[Jeffhs]

I recently read in "The Basics of HDTV" that most flat panels today are in fact packed with circuitry, though most of it is unnoticed because it is contained within integrated circuits (ICs). In fact, I was amazed by the sheer numbers of circuits contained in these chips when I saw the block diagrams of the sections of a typical HDTV. Who would have thought, 25 or 30+ years ago, that this much circuitry could be crammed into a very small IC chip, or that an entire television could fit into a cabinet under one inch thick?

More amazing, to me anyhow, is how today's FPs can be made so slim. My own Insignia 19" flat set is only about an inch thick, if that much, and weighs just under 6.6 pounds without the table-top stand. I was amazed when I set up this TV in place of my 12-year-old analog one; the flat set is so much smaller it all but floored me. I bet a lot of non-technical people, used to seeing a large console or table-model TV in a huge cabinet, are amazed as well that such a small device as a modern FP (even a large-screen one) is a "real" television set. Because all FPs bear little or no resemblance to the large portable, table and console television receivers that preceded them (and which most people old enough to remember them are used to), such a reaction would not surprise me.

What is probably more amazing to a lot of people is the idea of hanging a TV set on a wall, like a piece of framed art. This used to be science fiction (who would have so much as dreamed, 40 years ago, of doing that with a heavy 1950s-'60s vintage portable?), but today's FPs are light enough that it is now possible to do so -- even though it takes a special type of mounting to safely attach a FP to a living-room wall. The online instruction manual for my FP (and probably every flat-panel ever made which is intended for wall mounting) makes a specific point of this, and cautions the set owner that "one size [of flat-panel television wall mount] does not fit all" as well as stating that only a wall mount capable of supporting the set's weight must be used, lest the set falls off the mount (when the latter breaks under excessive weight) and shatters into a million pieces. I've never actually seen this happen, but it may well have happened in the past when someone does a slap-dash job of mounting the set to the wall or uses a flimsily-built (or the wrong size) wall mount.