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Old 07-26-2021, 07:02 PM   #1
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12 or 120 Volt Television for Popup

Hey All,

I'm curious what you recommend for a popup?
12v or 120V tv in the 30"ish range?

I'm curious what you are all running?

Thanks,

Bryan
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Old 07-26-2021, 08:11 PM   #2
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It depends. Do you always use electric hookups or do you sometimes have non-electric?

If you sometimes use non-electric and want to be able to use the television you would be better off with a 12 Volt.

With the motor home I like being able to use the TV on 12 volt so if we take an extended. Lunch we can catch the mid day news or my wife can watch her afternoon show. With a Popup you probably don’t use it a for a mid day break room so your needs would be different.
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Old 07-26-2021, 08:21 PM   #3
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12 VDC TV's tend to have fewer features and are harder to find and might even cost a bit more than 120 VAC TV's

fortunately all of them are pretty power efficient...

I would start with a cheap 24-32 inch and go from there... typically $130???

do you need a 12VDC to 120 VAC power inverter too? or are you camping with power pedestal?

How about an external antenna?

I carry this with one with me, along with a couple of 5 foot antenna poles and bungie it to a tree pointing at a distant city... it tears down quickly to be able to store it nearly flat...
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Old 07-26-2021, 08:42 PM   #4
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We tend to camp without hookups, hence my interest in 12v. It would be for the kids to watch a movie of for me to catch local
News or watch a movie. Dare I say play a video game for the kiddos on a rainy day.

I’m also buying a generator for charging but these are only allowed during non quiet hours.

I’m leaning towards a 12v as I don’t have an inverter to step up 12v to 120.
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Old 07-26-2021, 08:57 PM   #5
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Quote:
I’m leaning towards a 12v as I don’t have an inverter to step up 12v to 120.
Being a popup, you can hook with pretty short wires to the battery an inverter... a 400 watt ($40) cheap inverter with removeable battery clamps will power any tv in that size range as that size should pull less then 100 watts... any inverter ( sine wave or modified square wave will power that TV AND video game box for that matter.
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Old 07-26-2021, 08:59 PM   #6
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I have a small 16’ trailer and put in a small 13” tv just to check on news and stuff while camping. I do mostly boondocking so opted for the 12v version. This tv come with a DVD player, but I have never used it, but the tv works pretty good. If you are looking at it from the side the color seems off, but is perfect from straight ahead.


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Old 07-27-2021, 06:55 AM   #7
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I bough a ~99 cheap 20 something inch vizio and modified it up so I could either power on 110 or connect directly to 12V but that requires a bit of electronics understanding.

As has been said the 12V variety are often more expensive and not as feature full so depends on what you want it to do. I don't think I could find one that was a "smart tv" at all.

You could try to find a TV that the 110 doesnt plug directly in to but has a power brick. In that situation it might be easier to power with a battery and just convert the voltage to whatever is needed. Im not sure you could find a TV that runs off actual AC anymore now that tubes are gone. Nowadays they run off DC power so its just a matter of supplying the power circuit with the appropriate DC voltage at the places it distributes it to the rest of the boards and your operational.

I'm certainly not advocating that everyone bust open a 110V TV and figure it out but if you have some ability, tools and can be careful around a 110 power circuit its not really that complicated. The TV I chose had a 12V power rail and 3.3V. I think it cost me $15 for 2 - 12v to 3.3 adapters on Amazon. I also added a switch so I could toggle between 110 or 12V DC power so as not to accidnetily connect both and fry anything.
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Old 07-27-2021, 07:11 AM   #8
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Interesting points.

I like the idea of a cheap inverter to power the device. I could easily wire something up and have a dedicated outlet for the tv. I’d prefer a smart tv as we stream a lot of content over the webs, and airplay from our devices.

I need to run some simple math to see what draw a tv would have on my batteries to determine truly how viable this option would be. I’m aware that it’s roughly the same for 12v and inverted 120v minus inverter inefficiencies..
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Old 07-27-2021, 09:14 AM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bryankloos View Post
Interesting points.

I like the idea of a cheap inverter to power the device. I could easily wire something up and have a dedicated outlet for the tv. I’d prefer a smart tv as we stream a lot of content over the webs, and airplay from our devices.

I need to run some simple math to see what draw a tv would have on my batteries to determine truly how viable this option would be. I’m aware that it’s roughly the same for 12v and inverted 120v minus inverter inefficiencies..
Inverters are VERY inefficient at producing 110 and will definitely cost you more energy than a DC television unfortunately.
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Old 07-27-2021, 09:36 AM   #10
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Most of the 12v rv tv's are not real great or smart. I put a 300w pure sine wave inverter in for our 32" tv. LED tvs don't draw a lot of power.
Almost all of the smart tvs now run on higher than 12v power. Maybe you can run them lower I don't know but I would just do the inverter. Also, get a 100 watt solar panel for recharging, so much nicer than a generator, we haven't used our gen in 4 years.
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Old 07-27-2021, 11:40 AM   #11
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Thanks.
I'm buying a new gen, and also looking at a solar suitcase. I have a 60watt ZAMP that came with the camper but doubtful that will provide much power at all...

I'll start a new thread on the inverter options and see what people think is a good way to go.

Thanks All.

Bryan
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Old 07-27-2021, 09:10 PM   #12
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I've been using a 26" LED TV that I had in my previous Bunkhouse travel Trailer. It's 120VAC

I wrap it and my bluray player up in cheap blankets, store them under the dinette table and all is good.

I can't image needing a 12VDC television and how much it would even cost.

As far as watching TV with no hookups. We just use our Tablets or Laptop computers. We have Hulu Streaming TV. But if no 4/5G service, you can always get a cheap USB TV tuner to plug into your laptop.
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