Are RV televisions different?

[BigRockr]

Can I put my spare 40" Samsung TV in my unit? Is that Jensen made any differently than a TV I buy for my house. Are vibration, heat, cold, taken into account?

[spock123]

I don’t see why not

[BuzzWolfAR]

Only issue is voltage. Some RVs have 12 volt DC TV systems, others are 120 volt. Need to know which you have.

[keith_h]

We have a 21" Samsung in our trailer of 4 years and have never had a problem. I just make sure it and the arm are well secured when we travel. I also built in a home BluRay player and have never had any problems with it either. It uses a brick for AC power and its DC voltage requirements are a bit too high for RV battery use but we don't care if we have no TV when we are boondocking.

[Radio]

Originally Posted by BigRockr

Can I put my spare 40" Samsung TV in my unit?

Sure. Take into account the walls in the RV are not as substantial as the ones in the house. Mounting then may be an issue. And of course, does it actually fit where you want it to go? If there is an outlet nearby, you're in business.

Originally Posted by BigRockr

Are vibration, heat, cold, taken into account?

That would be nice, but no. It's just a TV.

Some RV TV's will run on 12 volts. Mine does. Doesn't make all that great of a picture, but I like the 12 volts, I can watch TV without shore power, so I have no intention to upgrade from it.

[lugoismad]

Originally Posted by BigRockr

Is that Jensen made any differently than a TV I buy for my house.

Yes. Because its literally the cheapest piece of crap that the RV manufacturer can get their hands on.

Versus you buying something decent.

[Radio]

Originally Posted by lugoismad

Yes. Because its literally the cheapest piece of crap that the RV manufacturer can get their hands on.

Versus you buying something decent.

Yeah, more or less.

The best part about my 12 volt TV is it runs on 12 volts. And hasn't ever in 9 years given me any trouble. But really it's sort of mediocre in about every other way.

But we don't go out to a state park 6 hours away just to watch TV.

[EdJunior]

What they said above. The TV in my living area is a Toshiba, the exact same TV as I bought for my house as a TV in the computer room. I bought another regular LCD TV for the bedroom. It's just a standard TV.

[markb422]

There are televisions that are supposedly made for RV, Marine, truck use. Jensen is one along with Furrion and Skyworth that I know of. Many models are 120/12 volt. We had a Skyworth in our TT for years until we bought the MH and it came with Furrion. Both have been trouble free.

[Iwritecode]

Originally Posted by lugoismad

Yes. Because its literally the cheapest piece of crap that the RV manufacturer can get their hands on.

Versus you buying something decent.

My fiver came with a 40" Samsung, which is the same brand I have at home. Never had any major problems with the brand.

The cheapest TV we have is one that came as an anniversary gift from my wife's employer. She got a catalog and got to pick out one item from it.

I don't remember what brand it is but it's one I've never heard of. It's only 13" and you can only see the screen clearly when you are directly in front of it. If you move off to the side a few inches you can't even tell what's on the screen.

[conceptumator]

No difference at all in the TV’s. I think you’ll find a number of models have an external power block that plugs into 110v and provides 12v output to the set.

[stevegotl]

I swapped out all my "RV" tv's for regular store bought versions... they are just fine.

[Murbella7]

Originally Posted by BigRockr

Can I put my spare 40" Samsung TV in my unit? Is that Jensen made any differently than a TV I buy for my house. Are vibration, heat, cold, taken into account?

Absolutely you can. I put a 42" in my van. Power comes from either the camp mains or my 600W inverter. With the TV, sound bar and subwoofer all running, it draws about 50 watts from the batteries. Typically we run it for 2-3 hrs a day, when we are watching either a movie or a few episodes of a favourite serial.

[bruane]

I had a 40" Toshiba which I managed to break. I replaced it with a bulk standard Walmart special and it works wonderfully. I only had to re position the TV wall mount which was not a big job.

[Wattsworld]

My family started camping in the mid 70's and used a black and white tv with a inverter to run it on 12 volts. Later moved to a 13 inch color set that also worked well on the inverter. Check wattage and get a slightly larger inverter. Not hard to figure out how long it will run or how much charging you would need on the battery.
The newer TV's use a lot less power and are much lighter then the old TV's.

[Radio]

Originally Posted by conceptumator

No difference at all in the TV’s. I think you’ll find a number of models have an external power block that plugs into 110v and provides 12v output to the set.

There are a few of these out there, and they are neat because you can run them on 110v AC, but when that's not available, you can rig your own access to 12v DC.

Then you don't need an inverter

Our bedroom TV is like that. It came with the power supply and a 12v cable with a cigarette lighter style plug on it. We could use either one. But most TVs like this are small, ours was only 19 inches.

[amullis]

Originally Posted by BigRockr

Can I put my spare 40" Samsung TV in my unit? Is that Jensen made any differently than a TV I buy for my house. Are vibration, heat, cold, taken into account?

I replaced a Seiki TV in my coach with a Vizio out of my home. RV TV's are no different than any other TV. They all come off the same assembly line.

[Murbella7]

Now that you can see that TV's are TV's are tv's, regardless of how big or where they come from, you can use any of them, if you have the space, the right power supply AND a good, solid mount.

Time to move on (and get a bigger TV?)

[aeblank]

At Walmart today, there was a 19" tv that was "Home & Car". Comes with a "car plug". Kinda cool, except for being tiny.