Question about batteries

[zero]

A few more comments on TV and DVDs in an RV and power draw.

Any DVD player is going to draw around 1 amp @ 12 volts (12 watts) regardless if in-dash or stand-alone.

With LCD TVs in the smaller sizes the power usage difference between LED and conventional FL is often minimal.

A typical 19" LCD TV with LED backlight will use 35-40 watts.

A typical 19" LCD TV with FL backhlight will use 40-45 watts.

I have a Saunsui 19" LCD TV and DVD combo that does not have LEDs and it runs on 38 watts total when watching a movie. That is hard to beat.

I also have a Sceptre 19" LCD-LED TV (no DVD) that runs on 25 watts.

If I run the Sceptre along with a separate 12 watt DVD player -that puts the combo at 37 watts.

In regard to Blue Ray players instead of DVD? I do not believe the naked human eye when viewing a 19 or 22" TV can tell the difference between a 720 DPI and a 1080 DPI TV or a Blue Ray image. Most people cannot even see the difference on a 42" screen.

The downside to a Blue Ray player is it uses more power then a DVD player. Often twice as much with NO visable gain on small TVs. A typical Blue Ray player runs on 22 watts as compared to 11 watts for a DVD player.

My small laptop runs on 38 watts without the DVD player. With it it uses 50 watts to power a 14" LCD screen.

My wife's 7" Kindle uses 24 watts to watch a video file. When hooked to an external DVD player it uses 36 watts total and when hooked to a Blue Ray player it uses 58 watts with NO visable gain in image.

[zero]

I can see a big difference between 720dpi and 1080dpi on 22 inch LED TVs. I looked at lots of side by side comparisons in the big stores of 22 inch 720 and 1080 TVs before I made my selection. I can see a big difference when I watch shows that are 720p versus 1080p. Too bad you did not include me in your sampling of people but then again I do have a recent prescription in my glasses. When you consider that I also have cataracts I have to conclude you simply got that statement wrong about no visible difference when viewing.

No, I didn't err in making my statement. What I said is based by any I've seen side by side using the same video input. Same goes for my wife. Same goes for my children. Same goes for many surveys and tests taken around the country. That also includes a few test-groups who had subjects claiming they absolutely could tell the difference. Problem for those people was -when put into a test group when they had to pick which TV was which - they got it wrong as often as right. Consumer Reports was one of the places that did such a test. Just to be clear, I do not find Consumer Reports to be a great source of info - but some people do. Your observation puts you in the minority. That does not make you wrong. Just stating that I am not in the minority here with what I stated/claimed. 1080 certainly looks better then 720 if you are very close to the screen - as with a computer monitor and maybe in a tight place. That I have noticed.

Most of the tests I've read state you have to be 8 feet or closer for it to make a difference to most people and in an RV, I suppose that happens often. Since RV TVs tend to be small, it is often hard to notice even when close.

I'd be silly to argue with you since you state your observations are different. I do not doubt your word - but I do doubt the reasons why one looked better then the other to you. That is, unless you had your nose to the screen. There are many other factors involved in making a TV picture look - e.g. back lighting versus edge lighting, refresh rate, viewing angle, individual settings on the TVs, etc. All that counts (in my mind) is a person buy whatever gives them what they want - and not what someone else tells them they ought to have. To anybody who claims to see a better picture with anything - get it if you like it. I prefer plasma and wish there were cheap plasma TVs around in small sizes for RVs. For viewing, especially at odd angles or bright light, they beat any LCD as far as I'm concerned. Note I'm talking about normal TV an movie viewing.

One reviewer from "Home Theater" put it this way and I agree with him 100% from what I've seen so far.

"Final Take

In the final analysis, the proof is in the actual viewing - how the image looks to you in the real world with your specific HDTV. You may find that a specific 720p TV can actually look better than a specific 1080p TV. This is because what you see on the screen is the result of many factors, with resolution being just one. Other factors to take into consideration are motion response, color processing, contrast, brightness, and background video, and video scaling. Not all HDTVs and video processors are created equal."

[Maineah]

There are those that say an LP recording sounds better then a CD beauty is in the eyes of the beholder no one looks at things the same way. Older LG ccfl backlite 20" 61 watts may rethink using it in the camper but for as much TV I watch I don't think it will break the battery bank. There is a big difference to me between a plasma and an LCD but I also think the plasma is going to suck up a good bit more power there is a lot more going on inside but I don't have two TV to compare that are the same size. The plasma I brought home from the dump had to replace two caps I now have a $3.14 plasma TV I watch 5 hours a week.

[Sunnynshare]

You are all missing one of the biggest reasons that there are viewable differences in the “wall of side by side tvs” and it was, for me, one of those aha life lesson moments that screamed it was real. I was talking with a tv salesman about 30 years ago and he said sure, there were viewable differences. He said it depended on which model had the best spiff (first time I had ever heard that term). Because of the spiff, salespeople would slightly detune the non-spiff sets to create sales of the bigger payoff spiff sets. That, to me, totally makes sense and explains it. Kim

[Maineah]

My wife and I are not exactly cutting edge people when it comes to TVs we went to the big box store and looked at the TV's all playing found the one that had the best picture by brand then saw if we could repeat the results walked out with a Vizio. To each their own, ever tried to match paint with some one? The first TV I can remember was a 9" round B/W it had at least 27 knobs and you had to twist every one of them to get a picture and that was only if they happen to be broad casting at that hour. Strangely the TV's have improved by light years but the programs have not!

[zero]

My wife and I are not exactly cutting edge people when it comes to TVs we went to the big box store and looked at the TV's all playing found the one that had the best picture by brand then saw if we could repeat the results walked out with a Vizio. To each their own, ever tried to match paint with some one? The first TV I can remember was a 9" round B/W it had at least 27 knobs and you had to twist every one of them to get a picture and that was only if they happen to be broad casting at that hour. Strangely the TV's have improved by light years but the programs have not!

My Uncle was an electrical engineer for Bendix Corp and supposedly was the first person to have a TV in the town I grew up in. That was in the 1930s. He built the TV himself from a cathode ray tube occillograph. As the story was told to me, he'd sit behind it fiddling with controls constantly while the neighborhood "audience" watched for a while. Seems things have changed a bit.

Nowhere near as impressive, I was the first in my town to have a satellite dish for TV. That was over 30 years ago. I built a 16 foot dish made from pressure-treated 2"X6" lumber and chicken fence. It would have to be "curve-tuned" 3-4 times a year to get the parabolic curve to point all the received signals to the central point where the LNA was mounted (low noise amp). Tuning was done with turnbuckles and cables. It also had an electric winch to change satellites. I had a notebook in the house and a Radio Shack kitchen timer. I would turn the winch on and count a certain amount of seconds to guess when I was at the next satellite. I also had a control for a small motor on the LNA to change polarity. Back then, no channels were scrambled and most of the satellites sent two sets of signals. Positive and Negative - or better put - upright and upside down. On the best satellite with programming in English, I'd get around 12 channels when rightside up and another 12 when upside down. The best satellites were Telstars. Next best were from Galaxy. At some point in time just about all was scrambled and required an expensive descramblier and a yearly subscription. That's when I gave it up. Now, year 2013 cable is STILL not available in my area. But thanks to the changeover from analog to digital for over-the-air, we now get over 20 channels free. I had to build a small antenna "farm" to it though and it's 600 feet from our house. Back a few years ago when most all was analog - I was only able to get one channel with an antenna on a 50 foot tower and many signal amps.

[zero]

There are those that say an LP recording sounds better then a CD beauty is in the eyes of the beholder no one looks at things the same way. Older LG ccfl backlite 20" 61 watts may rethink using it in the camper but for as much TV I watch I don't think it will break the battery bank. There is a big difference to me between a plasma and an LCD but I also think the plasma is going to suck up a good bit more power there is a lot more going on inside but I don't have two TV to compare that are the same size. The plasma I brought home from the dump had to replace two caps I now have a $3.14 plasma TV I watch 5 hours a week.

I suppose you've heard of the "great Chinese capacitor conspiracy?" There are an awful lot of TVs, monitors and DVD players dead because of a dollar's worth of failed caps.

The idea of plasmas being huge energy wasters is a myth. Myth enough that it seems new sales of them was banned in some parts of California? The idea of banning just Plasmas is as silly as some of the new gun regs being proposed.

If you compute watts of energy per square inch of viewing area -with an LCD TV and a Plasma both set for optimal viewing they often have the same in power usage. In fact, my 1080 DPI, 42" plasma uses less power then my 720 DPI, 42" LCD here at home. Plasmas have a huge advantage over LCDs in viewing angles. You can watch a plasma from any angle just as you can an old CRT TV. With an LCD, the image and colors and contrast vary wildly depending on what angle the screen is to your eyes. The big disadvantage to plasmas is they do not come in small sizes.

[zero]

Different people with different preferences.

We don't use any RV when we want to "get away." We camp every year for a week or two on a island in the NY Adirondacks. We usually have the island to ourselves so our dog has the run of it. NO cell-phone signal, no TV, no electricity. Tents, ice-box, Coleman lanterns and Coleman stove. Even been a few days when we were virtually stranded since the wind was too high to get in the boat and get to main-land. We also sometimes camp in our own "backyard" with a 100 acres of forest. Just tents and sleeping bags. No cell phone and no TV. These are the only times I do any real reading other then from technical manuals.

We use our RVs to travel the country and avoid motels. When travelling, especially with a kid or two - it's nice to sit back and watch a movie at night or catch the local news where ever we happen to be. My family also enjoys real heat when it's 0-20 F outside. That happens to be our preference. We camped in Maine the fall of the presidential election (Romney versus Obummer). I was amazed at how different the local news was from Rockland Maine convering the election. Totally different then in the liberal stronghold of central NY. On a relative scale, much more balanced. Also a lot of hooey about Maine residents being offered "amnesty" for sales tax avoided with on-line out-of-state purchases. That is one I've never heard yet here in NY

[Maineah]

Different people with different preferences.

We don't use any RV when we want to "get away." We camp every year for a week or two on a island in the NY Adirondacks. We usually have the island to ourselves so our dog has the run of it. NO cell-phone signal, no TV, no electricity. Tents, ice-box, Coleman lanterns and Coleman stove. Even been a few days when we were virtually stranded since the wind was too high to get in the boat and get to main-land. We also sometimes camp in our own "backyard" with a 100 acres of forest. Just tents and sleeping bags. No cell phone and no TV. These are the only times I do any real reading other then from technical manuals.

We use our RVs to travel the country and avoid motels. When travelling, especially with a kid or two - it's nice to sit back and watch a movie at night or catch the local news where ever we happen to be. My family also enjoys real heat when it's 0-20 F outside. That happens to be our preference. We camped in Maine the fall of the presidential election (Romney versus Obummer). I was amazed at how different the local news was from Rockland Maine convering the election. Totally different then in the liberal stronghold of central NY. On a relative scale, much more balanced. Also a lot of hooey about Maine residents being offered "amnesty" for sales tax avoided with on-line out-of-state purchases. That is one I've never heard yet here in NY

Yes they think it would be a nice ideal if we would report purchases in NH and add them to our tax return. I'm all over that because I live 6 miles from the border and get a 5% discount when I buy stuff from Home Depot in NH.

[Maineah]

I suppose you've heard of the "great Chinese capacitor conspiracy?" There are an awful lot of TVs, monitors and DVD players dead because of a dollar's worth of failed caps.

The idea of plasmas being huge energy wasters is a myth. Myth enough that it seems new sales of them was banned in some parts of California? The idea of banning just Plasmas is as silly as some of the new gun regs being proposed.

If you compute watts of energy per square inch of viewing area -with an LCD TV and a Plasma both set for optimal viewing they often have the same in power usage. In fact, my 1080 DPI, 42" plasma uses less power then my 720 DPI, 42" LCD here at home. Plasmas have a huge advantage over LCDs in viewing angles. You can watch a plasma from any angle just as you can an old CRT TV. With an LCD, the image and colors and contrast vary wildly depending on what angle the screen is to your eyes. The big disadvantage to plasmas is they do not come in small sizes.

I will have to check that myself from what I saw inside the plasma when I repaired it were a lot more drivers then in a LCD. The caps were part of a case of industrial espionage the formula was stolen and put into production the only problem was it had never been finished or tested. It pledged us for several years with our equipment. I’m sure some would consider a 34” TV small and yes the viewing angle is superior to an LCD.

[zero]

Yes they think it would be a nice ideal if we would report purchases in NH and add them to our tax return. I'm all over that because I live 6 miles from the border and get a 5% discount when I buy stuff from Home Depot in NH.

We pay a "flat rate" on our New York tax return to cover all our on-line purchases that were shipped from other states. The problem is - now many out-of-state sellers have made reciprocosity-agreements with New York and charge sales tax at the time of purchase. That means we sometimes wind up paying sales tax twice.

Seems NY needs to pick one or the other but not both at the same time. Another reason why I'm getting ready to flee this state. Just not sure where I can go and not see it happen all over again. It happened when I lived in northern Vermont and it then happened here in New York. I figure at my age I've got one more move left in me and it's hard to figure out where to go.

[Maineah]

I did find out why some e sales are taxed if the company has a branch in the state of your residence then they are supposed to charge sales tax. I remember Cabal's having a big go around with the state of Maine over that before they decided to open a store I think they won. They had to collect tax on state sales but not on internet sales. With all states hard up for cash I think everyone is going to see some clever ways to collect more sales taxes. NH still has no income or sales tax but they came very close a short awhile ago to passing sales tax. Of course that really has nothing to do with batteries unless you are buying one.

[Totem]

Plasma's suffer Burn in. That's why the libs hate them; the screens themselves are infamously prone to burn in; which is a permanent image or shape in the screen like where a ticker would go watching news like cnn...thus they view them as landfill mess creators with environmental harming things inside them of which they definitely do have more of inside.

to the Rush comment , I never got into any of the foaming at the mouth right wing media guys though, Rush popped scripts and Glenn Beck for all his crap used to be on CNN, nothing he says can take that back. They are hypocrites.

They are playing the emotions of people much the same way like Bloomberg does using dead children victims on the opposite poll of the spectrum. I don't know if I would call Rush intelligent, but many of the principles he speaks of are however, too bad they are not delivered in a very respectful way. Lately I seem to Fancy CBS news for some reason.

We closed on and took possession of our up north Mi property this weekend; again I thought of JDE. I think you should move back to Mi full time JDE, Governor Snyder will never wipe his butt with your rights like NY does and you already know how awesome Michigan is. I have been all over the US and each state has its own qualities. But NOTHING compares to the freedom and beauty of michigan once you get up north past Cadillac. The nature, the hills, the water.... Pure Michigan.

[Eve "n" Stephen]

Oregon is going to be my choice if I decide to change residency. No sales tax and I won't have to pay state income tax on my social security. Gasoline cost less than in Washington State and license tabs are also lower. Weather along the coast is moderate in temperatures. The area around Brooking is dryer and warmer than the rest of the coast. Warm being a relative term as you are still looking at cool nights in the 40s and 50s. But I would not call it a sunny place to live, plenty of cloud and fog too depending on the time of year. Not the best area to live in for solar gain but it sure is pretty!

You might want to check out Port Orford, it actually has more sunny days than Brookings by 1 or 2 a year. We've been here for 7 years and have enjoyed living here. The downside is driving to either Brookings (56 miles) Coos Bay for more choices like Walmart, and other big boxes (56 miles also) or Roseburg if you want to shop at Costco (110 miles)

There is a real disadvantage to gas in Oregon, you can't pump it yourself! It's no more expensive, so what's the disadvantage? Spend 2 years here, then go to another state where it's self service. You'll feel like an idiot cause the pump will be new and different, so you have to ask how to work it. So now you know, then the next time you need gas you get out, confident, "I can do this", and the damn pump is completey different!

Off topic a bit, but we just got back from a trip across to south central Oregon and Klamath Lake. The Sunrader ran great, clear past Crater Lake (snowed in) at 6000'. It was a wonderful trip and we liked the area so well that we are seriously considering a move to a spot along Agency Lake, which is part of Klamath Lake. After many years on the coast, we are missing the high desert and 4 real seasons, well... maybe only 3 of them, the snow can get real old!

Steve

[zero]

Plasma's suffer Burn in. That's why the libs hate them.

The California regs passed in 2009 for TVs was strictly about energy consumption. The "burn-in" that some acathode-ray-tube and plasmas suffered is not really considered a problem for most of the modern plasmas. They tend to have automatic pixel shifting that prevents it. Plasma screens have been around for over 40s years and the old ones DID have burn-in issues. The regs passed in 2009 require new 58-inch or smaller TVs to consume 33 percent less energy by 2011, and 49 percent less by 2013.

to the Rush comment , I never got into any of the foaming at the mouth right wing media guys though, Rush popped scripts and Glenn Beck for all his crap used to be on CNN, nothing he says can take that back. They are hypocrites.

I've been listening off-and-on to Rush for nearly 30 years. None of the "Rush bashers" I've talked to have never listened to him over any sort of continuum and make some pretty silly accusations towards him. My erudite math-wiz college-professor brother even sent me a book trashing Rush written by that true a*s - Al Franken. Funny thing is - the forward in Franken's book states that he never even listened to Rush !! He actually paid others to listen and report back to him. Typical !!

Hey to each his own. Rush is #1 an entertainer. He's never held any official office. He's been rock-solid over the years and never wavered. Nothing I've heard first-hand that comes remotely close to hypocritical if taken in context and NOT in three-word sound-bites. I have yet to hear any real evidence from anyone to the contrary. Just anecdotal hear-say. And as to intelligence? There is no final word on how "intelligence" is measured. I can say I've known an awful lot of multiple PhD morons.

It takes a certain amount of brains just to be consistent, on-the-air for 30 years. Rush is a wizard at it. My only complaint is he's not as funny as he used to be. He's a bit more serious. Funny that when my brother was dying in Cambridge Mass - somebody in the hospital had Rush on the radio and for the first time - my brother actually listened. Just before he died - he apologized for the silly book he'd sent me and said he was wrong.

Glen Beck on the other hand has flipped flopped all over the place. He was our local radio guy from Albany for a few years. I enjoy him at times and other times, not so much. Mike Savage out of San Francisco has also flipped and flopped all over. Rush is my long-term favorite but I also get a kick out of Michael Barry from Texas. He took Mike Savage's place on Albany radio.

We closed on and took possession of our up north Mi property this weekend; again I thought of JDE. I think you should move back to Mi full time JDE, Governor Snyder will never wipe his butt with your rights like NY does and you already know how awesome Michigan is. I have been all over the US and each state has its own qualities. But NOTHING compares to the freedom and beauty of Michigan once you get up north past Cadillac. The nature, the hills, the water.... Pure Michigan.

Yes, I do not miss Jennifer Granholm although her office DID help me with a property tax battle and an incompetent Lansing judge.

I DID just get one surprise though with Michigan. I was just getting ready to put some Michigan license plates on a truck and a car I keep there. Insurance in Michigan is about 700% higher !!! I was in shock. I though New York was one of the highest ?? In northern Michigan for one car for two adult drivers with clean records - the want $700 for 6 months for the bare minimum coverage. No collision nonsense and no comprehensive. The agent says it's because Michigan makes a car owner buy medical insurance for any injuries sustained for a car accident. I do NOT get it. I have accident medical coverage here in NY and we pay $150 every 6 months instead of $700. Something sounds very wrong with that. I called my wife's parents who also live in northern Michigan. They are around 80 years old with clean records and retired. For two vehicles they are paying $245 per month !! What the heck is going on in Michigan??

By the way - one more gripe about my "home" state of NY. The newest gun laws kicked in today. I read through scrolls of new data and find it near impossible to determine what is now an assault weapon and what is not. I don't think a lifetime gunsmith could figure it out. What a bunch of nonsense that will not help protect anyone! Yet - they can come and arrest someone with an unregistered "assault" weapon that they refuse to specifically define.

I better say something about Toyota before my post gets bounced. Hmm. Guess I just did.