I believe there is at least one article on the website on this issue
. Nevertheless. We have a 22 inch on an arm that stores very nicely in the cabinet and can swing out for viewing. Easy project.

If you don't plan on living in a marina I suggest about a 20-24 inch TV with a built in DVD to watch videos because often you could be out of range for good TV reception while hunkering down in bad weather.

I have a 24" Dell monitor that fits very well in the TV cabinet and can be fully viewed while in the cabinet. Considering mounting it on an articulating arm so that it can be stowed and allow more room in the cabinet and moved outside the cabinet for viewing.

Was going buy a TV but the TV coverage in my area is awful unless you speak Spanish - sheez. Right now I just hook it to my Macbook Pro and stream or play DVD's. It's a second like for this monitor and it looks great.

There are advantages to connecting to a laptop as there is far more content to stream.

Having a Mac to output the HDMI signal to a quality monitor is great. My laptop preceded that feature but my son's iMac does. Make sure you have all "the parts" sorted first.

Could put in an Apple TV :)

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We recently bought a vizeo 24 inch smart t.v. that actually gets its signal from our cell phones. Plays Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, Hulu, etc in HD...and again, the signal comes from our cell phones' wireless hotspots! Also, it props up on a stand that extends out of the bottom of the set, which also happens to fit almost perfectly under the little cross beam that extends across the magazine/book rack just under the starboard light and just above the card table (for those who can't see the picture). I just wrapped a Velcro strap around the end of the stand and the crossbeam and it holds it perfectly still under sail. I believe it is (or at least was) the smallest smart tv of its kind, and it works awesome...and all for just under a couple of hundred bucks :)

That's where our 24" LCD sits as well. Very handy for the evening pit down movie time.

Joel, are you getting TV and movies via your data plan on your cell phone? Up in the frozen north were the big Telcos pretty much have their way with us that would bankrupt mere mortals. The average 3gig a month for $50 data plan would be exhausted after a single HD movie.

That's the great thing about 4G LTE, it lets the telcos hose you even faster.

Good point, Bud. In our particular case, we were allowed to keep our unlimited plans with Verizon through a rather obscure transaction known as an "alternative upgrade". We then downloaded an app called Foxfi that turns our phones into free wireless hotspots (otherwise we would have to pay Verizon an extra thirty bucks a month for the privilege). BTW, a friend of mine just began an unlimited data contract with Sprint, so unlimited data plans still exhist with some carriers. Unfortunately, I have heard that Sprint has removed Foxfi from their app store. But I am sure there are ways around that if you unlock/jailbreak your phone. And don't forget that if your marina has WiFi, a smart TV can usually stream movies through that connection as well.

[QUOTE=JAS;21388]And don't forget that if your marina has WiFi, a smart TV can usually stream movies through that connection as well.[/QUOTE]

Joel makes a good point.

Bev & Dave of Active Captain recently wrote in one of their newsletter about the Wifi Users Bill of Rights, a really good idea ([url]https://activecaptain.com/newsletters/2014-02-05.php[/url]) for the full text.

The pertinent part about and for wifi users is this:

[I]For boaters, there are two important things to start doing today:

1. If you use streaming video of any type, never simultaneously use it on multiple devices. It's so easy today to watch an embedded YouTube video in Facebook while watching a NetFlix movie on your smart TV. But realize that use like that is severely hurting all other boaters in the marina.

2. If you have a long range WiFi capability like a Ubiquiti or Rogue Wave and you're connecting to marina WiFi, look at the signal report of the router when you connect. If the signal is -50 dB or larger, you have to slide down the gain on your outside modem. In an informal poll on the ActiveCaptain Facebook group, no one except us is doing that type of thing. If you're connecting at -60 dB, you're fine. But if you're seeing -45 dB, reduce the gain of that outside device because you are overdriving the marina's WiFi radios and causing signal loss and slowdown for everyone else connected to that router.

You'll need to download the manual for your particular WiFi device to see how to reduce the gain - please don't ask us, we can't answer you - it's different on many systems. All of the high gain systems should have a control for output gain.

Without reducing gain, you are likely actually hurting your own WiFi speed at the marina. Using the Beatles as an analogy, the WiFi you save (by reducing your gain) may be your own.[/I]

The marinas we go to either disable streaming or are so jammed you'd never be able to do that anyway, you're lucky to be able to send an email. I download all our junk at home and put it on a 2Tb portable USB hard disk and we watch it from there rather than depending on flaky WiFi or going broke paying cellular data charges.

An Android stick the size of a USB memory stick for 49 bucks turns any TV with HDMI input into a smart TV and can do 1080p. 12volt DC powered USB outlet supplies 5 VDC power to the stick computer and the hard disk, no power loss from inverters. Draws a little over an amp. Or I use my relatively new ultrabook that will go 6 - 8 hours on a charge and then re-charge it when the engine's on or the solar is working, effective amp draw zero.

Our new 24" LED TV also draws a little over an amp so we use about 4 - 6 amps for 2 hours of HD TV and we're not pissin' anyone else off who's trying to use the WiFi.

This TV looks like it would work pretty nicely -- good price too:

[url]http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-UN22F5000-22-Inch-1080p-60Hz/dp/B00BCGRX9M...

If you read the reviews, you'll see that the 22" version is low-voltage (not sure if 12V or 24V). Anyway, for a slightly more complex project this means it could be wired to run off of a DC circuit.

Wow Bud...just got done looking up Android stick. That thing is cool! I'm surprised I have never heard of that thing before. I love my smart TV and the apps that came with it, but that Android stick would make it invincible. And so cheap! Gotta get me one of those!

Yes, they are slick. For this kind of small device stuff Android is king.

Our current 24" LED TV is 12 VDC. Prior to that we had a 19" one that was 12 VDC, both of them worked fine plugged directly into the boat's 12 VDC circuits. Both of these TVs are Best Buy store brand cheapies and both of them are excellent TVs in all respects.

Prior to getting our current 24" cheapie we had an RCA 24" unit that was 12 VDC as well. It worked fine with the included wall wart, which put out exactly 12 volts when I tested it. However, when I plugged it directly into the boat's 12 VDC system it instantly fried itself in a very undignified and smelly manner and died. So it's not safe to assume they all will work fine on 12 VDC, apparently some of them can't tolerate any over voltage at all.

We also had a Toshiba 22" unit that used an odd value wall wart, like 19 volts or so. That thing was junk, drew almost 6 amps and had a really crappy picture. So much for name brands always being better.

There are a few web sites that sell all kinds of 12 VDC stuff including TV's. You pay a premium for them but the upside is they're guaranteed to work on a typical 12 VDC system that might exceed 12 VDC at times. As can be seen by my experience, that's not necessarily true of all TVs that use a 12 VDC wall wart. As always, YMMV.

Bud. I'm sure you threw out the blown up TV but, if not, check that it's wall wart is not reversed polarity. I once had a Sony device that blew up when I plugged it into another brand's wall wart. Turned out that the Sony ran with opposite polarity to what everyone else uses. Boy was I steamed. That was quite some time ago and I don't think I've purchased many Sony devices since. It was obvious that they were making you buy their power adapter, but you'd have thought they could have spared the penny it would have cost to put a diode in the unit so it at least wouldn't blow up if you used someone elses' adapter.
sheesh.!

Gary, it wasn't on a wall wart when it blew, it was plugged directly into the boat's 12 VDC system. I had checked the polarity before I tried that and it was wired as normal. So I'm pretty sure it was over voltage that blew it since our batteries were sitting a little over 13 volts at the time under charge from the solar panels and wind gen.

We've had our cheapie TVs plugged into 12VDC when the 110Vcharger was in bulk at up to 14.7 and no issues so surprising this other one couldn't handle 13 volts. I have a 12VDC to 5VDC converter installed to run our Ubiquiti high gain WiFi unit and a wireless router so we have our own WiFi hotspot, I should get a similar thing for the TVs to keep the voltage correct. They are really cheap on eBay about 7 bucks and are more efficient than DC to AC inverters and eliminate using wall warts for this stuff.

The new LED TVs draw such little power that even running our 24" on a 75Watt inverter draws only an amp.

Sorry Bud, should have made myself more clear. I realized you had plugged your TV into the boat's 12 volt system when it blew up, and was asking if you were able to check the wall wart to see if it's polarity was different. I'm hoping my Sony incident was isolated, but I've continued to check the polarity of wall warts before plugging a 12 volt appliance directly into my boat for the first time; just to be sure...:-) Once was enough.:rolleyes: I must confess that I rewired an early cell phone (bag phone!) And got it backward. Nasty snap and blue smoke. Fortunately, I was able to play dumb and return it for a new one. Guess in that case, you could say I wasn't 'playing' dumb, huh:D

Hi

I installed a 28in LG Smart TV on a swing arm inside the cabinet and it fits great.

Regards