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Simple TV. Is it possible?


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I'm just wondering about getting a telly on the boat. I only want to watch BBC and ITV. BBC2 would be a bonus. (I'm sure that nice mrsmelly and nice Mr Athy will approve of my approach!)

Is it possible to do this with just a telly and a sensibly small aerial on the roof? Or does one need to erect poles and aim dishes at satellites, install adaptor boxes inside and such ridiculous complications? 

If yes, which (small) telly and which aerial does the team recommend?

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We just have a small aerial a DM18 log which I got from this guy http://www.aerialsandtv.com/

No gurt long poles, just sits in a bracket on the boarding plank on the roof.   Very rare not to get a good signal with dozens of channels. 

Any 12v TV will do we have the Cello TV that Midland Chandlers sell it's actually a better picture than our "spare" TV at home but the sound isn't very good.

 

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Well I have to disagree with Jess. Although we primarily use satellite tv, sometimes trees or buildings are in the way and we have to revert to terrestrial. I tried various omnidirectional amplified things, they were all rubbish and didn't get a picture most of the time. In the end I got a small log peridic aerial. I plonk if flat on the roof normally somewhere on the gangplank/ pole carrier (ie not actually on the metal roof), use an iPhone app "Antenna Aligner" to work out which way to point it, and it has never failed to work fine. Something like this. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LABGEAR-LOG-PERIODIC-WIDEBAND-FREEVIEW-HD-DIGITAL-TV-AERIAL-CARAVAN-40CM-LONG-/221541600555?hash=item3394e88d2b:g:tzkAAOSwrklVF~Y5

Edited by nicknorman
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Hmmmm thanks for the advice chaps. Aerials of all types look like superb snares for centrelines (a bit like bikes). 

So given Nick's suggestion is only £11 I'll try one of them first. I have a little telly back at the house somewhere which I suspect might be 12v. I'll dig it out and see. This could work out quite low cost! 

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35 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

I'm just wondering about getting a telly on the boat. I only want to watch BBC and ITV. BBC2 would be a bonus. (I'm sure that nice mrsmelly and nice Mr Athy will approve of my approach!)

Is it possible to do this with just a telly and a sensibly small aerial on the roof? Or does one need to erect poles and aim dishes at satellites, install adaptor boxes inside and such ridiculous complications? 

If yes, which (small) telly and which aerial does the team recommend?

When in a strong signal area any aerial will probably get you a good picture, but as the signal gets weaker then a better (higher gain) aerial is needed, and the higher up the better.   The downside is that the higher the gain the more accurately you need to aim the aerial at the transmitter, but with transmitter finding apps - like mentioned above - and with a compass it's not difficult.  I have a log periodic aerial because it is very flat and easy to store which clamps onto a pole and I can get TV in most places I've stopped at.   

Added - a modern LED TV uses a lot less power than an old telly, so if power consumption is a concern do check the power consumption before you buy.

Edited by Chewbacka
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7 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Hmmmm thanks for the advice chaps. Aerials of all types look like superb snares for centrelines (a bit like bikes). 

So given Nick's suggestion is only £11 I'll try one of them first. I have a little telly back at the house somewhere which I suspect might be 12v. I'll dig it out and see. This could work out quite low cost! 

Get an app for your phone too. The one I use has a built in compass which, knowing your location from the GPS, points to the nearest transmitter. Bear in mind that the correct polarisation is critical - horizontal or vertical (relates to the direction the little elements are pointing). Mostly, main transmitters are horizontally polarised and local repeaters are vertical, but the App should tell you.

As for snaring centrelines, we always put ours (aerial) in the cupboard before setting off - after all, you can't watch the telly whilst cruising (unless to have a copilot to keep realigning the aerial!)

Edited by nicknorman
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I have a log periodic on a pole at the front of the boat... no snagging in 6 years :) Bought the kit inc. pole from Toolstation for about £20. I get all the Freeview channels, including HD.

My TV is a Samsung 22" Smart TV which actually runs off 14V, and I have an adapter which supplies 15V which has been fine for several years. I ran it with a 12V supply for the 1st 12 months before finding the 15V adapter with the right sized connector.

On my previous seagoing boatI had a Triax Omni aerial at the top of a 15m mast, which picked up everything everywhere.

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Yes that was my point really, the aerial needs to be lying loose on the roof so it can be picked up and put away before cruising, rather than fixed on a bracket. 

I hadn't realised the polarisation varied, thanks for pointing that out. And yes I'll get an app for the hi phone to line it up. This sounds an excellent thing!

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A vertical pole at the front of the boat can be lowered and raised, and the aerial swivelled, so it is more or less on the cratch roof, so lower than the chimney, and almost as low as the top of the flue collar if the chimney is removed.

Wingnuts were supplied in the kit to make adjustments very easy.

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1 hour ago, Neil2 said:

Any 12v TV will do we have the Cello TV that Midland Chandlers sell it's actually a better picture than our "spare" TV at home but the sound isn't very good.

I didn't fancy the small Cello TV I wanted a larger screen, the entire Cello range is 12v so I got the 22" model and I find the sound to be perfectly adequat. Cello don't actually advertise the larger TV's as 12v models and it only came with a 12v transformer for 240v use. As I had a cigarette socket lead with a standard 12v Jack it wasn't a problem. As it isn't specifically sold for the 12v market it was also reasonably priced.

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I use a Shakespeare aerial https://www.asap-supplies.com/vtronix-sa-hdtv-mar8-hdtv-antenna-716575?cid=746042791&adgpid=44765993211&itemid=&targid=pla-18283950120&mt=&loc=9046244&ntwk=g&dev=c&dmod=&adp=1o2&gclid=CjwKEAjwtJzLBRC7z43vr63nr3wSJABjJDgJvxpKQQlKYoLoG0qAlRuxVI_AmvfCocc5qv1X0kbivhoCdmDw_wcB  fitted to the old cratch cover bracket. I retune the Aldi TV after moving the boat and we either get reliable signals or we don't. If we don't there are DVDs or the radio.

I couldn't recommend the Aldi TV because of poor sound and poor screen viewing angles.

Edited by keith.
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8 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

I have a little telly back at the house somewhere which I suspect might be 12v.

How old is it? If it predates the digital switchover it won't work. 

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We have a moonraker dvt100 attached directly to the handrail on the roof, it isn't high up or on a pole and it works just fine, most of the time when me moor and turn on the tv we get a decent signal without having to move it about.

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23 minutes ago, Sweeny Todd said:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/labgear-tv-aerial-high-gain-48-element/30515

this is what we use. Not big tv watchers but if we do want to watch something this picks up all of the freeview channels so we have around 50 channels of crap to choose from ;)

We used to have an aerial like that for the boat we used to borrow, with a rubber sucker thing. Very high gain so great for getting reception with a weak signal, but also large and very cumbersome to store. The log periodic I linked to is much smaller and achieves the same results in reality.

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Short and stubby

One of these works well in medium to strong signal areas, and has a mag mount. It can be left on the roof at the pointy end.  I find it works best in conjunction with an aerial amplifier, typically a 12V one from a caravan accessory place.  If we can't pick up anything with this, and we really need to watch something, then the pole comes out with a short log periodic that Nick linked to above. Or if we have plenty of Gigs left on the mifi, watch through the internet.

Sony flat screen TV, works through a 12V - 19V laptop power supply.

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3 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Ah now that's something else I was wondering about. TV on the lappy. Does that actually work? It must use up lots of bites. How many per hour of TV watching, roughly??

One hour of Standard Definition TV is Approx. 640 MB,increases by a Third for HD.

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On 14/07/2017 at 10:34, cereal tiller said:

One hour of Standard Definition TV is Approx. 640 MB,increases by a Third for HD.

 

Feck moi! 

That's too much really isn't it. That's ten times the data rate of music. MP3s at 'ordinary' bitrate are 60mb ar hour approx.

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You could watch telly through a television shop window as they usually have a couple of telly's on all the time.  Tip= Ideally, If you want to know what folk are saying on them you would need to learn how to lip read or take someone along who can. :closedeyes:

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