TV in a camper

[captbobh2o2004]

Looks like your getting lots of help, so for what it's worth. I have a full Ham Radio station in our TD. I have it setup so I can run it on 12v or 120v using an inverter. Our TV seems to work fine on the inverter for a full evening. I have a bank of 4 12v 7AH gel cel batteries about the size of a small motorcycle battery. I installed them in the box on the tongue. I feed them with my solar panel and if we get a fair amount of sun all is good Ha! We found the TV on Amazon, it is a small flat screen, sorry I don't remember the part number feel free to E Mail with ? Good Luck Capt Bob

[Java Jack]

Cool jack just read your blog post.
Great idea

Thanks. It is great especially when there is a burn ban going on and you can't have a camp fire. Toss up a white sheet from the canopy, turn on the pico projector and put on a movie.

[dales133]

What sort of dollars did your set up cost

[bdosborn]

Can I. change the cord of the tv to a 12v and use it in my camper?

How do people in RV's have it? Do I need a special 12V tv or can I use just a regular one?

It depends on the TV. I have a Best Buy house brand TV - Insignia. The power cord has a 12V power supply built into it, similar to a laptop cord.




I bought a 12V plug and wired the TV straight to my battery. There were a lot of naysayers who predicted the TV would smoke the first time the battery charger hit 14V but two years later it's still going strong.

There are also purpose built 12V TVs but they tend to be expensive and of dubious quality compared to the same sized 120V type. Being the cheap SOB that I am, I rolled the dice that a 12V input TV would work and won (this time).

Bruce

[vitya-velik]

I use a cheap windows tablet, 32GB Sim and movies in mp4 format. I can take 20+ high quality movies and watch them on either my phone or the tablet.

How do you download movies? What app or site do you use?

[bdosborn]

The amazon video app lets you download movies to a tablet (legally).

Bruce

[jss06]

I use a cheap windows tablet, 32GB Sim and movies in mp4 format. I can take 20+ high quality movies and watch them on either my phone or the tablet.

How do you download movies? What app or site do you use?

I use an app that allows me to convert my DVD collection to MP4 files. It is legal as long as you own the DVD and don't distribute the files. The product is Winx DVD. I have only found a couple of movies that it could not process.

We have taken our entire collection and stored the files on a external hard drive connected to our TV. We can now load up movies without having to physically change out DVDs.

You can also use an app like amazon kindle and google movies to buy movies and download them to your device for later playback.

[Java Jack]

I use a cheap windows tablet, 32GB Sim and movies in mp4 format. I can take 20+ high quality movies and watch them on either my phone or the tablet.

How do you download movies? What app or site do you use?

I use an app that allows me to convert my DVD collection to MP4 files. It is legal as long as you own the DVD and don't distribute the files. The product is Winx DVD. I have only found a couple of movies that it could not process.

We have taken our entire collection and stored the files on a external hard drive connected to our TV. We can now load up movies without having to physically change out DVDs.

You can also use an app like amazon kindle and google movies to buy movies and download them to your device for later playback.

Legalities around this are quite confusing as laws are conflicting. According to the DMCA, it is illegal to circumvent any copy protection mechanism. However according to other laws, you are legally entitled to a backup copy of your materials.

The real gist is that as long as you are not intending to distribute, it is unlikely anyone would ever bother you. However, technically while you are allowed to have archival copies, copying a DVD is illegal because you have to bypass the DRM to do it.

[DebraP]

I bought a 13 inch portable DVD player. I like watching a movie right before falling asleep. It has a rechargeable battery that lasts long enough to get through one movie before going dead. It also runs on 12v. Has a USB port so I might look into some of these programs being talked about to convert my collection to digital copies. But for now my current setup works for me.

[bdosborn]

I used a portable DVD player in the teardrop. It was by far the easiest setup, compared to where I am now:



It used the least amount of battery as well.

Bruce

[SPLAT]

I'm looking for a small 19 to 22 inch smart tv with WIFI, they usually have Hulu, Netflix and other streaming movie applications.
I can't seem to find one in 12v but I suspect the LED models could run on a small inverter for several hours.
Anyone know of a 12v smart TV or have any wisdom for me?

[dales133]

I just got stan on a phone upgrade for free, its pretty decent

[bdosborn]

At $10/month, Stan is a little more expensive than Netflix, is it worth it? We use Netflix quite a bit but I'm always looking for a better deal....

Bruce

[Java Jack]

I'm looking for a small 19 to 22 inch smart tv with WIFI, they usually have Hulu, Netflix and other streaming movie applications.
I can't seem to find one in 12v but I suspect the LED models could run on a small inverter for several hours.
Anyone know of a 12v smart TV or have any wisdom for me?

I am not aware of any TV guys migrating those apps into their smaller screensizes. Easiest way to do this is to get something like Roku but you will still have an issue of getting it connected to an ISP (internet service provider).

An alternative to this is to use wireless display. That would let you stream from your phone directly to the TV. Your phone would need to have Netflix or other content and an internet/cell connection. Keep in mind, if you use your cell service data plan, you are using up large amounts of data. If you connect it to an ISP, then you are fine.

The company I work for makes these types of receivers.

http://www.screenbeam.global/screenbeam-mini2/

Normally, I would not post a link like this but I felt it is relevant to the discussion.

[AZ_Desert_Rat]

My wife just bought me a new TV for the office ... It is a Proscan 19″ LED TV with Built In DVD Player for $99 and a $20 rebate ... Final cost after rebate $79
;applause;
This was a back to school special and I don't know what is left and how many each store has and what they will sell them for. I just bought the last boxed one at Menards, Elk River, MN. I see the same Proscan at a number of places, including Amazon ... The audio leaves a bit to be desired, but a couple of small speakers can fix that.


I bought two of these last year and installed one in the cargo conversion and one in the FunFinder (FunFinder 190) and they worked fine. I moved the one from the cargo trailer to the bedroom area in the FunFinder and drove thru AZ to San Diego and back thru the Teton and Jellystone parks coming home. They are a year old, still work fine; we traveled more than 5,000 miles and camped out quite a bit since I installed them last year ...
;a084;

They are 12vdc that uses an adapter for 120vac ... I just picked up a cig lighter adapter that fit the TV port at Wally World and can use them for 12vdc or 120vac.
;rollingeyes;

Good luck...