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RaymondR · 07-12-2023, 22:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chotu

I know this is going to sound a little crazy. You might not like it. But for this reason and many many many others, it’s actually better to run everything off of AC on the boat. Yes. I know. Controversial opinion.

Pure sine inverter on all the time is a godsend these days.

after you set that up you don’t need any more specialized equipment or worrying about wiring things in or anything. Everything just works. No more expensive, difficult to find niche 12v things. Plug and go.

Have to agree with you on this one Chotu.

Tvs pull so little power these days that the 40" or so colour TV I have now pulls less amps through an inverter than the 10" BW 12 volt TV I put on my first yacht about 30 years or more ago at about 1/3 of the dollar cost.

And you don't need a fancy Antenna. I use a vertical dipole formed from two pieces of light aluminium tubing inside a FG tube from a telescoping paint roller handle at the top of the mast. pulls in stations from many leagues away and
I've seen more than 150 stations tuned with the auto tuning. Having perfected my on board TV system now I'm finding that the only problem is finding anything worth watching on them

ranger58sb · 08-12-2023, 04:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by derfy

Well, to each his own. Enjoy that big screen.

Yep, different boats, different strokes.

Our installation took about 30 seconds of thought, 3 minutes of shopping, then about 6 minutes of mounting after delivery, done.

-Chris

Scubaseas · 11-12-2023, 08:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by derfy

A very overlooked technology is free digital tv, broadcast over the public airwaves in the US. When cruising, I like it for local news/weather, or to catch a game. The picture and sound quality can be really excellent. But TV is not a big deal to me, and not something I want to spend a lot of money on. Needless to say I will never pay $150/mo for satellite internet. 4G cellular is just fine, but not for streaming.

I have a perfectly good tv antenna on my mast, but no longer have a tv on the boat. I would like to find a small digital ATSC tuner box that has a wifi hotspot and can stream video to my wireless devices... i.e. tablets, or my PC. I don't want or need a TV. The little box just needs a coax antenna port and dc power (like a USB or 12v). I don't want an HDMI output or any other wires. Just Wifi that I can connect to with a tablet or PC with a web browser.

A bonus might be if it had an FM receiver, so I could catch radio weather, news, music on these same devices.

I am amazed that, it seems at least on first pass, no such device exists.

I find plenty of devices that output video over HDMI, but that is of zero interest to me. I need wifi and streaming to my tablet.

Q1: Has anybody out there done this or have this?

Q2: Am I the only one that would want it?

This may seem overly complex but I turn my Android smart phone on "mobile hotspot" and can stream to my laptop or my smart TV. Or just use my computer since it has internet connection. I can also get local signal with a window mount style $25.00 air antenna.

Trimaran Ken · 11-12-2023, 08:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by wholybee

HDHomeRun also supports ATSC3.0, which works better in mobile applications and difficult reception situations than ATSC1.0. No other brand supports ATSC3.0.

Doesn't really support ATSC 3.0. Most ATSC is encrypted, and the HDHomeRun doesn't decrypt them. They say that they are working on it.

Lancerbye · 11-12-2023, 09:09

I use a cell phone as a wifi hotspot with 120gb of unlimited data. Works fine whenever I have cell service. I can use a tablet to watch anything that is out there. I also have a 43 in. led power smart TV which requires very little power.

derfy · 12-12-2023, 04:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lancerbye

I use a cell phone as a wifi hotspot with 120gb of unlimited data. Works fine whenever I have cell service. I can use a tablet to watch anything that is out there. I also have a 43 in. led power smart TV which requires very little power.

Just curious, how much is "very little power" in watts? Maybe you have measured it?

For fun I looked up a new Vizio 43" Smart TV model V435M-K04. The Energy Guide says it uses 165 Kw/year at 5 hrs/day. I calculate that is 90 watts. That is just one data point. Probably other 43" TVs are less, so let's just say its ~60 watts.

60 watts is the same power than my freezer and fridge compressors.

Over the 12-hr "boat night" (when no solar is generated) I use ~720 watt-hrs of battery energy for fridge/freezer power. A 60 watt TV for 5 hrs increases battery drain from 720 to 1020 watt-hrs, almost +50%.

Not only am I a committed "cord cutter" [i.e. I choose not to pay for worthless TV or streaming content], I'm ditching the TV viewing hardware too. I suppose if I ever needed a 90-watt space heater, I could play the "crackling log fireplace" youtube video and warm my hands.

sailcrazy · 13-12-2023, 05:32

derfy-what refer system do you have that draws only 60watts? FWIW, we use a 32" flatscreen TV, and power it from an inexpensive inverter. ...that same inverter also powers our computer printer (compact version!) that gives us scan capability as well as printing. But we use it only for the occasional TV watching, or the news when we can get it. But our Glomex ant does not seem to pull in very many stations. Following, since we live aboard 6+ months of the year.

derfy · 13-12-2023, 15:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by sailcrazy

derfy-what refer system do you have that draws only 60watts? FWIW, we use a 32" flatscreen TV, and power it from an inexpensive inverter. ...that same inverter also powers our computer printer (compact version!) that gives us scan capability as well as printing. But we use it only for the occasional TV watching, or the news when we can get it. But our Glomex ant does not seem to pull in very many stations. Following, since we live aboard 6+ months of the year.

Cool Blue is the fridge. Got it from Rich at CruiseRO. It's a spillover setup - one compressor for the freezer and fridge box. Just put it in this year, DIY install, used it all summer. Draws 5 Amps on the house 12v. Cut my load in half. I like it at lot. Works really well.

Yeah, TV's are cheap, but so is the TabloTV box (~$100). Yes, you can power TVs from the inverter, but inverters draw all their power from house batteries and have about 85-90% efficiency, so a 60 watt TV is drawing 70 watts from the house 12v bank. Worse yet, my new Xantrex inverter draws 2 Amps from the +12v when there is no load at all, like when charging cell phones and tablets. That's 24 watts all the time. So I shut it off at night. The Xantrex has a low power standby mode that constantly switches on and off, sampling the 110v load, making a racket, and then just shutting down randomly after a while. PoS. Don't buy a new Xantrex IMHO.