TV for camper (1 Viewer)

[cjs_surf]

Hi ,
This is my first post (I think) so be nice. Last year I imported a Toyota Hiace camper from Japan, Loving it so far.
It came well tricked out including TV antennas on the roof and booster hidden in the panel holding the Zig unit. There was a DVD / TV system in it but I’m not able to tune it, every thing is in Japanese’s and the DVD player region coded. Still the screen worked for the reversing cameras so I was happy – till the OH anciently move the carpet and a wire broke / came undone killing power to the screen -not her fault the wiring is a mess. That was before getting on the ferry so it didn’t get fixed and I’ve been to busy since to look at it and as I said the wiring is a mess, needs tidying it’d take me all weekend and I’m getting by with out it.

Thing is I’d like a TV for surf trips so I got a small Portable from Maplin
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It’s got free view and 4 analogue channels, there’s no free view in Ireland yet but the analogue cover is good. It also decodes AVI’s off a USB…

Anybody have one? I’m not happy with it at all. I live about 2 miles from a TV mast, on the living room TV we get a good signal of a coat hanger (cable was out for a week when we moved in) With the portable’s aerial I get a very snowy picture, in the van with a booster I get an even worse picture and harsh lines in the picture with just the leisure battery and Zig on, no engine on.

It also can only take up to 2 gigs and doesn’t do every audio format – I’ve 500 gigs of films and TV shows.

Going to take it back – think it’s been returned by somebody else before anyway.

So three question
– anybody used the same TV how are you getting on?
– will the Jap booster work here, frequency bands are similar as far as I can see.
– anybody used a good small portable that can decode of a USB hard disk, I was going to get one of these http://www.augustint.com/products/portable_tv.htm but Maplin has a special on and the specs looked the same

Cheers

CJS

PS got the camper with the help of Jon in Super Camper, and got a cracking van. :thumb:

 

[rainbow chasers]

Not sure if you need hook-up upgarded on them - I seem to remember that they run at lower voltage for UK.

As for tv, i would suggest getting back on to maplin, and getting yourself a portable sat dish top cure your problems. In the short term, a cheap aerial that with receive analogue and digital will be a stop gap, but not as tidy.

For the money, i would go for the sat dish - job done, and still useful if you travel anywhere else, or when ireland goes digital. I think maplin do them for £60-70 complete and they come in a neat box.

 

[cjs_surf]

What I'm really after is some thing small that can take a hard disk and pick up a couple of channels - it's only a small camper and I don't want to carry to much stuff - it already has TV antenna and a booster. Long term I'd go with digital free view when it comes out. Don't need a big antenna for that.

As for mains voltage doesn't come into it I'm wild camping most of the time but I did put in a big step down transfromer for the Zig and fridge and a 220 socket - over speced it by 100% That worked fine in France.

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[hilldweller]

Going to take it back – think it’s been returned by somebody else before anyway.

It could well be faulty but so close to a transmitter there is a small chance of too strong a signal. Maplin are very good with returns. I bought a B grade computer last month, it arrived pretty grubby and not working well, went back FOC and a full refund and apology.

Worst thing with tiny TVs is tiny sound, but you solve this with amplified PC speakers.