So the little TV/VCR combo in our lance has got to go! I sware the VCR tapes are bigger than the TV's screen!

I've been looking around trying to find a DC powered LCD flat screen TV and I'm not having a lot of luck! (We rarely have AC power when we camp so I'd like to keep it simple and get a DC unit.) I did find this one: 19" Flat screen

It has a built in DVD player which would be a bonus.

Does anyone else have a DC TV? If so what brand is it?

Thanks!

Thanks for all the detail. I'm already lookinig forward to the increased storage space!

The bracket is held in place with three 1/4" bolts. It worked out the bottom one not only went threw the wood frame of the side of the cabinet but it also went into one of the front of the cabinets cross brace legs (above the stereo unit)... For that one I predrilled a 2" deep pilot hole and drove a 1/4" wood screw all the way in.

For the two holes above it I used 1-1/2" diameter fender washers as a backing. I had to grind off a flat spot on one side of each of the washers to keep them centered on the wood frame of the cabinet. (There is not a lot of wood structure on these cabinets so it has to be mounted close to the front edge.)

Nice install! Since this is the exact same cabinetry, I think I'll consider a similar setup. I really like the idea of dismounting for travel. Did you do anything to back the mount inside your cabinet?

Well I ended up going with the Naxa 19" DVD AC/DC unit. I found it at Overstock.com cheaper, with no sales tax and only $2.95 for shipping!

I'll skip the details but basically I used a VSA swing mount to attach the unit to the cabinet. I was able to route all of the wires inside the cabinet (behind the rear wall of the cabinets) and popped out next to the carbon monoxide detector using a nice grommet I found at the hardware store. The mount has a quick release feature so I can store it when we’re traveling and not put excess strain on the cabinet construction

TV from sitting in the slide-out:


TV from the bed view:


After I got it done I took out all of the old TV-VCR stuff and it's slide out tray. Once I saw how much room I had gained I decided to flip the door on the cabinet... It just made more sense to open the door to the right rather then into yourself while you were trying to get stuff out.


Over all I'm really happy with it. I started this project to get a bigger TV but ended up giving myself a ton of (reclaimed) cabinet space!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Cyberous,

We just completed this same process, and finally settled on a 13 inch tv/dvd AC combo. I found a DC 15 inch flat screen combo at Target. I am not sure of the quality, but you can check it out at the Target web site.

Art

quote:

Originally posted by Big Rig:
I don't watch TV very often but when I do, I use my HP laptop. I have a TV tuner card that plugs into the laptop & that I can hook to the camper antenna & I can power my laptop on the 12 volt outlet of the camper. I can pick up both analog & digital signals. My screen is a 17 inch high-definiton BrightView widescreen display. I guess I can watch HD shows with this but I don't really care as long as I can pick up the digital signals. I can do a scan for all the TV signals that are in the area. This setup seems to work well for me as I always take my laptop with me. This saves me from toting more stuff.
Big Rig

Thats a good idea and should work for us since we don't watch much TV when traveling and like you we always take our laptop. It'll eliminate carrying the small CRT TV in the TV cabinet. I'll continue using our satellite receiver and the roof top crank up satellite dish. I don't care if it's not HD.

Bill

A lot of the sensitivity in pointing the 'Slimline' is because they're trying to simultaneously capture up to 5 satellites instead of just one with the round (or three with the oval). I don't think you'll get any HD programming with the round and may miss out on other programming as well. I'm fairly sure I don't get local stations when using my round roof mount dish any more, but I suspect every region is different in terms of what is carried by each satellite.


You can probably get all your home programming at least for now if you have or can find the oval dish with three round pickups on the arm, and the oval is not nearly so hard to point though I've never tried it in the dark....

quote:

Originally posted by Dennis:
Ah, yes. Thanks. I poked around on the DirecTV site and found they are now offering some high definition in 1080p in addition to the 'older' 1080i. Does it matter? My eyes aren't good enough to tell the difference anyway. To get the latest and greatest requires a new receiver and the 5LNB dish. And from what I saw when the installer did his thing, no way would I even attempt pointing the 'Slimline' dish from a tripod. I'll stick with my old HD receiver, old dish, and even older eyes.

Thing that surprises me is how hard it is to sight in the bigger antenna than the small round one. I have set my round one up in the dark, not so on the "slimline" (use the quotes cause it ant't slim) Have it at home now testing to see how hard it is to tune. May go back to the round. Anyone with answers will be greatly appreciated.
Dave Mc

DaveMc,

We have Altel cell phone service. Altel has been purchased by Verizon and it's probably just a matter of time before we'll have the same features as Verizon.

Bill

Ah, yes. Thanks. I poked around on the DirecTV site and found they are now offering some high definition in 1080p in addition to the 'older' 1080i. Does it matter? My eyes aren't good enough to tell the difference anyway. To get the latest and greatest requires a new receiver and the 5LNB dish. And from what I saw when the installer did his thing, no way would I even attempt pointing the 'Slimline' dish from a tripod. I'll stick with my old HD receiver, old dish, and even older eyes.

quote:

Originally posted by Dennis:
I also use the Verizon wireless broadband for internet and have been pretty satisfied with the coverage and speeds. Pretty much anywhere I have cell signal I can internet connections.

Does anyone know if the DirecTV changes will affect existing home services? I would think that existing customers would be notified if there is a change. Meanwhile I'm still getting HD on my rig set up, so I'm not clear what has changed.

Dennis nothing changed for old receivers and antennas, I have an old sony that must be six years old with a round antenna and it still works. The only thing with the new stuff it seems a lot harder to focus.
Dave Mc

I don't watch TV very often but when I do, I use my HP laptop. I have a TV tuner card that plugs into the laptop & that I can hook to the camper antenna & I can power my laptop on the 12 volt outlet of the camper. I can pick up both analog & digital signals. My screen is a 17 inch high-definiton BrightView widescreen display. I guess I can watch HD shows with this but I don't really care as long as I can pick up the digital signals. I can do a scan for all the TV signals that are in the area. This setup seems to work well for me as I always take my laptop with me. This saves me from toting more stuff.

Big Rig

I also use the Verizon wireless broadband for internet and have been pretty satisfied with the coverage and speeds. Pretty much anywhere I have cell signal I can internet connections.

Does anyone know if the DirecTV changes will affect existing home services? I would think that existing customers would be notified if there is a change. Meanwhile I'm still getting HD on my rig set up, so I'm not clear what has changed.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill S:

quote:

Originally posted by DaveMc:
Not trying to hijack this thread, but I think it is important to know that directv has added a new wrinkle in that the new receivers(HD) are now single wire, single LMB?, the old multi LMBs don't work. There are couple little boxes that drive the new HD antenna. The new receives don't have a cox output to drive a non HD tv. Have to have a RF modulator to get a cox output. So I do think that the new receivers will be harder to get a signal for us travelers. May just travel without HD.

Yep, I noticed the same thing when checking out adding HD to our home DirecTV system and wondered about how it would work in the Lance; however, I don't think I'd go to the trouble of upgrading in the Lance. We don't watch TV enough when travleing to make it worth while. We're more interested in internet access.

Bill

Bill, I have been using the Verizon air card with my laptop for a couple years. It works in most places except when you are where only Hughs net works. The air card really works for me and it is almost as fast as DSL. In Florida where we were parked it was faster.
About travel HD I don't I am going to go there until someone comes up with a good meter that would work for both SD and HD.
Dave Mc

quote:

Originally posted by DaveMc:
Not trying to hijack this thread, but I think it is important to know that directv has added a new wrinkle in that the new receivers(HD) are now single wire, single LMB?, the old multi LMBs don't work. There are couple little boxes that drive the new HD antenna. The new receives don't have a cox output to drive a non HD tv. Have to have a RF modulator to get a cox output. So I do think that the new receivers will be harder to get a signal for us travelers. May just travel without HD.

Yep, I noticed the same thing when checking out adding HD to our home DirecTV system and wondered about how it would work in the Lance; however, I don't think I'd go to the trouble of upgrading in the Lance. We don't watch TV enough when travleing to make it worth while. We're more interested in internet access.

Bill

Not trying to hijack this thread, but I think it is important to know that directv has added a new wrinkle in that the new receivers(HD) are now single wire, single LMB?, the old multi LMBs don't work. There are couple little boxes that drive the new HD antenna. The new receives don't have a cox output to drive a non HD tv. Have to have a RF modulator to get a cox output. So I do think that the new receivers will be harder to get a signal for us travelers. May just travel without HD.

Dennis, We love our 1181, it is heavy, but the dodge handles it with ease, no quick moves around curves though.

Dave - Wish I could share some secrets. I carry the three LNB dish, not the newer 5 LNB. I found pointing the tripod to actually be a little easier than the crankup since what I have on the roof is the basic older style Winegard and no elevation meter. The tripod has a bubble level that appears to be dead-on and I often get an initial ping using my last elevation, I never adjust tilt, so it's a matter of finding azimuth - most of the time, that is.

I rewired the outside cable jack to a dedicated jack in the TV cabinet instead of going through the Winegard switch since I wasn't sure if the switch passed the DC needed for the LNBs from the receiver to the outside jack.

How do you like your 1181? I looked at them but was a little nervous about going so far over the GVWR of my F-350 DRW.

Dennis

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dennis:
For what it's worth I found it better to use an inverter and have a much better selection of TVs. The smallest inverters plug into the cigar lighter and are about the size of the GPS or cell phone power plug. Typically 50-75, watts they easily power the TV and I haven't had any problems when I used them.

I have a Sharp 19" HD and a DirecTV HD box I
carry loose so that I can move them around inside or out. A while back I wired for a
fixed inverter on an automatic transfer switch so that I could boondock and still have the flexibility to move the system around without the generator. I might have liked the combined TV/DVD units that are available, but didn't get one.[
Dennis, what are your secrets for setting up your HD antenna for the DirectTV HD box. I have mastered the regular antenna, but have trouble with the big antenna for the DVR and HD. I have a good ground mounting tripod that will work with the 2" antenna mount. Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks, Dave Mc

I sort of doubt you had a bad inverter. Though there have been improvements over the years, the low cost inverters produce a 'dirty' AC waveform and some electronics can be susceptible to this. So far I've been fortunate that my TV, laptop, and cell phone have not complained. A reasonable rule of thumb is to use an inverter with at least 50% capacity above appliance nameplate draw.

Batteries.... well that's a whole can of worms by itself. Unless I use a hygrometer to check the specific gravity, I figure a 'fully truck charged', fairly new lead-acid has at most about 50% of it's rated amp-hr capacity. Sort of disappointing. I suspect that's one of the reasons Lance started going with dual batteries. My '99 1020 is a single and I carry a second group 27 just to get me through the longer winter nights.