Jump to content

Best Television?


Bigdog

Recommended Posts

I have a 1000 watt inverter and two 12 volt deep cycle batteries,

any advice on brand, size volt greatly appreciated.

21ft sunrader

I've got over two dozen LCD TVs spread around in several RVs, three houses and a cabin on solar. I've had only one problem in 10 years and that's with a few bad pixels in a 19" Sansui (my first camper TV with built-on DVD player). I never buy high-end. My favorite brand has been Sceptres but that only because they have been the best buys and the smaller ones run on 12 volts DC or 120 volts AC. My in-laws only buy high-end stuff and they've had two TVs crap out in the past 5 years (a Samsung and an LG). To me the "best" is the one with the lowest price and has a good tuner. Tuners can be a huge issue in RVs if you like to watch the free over-the-air TV. That's all we do.

No right or wrong here. But - we started with a 19" TV in our Toyota, with a built in DVD player. I convinced my wife a 32" would be much nicer. She felt it was WAY too big. Well we tried it. Works great in our little Toyota an I'd never go back to smaller. Stores away easily in our little clothes closet. Rated at 56 watts and that is WITH the DVD player going. That's about 5 amps @ 12 volts when hooked to an inverter which has never been an issue - even with just one RV battery. We always watch at least one movie at night and sometimes two.

I used to think having a 12 volt DC input was a great feature on a TV. Not any more. If it comes at no added expense -fine. Otherwise? I would not pay a penny extra for it and sometimes there is a down-side to it. Some of the 12 volt TVs draw some power all the time, even when off due to the extra outboard power-supply.

We have an inverter hard-wired into our Toyota, under the couch/bed. Whenever we park or camp - we turn it on and it stays on. Runs all night and powers several AC fans, the 32" TV and DVD player, our laptop computers, microwave, etc. Nice and easy and no jerking around with some stuff running on AC and some on DC. We plug in the main camper power-cord into the inverter when we park. So, all the OEM AC outlets are live. No fooling with any power strips or extension cords. No noise from the inverter, no heat of any significance, no signal interference EXCEPT on AM radio. Also very little loss at a 93% efficiency rating. My days of seeking out DC appliances are over.

Note we used to camp for maybe 12-14 hours with just one "house" battery. We'd watch the 32" TV and DVD, run our computers (two of them), run fans or the propane furnace, etc. and never had a low battery when done. But when I added the microwave - I added the 2nd "house" battery just as insurance. I may remove it next year.

From what I've seen (and read) most of the cheapest TVs have proved to be just as reliable as the high prices ones and often they are better. I see no difference in picture quality either. The issue MOST important to me is the tuner. And - no way to find out how well it works just by brand name. Some tuners are better at locking into faint signals that others - very important to us since we use a roof antenna with amp. The other feature that I consider important is the channel search function. They all have an "auto-search" function to search for signals. But some . . erase all the channels locked into memory when you do a 2nd or 3rd search. I do NOT want tuners like that. I prefer the ones that let you do all the searches you want and just add anything new found the what you already have. Comes in handy when you first park your RV and maybe want to do four different signal searches in four different directions (that's what we do).

My personal favorites for RVs (have three of them) is the Sceptre 32" with built-in DVD player. Model E325BD and $190 at Walmart. Sometimes less.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/46784933?wmlspartner=wlpa&adid=22222222227035316484&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=77686088072&wl4=&wl5=pla&wl6=151006422752&veh=sem

Soon, I hope to rip out our Dometic 3-way refrigerator and use our inverter to power an AC refrigerator too. I am experimenting right now with a 3.5 cubic foot chest freezer I converted to a refrigerator. So far - the testing I've done shows it to be amazing ! For a 24 hour day, it draws less then 3/4 amp per hour. That is less then half of the 12 volt upright RV and marine refrigerators on the market. Downside is it has to be opened from the top. The switch over is still in the "test and planning" stage. But so far - I've got $140 invested in the freezer and $25 in the conversion thermostat. So less then $200 for a super-efficient electric frig with 3.5 cubic feet of storage. We'll see.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...