Hi going camping next year , staying within the uk , what is the best way to pick up tv channels in a tent , sounds daft , but is there any kit that can sort me out with sky or freeview etc , which is made for camping ( ie tent ) not caravaning ,, also what portable tv would you advise me to buy ...
Hi jonty55.
We camp mostly in Southern France and take a Sky Mini-Box which uses a Freesat card, for backup I also have a none Sky box a Comag SL65/12 both work of 12volt, but to be honest EHU is best for running TV, as for the TV itself I use a very old Thomson 10" Colour CRT TV 12volt/mains, I keep hoping it will pack in, so I can buy a 13" Flat Sceen, an Avtex or similiar, we use an 80cm Dish in France, but for UK you could use a bog standard Sky mini-dish, I prefer satellite as you can always get a signal, unlike Terrestrial (Freeview) or LapTop reception. Lidl were doing the Comag satellite reciever for £29.99 at the start of the month badged SilverCrest, mains only, great little reciever, in fact I bought one for home to watch the French TV channels, as you can pick uparound 30 French stations here in the UK using a Sky Mini-Dish pointed at the Atlantic Bird satellite some 5 Deg West of South. don't worry about disturbing your camping niebours, we use a wireless earphone system, so you can have the volume as loud as you like without disturbing others, the wireless kits cost around £20.
As for kit, get a tripod rotary clothes dryer from Argos or similar to hold the dish up and buy a cheap dish and LNB from ebay.
Small flat screen TV from Tesco (maybe get one with a built-in DVD player). Satellite receiver from Lidl/Aldi, maybe Maplin (tend to be pricey from Maplin) or a sky box from ebay and a freeview card from Sky (£20 for the card).
I honestly can't see any difference between the equipment for tenting than caravanning other than you may prefer a smaller TV than caravanners might use as you'll need to pack it in the car during the day - but then many caravanners do that too... (As caravans aren't really any more secure than tents.)
We take a flat screen tv with built in freeview and it also has a dvd player built in.
We knock in one of those washing pole spikes,put in the adjustable pole.I use little wooden wedges to hold the pole firm and connect the Ariel to the top.Switch the tv on and it automatically tunes in the channels.
------------- Sue & Phil
--------------------- I Love My AeroBed
We tent camp and rarely have EHU so we run a small TV off a leisure batter so for us power is key.
We use an ordinary element aerial a bit like this ours came from B&Q but as part of a set that was £20 and included a pole, cable and fittings. It's a high gain aerial so it is big but it doesn't require additional power (most caravan aerials are powered). It also comes apart and folds back down into its box. You could get a smaller one which is lower gain but one of the areas we camp has marginal signal.
Ours gets mounted on a pole and we have a fixing on the A bar of the trailer which the pole sits in (it was originally our flag pole holder!)
We use a small flat screen from Maplin, I think it's this one. It runs off 12 volt and has built in freeview. (edited to add, this is one of the items that Maplin discount quite a lot - I think we paid £80 ish for ours)
We don't have a wireless headphone system as we tend to be on sites where there is no-one near us and we use the TV very occasionally anyway. I will probably add a wireless headphone system for next year anyway.
We tried a USB dongle on a laptop and found that the small aerial supplied was no good at all, I tried it in a number of locations and didn't get any usable signal. You can plug them into an external aerial though like the one above or a powered one which would help.
We also found that he laptop ate power at an alarming rate. It killed our leisure battery in less than 2 hours whereas we can run the TV on 12v for more than 13 hours. If you're on EHU it would be less of an issue.
We are looking to buy a USB tv dongle/stick for camping when we go away in july and wondered what make is the best to buy and if it needs interent or wifi access as where we are camping their is not good signal for wifi ?????
We use this with a Freeview TV. Found we pick up signals better when magnet at the bottom attached to the fridge. Picked up 52 channels at Solway View.
If you’re staying within the UK then you have the choice of terrestrial TV (Freeview) or satellite ($ky or Freesat).
If you decide on terrestrial (Freeview) then you will need to retune your receiver at each different location (different transmitter).
Satellite is a little more complicated to aim the dish but channels will remain the same (no re-tuning) wherever you wander.
My personal choice would always be satellite (Freesatin preference to $ky).
There's really no difference between TV in a caravan or tent except volume levels, so you should consider cordless headphones. One transmitter with a set of headphones for each person.
Like Bernie47, another fan of the August USB dongle (I use the T202) it works well and is very sensitive and comes with an external aerial that will work in good reception area's. Also comes with remote control. Plenty on Ebay.
Another advantage of taking a laptop is the built in DVD player.
Portable satellites are OK but a lot of faffing around, and packing up afterwards, the dishes are also susceptible to the wind.
We have EyeTV - Elgato EyeTV website with the laptop (Mac or Windows); works really well. They also do versions for tablets, and even mobile phones. No WiFi needed.
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Topic: whats the best TV setup for a tent
