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Cello 12v TV


rowland al

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8 hours ago, rowland al said:

I've been pondering buying one of these as we only use the 120w inverter for our current 15 inch flat screen.  The LED lights, car stereo and pumps all run straight off 12v so it seems silly to step up to 240v and back down to 12v just for the TV.

My question, are they forgiving on supply voltage when it drops to say 11v when the pumps are running? I think a voltage stabiliser would help, maybe they have one built in on the 12v line?

 

I bought a 12 volt 20" Cello TV/DVD a couple of weeks ago for the boat.  Have to say it looks and feels solidly built, and it has both a 240v supply lead and a 12v regulated lead included.  This is definitely a very good quality connector into a cigar lighter socket.  Straight out of the box the TV picture quality was fairly naff and the sound was worse.  I think the factory settings were not optimised for the DTV, but I've since found out how I can tune these settings, although I've not yet done so.  I have another older Cello model which has excellent picture and satisfactory sound, so I am expecting to be able to replicate these on the new set with the adjustments available.

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19 hours ago, Jess-- said:

the voltage stabilisers are needed, quite often there are deals on the cello tv's that include them (but they are a cheap enough part if not going with cello)

with smaller (under 32") tv's make sure you hear them rather than just looking at them, the vast majority sound horrendous (including most models from cello).
also look at the screen off-angle (above / below and off to the side) as a lot are almost unwatchable unless you are directly in front and level with them, screens that don't suffer with this tend to be the newer LED backlit IPS screens, they do cost more but are far superior

Yes to poor sound quality and the viewing angle. That's why we sent ours back for a refund. Currently use a Finlux 12 volt unit with no stabiliser. 

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Well I've gone for the LED model above so hopefully the screen angle issue won't be such a problem. Maybe that's one of the ways they got the power consumption down to 15w?

As for the sound, I'm happy to run it though my stereo if needed, although that might add quite a few watts to the power consumption! 

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14 hours ago, Bewildered said:

A conspiracy therorist may conclude this is so those requiring 12v travel TV's can continue to be ripped off, this is Britain after all.

Funny - I'm sure I saw some motorhomes, caravans and boats the last time I was in mainland Europe!

1 hour ago, pearley said:

Yes to poor sound quality and the viewing angle. That's why we sent ours back for a refund. Currently use a Finlux 12 volt unit with no stabiliser. 

You're listening and watching it in a narrowboat, not  film theatre. If viewing angle is a problem, try moving the TV?

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5 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

Funny - I'm sure I saw some motorhomes, caravans and boats the last time I was in mainland Europe!

You're listening and watching it in a narrowboat, not  film theatre. If viewing angle is a problem, try moving the TV?

Yes we are listening on a narrow boat. Is that any reason why we should put up with piss poor sound?  And yes, it is a narrow boat only 7 ft wide. There are limited options where we can mount the set and as other TVs have better sound and picture quality why should we? 

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Cello gets my vote. Cheap to buy, picture quality good enough for me, energy efficient.  On downside the sound is poor (easily sorted) and definitely you need 12V stabiliser.  Certainly there will be better TV's but value for money is hard to beat, I think.

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5 hours ago, Machpoint005 said:

Funny - I'm sure I saw some motorhomes, caravans and boats the last time I was in mainland Europe!

You're listening and watching it in a narrowboat, not  film theatre. If viewing angle is a problem, try moving the TV?

The viewing angle on our Alba tv is crap and even in the caravan which is approx the same width as a NB its just about impossible to position the thing so that both of us can enjoy a decent picture. The cheapo we got from asda years ago for the boat has a great viewing angle. Its just a fact that some are better than others in this respect. I can understand why somebody would have a problem with some models even in a NB.

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11 hours ago, rowland al said:

Well I've gone for the LED model above so hopefully the screen angle issue won't be such a problem. Maybe that's one of the ways they got the power consumption down to 15w?

As for the sound, I'm happy to run it though my stereo if needed, although that might add quite a few watts to the power consumption! 

If it's the one above with the built in Sat tv tuner that' a Brucie bonus at that price.

Tv's so equipped are not that common these days, freeview yes but sat tv? No.

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We've got a vision plus tv in the bedroom which was expensive cus it's a 12v tv and in the front I brought a " logik" tv from dixons that came with the external brick wired it straight to the 12v and it's worked for years no problem without a voltage stabiliser 

Edited by calon
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First impressions - Excellent. I'm using it mainly with the in-built satellite receiver which tunes well. This LED version has no issues with view angle, the picture quality is very good. The sound is better than my old Alba and is pretty much what I'd expect from a smaller TV like this. 

This version has an in-built 12v regulator. I've run it when the domestics were down to 12.3v then run my evacuation pump and water pump to drop the voltage to 11.3v. The TV still operated fine without cutting out, so the regulator seems to work well below 12.0v. 

Now I no longer need to use my little inverter to run a TV and satellite receiver and the power saving is very noticeable, 

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I've had a Cello, 21 inch I think, for 4 years no problems. One niggle has already been mentioned several times is the poor sound quality. The other is a minor one but annoying none the less: it doesn't have an on/ off switch. You either have to unplug it from the socket or suffer it using .3 of an amp just sat there on standby. You'd have thought that with a 12v tv, where power is likely to be less freely and easily available, the manufacturer would have gone to the trouble of including a switch.

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16 minutes ago, Gareth E said:

I've had a Cello, 21 inch I think, for 4 years no problems. One niggle has already been mentioned several times is the poor sound quality. The other is a minor one but annoying none the less: it doesn't have an on/ off switch. You either have to unplug it from the socket or suffer it using .3 of an amp just sat there on standby. You'd have thought that with a 12v tv, where power is likely to be less freely and easily available, the manufacturer would have gone to the trouble of including a switch.

The model I bought (see link above) has an on/off switch located underneath the stby/on light. It's not easy to spot unless you look underneath. I think they must have improved the sound a bit but don't expect high fidelity surround sound! ;)

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6 minutes ago, koukouvagia said:

We've got one of these.  It's perfectly acceptible though the sound quality and viewing angles are not brilliant.. But then it's cheap and one of the few small 12v TVs around with an inbuilt DVD.

 

Is it actually the same model as the one in my link? The viewing angle on mine is fine wherever you look. The older ones had those issues I believe. 

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My tele is a Cello one, 22". I'm very pleased with it. My voltage supply from the batteries is very iffy. The destruction manual said it's got a built in regulator. To date it's never cut out due to high voltage. But when my batteries are very low and I flush the macerator loo, the tele will turn off and needs unplugging and plugging back in again for the standby light to reappear. But the water pump on its own rarely turns the tele off.

My previous tele which was a different brand and the satellite box etc were fed through a Maplins voltage regulator contraption which will cut things out if the voltage goes very high or low. That would cut the appliances out every time the water pump kicked in or the loo flushed or several lights turned on if it was a cold day or if I'd not run the engine and charged the batteries for a few days. But I did have tired old batteries at the time.

Basically, the Cello tele already seems to do the same thing that a Maplins regulator does. But the tele is more forgiving than the Maplins regulator.

  • Greenie 1
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I run 2 of these one of which has worked fine for 2 years (boat) the other 8 months (camper van) I also just bought the one with the built in battery and comes with a solar panel you can watch in the middle of a woods as you need no wiring, still testing it.

As for switch I use the light up rocker type maplin sell, so my tvs are power switchable.  

The Cello in the pic below has been in use two years now and it's being replaced with the solar tv from cello but nothing wrong with it, let my friend have it I just wanted bit bigger and better res.

I never used inverter or regulator I just cut off the cig socket connector and wired it to a switch and pushed pin into tv, never had a problem, also great for usb keys for tv shows movies and such, last of all I use the samsung dex on the boat which turns your samsung into a pc via the tv.

 

sorry if pic to big no idea how to resize it on this forum.

IMG-20171010-WA0001.jpg

Edited by marji
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