TV on board?

[Oliveoyl]

Popeye's birthday coming up. Saw a 12v TV (for truckers) in motorway shop, seemed like an idea. Or an ordinary TV run off inverter? What do other folks do?

 

[Vern]

I bought a usb tv dongle, for £12, but can't get a signal..otherwise it's just perfect!

 

[lenseman]

Different countries have different TV standards.

If you buy a 12-volt TV in this country it will use PAL-I as the standard.

In France they use SECAM, in the USA they use NTSC. Even if the country uses the PAL system, the final letter will tell you the separation for the sound channel (some use B, others use G and one other uses I). So you might be able to tune into a TV signal in Denmark for instance but would hear no sound.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SECAM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC

Satellite onboard can be quite difficult to orientate the dish to receive any form of signal at 12GHz unless you do as a Mobo on a pontoon at Haslar has done and chain his boat so tight that the cleats are 9 parts worn though. But I think he gets a signal the one weekend in 12 he is on his boat and all he does is watch TV!

 

[vyv_cox]

Many TVs will run on 12 volts via a transformer but I read that some don't run too well on batteries because they need an accurate voltage at all times. Ones specifically intended for battery use are apparently different and may consume less. Presumably your truckers one is the latter type, worth checking. Ours is a MEOS which is intended for camper/truck/boat use but the cost reflects this. Worth a Google.

 

[cimota]

I thought about this and settled on stored media for movies and a use of the Marina WiFi and online TV services (such as iPlayer, 4OD, TVCatchup) using a VPN when necessary.

 

[GrahamM376]

Popeye's birthday coming up. Saw a 12v TV (for truckers) in motorway shop, seemed like an idea. Or an ordinary TV run off inverter? What do other folks do?

We have standard 240v 19" LCD TV run off small (350W) inverter, draws very little current. Most have multilingual menus and work throughout Europe.

 

[maxi77]

Different countries have different TV standards.

If you buy a 12-volt TV in this country it will use PAL-I as the standard.

In France they use SECAM, in the USA they use NTSC. Even if the country uses the PAL system, the final letter will tell you the separation for the sound channel (some use B, others use G and one other uses I). So you might be able to tune into a TV signal in Denmark for instance but would hear no sound.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PAL

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SECAM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTSC

Satellite onboard can be quite difficult to orientate the dish to receive any form of signal at 12GHz unless you do as a Mobo on a pontoon at Haslar has done and chain his boat so tight that the cleats are 9 parts worn though. But I think he gets a signal the one weekend in 12 he is on his boat and all he does is watch TV!

Most countries are now going digital, we got perfect pictures and sound on our UK digital TV in France Spain and Portugal.

Equally I would suggest that buying a TV that does not have a digital receiver today would be foolish.

 

[duncan99210]

Why bother with a TV? We use the laptop for both DVDs and TV (via iPlayer etc). Local TV (unless you're mulitlingual) is a bit hit and miss whereas you can access most UK TV content via the internet.

 

[GrahamM376]

Most countries are now going digital, we got perfect pictures and sound on our UK digital TV in France Spain and Portugal.

Equally I would suggest that buying a TV that does not have a digital receiver today would be foolish.

Your TV may soon not work in Portugal. When they switch from analogue to digital, evidently they will be using a different standard to the rest of Europe so a digibox "may" be necessary.

 

[maxi77]

Your TV may soon not work in Portugal. When they switch from analogue to digital, evidently they will be using a different standard to the rest of Europe so a digibox "may" be necessary.

It seems to work at the moment though at present we mainly use Sky

 

[TQA]

I will second the modern LCD flatscreen as being lowdraw, now where is it? I know I have it in a locker somewhere.

 

[Oliveoyl]

Short sighted, that's why!

Why bother with a TV? We use the laptop for both DVDs and TV (via iPlayer etc). Local TV (unless you're mulitlingual) is a bit hit and miss whereas you can access most UK TV content via the internet.

Have very recently changed from old small domestic TV to enormous flat thingy, tx son n°1, who was moving house. Could maybe go back to small screen, but no way a laptop

 

[fuss]

some additional info

When buying a new tv consider the following....
if it has a block power supply then it probably runs on dc....mine is 19v dc, so I bought a 12v to 19v converter. No inverter needed.
Mine draws 30 watts and in energy saving mode 20watts.
Do you want to watch movies .... mine allows watching movies from a usb stick so no dvd player to run.... you can watch movies through the stick and only draw 20 watts.
If you consider the watts needed to power a tv and a dvd player then this is a significant saving in energy.
Mine also has vga input so is also the pc monitor.

 

[capnsensible]

Mebbe we are odd ones out here, but we have lived 14 years without a telly!

Pub for footie, films on computer.

Not anti telly, just like radio more.

 

[Oliveoyl]

Also a radio fan - hardly ever watch news on TV, never miss radio news in the morning. Popeye worked all his life in TV (mostly news), but will have probs in Greece in the winter, unless his Greek improves exponentially. Am thinking of long winter nights watching DVDs etc, but preferably on a screen which we can both see at the same time

 

[ukmctc]

We have an Alba 19 inch flat screen with DVD and built in freeview, works off 12/240v, we also have a complete satalite system in a box (£80), which is easily put away when not in use.

It all works off a small inverter with no problems at all when at sea.

 

[maxi77]

Also a radio fan - hardly ever watch news on TV, never miss radio news in the morning. Popeye worked all his life in TV (mostly news), but will have probs in Greece in the winter, unless his Greek improves exponentially. Am thinking of long winter nights watching DVDs etc, but preferably on a screen which we can both see at the same time

Sky has a very good selection of radio programmes if you can get it

 

[vyv_cox]

Also a radio fan - hardly ever watch news on TV, never miss radio news in the morning. Popeye worked all his life in TV (mostly news), but will have probs in Greece in the winter, unless his Greek improves exponentially. Am thinking of long winter nights watching DVDs etc, but preferably on a screen which we can both see at the same time

I have recently managed to locate a Worldspace radio receiver. As you may know, the concept of satellite radio has not gone well outside USA, where I understand it remains popular. From North Wales it is possible to access the African satellite but there seem to be only four or five stations broadcasting from it. BBC World Service is one, so reception using this will be a big improvement over short wave in Greece. USA public service radio is another, plus a couple more news/talk stations when I checked the other day.

It is very easy to set up by comparison with satellite TV. Just point the little square dish roughly in the right direction, a little east of south from here, and away it goes. Instruction book says there is an 80 degree acceptance angle.

 

[Mrnotming]

Worldspace Sat Radio

Hi Vyv,

Is Worldspace encrypted?

Thanks.

 

[Grehan]

I thought Worldspace had become dead. Has it been resurrected?