We would like to get a new television to use in the caravan, to replace our elderly set (still tries to find analogue channels on set up and reception is often hit and miss!).
We would only use it with mains electric and receive the signal via the caravan aerial (ie. no satellite).
Is it worth getting one of the Avtex sets or similar, or will any TV with built in freeview be just as good? Whatever we get, it would be nice to be able to watch a programme without the picture freezing or breaking up.
We bought an Avtex. All the preset colour modes were awful so went to the customisable setting so that I could adjust the colours, brightness, contrast etc as one normally needs to do with a new tv. Fine, except the menu covers most of the screen and you can not see enough of the picture to judge the effect of your adjustments.
When we were at the nec in February , I called in at the Avtex stand to ask if I was missing something and they got quite shirty with me. Clearly they did not want to admit the big flaw in their set up. My recommendation, avoid avtex.
Avtex TV's are very good, I have one myself. However the usual point of spending extra on an Avtex TV is to be able to use it on 12v and 230v. Perhaps also to have Freesat and Freeview in the same TV. Now having said all that, if you are only going to use it on mains then it would be a bit of a luxury and you would get better value buying a mains TV. In our dining room we have a 24 inch Samsung smart TV, it says HD ready which I think is wrong as it receives all the digital channels and at £169 its a lot cheaper than and Avtex and the picture is pretty good. Got it from JL as they have a longer warranty.
Just buy a cheap TV with a HDMI port (Cello are a decent budget make that are designed for caravans) wouldn't even bother with a smart TV as it's just as easy to buy a Google Chromecast or Fire stick.
Avtex are a good brand but are (in my opinion) massively overpriced.
Cello TVs generally come with both AC and 12v DC adaptors
We have a 'Cello' TV with built in DVD player which has an excellent picture but the sound quality isn't that perfect so what I did was to purchase a pair of PC speakers from Argos for under twenty quid and connected them up via an extension cable to the TV headphone socket. The sound quality has improved tremendously but the price of the speakers and the Cello TV was still much cheaper than buying an Avtex which I think is severely over-priced for the amount of times it's going to be used.
I bought a 'cheap' (IIRC circa £90) 21.5" 12v/240v TV/DVD combo from Lidl around 9 years ago, still going strong! Picture pretty good, but not the best in terms of viewing angles, but good enough in limited space of the caravan, not the best inbuilt speakers as is common with many small TV's (they're OK, but I use a cheap external sound bar), it's got a USB socket for recording what you're tuned into, or playing back previous recordings.
Perfectly adequate IMHO. The Avtex TV's seem excessively expensive and typically exploitative of the targeted market! The Cello range look decent at the price, but expect to supplement the speakers for better sound quality.
You pays your money, you take your choice!
Last thought, the TV is part of your payload, so weight is a consideration if you are not fortunate to have a huge excess capacity!
Our last tv had a mains power supply unit with an output of 12v DC so it was easy to use a lead and utilise the 12v DC socket that we had instead. It freed up the single 13A socket for sometyhing else. When that TV finally popped it's clogs we opted for a suitable sized standard domestic one instead, they were half the price of an Avtec one and use a 13A adaptor. Job done.
Dave.
------------- Never argue with an idiot, they will drag you down to their level and beat you on experience.
Mark Twain.
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Topic: Best TV for caravan.
via mobile 13/4/2024 at 12:37pm
