19" to 21" 4:3 flat-screen televisions?

[Tegger]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, but it seemed logical to guess
that those interested in electronics repair may have the answer I seek.

I am looking for a 19" to 21" 4:3 aspect-ratio flat-screen television (not
a monitor). Size isn't an issue, instead it's the aspect ratio.

This is for my 86-year-old mother, who has a dying CRT TV and does not like
the new wide-screen format. She wants exactly what she has right now: a
19" "normal-looking" television..

I am abundantly aware that no retailer currently has such a thing in stock,
new. I can't find anything on the Craigslist-type sites in my area, or at
TV repair places in my area. I keep getting told to look online, but that's
not working either.

Does anyone know of an alternate source?

 

[Tegger]

Size isn't an issue, instead it's the aspect ratio.

To clarify: I meant that size isn't an issue to the extent that 19"
televisions are available everywhere; they're just all wide-screen, which
is not acceptable to my mother..

 

[William Sommerwerck]

Where are you located?

I have a 36" Sony WEGA flat-face CRT receiver I'd be willing to swap for a
decent 40" LCD replacement.

 

[Leif Neland]

Tegger formulerede spørgsmålet:

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, but it seemed logical to guess
that those interested in electronics repair may have the answer I seek.

I am looking for a 19" to 21" 4:3 aspect-ratio flat-screen television (not
a monitor). Size isn't an issue, instead it's the aspect ratio.

This is for my 86-year-old mother, who has a dying CRT TV and does not like
the new wide-screen format. She wants exactly what she has right now: a
19" "normal-looking" television..

Take a big (cardbox) box, cut a hole in aspect ratio 4:3, paint it to
look like the TV she bought in 1955 and put a modern TV inside.

Does she want to squash the picture together, miss the left and right
part, or letterbox-format with bars at the top or bottom.

Or tell her to grow up and accept the fact that one cannot always get
what one likes.

Leif

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Tegger:

I am looking for a 19" to 21" 4:3 aspect-ratio flat-screen television (not
a monitor). Size isn't an issue, instead it's the aspect ratio.

This is for my 86-year-old mother, who has a dying CRT TV and does not like
the new wide-screen format. She wants exactly what she has right now: a
19" "normal-looking" television..

How about an analog TV with an add-on digital tuner?

I've got a Sharp Aquos sitting right next to me and a couple of digital
tuners in the closet somewhere.

Philadelphia PA area... USA.

 

[whit3rd]

I am looking for a 19" to 21" 4:3 aspect-ratio flat-screen television (not
a monitor). Size isn't an issue, instead it's the aspect ratio.

If you REALLY want this, just get a 4:3 monitor that has DVI input, and
connect to a digital component tuner (some DVD recorders have such
a tuner builtin, and there are some cable boxes that do this). I'm
guessing you want an ATSC tuner (US broadcast), and will require
a HDMI to DVI cable to wire it up. Audio is a separate issue, as is
the programming of a suitable remote control.

Typically, you get to choose letterbox or cropped or scaled screen
when this kind of lash-up is done. Customer choice...

 

[[email protected]]

I am looking for a 19" to 21" 4:3 aspect-ratio flat-screen television
(not a monitor). Size isn't an issue, instead it's the aspect ratio.

Thrift stores currently have a wide selection of 4:3 CRT televisions at
low prices. Usually there is not a guarantee, but there is usually an
outlet near the TV shelf, and they don't care if you plug it in to see
if it works. Most of them will not have digital tuners, so you may want
to bring your own signal source to check the picture - an add-on digital
tuner, a DVD and a DVD player (or use one of the DVD players the store
probably has), etc. Some problems a CRT TV can have won't show up until
it warms up a little, so if it initally looks good, run it for 15 or 20
minutes or so.

Otherwise, I vote for the "4:3 computer monitor and tuner box" that has
been suggested. newegg.com offers a variety of 19" monitors starting
at $105. They also have a TV tuner that will probably talk to most of
them, Kworld SA295-Q, for $110. Your mom will have to use the remote;
there are no up/down/volume buttons on the tuner box.

Standard disclaimers apply; I don't get money or other consideration
from any companies mentioned.

Matt Roberds

 

[micky]

You didn't say what country you were in, but Goodwill, Salvation Army
stores, pawn shops all have a BUNCH of used TVs for sale cheap.

Yes, plus maybe better yet, Freecycle.org has frequent such tv's that
people want to give away, and usually they work fine. It's just that
they bought a newer tv. Freecycle takes occasional requests too, so
that someone who is thinking about getting rid of something,
esepcially to someone who actually wants it, will sometimes reply with
just what the person wants.

In and around Baltimore, there are now a half-dozen groups of
Freecycle. I'm subscribed to 4, but 90% of the activity takes place
in one of them that has half the membership of two of the others. I
don't get it. We're not talking about the whole population but only
those who joined Freecycle.

BTW, do you mean flat screen or thin screen? Late model CRTs were
almost all flat screen, but they stilll had a deep cathode ray tube
behind them, 16" more or less. Thin screen means LED or LCD or plasma
or something, just a couple inches thick. I have a computer
monitor, found it out front of my house in a neighbor's trash waiting
for the garbage man, that has the aspect ratio you want, 14" screen,
and they must have made tvs like that too, so if that's what you want,
you have to say "thin screen".