billgray
Well-Known Member
We bought a 12v 22" Finlux tv+dvd two years ago and are very pleased. A Glomex aerial completed the set-up. Tv and bracket under £200, aerial under £90.
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12v TV/DVD Combo with DVD - best option?
- Thread starter mickywillis
- Start date
thesaintlyone
Well-Known Member
Its A Good set up and either way works well.
For me the following reasons are why I chose my set up
A) I don't ever record from TV Obtain my stuff elsewhere
B) Any TV I do Watch is via a Now TV Box Plug and Play Box Works off Wi-Fi
C) HDMI cables are only so long meaning the laptop has to be close to the TV often ill surf whilst watching TV (can get a bit wet)
D) My current Laptop is only 14"
its Really down to personal preference as to which system works best for you
thesaintlyone
Well-Known Member
Correction to C) I would rather have a Wireless system 
PaulRainbow
Well-Known Member
Correction to C) I would rather have a Wireless system
You can, HDMI to TV and a small wifi keyboard
Saves having a hot laptop on your lap.But, as you say....what works for you
Jabs
Well-Known Member
And you can get long 5metres plus, cables on ebay.
tony
tony
C08
Well-Known Member
Do not buy an Akura - we have one and although it is not bad the viewing angle is only about +/- 45 degrees from straight on and the DVD does not work on all discs it should (correct zone/format etc). We use a mast top Glomex which with its booster gives nearly always a good signal.
Dockhead
Well-Known Member
My advice to you:
1. Don’t buy a marine/RV 12v TV of any kind. They are all poor compared to normal home ones, and overpriced.
Buy one with any kind of external power supply. The voltage doesn’t matter, so don’t break your head looking for a 12v (or 13.6v) one – because anyway you need to stabilize the voltage through a DC-DC converter. Then just buy a cheap DC-DC converter (DROK ones are sold on Amazon, for example), set it to the required voltage, chop the cord off the AC power supply, wire it up to the DROK, then install the DROK with power from your main panel (from a breaker), and Bob’s your mother’s brother.
2. Don’t buy one with the DVD player combined. Instead of DVDs, rip your movies to a portable hard drive. DVD is low resolution, and is a crappy obsolete technology anyway. I have about 500 movies on board, most of them in HD. It would be impossible to store that number of physical DVDs. For the very occasional case where someone brings a physical DVD and I don’t feel like ripping it to hard drive (easily done on my laptop), I do have a very tiny, multi-region DVD player which I can use. For such rare use it’s not big deal powering it with the inverter.
You play them with your laptop (or permanently installed on board computer, if you have one), using VLC or other media player of your choice. I have a 32" monitor mounted on one bulkhead, with a long HDMI cable run to the nav table. Works a treat.
3. Keep in mind that pretty soon we will be streaming all the movies we watch -- that's the way the world is moving. For that you need to have good data connections, mobile and WIFI. We use a Routerboard Groove wifi device, and a Huawei B593 mobile data router. I did have a freeview TV on board, but it got smashed on one passage this summer. So I've just been streaming whatever TV I need to watch (rare, but sometimes very much needed, like during the Brexit business), and it works a treat. Streaming radio is also nice, and uses very little bandwidth.
Hope that helps. Good luck!
1. Don’t buy a marine/RV 12v TV of any kind. They are all poor compared to normal home ones, and overpriced.
Buy one with any kind of external power supply. The voltage doesn’t matter, so don’t break your head looking for a 12v (or 13.6v) one – because anyway you need to stabilize the voltage through a DC-DC converter. Then just buy a cheap DC-DC converter (DROK ones are sold on Amazon, for example), set it to the required voltage, chop the cord off the AC power supply, wire it up to the DROK, then install the DROK with power from your main panel (from a breaker), and Bob’s your mother’s brother.
2. Don’t buy one with the DVD player combined. Instead of DVDs, rip your movies to a portable hard drive. DVD is low resolution, and is a crappy obsolete technology anyway. I have about 500 movies on board, most of them in HD. It would be impossible to store that number of physical DVDs. For the very occasional case where someone brings a physical DVD and I don’t feel like ripping it to hard drive (easily done on my laptop), I do have a very tiny, multi-region DVD player which I can use. For such rare use it’s not big deal powering it with the inverter.
You play them with your laptop (or permanently installed on board computer, if you have one), using VLC or other media player of your choice. I have a 32" monitor mounted on one bulkhead, with a long HDMI cable run to the nav table. Works a treat.
3. Keep in mind that pretty soon we will be streaming all the movies we watch -- that's the way the world is moving. For that you need to have good data connections, mobile and WIFI. We use a Routerboard Groove wifi device, and a Huawei B593 mobile data router. I did have a freeview TV on board, but it got smashed on one passage this summer. So I've just been streaming whatever TV I need to watch (rare, but sometimes very much needed, like during the Brexit business), and it works a treat. Streaming radio is also nice, and uses very little bandwidth.
Hope that helps. Good luck!
dune16
Well-Known Member
I have a Avtex TV in my camper and it's a great little TV. One thing I found when looking for cheaper 12v TV's (such as Cello etc..) was the sound quality was always absolutely terrible. Avtex sounded far better, I guess that's reflected in the higher price but I'll be buying another Avtex for the boat with a Glomex aerial on the mast.
Tammany
Well-Known Member
We have one in our caravan but too be honest it's mainly used for watching movies from usb stick. Used to use the built in dvd then realised it had a usb port so now its 50 movies on a stick and we are sorted. We don't use dvds at home anymore as converted over to digital some time ago. so easy for us to put films on the stick.
rivonia
Well-Known Member
Our AVTEX is a marinised version TV/DVD 12v/Mains works great.It is better to get marinised as they are sealed against SALT DUST MOISTURE.
Takes your pick and pays your price. Ours has a carry bag stand for free standing and a swivel bracket to fix to a bulhead. Full excellant colour. All the freeview channels. The only extra was the areial for the mast. We have a simple portable if it were to be used ashore.
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Saguday
Well-Known Member
Perfectly happy with our dreadful 12V TV with DVD player thank you, lightly used anyway so not going to waste a lot of time and money on it.
maxi77
Well-Known Member
After trying cheap TVs I have found that Avtex is the best, built to work of boat/RV supplies, good picture, viewing angle and sound. Will even work with Portuguese TV and certainly any where else in the EU. Ours has boy DVD and a satellite receiver and all work well. WE also have a cheaper Cello and it is OK to though not quite the same quality. The supplier provided a voltage stabiliser for free ie no more money than other suppliers which would suggest there is a potential problem with higher voltages when charging batteries
rwakeham
Well-Known Member
+1 for Cello if it is still the sort of thing to look for. It has most types of inputs - HDMI, USB for stuff on that, built in freeview, built in DVD, has a standard computer video connection so you can use it as an external monitor. You can use the HDMI for a chromecast (or anything else) to get most streaming services if you have WiFi. Runs fine off my 12v via cigarette lighter. Sound is a bit tinny but I put it through the stereo and its very good. Sure there are other options but if you want a TV then it works.