Why did they invent Flat Screen TV's?

[john_l]

I have attached a pic of a recently retrofitted entertainment center that we have here. It was originally used as a surround type entertainment center for one of the big rear projection TV's that went bad. Mostly, all you can buy now is flat TV's. So I made a small, open faced base shelf unit that kind of matched the existing center, and sat a new flat panel on top of it.

Since most folks run out and buy a 16" deep base cabinet to set the flat panel television on and also to house the DVD, VCR, Tivo, Movies, etc etc in... I wonder why the thin, flat screen? Used like this, it seems a complete waste and is taking up the same space as the older projection TV's. A flat screen mounted to a wall bracket requires lots of thought, built-ins, or a cabinet to house the electronics!

What does make sense to me is a cabinet design that would utilize the flat screen basically as a cabinet (or wardrobe) door. So that you have accessible storage behind the flat screen TV. But these things are very heavy.

Has anyone built or seen examples of creative designs along these lines?

[jerry_stanek]

My flat screen is wall mounted with hidden cords and the componets in a cabinet off in the corner.

[MichaelG]

I've seen some that the flat screen TV is 'stored' in the rear bottom of the base unit and is 'raised' vertically through the top of the base for viewing.

Check a large local furniture store they may have some which you could check out for ideas.

[myxpykalix]

based on the picture above, that, and other similar designs seem to have a lot of wasted space behind the tv only because the other componnents and accessories and designed on a horizontal/flat plane rather then the tv being a flat/vertical plane.