On board AV

[terah]

At the moment I'm thinking about getting a 12v TV, then a raspberry Pi 3 with a couple of external hard drives (connected to powered usb hub) to act as a NAS / media server (running Plex).

Not much experience with 12v TV's - they all seem to be from obscure manufacturers. Are they up to the job, or is it better to go for a known brand TV and accept the power hit running through inverter?

Any other good options for low power NAS to consider instead of a Pi?

Anyone using a mini projector instead of a TV?

[BlueChicago]

What size TV are you considering? If small enough, I believe there are still computer monitors out there that have HDMI ports and are powered by 12v.

[a64pilot]

If you want a decent picture, go with a 110V TV.
Last TV I had was a a 110V, but had a power brick, looked at the brick and it’s output was 12 VDC, cut brick off wired direct, but worried that TV wouldn’t accept higher than 12VDC, but it did fine even at equalization voltage of 15.5 VDC.

[goat]

A lot of cheap brands use a wall wart to convert from 120v to 12. You can by pass this and just use a 12v car cigarette lighter sized plug. Look at the label on the back or online for input voltage specifications.

Edit: Oops a64 was faster.

[hellosailor]

If you are looking at projectors, remember they typically use rather expensive consumable "bulbs", and you won't find those commonly stocked in most places.

[mikedefieslife]

The TV will likely be 19v, but run on 12v. I've not come across many true 12v TVs or monitors.

[boom23]

In addition, projectors almost require complete darkness.

[a64pilot]

Other issue coming from a guy who is currently at anchor watching Satellite TV, is that my 32” Samsung with the KVH sat dish and using the stereo for sound draws about 10 amps.
Best to watch TV in the afternoons when there is excess Solar.
However it’s cold, and I’m running the generator for an hour to heat the boat before bed, so I’m splurging now.

[terah]

Originally Posted by BlueChicago

What size TV are you considering? If small enough, I believe there are still computer monitors out there that have HDMI ports and are powered by 12v.

We'll have tablets and laptops, so to make it worthwhile I suspect min 24" and more likely 32".

Originally Posted by a64pilot

If you want a decent picture, go with a 110V TV.
Last TV I had was a a 110V, but had a power brick, looked at the brick and it’s output was 12 VDC, cut brick off wired direct, but worried that TV wouldn’t accept higher than 12VDC, but it did fine even at equalization voltage of 15.5 VDC.

Just to clarify, it's handling everything from house bank voltage to max voltage coming from your generator/solar? Is that direct or with a dc/dc converter?

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Other issue coming from a guy who is currently at anchor watching Satellite TV, is that my 32” Samsung with the KVH sat dish and using the stereo for sound draws about 10 amps.
Best to watch TV in the afternoons when there is excess Solar.
However it’s cold, and I’m running the generator for an hour to heat the boat before bed, so I’m splurging now.

The boat has a generator already, but no solar yet. That's the next thing I need to get my head around.

[goat]

Originally Posted by mikedefieslife

The TV will likely be 19v, but run on 12v. I've not come across many true 12v TVs or monitors.

Here's one. Just bought it in Mexico, it's 24", HDMI, vesa mount, runs off car adaptor. If anyone's in the la Paz area And needs it, it's yours. Turns out I need a smaller one (around 19") to fit my barco pequeña.



goat

[a64pilot]

My 32” Samsung and the Sat receiver only draw 35W together, I have them plugged into a Watts UP Meter and can see the power draw.
I think the receiver drew about 8 watts, leaving roughly 25 W for the TV.
Lots lower that I thought. Seems to low, but that is what the meter says, and it has always been accurate before.

[Dockhead]

Calculate how much you will save running your TV directly from 12v compared to running through an inverter. It might not be worth the trouble.

I would avoid purpose-made 12v TVs which it seems to me are double the cost for half the performance. If you are determined to run your TV from DC (maybe you don't have an inverter on board), then just find any TV you like which has an external power supply, then use a cheap buck converter like a Drok to convert your house DC voltage to whatever the TV wants.

I personally use a 32" Samsung via 230v AC (because the power supply is internal). I have my inverter on all the time anyway so it's no big deal to run it from AC power. YMMV.

As to how to feed it movies -- most modern TVs will play movies (also music, and display photos) themselves -- all you have to do is plug an external hard drive into them. This is simple and saves power.

On my boat, I use an ultra cheap fanless low powered microscopically tiny PC, powered by DC, mounted behind the nav table and operated using a wireless keyboard/mouse. This is my ship's computer, and I can use either a monitor mounted at the nav table or the TV on the salon bulkhead. Works great and uses minimal amounts of power. I use this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bqeel-x5-Z8.../dp/B06XH2CJDL but there are lots of similar choices. I run it directly from ship's power with no buck converter; it happily eats power at slightly different voltage than spec. These computers are optimized for media center use and are superb for watching movies -- actually better than my high powered i7 laptop. Keep your movie and music library on an external hard drive and Bob's your uncle.

I probably stream movies now more often than play them from a hard drive. More and more I encounter marina wifi which is fast enough to allow this.

You can also set up this small computer as a media server to make your library accessible to other devices in the boat.

Good luck.

[toddster8]

I’m still leaning toward a projector, but another compact low-power alternative is VR Headsets for one or two viewers.

[Dockhead]

P.S. I would definitely go with a Windows 10 machine rather than Rasberry Pi, for this use. MicroDaft have a special program where they give ultra cheap licenses for "media center" computers -- less than 4 gig RAM etc. Win 10 is far easier to use for media applications, and these fanless machines have excellent graphics cards on board. Rasberry Pi is great for a lot of things, but a real kludge to use for this IMHO. You will invest a huge amount of time getting it set up, finding all the riht drivers, etc., and it still won't work as well as one of these purpose made fanless media center computers.

[CatNewBee]

you can try also Kodi. great SW, runs on any OS. (open source, check out kodi.tv). You can use even cheep android boxes if you want to.

I will have it on board too, but I will use the board PC as media center engine too. I will build it from parts with focus on low power consumption, plenty of interfaces and SATA3 ports + QHD capable graphics.

I guess this Acer S277HK could be a great monitor Acer told me it has an external power supply and should run on 12V. I have to verify this of course. (27" is a good size I guess, plenty of interfaces and even speakers). Larger screens will consume too much power and will need 220/110V.

For the Motherboard power supply I will use a fan-less Pico-PSU that creates all necessary voltages out of 12V. So no 220/110V will be used. I will probably use the speakers on board from the radio for the better quality of sound or maybe a BT sound bar. Will see.

Don't like W10 - it's to Internet dependent and too chatty on the network, I will try to stick to W7 with all auto-updates and call-home functions disabled as long as possible.