Why have kitchen sized TVs vanished?

The new Sony OLED is 11"
I think it's going for $2500+ though.

If I had money to waste...
http://www.bang-olufsen.com/page.asp?id=430

http://www.amazon.com/Audiovox-VE927...im_dbs_e_img_3
http://www.amazon.com/Audiovox-VE102...7335849&sr=1-1

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you need but there really isn't a huge range of options for very small widescreen TVs.

walmart and most of the big box stores have polaroid (16x9), element (16x10), etc hdtvs in 15" sizes.
they're cheapos but they may be what you're looking for.
i use a 19" element hdtv in my kitchen for news, mash, just general stuff, also as a pc monitor. its great for those purposes. it also has component video inputs.

i also have an audiovox portable dvd player with 10" sd 16x9 screen and auxilary a/v inputs (no component ins, tho-and the res is too low). teamed up with a cable connected old vcr as a tuner, i get all my sd channels on it.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/03/l...-refrigerator/

this is what I have in my kitchen. Inputs for a dvd player AND I have it connected to a Directv box. Best part, the LCD is HD

Pass me the OJ and ESPN news please

Spent 3 months on the same quest.

I triedtwo different 15 inch LCD tvs (Samsung, Sylvania) both had lousy PQ (noise, low brightness, etc.), and took up a lot of counter space.

I came across the Audiovox 12" previously mentioned at a Target store. Its a combo swing down 12' lcd screen, with DVD and radio.

Surprising better PQ than the 15"s I tried, although still a bit challenged on brightness it looks quite good. Since it's in the Kitchen, all I wanted to do was hook up to cable. It has a QAM tuner so I get unscrambled HD on 5 channels without the need of a box.

I'm not hooking anything else up to it, so I the lack of HDMI didn't bother me.

In any case it was the best option I found under 15" for a good picture and full cable tuning. Also, the only good option with a 16:9 screen.

Planning on reading many movie credits on a 7-15" LCD in the kitchen?

Kitchen TV's haven't disappeared, you obviously haven't looked at any major retailer. Everybody and their brother makes an LCD at 15-19" aimed at the kitchen user. Sony, Sharp, Magnavox, you name it. Most of the 15" you are going to find are not widescreen, though I can't see why this matters so much to you at that size. You can't deal with a 1 inch black bar?

If you can't fit a 19" in there, that is one small area.

Then you have no options, it's really that simple. If you aren't willing to give up at least one of the features you wanted, it's going to be a long wait for a train that won't come.

1) Find that illusive widescreen LCD, forget the whole house feed and install a cable or satellite receiver with HDMI and hide it in a cabinet. I assume you are running component, audio, and your sensor right now to that area, so surely you could get coax in there if you wanted to have the receiver nearby. I assume also that you have or were planning to have a home theater remote programmed for that area, so you could just add the new receiver to that.


2) Look for a component to HDMI device such as this:
http://www.svideo.com/ypbpr2hdmi.html

Again you still have to find that elusive widescreen LCD at 15" or under.


3) Stop being so picky about the format. A 15" 4:3 model will still give you a larger Letterboxed Image than the smaller widescreen LCD's that you were looking at.

If the very small black bars bother you that much, look for the blackest model that you can find so they are less noticable.

This work

http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/produ...&cm_keycode=67

The 400:1 contrast ratio and 16ms response time is right up your alley too

i mentioned that one several posts back but i guess 'someone' missed it.
geez, it even has component inputs.

edit-it used to be a 16x9 but they've changed it to 16x10.

So, for those keeping score:


You want a small LCD screen for your kitchen so that when you go in there to grab a Coke, you don't miss whats playing in the main room, which is mostly recorded material or "other sources" that apparently are too inconvenient to pause while you step out of the room for 5 minutes.

HOWEVER, even though you will only be casually glancing at this monitor as you make a sandwich, you absolutely MUST have a monitor that is widescreen so as to avoid the very, very slight loss of resolution that occurs when displaying widescreen content on a 4:3 tv, that isn't even noticeable on a screen the size you are looking at anyway...

Mind boggling stuff. Though I would wager if we knew what "other sources" meant, it would shed some light on what you are really up to, but I don't even wanna know

I've had a 23" Sony LCD on my kitchen counter for 3.5 years and it's perfect having replaced a 13" CRT within the same space. I guess if you live in a smallish apt or something it may overwhelm things but the 23" is almost perfect as I'd go bigger yet next time - I live in a luxury Condo and the kitchen is pretty big but it's fantastic having that TV available throughout the day and at a size where you can actually make out what's on the screen.

Also, that 23" serves as my multi-purpose panel also if I'm in between TV's upgrading and waiting for the new one it's so lightweight that I can plug and play it in other rooms if needed but I'd never go smaller than 23" in my kitchen just as I would not go smaller than 57" in my HT Room. My Sony has performed flawlessly for 3.5 years and bought when it cost as much as a 46" today.

Googleme7 - Do you realize that the Kitchen is the social mingling place of most homes - people often spend hours not minutes in the kitchen that actually cook or have friends over. The Kitchen is the Hub of the Home as HGTV will confirm for you. Before going to work I'm viewing CNBC as I make coffee and prepare for workday and after working all day I have my dinner while I watch Cramerica CNBC shout and scream on Mad Money and the wife cooks while having her dead people channel on AMC - call it work noise or she watches the Travel Channel or HGTV while cooking. Of course I don't use it for the home theater but casual viewing while working or having a sandwich is great. I could see your point if it were in the John while we go toot and do our duty temporarily but this is the Hub of most peoples homes and it's our money to choose how we spend it - it's not your money we're throwing away.

However, even if we choose to view while tooting in the Head or shaving there's nothing wrong with that either as I can even recall viewing new home commmunities while visiting Palm Springs, Vegas and Naples Florida many had built in TV viewing in all bathroom mirrors where they have about a ten inch viewing area while at the sink and that was 3-5 years ago - don't ask me how they did it but it was kind of neat.

Dude, I agree, but this is apparently a totally different need for this guy. In your case, you are actually watching different programs in the kitchen and spending a lot of time in there as well as other people. You replaced a 13" with a 23" so I am going to assume that if you could have only fit a certain size tv in there, you would have a tv, period. If all you could fit in that space is a 4:3, you would deal with it.

This guy absolutely refuses to have a tv that isn't widescreen for fear of a resolution drop (at 15" or below), yet says he only wants the tv in there so that he doesn't lose contact when he goes in there to get a drink. He doesn't channel surf, he won't even have a remote in there.

Myself and some others have tried to help him, but he refuses to consider our suggestions for reasons that make no logical sense. His original question, "Why have kitchen sized tv's vanished?" Did they ever even make a 15" or below LCD TV that fit his standards? (widescreen, at least 480p, component video)??? Was that like a common model that they recently stopped making? I must have missed that one.

All he needs is a Flat Panel with component video that will fit in his space. What he wants is something that probably doesn't exist.

Well, I apologize if I come off sounding like an ass, but you must at least admit that your standards are higher than 99.9% of the population. You would have already found what you needed had they not be.

I never said that it was too much to ask for a small tv with component video. They make those. A Small TV is 19" widescreen. Below that, you are talking very small TV. I only poked fun at the Polaroid, because you made such a huge deal over picture quality. You say you wouldn't be satisfied with a 4:3 even though you wouldn't notice the resolution loss, so now you are going to be satisfied with a grey tv?

I actually think what you want to do is pretty cool, so as not to disrupt the movie for everyone else, but again morbid curiosity makes me have to ask,

WHY DOES IT MATTER IF THAT TV IS WIDESCREEN IF IT DOES WHAT YOU NEED IT TO DO?

They are coming out with the KDL-19M4000 shortly, aimed at the kitchen user. I know it won't work for you, but I just thought I would mention it. (unless you have a bar or table you could sit it on.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921665401954

Yes, I did read your post, and your reasons were just more nitpicking than need, except for the size requirements.

It doesn't seem moronic to purchase a 4:3 product IF that is your best and ONLY option. Yes, you are using a modified touch screen LCD, but it's only 7" and you wanted something bigger and even with 4:3 letterbox, you are doubling your screen area, you might find this website useful:

http://www.cavecreations.com/tv2.cgi


And yes, it might not fit, but I don't remember you ever giving out any dimensions for the area either.