LCD for the Kitchen

[AVP]

Hey yall, my parents just did a remodel of out kitchen at home and are looking to replace the old 15'' t.v. with an lcd they can wall mount in the corner of the room. Not sure exactly how far away the seating will be but it will be in the opposite corner of the recently expanded room. We will be using this t.v. with direct t.v. and would be fun to hook up a laptop to if we want.

Short story, I am looking for something that is

~ $300

22-24" (I think 26'' would be too big, maybe 20'' too small?)

Has built in speakers

HDMI and DVI

Non-Glossy (Lots of windows in the kitchen)


Long story, we have direct t.v. but not H.D service so I am hoping that we can get something that will display non-h.d. material well enough.

Because it will be used with a direct t.v. box it does not really have to have a t.v. tuner though one would be nice in case they decide at some point that getting local channels in the kitchen is enough.

However, looking though some of my options it seems that a standard monitor might be the way to go for options and price. It appears that there are not many televisions that fit the bill. I am wondering how a 1680x1050 monitor will display t.v. but I am going to test it with my dell 20'' over Christmas, but probably not thanksgiving, when it seems some deals are pressing me to figure this out for them.

I assume a T.N. is a T.N. but are viewing angles on traditional monitors going to be worse than something advertised for t.v.?

The very last thing is sound, I need built in speakers though I guess my father could install some in the ceiling box that runs along that wall. While I would much prefer to have built in speakers, are the built ins in a monitor going to be terrible compared to a traditional t.v.?


Ok anyways, here is what I have dug up so far.

21.5" Acer - $199

21.5" Viewsonic - $240 AR

20" Samsung - $320

22" Sharp tv - $350 at BB - BF

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Zap]

I'd go with the cheapest one because of the environment it will be in. Kitchen surfaces seem to always get an oily grime on it. CRT TVs had glass surfaces that were easy to clean. LCDs, not so much.

 

[Denithor]

Acer X223Wbd 22" $165 free shipping

96% of 300 reviews are 4 or 5 eggs. No speakers but built-in speakers suck (hard). Just wall-mount some real speakers and you're gtg.

 

[s44]

Don't get a 16:10 monitor. Make sure it's one of the 16:9 ones. (All of these and this.)

You might want to try to get a non-TN one though, for the angles.

Note that even most of the 22" screens sold *as TVs* are 16:10. Horrible idea. You can get the Samsung 22A330 (non-TN, 16:9, tuner) for $400 shipped though.

 

[AVP]

Thanks all for the help. Good idea on the cheapness side Zap, it will probably end up dying in that kitchen at some point so no reason to go expensive I guess. Thanks for the link Denithor, that monitor looks nice but no HDMI And finally, thanks for the tip on 16:9.

I sent my mother the link for the $200 Acer and told her that the speakers might not be adequate but she doesn't seem to keen on adding some to the ceiling, I guess I gotta do more research into how much those will cost. I also found the Samsung 22A450 or something like that, a slightly higher model number for $384 shipped on Amazon, but some people were complaining about the sound on that as well, the only other advantage being that it would get OTA local stations if they get rid of DTV in there, but I imagine with the new seating and a nice t.v. a lot more time will be spent watching in the kitchen.

Thanks again! If anyone has any cheap speaker recommendations, something in the $50-80 range that would be awesome.

 

[AVP]

Ok I hate to resurrect this thread when my original question was answered but on inspection a family member brought up a great point: turning off the lcd.

Typical computer monitors, such as the Acer one I recommended do not include a remote control and requiring the press of a button to turn off, something that honestly (sadly?) would annoy my family too much. Unless...the monitor goes right into power-save when the input, such as if the Directv box is turned off. Does anyone know if turning off the satellite would make the monitor go off or into power-save?

If the monitor is not programmed to do this I think the next best route is Craigslist where we will buy a 23" t.v. Unfortunately, other purchases had to be made first and we did not hop on any blackfriday deals, but thanks for your help!

 

[s44]

I thought all LCDs went into power save mode when all inputs were off.

The Acer was $190 with free shipping for BF.

 

[s44]

Incidentally, the Asus 21.5" is $210 shipped at the Egg and has slightly better-specced (2W vs 1W) speakers. Not sure that will make a difference.

 

[AVP]

That looks great S44, thanks. I was just worried that turning off of the computer and the monitor going into powersave was a driver thing and not something that would happen when a non-computer source, such as a cable box was shut off as well.

This will actually be a good thing because at home people often shut off the t.v. and not the cable box so that is sucking up power a lot. Now they will both be off/suspended. The Asus also comes with screen cleaner for $5...ooooh!

 

[NoSoup4You]

Look into that first, I've read that HDMI signals don't put the monitor into sleep mode, but rather the 'No Input Found' screen stays on the monitor until it's turned off. This is with people using an HDMI cable to connect their pc to the monitor. Not sure about a cable box.