Home > Consumer Reviews > Audiovox VE705 Ultra Slim 7-Inch LCD Drop Down TV

I am very pleased with my new Audiovox undercabinet TV. It replaced an ancient analog GE Spacemaker and the difference is dramatic. Installation was a breeze but the longest screws were still not long enough. A trip to the local hardware store remedied that but it should not be necessary. This tv is a real value. Great picture quality and the price is right.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE.....

Above is what I wrote when I was still happy with this TV. About 3 months after purchase the TV no longer has any "friction" in the positioning mechanism to allow me to tilt the TV to anything but a straight down dangle. I called Audiovox and they, in so many words, told me that was too bad there was nothing they could do but recommend I take it to a local TV repair place to see if they could fix it. I now have a matchbook cover folded over and stuck in there to allow me to tilt the TV. It works fine but looks pretty stupid with that folded over paper sticking out. I came very close to accepting Amazon's 50% refund for items that are beyond 30 days...just to get rid of it and buy one that actually works. Thanks, Audiovox, for backing your products so well. I will never purchase another and hope this review influences others to do likewise.

We recently did an extensive remodel of our kitchen and thought this would be a great addition. Unfortunately, as soon as we drilled the holes in our new cabinets to install it, we were sorry. The sound quality is so poor we had to turn it up full volume to understand it, and then it rattles. Note: the advertised size of the screen is not the picture you actually get - it's 2" smaller and poor quality. The 90-day warranty just ran out and the picture wouldn't come on unless you tapped the box. Now it won't come on at all. I would say this is an expensive disposable tv.

After hooking up the TV to cable was disappointed with picture quality even after adjusting it with the contols on the side of the screen.
The radio does not work. But that was not the reason I purchased a TV.
Over all I am unhappy with it and will not use it.

When the GE 5 inch Spacesaver TV in our kitchen began to show signs of expiring we actually looked forward to trading in its boxy shape and quirky controls for a set with a drop-down LCD screen and cable access. We quickly discovered that name-brand makers seem little interested in this market segment. Sony makes one that received high quality and reliability ratings but is very expensive and somewhat oversized. Moreover, there seems to be a trend to incorporate trendy extras such as a CD/DVD or MP3 access to this kind of appliance. Like most people, we are happy with access to news, weather, and very little more while working in the kitchen. Audiovox, along with Phillips, GPX, Polaroid & the Target house brand had some seemingly good choices but each drew critical reviews from users because of reliability issues. This general concern with reliability was an additional reason for looking for a set with the fewest bells & whistles. Eventually we settled on the Audiovox VE 705 and hoped for the best.

After a couple of weeks of use we are happy with it. Though your site specs claim a depth of 10.2 and we hoped this would fit flush under our 11.25 in. deep cabinet (from inside the overlap of the cabinet face to the wall), as it happened the Audiovox 705 is a bit over 10.5 in. in depth and after screwing on a right angle adapter (not supplied) for the cable connection we were unable to fit the set flush against the cabinet bottom, inside the front facing. But using the cleverly designed enclosed spacers we were able to mount it 1/8 behind the front face of our cabinet. So not perfect, but good enough. Still, why they have the audio & video connections projecting out from the back of the unit is beyond me. Why not off to one side? Why not straight down?

These considerations aside, we found the VE 705 to be a clean design with minimal height below the cabinet. The picture & sound are adequate to good - about what we expected. FM reception is surprisingly good with the dipole (included) that we ran up to the top of the cabinet. All in all it is a huge improvement over our defunct GE Spacesaver. Installallation with the included wood screws was a breeze (the enclosed template was not really needed). All the TV & FM controls work fine. Manual a bit sparce but o.k. Main worry is, of course, reliability. Wish us luck.

Happily Amazon lets us edit reviews. Afters eight months of daily use, this unit has performed flawlessly. I'm beginning to question the utility of user reviews from the perspective of product reliability. It just makes sense that the few who are stung by a product will want to warn off others who are considering the product but that the many who got roughly what they paid for will stay happily silent. I did notice when reading reviews that most complaints about Audiovox quality were sent by people who bought one of their tv's shortly after the unit was put on sale.

I'll try to report back on reliability after one year. Well it's late October 2008 and the only problem was having to replace the battery in the remote (easily done). We have rarely used the FM but between cooking shows and the presidential election the TV is on for a couple of hours every night. So far so (very) good.

SECOND UPDATE. One day left in 2008 and the set is still working great. In retrospect it perhaps deserved an extra star. Happy New Year.

THis TV is working great so far. It is a real space saver for a small kitchen. It is an LCD screen so sometimes as you change the angle from which you see it , the picture quality varies. But overall, we are very happy with it. We haven't even played the radio yet, but it is there.