamp of some sort that is the size of the bulb holder.

-2 SHORT screws

-4 beers

The back of my TV has some sort of blank spot in the middle of it, seemingly made for this Instructable.
I can only assume the blank spot has some terribly important circuit board housed inside of it. I recall this from taking apart a monitor a few years back.

Since I don't have time to be cautious, (read smart), I will plunge ahead with the drill.

Here I am, drilling into my TV that I really never have been able to afford, and will never be able to replace if I damage it.
IN this pic you can see me affixing my chopped up extension cord, my light-bulb socket, and my metal clamp from the plumbing aisle.

Make note that I am using VERY small pan head screws. Even after they are screwed into the TV, I daresay there isn't more then a bump in the plastic on the inside on the TV on the flat spot.

The manly end of the extension cord got plugged into my cable box switched outlet. Now when I turn my cable box on and off, the light does the same.

My picture looks like crap, but this is the best I could come up with after about 10 pictures and 30 minutes in Photoshop.
The light looks very yellow/orange in the picture, but this is not how it looks to my eyes in person.

Apparently my camera is really confused as to what I am trying to take a picture of so it came out either way too bright, or way to dark.

In real life, the biased lighting on the cheap "big screen edition" did just the trick. The picture is clear as a bell still, and the off background light helps keep the eyestrain down as well as make it easy to find the martini in the dark during a movie.

My only annoyance is the thermostat above the TV. It makes the whole setup look silly.

Thanks Bowdie for the idea.

Comment on how stupid I am, how terrible my grammar is, or how much free time I have below. 

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Name

Email

Website

Comment

Write the displayed characters

Add Comment

Like it? Tag it:

Digg

Delicious

Stumble

De.lirio.us

Fark