24" 12V DC Smart TV

B and C · Oct 4, 2018

This came up on another thread and rather than Hijack that thread (I did a little bit) :huh: , I thought I would start a new thread on the subject.

On my last outing, the 19" 12V DC TV (non-Smart RV TV) died. I had it connected to my PC as a monitor and used the PC to watch my movie collection and stream Netflix, etc.

The quest was on to find a 24" Smart TV that was either 12V DC native or had an external 120V AC power brick.

Looking online was to no avail. The spec's would only say 120V AC and there weren't any pictures of the backside where you could see if the power cord was built in or used an external power brick. Some had a detachable power cord that was kind of misleading and I spent some hours scouring reviews to see if it was indeed an external power brick or just a detachable cord.  Finding a store that stocks 24" Smart TV's is not easy. The only store I found was Best Buy (no affiliation) and they only had one 24" Smart TV. It just so happened this one had an external power brick that converted 120V AC to 19.5V DC. I could live with that as I had a spare 12V DC to 19.5V DC power supply for my laptop.

I bought the TV and took it to a friends house to make the power modification. I used a meter to first find what was the hot wire in each plug.  I then measured the length I wanted for the finished cord.  I cut the tip off of the laptop power supply and the tip off the TV power supply and spliced the TV tip onto the laptop power supply.   Before splicing I used an Volt Ohm meter to make sure I got the polarity right. Plugged in to a 12V DC outlet and turned the TV on, It worked! Put on the TV wall mount and stuck it on the wall. Still working after two months of evening use.

The TV I bought was an LG 24LJ4840 in white. The one thing I hadn't anticipated was when playing movies off a portable HDD, it would only play one *.VOB file at a time. A little disconcerting when engrossed and it stops, pick up remote, arrow over to next *.VOB and press play.  My friend has a different make but it only runs off of 120V AC. His will play my movies from begining to end without stopping. So this is what is working for me.

Anybody else have a 12V DC Smart TV working in their rig. I am limited to 24".

DannyB1954 · Oct 5, 2018

I was looking myself and did not have luck. The new TV's use little power so I just got used to the idea of a small inverter.
This one is not smart, but it is 24" 12 volt and built for mobile use https://www.walmart.com/ip/JENSEN-J...2587&wl11=online&wl12=381277219&wl13=&veh=sem
This one has built in DVD https://www.walmart.com/ip/24-Artic...MInt7Rrbbu3QIVRb7ACh0tzQNPEAYYCCABEgIm2vD_BwE

Scrol dow when you get to the web page. There may be others. I just did a search for 24 rv tv.

B and C · Oct 5, 2018

Mine draws about 0.1 amp in standby. I just leave it plugged in all the time. No waiting for it to boot up (my time is precious after all :angel: ).

I am hoping someone else has a smart one they either converted like I did or found a native 12V DC one. It sure is irritating for the movie to stop 3-5 times :dodgy:

The Jensen TV is the one that died on me. I think the frost heave I hit in Canada last year may have lead to its' demise. It sure did a lot of other damage :s

I could conceivably fit a 27" if push came to shove. I would have to do a little rearranging in that area.

The way I have it mounted now is I can turn it to watch from the front captain chair, leave the side door open and watch from outside or turn it toward the back and watch from bed. I use the different locations based on weather, bugs or what suits me at the time.

Forgot, I can also take it off its' mount easily and put it on a table outside. I have a 12V outlet in my rear basement and a HDMI cable that is routed from the PC to there if I want the PC screen outdoors. I have a smaller wireless keyboard with built in trackball that I use with the PC.

B and C · Oct 5, 2018

This is starting to turn into a modification thread

I am hijacking my own thread.

Here is a picture of the keyboard:

Back:

A pic of my splice:

My 12V stereo behind the TV. The red hook by the stereo is where I hook the arm of the TV during transport or storage.

Here is the back of my TV:

My 12V PC. About the size of a paperback:

MotorVation · Oct 5, 2018

Thanks for the post Brian. I'm going to look into getting that TV.

Does it have the YouTube app installed?

I looked everywhere for a 12v smart TV and couldn't find one. I went through the same thing as you by looking at pics online for a wall wart but still couldn't find one.

One night I went to the local Wally World and was looking behind the TV's and at all the boxes on the shelf and an employee was looking at me like I was trying to steal something. I told him what I was looking for and while I know he had no clue at all about what I was looking for he said "we don't have anything like that." I didn't say it but thought: "Ok Ace, have it your way, I'll spend my money elsewhere"