DVD onboard

[Talbot]

How many people include a television as part of their cruising equipment, and then add a DVD player?

[kingfish]

I have one of those tv dvd combos, Yet I very rarely use it, but the combo saves on room and less wires laying around.
cheers
dustin

[Alan Wheeler]

We have a seperate 14"TV and DVD/stereo system. One day when we become rich and famouse, I would love to get a flat panel screen and mount it to a wall to save space. The comb units are great to save space, but from a service persons perspective, they can become expensive to repair. What I mean by this, is that if you have a fault in one, you are forced to fix it because the other part of the unit maybe fine and you are throwing out a fine working unit. Where as seperate items can be discarded if a major fault develops. And lets face it, you can buy new far cheaper than you can repair in many instances these days. Especially with the salt and electronics mix on boats.
Wheels

[Harriet]

Alan, you are so right. We used the same reasoning for getting a separate video/DVD player. We sometimes like to rent, rather than buy, our videos, and we weren't sure how available DVDs would be in the Bahamas and points south. So we opted for that combination, but kept the TV separate. The captain likes being able to watch the news in the late afternoon, although I can read the newspaper online anytime.

[Talbot]

I had a demand from SWMBO for a TV so was able to justify a 17" widescreen LCD that is multistandard. I plan to use this as my screen for the laptop for passage planning, and weather charts, and have just dicovered a small 12v DVD player (multiregion) that also plays mp3 and has an inbuilt 5.1 dolby!, so the record collection will be compressed onto half a dozen DVDs! sheer laziness, but both telly and DVD have remotes!

[Jack Tar]

We use a 27" flat screen, Sony suround sound,DVD,VHS, and FM sterio. The suround sound was the last item added and is so good I now need to re watch all my movies.

[Tempest245]

I have other purchases to make before I get to the mounted flat-screen. My yard has no cable TV..so if I wanted it, I'd need a dish.

Until then, I use my 17" laptop with built in DVD player to watch movies. A auxillary jack connects the laptop to the stereo system and gives me great sound through the stereo speakers. On a nice night, the laptop goes outside and we watch movies in the cockpit using the external speakers.

[AnchorageGuy]

HDTV and DVD payer/recorder and satellite receiver all tied into the stereo system sound for great listening. It all get used a lot.

[Sunspot Baby]

We added a combo flat screen and DVD last year after cruising for years without TV. Mostly our grandkids enjoy it when they are on board and we watch the occasional movie. I bought the whole thing at Sam's with the extended warranty. They have already fixed it once for free. Don't have so much invested that when it fails, we can't just walk away.

George

[Fishman]

We have been cruising about a year now, we have 2 sons, the oldest is 4, we have a portable dvd player (and another one spare). Its a vital component on board. The 4 year old has a big collection of dvd's which he watches daily for about an hour or so, its been great especially during a passage when it is rough and both parents need to be on deck. We (parents) use it occasionally to watch a movie, although much less than we thought. I would not risk using our laptop for watching movies as it is an important comms device for sailmail etc and it can act as a backup plotter. One glass of juice and its all over. Whereas a portable DVD player is about $120, we have already thrown away one which got drenched, (we dried it, it worked, got drenched a 2nd time, game over).

[caribnsol]

We have a 20" lcd/dvd combo unit, wall mounted, plug into the stereo for surround. Unit was fairly cheap, less that $250. Keep digging throughthe $2 & $5 buckets at Walmart to build the library. I don't require tv, but keeps the boss happy.

[ausieman]

We have a 15" lcd tv that is connected to a car stereo system which plays cd's and dvd's. The line in RCA of the car stereo has a 12v set tob box (Digital Receiver) connected to it giving us great sound and quality whether watching television or a dvd.

[bstreep]

We opted to purchase seperately. First, the DVD player is probably not up to HD or upconverting your DVDs. Second, the DVD player adds about 5 lbs to the unit - and as we have the TV on a swing arm, an additional 5 lbs at the end of the arm is cause for concern at sea. Lastly, "all in ones" tend to fail quicker, and then become worthless, quicker than components. ESPECIALLY in a marine environment.

[Inkwell]

I use a 15 inch MacBook Pro. We have cable at the marina, but also wifi so we can watch Tv or download movies or visit the network web sites to review shows. You do need a TV program for the cable. I use EyeTV on the Mac.

[MarkJ]

We use the DVD player in the laptop and sit in bed sharing an ear plug each

The rest of the time we look out the window or sit in the cockpit and watch "Real Life" an ongoing saga of real people, real culture and real geography..... and without any ads!!!



Mark