Sony NSX-32GT1 broken front cover leads to Samsung Google TV

I recently acquired a brand new Sony NSX-32GT1 web TV with Google TV, which is pretty much a 32'' workstation at 1080p. It's way cool!

I got it cheap because its front cover was cracked, but, oddly enough, the display behind it was intact.

I didn't make a picture of the TV while it was assembled, but got a picture of the front cover once I took it off:

After being unable to find a replacement front cover for under $250 (which of course did not make any sense) what else could I do than what I did?

Here's what I did:

This is not a Photoshop at work here.

I took a 32'' Samsung LCD with broken display (you can find those easily on Craigslist) and just moved the Sony into it.

It needed a little rework and , in all fairness, it's not complete.

For one, the Sony had only two buttons on it - the power and the remote sync button (similar to the Sync button on the Wii consoles) while the Samsung had all the standard buttons for menu, channel, volume etc.

So there was a little and simple patchwork mapping two of the original buttons - POWER and MENU - to do what the two buttons on the Sony did.

Sorry I didn't take pictures of the inside, I was just too excited doing it :-)

And second, the Sony has another panel with inputs, below the first one, as well as a side panel. Those feature another two HDMI inputs, USB inputs, LAN socket and earphones plug.

All those are currently still under the cover as frankly, I figured the main and coolest use of this TV is the built-in wireless Internet card ,so you don't really need to run a LAN cable to it.

Anyway, that's how it is.

I'll update here the Samsung model that I used for the job...as not every 32'' LCD TV will do...I tried a few others before finding this.

By the way, now the LCD is looking *directly* the open air where before it was behind the ultra-cool front cover, yet another optical surface anyway.

It's simply looks even better now, although unprotected.

I think it's cool.