Customer Reviews

Sony ICF-CD555TV 7-Inch Under-Counter LCD TV/CD Clock Radio

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have been shopping for several months for an under-cabinet LCD TV to replace our 18-year-old 5" RCA tube-type TV in our kitchen, which has served us well but has developed annoying on/off button problems and now looks old, clunky out-of-date.

Our requirements for a replacement unit were as follows:
1. Small, sleek, unobtrusive, LCD design that would blend in under our white cabinets
2. CD player so my wife could enjoy her books-on-CD in the kitchen (DVD and radio would be a plus but not essential)
3. We wanted to be able to view both local channels as well as satellite channels without needing to also install a DirecTV decoder box (this would take additional space -defeating our compactness goal -- and require more complicated wiring, not to mention monthly charges).
4. Quality (and warranty) that would ensure it would last several years.
5. Price under $500.
6. Given the limited selection and the poor quality reviews on other models, I needed to be able to examine it in person before buying.

I looked at these options:

1. Audiovox VE-1020 (and its older/smaller siblings). It way too pricey at $600-700 and read too many `poor' reviews on audio quality and overall durability.
2. RCA BLC524: Screen too small, and `poor' quality reviews, plus could not find it in a retail store.
3. Motorola/Moxell Tech KA-A13: Sounded good, reliable manufacturer, but could only find its announcement as it is not yet available.
4. Standalone 13" LCD (Gateway, Aquous, Sharp) with a separate swivel mounting bracket. I eliminated this option early because it would be too large, too expensive (~$100 for the bracket alone!), and it most cases would not include a CD player.

I bought the Sony as soon as I found its availability was advertised at a local electronics retail store. Bought it with an inexpensive 5-year extended warranty.

It's been in place for 2 weeks and we *like* it - it is living up to expectations, despite a couple of design flaws -- the absence of which would have earned the unit *five* stars.

First the flaws-all minor:

1. Fit and connections. As an earlier reviewer on this site pointed out, its installation is a tight fit under our cabinets, leaving only about an inch clearance to plug in the coax and a/v connectors. But this was easily remedied by purchasing right-angle adapters (Radio Shack, $4 each) that can be screwed in after installation with the 1" clearance. These redirect the cable and RCA connectors downward, making attaching the cables post-installation easy. Sony would do well to include these right-angle adapters.

2. Installation instructions. The alternative is to connect all your cables *prior* to installing the unit - something the instructions did not point out. In fact, the instructions could be improved in various areas. For instance, while the unit comes with variable-depth spacers so that installation under cabinets with doors that overhang the cabinet bottom, if you have flush-mounted doors (as we do), you *don't* want to use the spacers at all. Well, the instructions don't suggest this option, leaving you to think that the spacers are required in all cases. For me, this meant re-installing without the spacers, a minor hassle.

3. No built-in TV antenna. Unlike our old RCA, this unit does not have a built-in extending-wand antenna. This makes it a *requirement* that you connect TV and/or A/V inputs to another signal source to receive *anything* on the TV. While many people may be planning to do this, it *does* raise the ante on hooking it up. Sony would have a more versatile product for less experienced people if they included an optional "single rabbit ear" antenna that could be plugged into the TV/cable connector.

Now the good features:

1. TV: Sharp, noise-free wide-format picture, with settable options for standard 3x4 picture size and two wide-format variations. Just the right size. When not in used, screen is easily folded into a cavity under the unit and latches mechanically (more securely than magnetically, which may also wear out).

2. Sound: Perfect for TV viewing and CD story listening, and quite decent for FM or CD music, both in volume and fidelity. Two 3" speakers main the sound forward and downward, and the bass extender works as advertised. As long as you don't expect home theatre quality sound from this unit, you should be quite satisfied.

3. CD Player: Quality feel of its slide-out tray. Plays commercial and my home-recorded MP3s flawlessly.

4. Remote: Small, intuitive, well-constructed. Its bottom magnet attaches to our refrigerator nicely.

5. AM/FM presets: 5 of each, easily set, with manual tuning buttons on the unit and the remote.

6. TV/Video switch: Easily switches from the antenna/cable input to the a/v inputs. This is important, as the way we wired the unit, it only takes my technology-challenged wife one button click to switch from local channels to satellite channels coming in from our home theatre system.

7. Clock: Intuitive and easily set.

8. Timer: Doubt we will use - or care about -- this feature.

Bottom line: We like it a lot, both how it looks and how it works. The Sony name (and their 1-year manufacturer's warranty) - coupled with the inexpensive 5-year extended warranty we bought - should give us several good years of service...until it is again technologically out-of-date and needs upgrading again!

Bad points:
1) As all of the other reviewers have pointed out, this unit is almost exactly the same depth as a standard cabinet -- with about 1/2 inch to spare at the back. Very funny, Sony... No room to connect the cables to the back. I would like to thank the previous reviewer who pointed out that you can buy a right angle coax adapter at Radio Shack. It works good with that.
2) The LCD screen is 'wide screen' format. In other words, it is not the shape of a normal TV picture. This would be good if you played DVD's in letterbox format, I guess, but who is doing that under a kitchen cabinet? You end up having to decide if you want the TV picture to be a) kind of stretched widthwise (even in what they call Full screen mode), OR b) with a smaller square 'normal shaped TV' picture in the middle of the screen with about 1/2 inch of black bars on each side, OR c) in a slightly ZOOMed full screen mode, with a little of the top of peoples heads slightly chopped off sometimes.
3) The screen should flip down to end up in a more forward position (and not half-way under the cabinet) in case you are standing closer the the cabinet with the TV.
Good points:
1) Good picture and sound. Good quality.
2) Very compact after it is installed.
3) It's cool.
4) Sony's Zoom mode can make up for the odd shape of the screen.

I was in the market for an under cabinet TV to replace an old GE Spacemaker. I considered the Sony. But this thing is HUGE! The dimensions are: 15 3/4 H x 4 1/8 W x 12 3/4 D inches. The width dimension was a problem for my desired corner installation but I could have made it work. The depth was a more serious problem.

I believe I have typically sized American style cabinets. My kitchen was remodeled about 10 years ago. My base cabinets are 24inches deep and my upper cabinets are 12inches deep. I have a tile backsplash that reduces the depth under the cabinets by about 1/2 inch. The cabinet doors are about 1/2 inch thick. What this totals up to is the Sony sticking out 3/4 inch past the front of my cabinets. Ugh! Now if you want to add space so you can attach the cables to the rear, add another inch. Barf!

I wonder if Sony even bothered to research the dimensions of the kitchens they were trying to fit into. I would really have loved to put a Sony in my kitchen (much of my hifi equipment is Sony) but this is plain bad design.

I got an Audiovox VE640 instead. It is not the greatest but it does the job and it fits in the kitchen space allocated for it.

First off, I can't fathom how people can review an item based on their lack of research. For those who didn't think to measure their cabinet depth, I refer you to the specifications....

Secondly, who buys an undercabinet TV for the radio? Maybe that's just me...

Okay, on to the review:
I replaced my completely horrible Audiovox (also purchased through Amazon) when it finally gave up the ghost (it was my 4th replacement). Let me just say right off that the difference is night and day. The controls are easy, the remote is nice and has actual buttons, and the sound isn't tinny. Oh, and the TV itself looks fantastic.

Here's the good:
Picture - excellent. The Regular, full (expanded regular TV to wide), and Widescreen all look good. It's too bad it doesn't come with HDTV, but I suspect that's why I got it for $50 off the lowest price I had seen. The picture is bright, colorful and can be seen at steep angles.
Sound - excellent. I can't say how much this is worth after having suffered the Audiovox's tinny, fading, and static-filled speakers.
Controls - simple to understand and use - though a little tough to access if you recess the TV from the front of the cabinet.
The remote is well integrated and about the only thing I would ask for is that they ship the 2 AAA batteries for it.
The TV screen rotates to almost any viewing position as well.
Includes CD player and Radio, both pretty much nice add-ons to me as I bought it solely for the TV. Both sound good.
It works. Unlike almost every other unit I've seen in the store, it doesn't look cheap and it functioned out of the box. We had degenerated into slapping the Audiovox when it would simply cut out. We got to the point where it functioned less than 30 seconds without hitting it... I can't speak for the rest of the crowd here, but having decent Sony quality means a lot.


Here's the Bad:
No external antenna hookups for radio - pure silliness, and given the size of the unit, unforgivable that it wasn't included.
Bulky - yes it's deep, that wasn't an issue for me since I read the dimensions and put it under a corner cabinet, but it's seemingly 1-2" too thick.
No Battery backup for stations or time settings.
No MP3 minijack input.
TV screen is a bit small.. about 4" for regular 4:3 ratio shows - but it's livable. If the shows are in widescreen, it looks fantastic.

Although Sony's recent shenanigans with rootkits and the PS3 debacle and general difficulty of navigating their customer service made me wary, I've never really had trouble with their electronics components. I'm happy to report that although we are still a bit twitchy over the last unit and fully expecting the Sony to fall apart any second, it has remained beatifully functional.

For what it is, it's fantastic. Their next model may improve in many areas including size, inputs, and HD support, but for now, there is no other TV on the market that looks or sounds as good. You'll notice on many of the other under cabinet TV's that there are 5 "decent to good" reviews from 5 people who haven't reviewed anything else. Obviously someone was loading the deck. Don't be fooled as I was. Spend a little extra to get something of decent quality or you'll be replacing it in a year. I've now spent over double what I would have if I had simply gotten the Sony to begin with. Now that it's price has dropped, it's simply a no-brainer.

I purchased this unit from Amazon and it was shipped from Vanns. My experience with this product was outstanding and I was able to install this unit in a corner cabinet in the kitchen. Since I installed it in a corner, I experienced no installation problems as mentioned in other reviews. The instructions were very clear, the template provided for installation was perfect and allowed for easy installation. The TV quality is excellent and the sound produced using the radio and CD are good considering the size of the unit. The unit has a few sound options depending on the preference of the user. I set the sound to stereo with a higher bass setting. Overall, I would recommend this product depending on cabinet size and position. Not installing in a corner cabinet might provide some installation challenges considering the size of the unit.

We purchased this Sony after buying & returning an Audiovox under-the-counter tv/radio. We were very unhappy with the picture quality of the Audiovox, so we went to Best Buy and looked at their system which was a Phillips. The picture was much better than the Audiovox. Yet, we were still not satisfied. So we purchased the Sony system, which is better than both of those. We are very happy with both the picture quality and the sound quality of the Sony. It's perfect in our kitchen. The only issue is that you need to buy a right-angle wire connector in order to hook up the cables in the back -- no big deal, my husband got it at Radio Shack. We even hooked up a little dvd player to this system. Just a note, we don't leave the dvd player plugged in to the outlet because it causes some interference when you're not using it. I don't know if this is specific to my house outlets or if it's something with the frequencies of the tv. Anyway, we are extremely satisfied with this product!

We bought one of these to replace our old counter top TV that we used in the kitchen. I like the under cabinet design, but would like to caution you on the dimensions. These dimensions on the box only define the foot print of the unit. Be sure to allow room to plug in your AV components (1 to 2 inches)! I had to fudge the placement of ours, otherwise we would not have been able to plug in the antenna. The reception is a little less than average on the radio and TV. I'm not bothered by this because we are going to use this tv as a "Slave" monitor from our Direct TV system. We have had this is use for about 4 months now. The only problem is the LCD screen has a ripple in the center. I don't know what caused it. There are no heat sources close by. For a tv to watch the local news, football, etc on while cooking and viewing for short periods of time it will do the job. If you're looking for something to watch all the time, buy something else. The seven inch display is just too small. The chief goal of this TV is to out of the way and free up counter space. Which it does very well.
******UPDATE*******
I got the ripple in the center of the screen to go away! One of the kids changed the aspect ration to zoom. It appears that the zoom feature distorts the center of the screen. Why? I have no idea, but now the image looks fine.

I have read the other reviews and it seems people with problems with the picture are not reading the manual. The zoom modes distort the picture. This is not a flaw, but rather how it is supposed to work. You can always just leave it 4:3 and have the black bars if you dont want the distortion.

We have it mounted in a corner and I agree with the other reviewers that it would probably be a bit tight depthwise if just mounting under a regular cabinet.

The sound is very good for a TV. I have no complaints and am quite picky when it comes to such things.

Remote is magnetic so it sticks to (some) of our stainless appliances.

Overall, I'm very happy. Only thing I wish was that the power cable were removable - would make running cables inside the cabinet easier.

First, accept the product for what it is: a kitchen tv. Second, understand that most kitchen tv's do not offer multiple Screen Modes. Third, expect the best quality and customer service from a Sony product.

Aside from minor flaws mentioned by other reviewers, at first blush this is a fine kitchen tv. Unfortunately, based on a sample of three (my original purchase via Amazon plus two replacements by Sony), I have concluded that there is a design problem with the 7 inch monitor. In short, the picture is distorted in the Wide Screen Mode. There appears to be adjacent vertical segments (top to bottom) that are wider than normal and thinner than normal. This is most evident on all-news channels that scroll information from right to left across the bottom of the picture. In the Normal, Full and Zoom Screen Modes, the scrolling is even and consistent. In the Wide Screen Mode, the scrolling is uneven and snakelike (weaving). The distortion is present with a picture either from the tv tuner or the video input.

I have communicated with Sony via e-mail and telephone. They appear to be primarily willing to replace the tv, not to address the technical issue. I have decided to keep the tv because it does fit under the kitchen wall cabinet nicely (though snugly -- those right angle adaptors in the back are a must) and the picture is good in the other Screen Modes.

Finally, I have purchased many Sony products in my 55+ years. My current Sony items include 23 inch and 42 inch flat panel, LCD HDTV's. I have gladly paid more for the Sony quality and reliability. In other words, I'm not a Sony basher. However, I am very disappointed that Sony would sell and promote a 7 inch widescreen tv with multiple Screen Modes when the Wide Screen Mode doesn't work! And the customer service (appeasement vice solution) was not what I expected.

Great product! Good picture and sound ... easy set-up and controls ... and a remote with a magnet to stick on the fridge! The template provided for drilling the mounting holes is really helpful. As mentioned previously, the right angle cable connector from Radio Shack is a must for installation.