Turning TV into a mirror

Jun 29, 2019 Last reply: 7 years ago 15 Replies

Hi All



We are redoing our bedroom and was thinking of making a surround for the TV to make it look like a picture frame. I have seen a similar idea online but cleverly they have put a special mirror surface in front which looks mirrored when TV is off but see through when the TV is on. Any idea what this magic material is?



Thanks



Lee.


no idea.... but wummin' put on their slap looking into a mobile phone.....

You can get so-called one-way reflective film for putting on windows, so I guess it was some of that. I imaging the trick is to get it in place without bubbles of air under it. Lots of sellers

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Glass.

Glass reflects when lit from the front with dark behind

You can get an app that sets the crystals in the display in the correct orientation to reflect like a mirror.

I bought a roll of that 40 years ago and applied it to my West-facing windows to cool the house down in summer.

It was applied to the inside of a clean window, wetted with soapy water and the bubbles squeegeed out. Easy.

If you stuck that on a tv then it would be back-to-front, surely ?.

bastard stuff to remove too.

Maybe get a sheet of glass, with polished edges and apply it to the side where it would be sandwiched between glass and tv screen ?. Or just get some proper two-way mirror glass and position in front of tv ?.

1 way mirror. It does cut down light transmittance a lot though

NT

The film is a great idea if it works. Anyone tried it? Looking at the description it seems to work like one way mirror in that it depends on light differential so it would appear that it would work. Anyone tried it in this context.

How does it stick to the glass? If it is a bugger to get off wonder if sticking directly on to my TV is a good idea?

Depends on how they work. AIUI all these 'one-way' mirrors rely on a partially silvered sheet of whatever (plastic, glass etc) and having the area being viewed brighter than the area you're viewing from. For example in a police interrogation room with a one-way mirror, the interrogation room is kept nice and bright but the viewing room is much less well lit. Similarly on entry into the UK when you go through customs to declare any goods you've brought in, the big mirror at one end probably hides a bunch of guys&girls in subdued light watching every passenger. But if the guys&girls watching were well lit and the passengers were in subdued light, the passengers would see the guys&girls, but they wouldn't see the passengers.

But modern technology, in particular fancy optical effects and glass making techniques, with carefully adjusted particle size or particle orientation within the glass, may mean that all of the above is old hat.

...and adds doggy ears and a nose...tee hee

Have you tried YouTube?

Daft as it sounds there are often people on there that have done this sort of thing.

Cheers

But not any old display, as far as I am aware, it won't work on Oled screens. Brian

Actually simply turning it into a view yourself system could be handy if you use software to dress the person in different clothing, as it would then help people decide what might suit them. Brian

Haven't you heard of the "deep nude" app that makes clothed women appear naked?

The classic way to do it is a semi silvered mirror which will let light through but reflects a proportion of the incident light. What you see then depends on which side of it has the strongest illumination.

Snag with doing it is that the screen mirror will reflect distracting highlights from within the room so it is only any good in a darkened room. If you can live with that limitation then you should be able to find it by looking for semi-slivered mirror. eg.

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