Hi everyone,we have just bought our 1st new caravan...we want to get a television is has the sat dish on the roof,but could you all tell me if it is ok to buy one from say tesco or argos which is digital,or do we need to buy one from a caravan outlet.thanks for your help
There are a couple of options. You can get one from a supermarket, but these are normally 240 volt only. If you are always on EHU then that's not a problem. If you are not on EHU, you could get an inverter to run it, but this is a very inefficient way of running a TV.
A TV from a supermarket would be about £100 + depending on what you want. An inverter would be about £15 +.
If you are regularly without EHU, you may want to consider a proprietory caravan / truck TV. These are a lot more expensive, but are more efficient on power than running a 240 volt TV through an inverter so it depends on how long you plan to go without EHU and just how much TV you want to watch.
You also say your caravan has a "sat dish" on the roof. Are you sure it is a satellite dish and not a status aerial?
A status aerial should plug straight into any digital TV and give you free to air digital programmes, and analogue programs if any are available. A satellite dish will not plug directly into a TV, it needs a satellite decoder. If you have Sky at home then you could take your Sky box with you or look for a spare on eBay or car boot sales. If you use a Sky box and viewing card then you should be able to get all the channels you subscribe to in the caravan, assuming it is a satellite dish you have and not a status aerial.
To help identify it, I am stating the obvious, but a Status aerial will have the word "Status" on it in either dark blue or orange lettering. There will also be an amplifier in the caravan somewhere near where the TV goes which will also say "Status" on. An aerial also has a slightly different plug to a satellite dish.
For our 4 berth van 16" is plenty big enough as the TV aerial is right near to the main seating area. Anything bigger would take up to much room and I am not sure would fit under our seats for storage, etc. We have a 19" at home in the bedroom and to be honest I think it would look a little too big in our van. We only want the TV for the occasional evening as if the weather is nice intend to be sat outside. We opted for the DVD as it was only £9 more than the same Argos model without out and it will come in handy when our little boy is a bit older and wants to watch something.
Check out Kogan website for tv's that are proper 12v battery and 230v we bought the 19" with built in DVD and a slot for taping live tv - I think it was £130 works very well.
------------- A barman is just a pharmacist
with a limited inventory
I bought a 12v 9" LED LCD Freeview TV from Maplins a few Weeks ago for £59 (refurbished but looks brand new)
The great thing about it is, it only consumes 10watts when it's on and it plays DivX/mP4 movies by either SD Card or USB :)
Unfortunately they have now gone upto £129 (new) BUT they have an identical 10" for £99 refurbished:
Quote: Originally posted by jeff juke on 20/8/2011
Quote: Originally posted by dazzer252 on 19/8/2011
Argos are doing a HD 16" TV with built in DVD for £89, we recently got one for our first van!
Sh't just payed £135 for that two months ago
Yeah Argos are always doing that with electrical items! We had been keeping an eye on their site for any offers so jumped at this when they came up. We got caught out the same with some furniture last year!! Still £89 for a digital DVD HD Tv isn't bad and as its 240v we intend to use it in the dining room during the winter. 12V TV' are really good but one this size would cost £250+. At the moment we don't intend to go without a EHU but in the future may consider a 12V if going "off grid" !!
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Topic: TV in a caravan
