TV on board

[lawrence_craig]

Hey guys.

We have a projector in which we watch movies with.

But we are also on the lookout for a boat TV about 20” that we can just hide away but also shove on at any point to watch ‘normal tv’. Any suggestions? Many thanks

[SilentOption]

Amazon There are several choices of 12 Volt or dual power TVs to choose from.

[Bill Seal]

Get a cheap WalMart or BestBuy TV and a small Harbor Freight inverter
No reason for a special 12v TV

[a64pilot]

Or buy a decent TV that has a 12V power “Brick”. Cut the brick off and throw it away and wire direct. You can usually get a much better TV for a lower price than buying a 12VDC TV that way.
I had an insignia brand TV with a built in DVD player that I did that to.

[Fiveslide]

I've said it before on CF, I'd stick with a small projector on the boat. Compact and portable, usable in any "room" on the boat. I like the one that goes with my Moto zforce 2 phone, much better picture than I expected.

[Checkswrecks]

Don't forget an antenna. These work well.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mohu-Leaf...BoCcEkQAvD_BwE

[lawrence_craig]

Originally Posted by Fiveslide

I've said it before on CF, I'd stick with a small projector on the boat. Compact and portable, usable in any "room" on the boat. I like the one that goes with my Moto zforce 2 phone, much better picture than I expected.

I completely agree in that the projectors are great. We have one. It’s just it takes effort setting up (ie. screen, cables etc). We would still use it for movies.

We are looking for a small or portable Tv/LCD that we can just turn on and play.

[Reefmagnet]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Or buy a decent TV that has a 12V power “Brick”. Cut the brick off and throw it away and wire direct. You can usually get a much better TV for a lower price than buying a 12VDC TV that way.
I had an insignia brand TV with a built in DVD player that I did that to.

+1


Just look for a TV with a 12 volt plug pack. Despite the sales guy's insistence that the TV we wanted to purchase for our boat wouldn't run off the batteries directly, it's till working perfectly 6 years later doing exactly as suggested. The only thing I've ever noticed with ours is that it drops a couple of pixels if the voltage drops below 12 volts which was an issue with the original wiring to it, but is no longer a problem now the circuit has been beefed up.


In the old days, I'd also pull the telly apart and spray it full of lacquer to protect it from the environment, but they're all using conformal coated PCB's these days so it's not really necessary now.

[sailorboy1]

Or ........... just get any tv you want and get a small inverter to run it off.

[SV_Harbinger]

On Harbinger I have a 19in Insignia I picked up from wally world, was plenty cheap don't remember exactly how much, but less than $75US and it is it's own DVD player. I also have one of those digital antennas and it works more or less when it wants to depending on where exactly I am, so it's a movie watcher mostly...

[Davy J]

Here is our rig:

Insignia 24" TV/DVD

Roku device

AT&T Directv Now

AT&T Iphone

Get the TV at Best Buy, make sure the input to the TV is 12v. It will have that info on the "brick". You probably won't find the DVD version any longer. You then need to find a 12v adapter that fits the TV input jack.

With AT&T, we are able to stream DirecTV Now through wi-fi or through hot spot on Iphone. You will also need to find a 12v adapter plug for the Roku. I purchased ours at wally world.

Also with this set-up, if I am on shore power I can just switch back to the original adapter and run the TV on 110v.

[Woodland Hills]

What are your plans for TV when your phone provider throttles you down to dial-up speed? You will reach the 20gb limit fairly quickly if that is your sole content source. The data limitation on hotspots streaming into a Roku or Apple TV is even lower, 15gb per month IIRC. Of course this is for “Unlimited data”, a cheaper plan will reach the limit even sooner.

[Davy J]

What are your plans for TV when your phone provider throttles you down to dial-up speed?

Because AT&T owns Directv Now, their deal is that data usage while streaming Directv Now does not count against your monthly data allowance. Of course, if you stream other services such as YouTube, that data does count against your monthly data.

https://www.directvnow.com/data

We also carry a Mohu Leaf. Works well in a marina or at anchor when the boat isn't swinging too much.

[Woodland Hills]

Just don’t stream from any source other then Directv and you will be OK. The fine print says that once you exceed your limit ALL data is slowed to 128kbs! I would call them to verify if there is a limit on hotspot data and if you need to hardwire to the display device instead of streaming via WiFi to avoid it.

[Macblaze]

Just as a side note, I visited Best Buy last fall and checked out the Insignias. Seems they have all moved to putting the power converter internal. Not a single one had power bricks any more...