Imagine after 20 years, you finally upgrade your old, fuzzy 20-inch TV with a beautiful, 1080p LCD TV. You enjoy the new display for a few days, and then when playing a little indoor football, the ball sails right through your hands and into your prized, new investment. The screen shatters and your TV is worthless. Your warranty probably doesn’t cover inadvertent football accidents, so you’re pretty much out a few hundred (or thousand) dollars and you’re back to your old 20-inch Zenith.
That’s exactly the type of scenerio that TV Armor wants to get you thinking about (actually the website uses an example of a child throwing his fire truck at the TV). Like a plastic cover for your couch, TV Armor isn’t the most attractive accessory money can buy, and I can’t imagine it’ll sharpen your picture, but it will protect you from damaging your expensive TV screen. TV Armor is a "crystal-clear, optical grade, acrylic shield that protects your TV from flying objects". The shield slides over your screen and connects to your television with Velcro, making it easy to get set-up.
I could see the attraction for intense Wii users that are constantly flailing their arms in the direction of the TV, but other than that, this product really seems to skirt around the problem. Seems to me the problem isn’t the vulnerability of the TV screen, the problem is that people probably shouldn’t be throwing hard objects at or around it. Address that issue and you can save the money and nerd-factor of installing TV Armor.
However, I guess for those that spend thousands of dollars on warranty extensions and redundant insurance coverage, a little peace of mind might make TV Armor an attractive buy. TV Armor runs from $69 (19 to 20 inch) to $289 (63 to 65 inch). That’s a small price to pay if the shield ever actually actively protects your screen. On the other hand, if it doesn’t, it’s money in the toilet. (Buy here)
TV Armor via Dvice
