12 volt flat panel tv?

[Kanani]

I have a 20" Panasonic LCD TV and it has a 12v DC input also. It has an inverter built ino the 110v power cord. I use it in my camper on 12V, right to the battery.

[Beausoleil]

For desktop PC's there are regulated 12V ATX-style power supplies intended for the automotive market. Great way to power a PC. There are also many high-current DC-DC power supplies meant for the amateur radio market. 30-40A is not uncommon, and they're a heck of a lot cheaper than DC-DC converters from, say, MasterVolt.

[Mustang Sally]

We have a 12 volt RCA flat screen with built in DVD. It is however small at about 12"

[Alchemist]

I use a 13.5 volt dc to dc power booster to run my 12 volt tv. It stops the voltage going over 13.5 when I am charging. has worked great so far. As a cheap 15or19inch lcd tv cost only 300nz or so I can not see the point if an expensive marine one. My inverter sucks about the same amps on standby as the tv does!

[MitchM]

we have 1 25 - year old GE 12 v/110v color TV , undercabinet- mount, originally intended for putting under a kitchen cabinet. it has survived storms by being bungied into its mounting frame. we then got a 2007 sony undercabinet kitchen tv with am/fm radio, there again pretty cheap $200 or so. hope these can still run when the government takes away our old fashioned TV reception in 2/09 and makes us buy the $40 special HDTV filters..

[senormechanico]

Most 12 volt electronic devices have a regulator built in. On my workbench I have a typical laptop 120 volt AC power supply which puts out 18 volts. I never give it a second thought when hooking up 12 volt stuff, and haven't ever seen any smoke.
I have a couple of business band radios and a Sencore dual trace portable oscilloscope (all designed to charge from 12 volts) which are charging from it as we speak.

Steve B.

[Beausoleil]

Originally Posted by MitchM

we have 1 25 - year old GE 12 v/110v color TV , undercabinet- mount, originally intended for putting under a kitchen cabinet. it has survived storms by being bungied into its mounting frame. we then got a 2007 sony undercabinet kitchen tv with am/fm radio, there again pretty cheap $200 or so. hope these can still run when the government takes away our old fashioned TV reception in 2/09 and makes us buy the $40 special HDTV filters..

Mitch,

You do realize that, because the US government feels that the spectrum is valuable enough to the continued growth of the economy, you can get a $40 voucher towards the purchase of an HDTV tuner for your old TV?

That freed-up spectrum may actually one day provide you with 20Mb/s Internet access and telephony services via WiMAX from your boat - more cheaply and reliably than you get cellular and 2G/3G data services from Verizon Wireless, AT&T or T-Mobile.

There's lots of new business models which can make better use of those airwaves than broadcasting soaps and infomercials via a 50-year old technology using 10 or more times the spectrum in does with newer tech...

[Pblais]

We use a 15 in LCD (Polaroid) has twin speakers and conencts to the CD/DVD player as well as over the air (At least til next year). It runs from an inverter. Just be sure it can't bounce around and it should do quite well. I even leave it in during the winter.

[roverhi]

Inverters are grossly inefficient except when run at or near capacity, something that few do. We lived off an inverter for years and it ate juice like no tomorrow whether it was running the washing machine or just a few light bulbs. If you care about current consumption, stick with DC appliances.

Aloha
Peter O.

[imagine2frolic]

W euse a small inverter that plugs into a cigarette lighter outlet.

[Alan Wheeler]

We lived off an inverter for years and it ate juice like no tomorrow

I think thye must have come along way then. Because both the one I had and have replaced and the current unit are both very economical. It is true that power is wasted, but that is across the entire current range. The losses are usually in the order of 20% and we get to feel it has heat coming off the unit. Hence the fans.

[jheldatksuedu]

I'm going to add a little twist to this thread, my question involves digital transmisions in different countries. The way I understand it, world has mostly switched (or soon planning to) from analog to digital broadcast. You can learn more at these locations.

ATSC, DVB-T and ISDB-T - Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)
Digital terrestrial television - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There seem to be 3 major competing systems, ATSC in North America, DVB-T in Europe and Australia, and DMB-T/H in China.
Does anybody have any experience with digital TV reception in other countries and the tuners need to receive them by antenna. I'm planing a circumnavigation, I'd like to get a flat panel LCD TV/ computer monitor and it would be nice to receive local broadcast TV wherever I might decide to drop anchor.
Any input is welcome, such as knowledge of a universal switchable tuner for a PC or a LCD TV that has all three tuners and a PC input. (While I'm wishing for the stars, might as well include a dvd player and DC power. And add waterproof too, LOL.)
I thought the PC monitor feature might be good to allow viewing a digital navigation mapping program at times. Also you could show a movie through the computer DVD player to more than just two people. It's also good to have a backup system if the main monitor fails. Jon

[anotherT34C]

I use my laptop (17" LCD) as a TV/DVD player. If I don't feel like running the inverter, it runs on its own battery (adequate for a movie).

Laptops also usually have a 12v car adapter available, easily re-jiggered to the boat. Laptops really only want 12v DC anyway (actually ~19v... never really understood that since the motherboard only wants 12v, 5v, or 3.3v).

[Beausoleil]

Jon,

A quick search didn't turn up any universal ATSC/DVB-T tuner cards.

I'm building a PC for the boat which will, among other things, serve as a media PC to play DVDs, ripped video/audio, and have both ATSC and DVB-T tuners cards, so it will do what you want to do. But it will be relatively power-hungry compared to the tiny ITX units typically found in car systems. Since we'll also have a laptop or two, we'll have backup. You can do something similar - most every tuner card comes with software to basically turn your WinXP PC into a Windows Media PC... And they even come with an infrared remote control!

I've installed Myth-TV running under Fedora Linux, and need to buy the tuner cards. Check out the AVS Forum for all things audio/video - they've got a HTPC section (I guess mine's actually a BTPC? ). I also just received a 12-36V DC/DC ATX power supply - it's a hell of a lot more efficient than a standard AC power supply. I got it from Mini-Box. Claims to be >95% efficient - compared to 80-85% for standard AC-powered ATX power supplies.

My LCD monitor has dual inputs - VGA and DVI, so I'll be connecting the helm chartplotter's (Raymarine E-120) external VGA output to the monitor. Combined with Raymarine's Seatalk keyboard, I'll be able to control the chartplotter from the nav station. A touch of a button on the monitor will toggle between the chartplotter video and the PC's DVI video.

The motherboard (a micro-ATX model with integrated graphics) sports enough PCI and PCI-e slots to handle the two tuner cards.

Ok - this thread is officially hijacked. Get me a parachute and wire $3,000,000 to this Swiss account - 9675309 - or the whole Forum goes down in a ball of flame!

Originally Posted by jheldatksuedu

I'm going to add a little twist to this thread, my question involves digital transmisions in different countries. The way I understand it, world has mostly switched (or soon planning to) from analog to digital broadcast. You can learn more at these locations.

ATSC, DVB-T and ISDB-T - Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)
Digital terrestrial television - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There seem to be 3 major competing systems, ATSC in North America, DVB-T in Europe and Australia, and DMB-T/H in China.
Does anybody have any experience with digital TV reception in other countries and the tuners need to receive them by antenna. I'm planing a circumnavigation, I'd like to get a flat panel LCD TV/ computer monitor and it would be nice to receive local broadcast TV wherever I might decide to drop anchor.

Any input is welcome, such as knowledge of a universal switchable tuner for a PC or a LCD TV that has all three tuners and a PC input. (While I'm wishing for the stars, might as well include a dvd player and DC power. And add waterproof too, LOL.)

I thought the PC monitor feature might be good to allow viewing a digital navigation mapping program at times. Also you could show a movie through the computer DVD player to more than just two people. It's also good to have a backup system if the main monitor fails. Jon

[neckyzips]

i know im a bit late on this but here is my 2cents...
while doing the refit, i found a auto head unit that is a dvd, cd, mp3, and am/fm, it comes with a 19" flat panel that folds down its about 2" thick with mount and has a remote control... i put the head unit in the nav station with the rest of the money... and mounted the tv to the coach roof so it can be seen from both sets in the main cabin. it also swivles 45degrees. i think the total was 375 with shipping and no harder to install than a car stero.
at that price, if it last 3 years you got your moneys worth.