For my glass, I found that twowaymirrors.com was suuuper expensive. I ended up putting a post out on facebook to see if anyone knew someone who worked with glass - specifically two way mirror glass. Luckily, somebody replied and I found a source that is literally 10X cheaper than I was quoted online. Maybe try putting out some feelers? You never know who’s got the right connections!

@sdetweil thank you! This makes my life so much easier

For my glass, I found that twowaymirrors.com was suuuper expensive. I ended up putting a post out on facebook to see if anyone knew someone who worked with glass - specifically two way mirror glass. Luckily, somebody replied and I found a source that is literally 10X cheaper than I was quoted online. Maybe try putting out some feelers? You never know who’s got the right connections!

So I’m looking into buying a second hand tv to use as my display, and I’ve heard varying opinions on HDMI port location. I’ve heard to try and find a tv where the port is located so that the HDMI cord runs parallel to the screen, but most TV’s that I’m seeing for sale would have the HDMI cord sitting perpendicular to the screen. I feel like this would add extra depth, as then the cord is sticking out, rather than laying flat against the display… Am I correct or does this really matter?

And also, just to confirm… the type of tv that I use doesn’t make a difference, correct?

I’m looking to pick up a second hand 50" from someone off Craigslist. Its a flat screen but I’m not sure how old. Are there any specific things that I should look for in a TV monitor? I know one thing that was mentioned was to look for one that has the HDMI ports on the side, but anything else?

Thanks for the links @sdetweil, I’ll toy with it a bit once I get my screen this weekend and hopefully I can come up with something. I wish they made larger computer monitors, as that seems to be the best to work with, but oh well! I feel like the extra work that a tv monitor takes is probably worth it to have a bigger mirror in the end hey?

You’ll likely be seeing me around with a ton of questions in the coming weeks as I try to figure this out

@sdetweil out of curiousity, what do the 4 different pis/sdc do on the tv?

I’m extremely new to this (my only experience with rpi being the basic retro gaming console with Kodi), so excuse my ignorance here, but I’m assuming that most new tvs have the 16:9 aspect ratio?

What modules do you recommend using for a tv magic mirror? (In terms of having it wake up/go to sleep)… I’ve heard that the most annoying thing with using a television is that it will often go to the “no signal” screen when not in use, and I’d like to avoid this if possible

@BKeyport oof, I completely forgot about the micro HDMI adapter. I guess I can’t get far without that

@sdetweil so essentially a tv screen makes no difference other than requiring a bit more configuration? I discovered that a friend of mine works with glass and can get me a cheap sheet suitable for a 42" tv screen, so I’d love to go bigger than a computer monitor. My last question (for now), is does it matter what type of tv I use? I’m looking at some older, second hand ones, but I don’t want to spend the money if it won’t work. Do they need to be relatively newer models?

This may be a dumb question, but is there any difference between using a raspberry pi 3b+ or a 4GB raspberry 4? The pi 4’s are on sale near me, so I bought one today for my gaming console/kodi box, but I’m thinking of grabbing a second one to start programming the magic mirror. I just want to make sure that everything still sets up and runs properly on the newer model.

Does size matter in this case? There is only a $5 difference between the 2GB and the 4GB pi 4’s near me, so it makes sense to grab the 4GB… but does it make a difference in the end?

Lastly… does it make much of a difference if I use a tv instead of a computer monitor? I’m hoping to make my mirror a bit bigger than the average computer screen (32" if I can source the glass affordably, otherwise I’ll move down to a 27" gaming monitor)

Thanks @Fozi, that clears it up for me. I suppose I’m ready start shopping around for supplies then!

@Mykle1 thank you! I’ll check that out and see if it helps me any :)

@Fozi I’m thinking about using an old 32" tv screen, but now I’m wondering if I should aim smaller. I’m currently working on finding any leads as to cheaper source for the glass amongst my circle of friends, hopefully that will lower costs a bit too

In terms of the thickness of the glass itself, how does this affect the display?