Kitchen television

Forums › Home Theatre (incl HTPC) › Kitchen television

blairm

54 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

# 39847 20-Aug-2009 14:27

Hi,

Looking at buying a small (17" or 19") LCD television for my parents to replace an ancient beast they have in their kitchen. They keep their existing one on a bay window above the sink.
Do I need to find a television that's waterproof, or are regular LCD televisions okay with being lightly splashed occasionally?

Cheers,

Blair

mruane

420 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 2

# 249106 20-Aug-2009 16:59

Think about getting one with a VESA 100 or 75 mounting point on the back, so that you can get it off the bench and away from potential water flows. You can get reasonably priced wall mounting brackets from Harvey Norman and other retailers.

Cheers Mike

[EDIT MOD RC: Please call companies by their correct name]

richms

22259 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4784

Trusted

Subscriber

# 249173 20-Aug-2009 19:57

Brackets are cheap on trademe. Consider one of the newer cheap 16:9 computer monitors and a freeview box with hdmi on it as an alternate, since LCD TV's are stupid money in that size and now that there is prime, an analog tuner is a white elephant unless you have inhouse modulated sources.

Richard rich.ms

blairm

54 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 1

# 249336 21-Aug-2009 10:42

Thanks for the advice,

Wall-mounting seems a good idea. Considered Freeview, but given the saving appears pretty small will probably go with a normal television.

Cheers,

Blair

VFNZPaulBrislen

970 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Vodafone

# 249337 21-Aug-2009 10:46

I tried this last year but the length of the cable from the aerial was just too long to get a good picture. I tried a booster from Dick Smith but no luck.

what should I be using? any ideas?

Paul Brislen
Head of Corporate Communications
Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

mruane

420 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 2

# 249518 21-Aug-2009 18:42

Paul, I have used the Kingray amplifier for some time now and had great results. I guess it all really depends on the length of antenna cable you are dealing with and what amplifier you selected. The Kingray's are quite effective.

Another option might be to setup a computer with a TV Card and stream to a distant TV. That would be much more complex and expensive though but can be achieved using CAT5/6 cable. I have done that to a small Kitchen wall mounted net book. It streams TV from the TV Server quite happily using Media Portal.

How long is the antenna cable to your TV.

Cheers Mike

richms

22259 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4784

Trusted

Subscriber

# 249533 21-Aug-2009 19:59

Or just run the video from a remote settop box over the cat-5 - better then dicking around with 2 computers just to shift video about the house

Richard rich.ms

Nety

2584 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 5

Mod Emeritus

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

# 249597 22-Aug-2009 09:01

blairm: Thanks for the advice,

Wall-mounting seems a good idea. Considered Freeview, but given the saving appears pretty small will probably go with a normal television.

Cheers,

Blair

Keep in mind that "normal" or analogue TV will be getting shut down in a few years. Also did you price using a PC monitor and freeview tuner rather then a TV and tuner?

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

linw

2009 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 417

Subscriber

# 252455 2-Sep-2009 08:52

For our kitchen I bought a 7" LCD monitor and fed video and audio from the Freeview tuner in the lounge. Bit problematic if the Freeview tuner's channel is being changed all the time but works for us ATM with our tuner being left on TVOne.

VFNZPaulBrislen

970 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Vodafone

# 253665 7-Sep-2009 09:09

mruane: Paul, I have used the Kingray amplifier for some time now and had great results. I guess it all really depends on the length of antenna cable you are dealing with and what amplifier you selected. The Kingray's are quite effective.

Another option might be to setup a computer with a TV Card and stream to a distant TV. That would be much more complex and expensive though but can be achieved using CAT5/6 cable. I have done that to a small Kitchen wall mounted net book. It streams TV from the TV Server quite happily using Media Portal.

How long is the antenna cable to your TV.

Cheers Mike

It's probably about 20m I'd say. I bought an amp from Dick Smith but it didn't seem to make a blind bit of difference. Maybe wifi is the way to go...

ah, I can see a massive upgrade project to come. mmmmmmm.

Paul Brislen
Head of Corporate Communications
Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

Jaxson

6943 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 663

Trusted

# 253685 7-Sep-2009 10:28

As a slight aside, Dick Smith used to offer a small compact mini system stereo thing which also had a small TV built into it. World famous brand that no one had ever heard of sort of thing.

Analogue tuner of course, but I always thought this would be perfect for a kitchen, as gives radio/CD player as well. Was quite cheap too from memory.

Regs

Infrastructure Geek
4057 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 195

Trusted

Microsoft NZ

Subscriber

# 253707 7-Sep-2009 11:24

PaulBrislen:

It's probably about 20m I'd say. I bought an amp from Dick Smith but it didn't seem to make a blind bit of difference. Maybe wifi is the way to go...

remember.... if you amplify a crappy signal - you get an amplified crappy signal :P perhaps you need someone to tune your antenna?

Technical Evangelist
Microsoft NZ
about.me/nzregs
Twitter: @nzregs

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
63874 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 14335

Administrator

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

# 253710 7-Sep-2009 11:32

PaulBrislen: It's probably about 20m I'd say. I bought an amp from Dick Smith but it didn't seem to make a blind bit of difference. Maybe wifi is the way to go...

If you want to stream any content (DVD contents, HD TV) you won't be happy with WiFi 802.11 a/b/g. You have to go with 802.11 n at least.

This is a good kit for streaming HD content.

Sharesies investment funds | Geekzone broadband switch | Amazon (Geekzone aff) | MightyApe (Geekzone aff) | Honeyminer (1000 Satoshi signup bonus)

My technology disclosure | Digital Transformation | Enterprise Content Management | Customer Relationship Management | Data Insights, Business Intelligence and Advanced Analytics

VFNZPaulBrislen

970 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

Vodafone

# 253711 7-Sep-2009 11:34

all good comments (and True! crap in equals crap amplifed).

I've moved on to Stage Two of my cunning plan: if we get Freeview in the lounge we'll have to clean up the signal before it's pumped to the kitchen...

so far signs are good that the Wife Acceptance Factor (WAF) will kick in and the submission will be approved.

I'll report back. If I'm allowed.

Paul Brislen
Head of Corporate Communications
Vodafone

http://forum.vodafone.co.nz

richms

22259 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 4784

Trusted

Subscriber

# 253771 7-Sep-2009 14:39

Well the kitchen is the wifes domain so anything that makes it better they should be in favour of ;)

Richard rich.ms