PlayHaven Green Building Project

LIFESTYLE: Entertainment Center (December 2009).

Gary (husband and 'the guy who earns the big bucks') had been wanting to update our 'entertainment system' (which translates to our TV and stuff) for some time now and I kept putting it off with by pointing out other priorities. So when it came time for us to choose our Solstice gifts for each other, we decided on another joint gift (you may recall the eco-friendly cookware we chose last year) and purchased the Sony Bravia VE5 1080p Eco LCD HDTV.

There is lots of information at the Sony website, so here is the link. Basics are:

16:9 Full HD 1080p Resolution Panel (1920x1080)
Dynamic Contrast
LightSensor® Technology
Motionflow™ 120Hz Technology
Conserve Energy with Presence Sensor
Dynamic Backlight Control
High-efficiency HCFL Backlight
Energy-saving Standby Power Switch (translation: the OFF switch)
and a bunch more, of course.

As usual (hopefully this will change soon), we had to tell the salespeople how to sell the thing. Several stores had the Sony display showing how little electricity it uses when in its most energy-efficient settings... but there wasn't any other TV hooked up to show the DIFFERENCE. So if you didn't already know how much your current or prospective TV used, it was kinda pointless. Plus, the demo TV only played the demo video --- which of course was perfect for low energy use, but not great at showing the quality of the image for skin tones, action, etc.

FYI: The image quality is superb! What you would expect from any Sony.

When the free TV signal went to digital, we had converters so we could watch TV. When we changed to the Bravia, that eliminated the need for a converter and when they totally eliminated the analog signal, it made the VCR useless. So we also updated to a DVR recorder that is also a DVD and VCR player. I had hoped to record all my VHS tapes to DVD, but am not gung-ho enough to figure out how to by-pass the anti-recording features on them. Guess I'll just have to hang on to those ancient VHS tapes. FYI: This item isn't 'green' on its own accord... but it did let us reduce our equipment by one item, so that's something.

And, it wouldn't be an entertainment system without extra speakers. So when Gary got one of those gift bonus things from work that had a Sony 5-speaker system in it. Well, I think you can guess the rest. We were able to replace the stereo (which we were only using for the radio and CDs anyway) with a small Sony sound system that also can play 4 CDs or DVDs in addition to being a radio.

What did we do with the old equipment? Gary set up the old TV etc. in the basement so I can use it to play my exercise tapes/DVDs.

links to helpful sites:

Green Peace Internationals "Guide to Greener Electronics" (http://www.greenpeace.org/international/campaigns/toxics/electronics/how-the-companies-line-up)

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