12 volt TV / low amp draw tv

[ASIMPLELIFE]

I'm tired of running inverter and using 10 times the power to watch tv. Has anyone got any advice/ knowledge on 12v tvs. Currently I am in Grenada.

[SVTatia]

Originally Posted by ASIMPLELIFE

I'm tired of running inverter and using 10 times the power to watch tv. Has anyone got any advice/ knowledge on 12v tvs. Currently I am in Grenada.

Sorry but I could not resist... Asimplelife?

[Stu Jackson]

12 Volt TV DVD Skyworth/NAXA/RCA LED 12V Color Television

Just an example. Google is your friend. I know you're in Grenada, but don't know what's "on island." Only YOU do.

Good luck.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by ASIMPLELIFE

I'm tired of running inverter and using 10 times the power to watch tv. Has anyone got any advice/ knowledge on 12v tvs. Currently I am in Grenada.

10 times the power? maybe what 1.2 times the power or something?
Some 120V TV's may be 12VDC, if they have an external power supply, look on the power supply to find out.

[UNCIVILIZED]

It's been a while, but I had a TV which was both 12V DC, & 120V AC, and it was miserly. When I was living on the hook, I had 1 OLD solar panel which was all of 2.5 square feet. And I could watch 2hrs of TV every day, play the radio, & read as much as I liked, even in the winter time. And not flatten my batteries.

[colemj]

Just get one of the small pocket inverters to run the TV. The conversion loss on those are miniscule. Even your large inverter is not using 10x the power to run the TV vs. 12V.

If your TV is a power hog on the inverter, then it is just a power hog overall. Newer TV's can be much more power efficient - our old 20" flat screen uses 6A, while our new one uses 1.5A. But if you are looking for a large TV, it will still use quiet a bit of power.

Mark

[Moody46CC]

I just finished pulling wire for 12V TVs in the fwd cabin, the salon and the aft cabin. The TVs were "made in china" jobs purchased from E-Bay or Amazon. Prices OK. Besides truly miserly power consumption, each has a built-in DVD player which cuts down on wiring and circuits needed to run separate DVD players. The price for the TV with DVD player was very close to the price without the DVD player, so why not?

We're not talking home entertainment center and surround sound quality, but the TVs (which are LCDs) are really flat and provide decent pictures and sound quality. The one in the salon is mounted on an arm that can be swung out to allow some adjustment for people sitting to one side. I just drilled holes into the arm and bracket so I can drop a pin in to immobilize the arm while under way. The ones in the staterooms are on fixed mounts, but the picture is fine.

[Island Time O25]

Your best bet will be googling used for sale LCD TVs in 20" range (give or take). I picked one up, by Sharp, at the local second hand place for $10. Its own converter goes from 120V to 12v on the nose, drawing 2.5 amps. I just connected it to a 12v socket with a fuse and that was it. Now if I can find a digital converter which works at 12v....

PS This change to digital from analog signal is not too conducive to TV watching on the boat as the signal strength in our area is very spotty and I tried all kinds of antennas to no avail. So we just get some old DVDs or watch programs on our notebook where there is decent wi-fi.

[sy_gilana]

We purchased 2 tv's, one 17" 12v and the other is a 22" and it was 220v but had the brick power converter on the power lead. We put it direct into 12v and it did not like it. It required 12.0 v. we were anywhere from 11.8 to 14.0 so I used a simple voltage regulator in a TO6 package, 2A, and now its happy. 1080p HDTV digital and analog, for less than 2 amps draw, and you can plug a USB memory stick in it or a hard drive and watch movies directly. Only thing is it had crap sound, all the flat panel TV's do, they cannot have big sound out of such a small volume. So we bought one of those Logitek computer speaker setups with a subwoofer and satellites. Now its really nice.

The new OLED screens are very light on power consumption...

So yes, do it direct if you can, but don't specifically look for 12v TV's they are more expensive, just look to see if there is a brick on the power lead, and then look what the output voltage of the brick is.

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

10 times the power? maybe what 1.2 times the power or something?
Some 120V TV's may be 12VDC, if they have an external power supply, look on the power supply to find out.

Maybe he has a tube type TV.

I have a Skyworth brand 12 volt TV/DVD. Check Internet vendors.

[AnchorageGuy]

Most of these 12 volt TV's need 12 volts. Not 11.8, 12.4 or 14.2. So it isn't a matter of wiring them into the boat system and forgetting about it. There are some exception but you need to know if the one your buying will work with variable voltage. The DC to DC converter will solve that problem but it will need to be connected to your boats DC system and then the TV connected to that. Chuck

[capt-couillon]

[rwidman]

Originally Posted by AnchorageGuy

Most of these 12 volt TV's need 12 volts. Not 11.8, 12.4 or 14.2. So it isn't a matter of wiring them into the boat system and forgetting about it. There are some exception but you need to know if the one your buying will work with variable voltage. The DC to DC converter will solve that problem but it will need to be connected to your boats DC system and then the TV connected to that. Chuck

If you buy a TV that's designed to run off a car or boat 12 volt electrical system, the regulation is built in. There's no need for extra parts.

I wouldn't recommend buying a household TV and cutting off the power block. t's not the same.

[UNCIVILIZED]

If you're just looking to watch movies, there's the KISS option. Get a laptop with a BIG screen. No, it won't be big like a home entertainment system, but how far away from a screen can one really get on a boat.

Also, given that there are options to connect computers to TVs nowadays, I imagine that it's possible to hook up TV type feed to a laptop. Be it via an antenna with the proper convertor, or cable with an adapter.

Or... you can always go old school - Books & Newspapers ;-)

[loumar@gmail.co]

Some good solutions here. I don't watch television, only movies, podcasts and documentaries. My solution is to use iTunes and put anything I want to watch on an iPad, about the size of a small TV. I also use a Bose battery powered speaker that I charge during the day from solar panels using otherwise wasted solar power to charge the speaker battery and use it at night to watch whatever I have synced to the iPad from my MacBook, also done during the day. The Bose is like a theatre sound and the iPad is large enough for the boat and I don't need extra power as we do not have shore power, just solar. The iPad is plugged into a usb charger and doesn't take much power. I think an iPad air would also work well, but haven't taken that leap yet. You can also charge the speaker battery on a small inverter.