Low Power TV Watching

[Suanne]

<p>Before I go out and try to find deals on some electronics, I want to make sure my assumptions are correct ... and I have answers to some&nbsp;questions.&nbsp; Those who know electronics, I'd appreciate if you'd help me out.<br /><br />Background:&nbsp; We have 2 6v golf cart batteries in a small Class C.&nbsp; For recharging, we have a 1K watt generator and we plan to get&nbsp;a 240 watt solar power&nbsp;system.<br /><br />Hubby John likes to watch TV.&nbsp; So, I'm trying to figure out how to have the least&nbsp;electrical drain from TV/DVD watching when running off the house batteries at night.<br /><br />So, here are my assumptions:<br />-a 12v TV or DVD player uses less power&nbsp;than going with a 110 TV or DVD player through an&nbsp;inverter<br />-a portable 12v DVD player takes less electricity than a laptop to view DVDs (of the same screen type/size)<br />- for getting a free digital TV signal,&nbsp;we need an&nbsp;amplified (powered) digital antenna<br />-an amplified antenna mounted outside of the RV will get a better signal than an inside amplified antenna<br /><br />And here are some&nbsp;questions:<br />-does a 12v TV/DVD combo take more electricity to watch a DVD than a 12v DVD player (without TV electronics)&nbsp;of the same screen type/size?<br />-any links to an amplified (powered) digital antenna that you would recommend?<br /><br />Thanks for any help or information you can provide.<br /><br />Suanne ... still learning</p>

 

[rvwandering]

<p><br /><br />So, here are my assumptions:<br />-a 12v TV or DVD player uses less power&nbsp;than going with a 110 TV or DVD player through an&nbsp;inverter<br /><span style="color: #ff0000;">Correct</span><br />-a portable 12v DVD player takes less electricity than a laptop to view DVDs (of the same screen type/size) <span style="color: #ff0000;">Yes because the laptop uses 110 through the inverter. Even if you use it on battery power it'll still have to be recharged eventually.</span><br />- for getting a free digital TV signal,&nbsp;we need an&nbsp;amplified (powered) digital antenna <span style="color: #ff0000;">You will need an amplified antenna unless you're very close to a city but it doesn't use much power.</span><br />-an amplified antenna mounted outside of the RV will get a better signal than an inside amplified antenna <span style="color: #ff0000;">Yes</span><br /><br />And here are some&nbsp;questions:<br />-does a 12v TV/DVD combo take more electricity to watch a DVD than a 12v DVD player (without TV electronics)&nbsp;of the same screen type/size? <span style="color: #ff0000;">I'm not sure.</span><br />-any links to an amplified (powered) digital antenna that you would recommend? <span style="color: #ff0000;">Our crank up Wineguard</span> <span style="color: #ff0000;">antenna works pretty good.</span><a href="http://www.winegard.com/sensar/index.php">http://www.winegard.com/sensar/index.php</a><br /><br />Thanks for any help or information you can provide.<br /><br />Suanne ... still learning</p>

 

[gadgetMe]

Hi Suanne,<br /><br />On the amplified antenna, most RV's come with them installed, with the power you have, you would not notice the power used.<br /><br />If your camper does not have one, check out used ones form a salvage yard (for rv's), <br />For new ones check out<span style="text-decoration: underline; color: #3366ff;"><a href="http://www.winegard.com/sensar/index.php"><span style="text-decoration: underline; color: #3366ff;"> Wineguard</span></a></span> The antenna will work for both ( the old stations and the new HD channels) assuming the tv has a digital tuner.<br /><br /><span style="color: #666699;">

-does a 12v TV/DVD combo take more electricity to watch a DVD than a 12v DVD player (without TV electronics)&nbsp;of the same screen type/size?

</span><br /><br />The best thing to do is to check out the power usage label on the back of the tv/dvd.<br />I go to the stores and check out the units on display, turn them around, look at the back of the units and find the tag, read the amount of watts it uses, I will find the ones I like, then find the one that uses the least amount of watts.<br /><br />&nbsp;when it comes to 12 volt units. they don't give you power usage numbers<span style="text-decoration: underline; color: #3366ff;"><a href="http://www.12volt-travel.com/12-volt-televisions-c-684.html?page=2#12v_tv"><span style="color: #3366ff; text-decoration: underline;"> there are some here</span></a></span><br /><br /><br />So, I use an inverter to run the tv. and charge the laptop<br />With the 2 six volt batteries, you will be able to watch tv for quite awhile.<br /><br />My led tv (which is about 26 inches across uses 35 watts a/c)<br />My led flat screen does not have a DVD player. But, it has a serial port that I can attach to my laptop to play DVD's, I also will download programs to an external hard drive, and watch them on the tv<br /><br /><br />Hope this helps<br /><br />Pondputz

 

[wrcsixeight]

How big of a TV do you need? &nbsp;If you get a LED backlit flat screen, they draw significantly less current than others.<br /><br />I have a 13.3 inch 12 volt RCA &nbsp;HDTV/DVD player that draws 0.9 amps &nbsp;Give or take a tenth depending on volume and screen brightness. &nbsp;It draws ~1.5 amps watching a DVD. &nbsp;My laptop requires 5+ amps to play a DVD.<br /><br />Before the digital switchover, I had a 5 inch color CRT TV that drew 1.5 amps. &nbsp;After that I had a 7 inch flat screen that drew 0.7 amps.<br /><br />&nbsp;For Wheeled vehicular use, I always recommend 12 volt products vs 120volts powered by an inverter, with a few exceptions. &nbsp;Inverters are usually only 85% efficient. &nbsp;My inverter also kills the weaker TV stations with its electrical noise. &nbsp;Many people do the inverter route and report no problems, but how would they even know if weak stations would be watchable without the TV being powered by the inverter?<br /><br />An amplified antenna is not totally necessary, but the antenna outside the RV is.<br /><br />People over on RV net are saying the new Jack antenna is better than the winegard sensar/batwing, with the UHF addition added to the Winegard. <br /><br />&nbsp;<a href="http://www.jacktv4free.com/products_rv.html">http://www.jacktv4free.com/products_rv.html<br /><br /></a>&nbsp;&nbsp;I made my own tiered bow tie antenna, and am watching a TV station from 92 miles away with 3 out of 4 bars, but the broadcast tower is on a mountain top at 5k+ feet. &nbsp;Usually 50 miles is all one can expect a signal from a broadcast tower.<br /><br />With Digital TV signals, aiming the antenna is more important. &nbsp;The following &nbsp;link tells you where to aim your antenna and what stations you can expect to receive when you plug in an address and antenna height. &nbsp;It seems about 85% accurate in my location.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&amp;Itemid=29">http://www.tvfool.com/?option=com_wrapper&amp;Itemid=29</a>

 

[SirJoey]

<br /><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif;"><strong>As for regular antenna vs. amplified antenna...</strong></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif;"><strong>You can definitely pick up stations on a regular antenna, but not as many. I have one of the old-fashioned, huge, Channel Master antennas, mounted on an 18' pole. Even though&nbsp;I'm 60 miles from the city,&nbsp;it will still pick up about a dozen stations, although some are duplicates, so in reality, about 7 or 8. Still, not bad for 60 miles away!</strong></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif;"><strong>By comparison however, my crank-up Wineguard amplified rooftop antenna will pull in over 4 TIMES as many!</strong></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: 'comic sans ms', sans-serif;"><strong>Incidentally, I just took down the big antenna, figuring I'm not gonna need it anymore, now that I live in a camper with a rooftop antenna, so I'll give it away FREE to anyone willing to come after it, complete with the 18' pole it's mounted on! It even has a motor for motorized rotation, but I never hooked the motor up, so I don't know if that part actually works or not. I just always used it in the same, fixed position, so if U can rotate it, it'll prolly do even better!&nbsp;<img src="/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" alt="" align="absmiddle" border="0" /><br /><br /></strong></span>

 

[freenez2]

I use a small 15" LED TV that draws 18 watts and place a cheap whip antennae on the steering wheel for reception. An electrical drain of 18 watts for couple hours of TV viewing is trivial. I can get away with a non-powered whip antennae in Berkeley California as TV transmitters are near by. Ideally a powered one exterior to the vehicle would be the way to go. Every TV has a power rating on the back in either watts or amps. If in amps the conversion formula to watts is Watts = Amps x Volts.

 

[Suanne]

Thanks all for your replies and good information.&nbsp; You have given me&nbsp;some good&nbsp;directions to start looking and doing more research.<br /><br />Happy Travels!&nbsp; Suanne

 

[blars]

There's realy no such thing as a digital tv antenna, any vhf and uhf tv antenna will work with a digital tv.&nbsp; vhf tv antennas handle physical channels 2-13, uhf 14-62.&nbsp; digital tv created logical channels, and moved stations to different physical channels, eliminating physical channels 2-6.&nbsp; so uhf is more important than it was previously.&nbsp; You only need an amplifier in week signal areas.&nbsp; The crank-up antenna on my 15 year old RV works fine with my digital tv.