12 volt stores you trust

[Minnewaska]

chuckles, is it 12v?

[chucklesR]

Originally Posted by Minnewaska

chuckles, is it 12v?

Nope, it needs an inverter (700w powers mine no problem). Like I said, it's outside Denise's original question.

My thought process takes me to multifunction - there is only so much room on a boat.
Full disclosure:
I've never actually mounted mine on the boat - it's the cruise plan to swap my current 'desktop' Gateway. For weekends we just go with no TV and laptops/notebooks right now.

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by Minnewaska

I have looked at a lot of transformers on TVs in big box stores over the past couple of years and haven't found one that converts to 12v yet. Almost all have been 19v.

I used to have a Sharp Aquos TV, which had a 12v DC and 110v AC input on the back, but it wasn't digital and stopped receiving antenna signal. I bought a VIZIO and a 12v to 19v convertor, but haven't wired it in yet. I just run the invertor for now. I dislike the set. Pic is fine, but it has it's own mounting bracket and I strongly prefer to bolt it straight to the bulkhead. Didn't realize that until I got it to the boat.

I'm shopping too. Denise, if you find a good place, let us know.

Yes most of the small LED or LCD TV's now come with the wall wort internal or they run on 19V not 12V. A few years ago some ran on 12V but you had to call engineering to see if it was okay to plug directly into the ships 12V. I had an ASUS netbook that ran on 12V so went direct with it and cooked it. Called ASUS and found out that it was very intolerant of any voltage above or below 12V. Sure enough the wall wort for that computer pumped out exactly 12v... We have a Polaroid TV that runs of 12V but I do no longer run it with the motor running as it started to do weird things..

The TV's from Skyworth and Naxa from Roadtrucker.com are pretty good on boats. Installed a hand full of them and have not had a single problem. Skyworth has specifically added voltage spike circuitry to these TV's as they had a lot of them get fried on 18 wheelers during starting. The same can happen in poorly wired boats..

[miatapaul]

Originally Posted by chucklesR

Denise, I know this is outside the OP, but seriousl -
Why go with a TV at all.

I don't mean that as in no TV, I mean think outside the box.

Here's my setup -

20" Gateway ZX4300 01E All in One Touchscreen Desktop 500GB 4GB AMD 2 7GHz | eBay
Mount it on the wall or at the nav station and you have a full up PC, DVD player, network hub, indoor chart plotter, repeater etc..
By the way, TV is a simple USB connector.

Price is comparable.

Why have 'just' a TV.

I have had TV tuners in all my pcs since I got one in a 486 computer back in the 90's. I have been thinking about building a ultra low powered 12 pc, but notebooks have become so cheap that it does not seem worth the effort. But add a USB TV tuner and external monitor and you are all set. I do like the idea of the all in one, but if any part of it goes bad you have an anchor, so I like to keep components separate. With Windows 8 being forced on people the touch screen might be good if it is capacitive.

[chucklesR]

Mine is 4 years old, at 400 bucks or so it's as disposable as all PC's are now a days.

[TakeFive]

I avoid inverters if at all possible. Ever since I had one catch fire in my car, I haven't trusted them. I do have one inverter in case of emergency, but I always try to operate 12v or 19v accessories if possible. I have never used that particular inverter, but it's there just in case.

FYI, I saw this laptop travel charger at Staples today and picked it up on Black Friday special for $30. The Black Friday price is also good Saturday (11/24/2012). It does a step-up to 19vDC if needed, with 90w capacity (if I recall correctly), so it's good for most Dell, MSI, and other laptops/netbooks that need 19v. Obviously it would likely power a 19v TV if it consumed less than 90w power. I believe that it also works with 12v PCs as well, though not sure it does the voltage regulation that Maine Sail mentions - try this at your own risk. However, I use a 19v MSI netbook in the cockpit and a 18.5v Dell laptop at work, so this will work for both of them.