Anyone who owns a huge flat screen television knows how terrible the sun can be. If you have large living room window and the sun comes flooding in, then it is likely to ruin your enjoyment of the television. You can't enjoy watching a big game when half the screen is semi-viable. What can you do? You could record the game and watch it later at night when there will be no glare, but as any true sports fan knows, this is not a reasonable solution. And if you don't live in a mansion with enormous space, then you can't simply pick up your huge flatscreen and move it. So, here are three popular solutions and the pros and cons of each,.
Retractable Drapes
The easiest way to block the glare is to block out the sun. Simple as that. You can get drapes and hook them up on a curtain and have them connected to a motorized device that will retract them when you are ready. This way, you can close the drapes at kickoff, and then open them back up again later. This will prevent any glare from appearing on the television. However, there are some serious downsides. First, you are going to block out all the natural light. If you are throwing a big party to watch the game and inviting lots of friends over, you don't want to have the room all dark and have to use interior lighting. It's a bit weird to be indoors for a early afternoon game and see the house lit up as if it's at night. You have a huge picture window, you should not have to cover it up.
Anti-Glare Sprays or Films For Your Television
These sprays and films look to solve the problem by "dulling" the surface of the television. Glare is caused because the surface of the TV is glossy and can bounce back light. If you dull it down a bit, in theory, you will remove the problem of the glare. However, be warned that you will be altering the clarity of your television. This is not ideal. By dulling the surface, it's going to mute the brightness of the colors. Also, many of the sprays cannot be removed easily, so should you decide you are not a fan of the result, you will be stuck hiring a repair tech or even tossing the television.
Window Tinting
The last solution, and one that won't turn your daytime living room into a dark cavern, is window tinting. A professional window tinter will come to your home and show you various tints, and you can choose the one you prefer. They attach the tinting to the surface of the living room picture window. You don't have to worry about them taking down the window panes and altering them, since the tint is applied on the surface of the panes. This tint will still allow natural sunlight in, but it will just dampen it so that it doesn't completely ruin your television watching experience.
If you would prefer to not have the tint on the window at all times, speak with the window tinting company and ask them about automatic tinting. This is a process whereby a film is applied to the windows that will change from clear to tinted via electrical current. It can work off a remote switch (which is the common method when working with automobile window tinting), or you could bring in an electrician and have them hardwire a switch on your wall so that you could turn the tint on and off like a light.
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