TV's and Antennas.....

[s/v Faith]

I am actually a little ashamed to admit this was a product that I was looking at in the first place....  ::)

  I much prefer to read on the boat, but I am not the only crew member.  I had a small b&w screen to catch the weather on, and was able to view DVD's on my laptop but never would really go to the trouble before.

I looked at the lcd TV's but was not willing to give up the space (a lot of bulkhead, for a device I don't really like anyway).

  I started looking at a car type dvd player, but it lacked the tv tuner.

What I found;

Audiovox ve-1020 10.2 inch Widescreen Ultra-Slim Under Cabinet LCD TV with DVD Player:
Under counter mount with built-in tuner
DVD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW and MP3 encoded CD playback
Dual A/V inputs with line outputs
125 channel cable-ready tuner
Built-in AM/FM stereo radio, hands-free speakerphone, and LCD clock with alarm
2 minute memo record function
Includes credit card size remote

  I have had it installed for 4 months now, and it works perfectly.

  I put it above the 'nav table' where my ice box used to be, the monitor folds up out of the way and the unit only hangs down about 4.5"  The space it takes up was not going to be used for any other purpose, and it's location allows viewing from pretty much anywhere in the cabin (plus from the head if one were so inclined.... gotta love a small boat.  ;D )

  There are several mfg's of this type of unit, Sony makes one that I also looked at but did not go with because their unit hangs down almost 5.5".  The one I have has a 10" display, many have 7 or 5" and would probably be fine.

  The power source is 110ac, and I run it on a small (100w) inverter.  It is not the most power stingy device on the boat, but not too bad considering that it is not in use all the time (often at the dock).  Other models run on 12vdc, but be careful as they do not come with an adapter to run on a lighter plug.  Some (like me) would just make their own, but if you do be careful as I have read about some LCD TV's (in car audio applications) that have been smoked because they lacked a regulated power source.



 

[Zen]

I'm liking how this sounds, but how are you handling the power output (draw)

Running the motor, solar, aux generator???

[s/v Faith]

I have a rectifier on my outboard, and a small charger (1.5a) I use at the dock.  With my group 27(?) battery I can watch the avg DVD on the hook and still run my normal pwr schedule with little impact. 

I have not put a current meter in line with the inverter, but my (very rough) method of watching the voltage drop when it comes on tells me it is ~ 1.5 to 2a

I have been putting together my energy budget, and the couple AH to watch a movie or catch the weather on the news is a 'luxury' but not to much of a burden.  I have a BP 80W solar panel I will be adding to the mix, and don't expect to use the TV every day so I think it will be ok.

I will try to remember to find the number for you, I need it to 'fill in the blank' on the spread sheet anyway.

[kingfish]

I am with you as far as not having a tv, but some days its nice to veg out and let the tv watch you for a while, I just put togeter a littel set up on my boat and it goes as such: I bought a " pyle" car tv tuner that also playes dvd's and cd's. It is very small and hides under my nav station. ( $67 e-bay) Then I bought a package deal at best buy that came with 2 -7" flatscreen tv's and a dvd player for car use. I built a bracket for one of the monitors that mounts in the nav station and can be swiveld around for viewing thoughout the boat and even the cockpit. This set up is grate. It is all 12 volt and takes littel strain on the battieries, no inverter needed. I got the dvd/tv system from a friend who works at best buy  for $160 Retail $250. I have only used one of the monitors, so there is still on monitor and the dvd left which I will sell for $125 (bargain) so the entire set up cost me a littel over $100 bucks. not bad. Oh and by the way if anyone needs a 7" flat lcd monitor and a dvd player both 12 volt, its for sale ;)
Cheers
D

[Zen]

 >:(

everytime I say I'm not buying anything else for pleasure this year, something comes up

Arrg  ;)

Looks like I may need even a few more hours at the part time gig.

[s/v Faith]

I was typing this out on another forum, and realized I had not posted it here... so here it is.


  I purchased one 'flying saucer' type antenna, and got another one given to me.  I never installed them because I could not find a good location on my boat.

  I then got an antenna from a friend, it is nothing more then a 36" loop of copper solid strand wire on a long batten.  Each end of the wire is looped to one of those impedance matching transformers (you know the little thing with two wires that connects to an older TV).

  I run regular cable from that to my small LCD TV.

I mention this because I can get more stations on that then any of the three dock mates with the pricey antennas.  One of them found out they actually get better reception with the 'amplifier' for their antenna turned off.

[Captain Smollett]

One of them found out they actually get better reception with the 'amplifier' for their antenna turned off.

It is my understanding that this is quite common if the signals are actually pretty strong.  There are a quite a few reasons why it happens (tuner pre-amp clipping and thus bumping up the noise with no gain in signal, boosting ghosts from nearby reflections, etc).  Being cable- and satellite-less here at the house, we have these issues.

[SolarSailor]

I used a Hauppauge WinTV tuner attached to my laptop computer - it minimized what I needed to carry aboard -

http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/prods_usb.html

The model I had conected with a USB cable to the laptop and was compatible with analog cable as well as over the air analog TV - there may now be several more suppliers of similar items so the selection of models and features might be better - it also accepted s-video input from a video camera and allowed recording to the laptop's hard drive.

Jobst

[Solace]

Ahoy all - been gone for bit - but back with the boat on the hard for the winter. sigh

As with every year, I have a list of projects I plan over the winter. One of this winter's plans is to take my 15" LG flat screen TV and cut out the transformer. I'm wondering if anyone else has done this, and if they have, how did they fare? The transformer indicates the TV is 12 volt (as is the case with a lot of electronics). I tried to purchase the proprientary plug  end to the TV - so I wouldn't have to cut the cord which contains the transformer, but it is not available seperately.

I have been running the TV through my inverter, but I think the inverter requires power to do this, and I try to reduce that.

Thanks in advance to all your helpful feedback.

[AdriftAtSea]

The problem may be how tolerant of voltage variation the TV is.  The 12 VDC system on a boat ranges from 12.6 VDC with fully charged batteries, down to about 11.6 VDC at near flat batteries, and as high as 14.4 VDC when the system is charging... going from 12 VDC to 14.4 VDC is a fairly large change, 20%, and some electronics may not handle that well.

[skylark]

Do you have a picture of the plug?  Most plug types are available, but it may take some research.

[liberty28]

Radioshack has an assortment of transformer jack plug to choose from. Of course, the TV guys may have some weird "just for that TV"-type plug to preclude trying to do what you're trying to do.

Just as an aside, We have a regular 110-volt TV that we only use when we have shorepower and cable. My wife "must" watch American Idol!!!! ;). Normally if we're just anchored out, we forgo the "pleasures" of watching TV. It just seems "wrong" when you're anchored out to contaminate that special environment with the "blah-blah-blah" of television. That's one of the reasons I've taken to the high seas. As it is, I don't watch the news anymore and consequently am in a state of exquisite ignorance of what's going on in the world. ??? Don't know, don't care. That's just me, however, and I fully respect your wish to watch the TV anywhere you should so choose. :)

Oh, and good luck finding that dam plug!! ;)

[Joe Pyrat]

I use a Pinnacle PCTV HD Ultimate Stick which plugs into a USB port on my laptop and lets me receive TV.  Since I've already got the laptop aboard it takes up very little additional room.  It does have some quarks, but I can watch the news if I want.  There are several other units, PCTV HD Pro Stick and PCTV HD mini Stick.  I recently saw the mini at Best Buy for $99.00, about 20 < MSRP.



As you can see in the picture it includes the tuner, a short USB extension cable, an antenna with a magnetic base, a remote, an adapter for other video sources and a storage bag.  It also comes with a CD, but the necessary software is on the tuner.  It has onboard memory that will let you screen capture and save video and can be plugged into any coax source such as cable, set top boxes, etc.  It also receives Internet radio.  Might be more than you need, so take a look at the other units.  My inner geek got the best of me on this one.   ;D

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV/PCTV/