TV & DVD Upgrade - '07 Sundance 40

[Darren Dean]

Looking to upgrade the TV's on our '07 Searay Sundance 40, to a smart TV (wifi / streaming). Have been reading thru the forums that if I get 120v/12v compatible TV's we may be able to run them off gen or battery.

I went to best buy, but they didn't have anything remotely close. Any suggestions or starting places?

I would also like to replace the DVD players onboard, as they only work intermittently (read errors, no disk, etc.

Thanks in advance. Any & all advice is welcome.

 

[bbwhitejr]

Newer LED TVs pull very few watts. Another option would be a small 300 watt inverter.

Bennett

 

[Darren Dean]

Newer LED TVs pull very few watts. Another option would be a small 300 watt inverter.

Bennett

Thank you for this. Found a nice little 24" LG LED Smart TV that runs on 26W & will fit nicely on the deck & in the bedrooms; albeit the mounts will need modification. LG 24LM520S-WU: 24 inch Class HD Smart TV | LG USA

You mentioned potentially using a small 300 watt inverter. Can you explain how this would be installed/hooked up? Would I have to run it back to the 12V electrical panel, or simply splice into the back of the 12V adapter on the cockpit? May very well contract this part out, but trying to visualize where the transformer would tie in & how I would get power from it to the tv's across the boat.

Appreciate any & all guidance.

 

[Cocktail Time]

Darren, if you follow where the old tv's are hooked up, they are either plugged in to a 110v outlet or they have a DC input that is wired into the boats 12v system. If the latter then you can hook up a small inverter to plug your new tv into right there or look to see if there is a 110v outlet that you can plug into. I run my AC all the time so having the tv's available on DC power is not something I use. I run the genset anyway if we are away from the dock. If you plug into 100v and run the genset you don't need to do any inverter or wiring changes.

The other thing I would recommend is getting a firestick for each tv as the LG apps are good but there are not a lot of them. I just moved over to Directv Stream and have the app on all my tv's on the boat so I can watch Sports and Fox News at the dock or on the water as well as at the house. The TV will have Netflix and spotify and youtube apps built in but so will the Firesticks.

 

[bbwhitejr]

Thank you for this. Found a nice little 24" LG LED Smart TV that runs on 26W & will fit nicely on the deck & in the bedrooms; albeit the mounts will need modification. LG 24LM520S-WU: 24 inch Class HD Smart TV | LG USA

You mentioned potentially using a small 300 watt inverter. Can you explain how this would be installed/hooked up? Would I have to run it back to the 12V electrical panel, or simply splice into the back of the 12V adapter on the cockpit? May very well contract this part out, but trying to visualize where the transformer would tie in & how I would get power from it to the tv's across the boat.

Appreciate any & all guidance.

On a 260DA we used to have, I used one of these plugged into an outlet like a cigarette lighter outlet and it worked flawlessly….amazon…

Bennett

 

[Darren Dean]

Darren, if you follow where the old tv's are hooked up, they are either plugged in to a 110v outlet or they have a DC input that is wired into the boats 12v system. If the latter then you can hook up a small inverter to plug your new tv into right there or look to see if there is a 110v outlet that you can plug into. I run my AC all the time so having the tv's available on DC power is not something I use. I run the genset anyway if we are away from the dock. If you plug into 100v and run the genset you don't need to do any inverter or wiring changes.

The other thing I would recommend is getting a firestick for each tv as the LG apps are good but there are not a lot of them. I just moved over to Directv Stream and have the app on all my tv's on the boat so I can watch Sports and Fox News at the dock or on the water as well as at the house. The TV will have Netflix and spotify and youtube apps built in but so will the Firesticks.

I've now gotten 3 of the 4 tv's hung & installed. The power for the tv runs to the 110/120 volt system. When we stay overnight, we run the generators, but often in the evenings, swimming, eating lunch/dinner, we do so on the top deck & don't necessarily need to run the generator. My idea was that, if I could swap out all of the light bulbs on the boat to LED, I could easily run the TV's off of the batteries while we're out, without running the batteries down. It may end up being more trouble than it's worth.

Firestick's are great little devices & we have a lot of them. Emby/Plex servers are easy to tap into, from both Firestick's & Smart TV's alike, & have the ability to integrate IPTV providers into them. I need to assess 4G / 5G coverage of Lake Lanier, but I think we're about to drop Direct TV (KVH System) & throw a Hot Spot on the boat & move switch to streaming.

 

[Darren Dean]

On a 260DA we used to have, I used one of these plugged into an outlet like a cigarette lighter outlet and it worked flawlessly….amazon…

View attachment 127065
Bennett

I could potentially get this to work for 1 or 2 of the TV's, but the 4 tv's we have are spread out & the 12V socket is up in the cockpit. I'm thinking we may need to run a separate line from the 12V system & create separate outlets for them.

 

[bbwhitejr]

You have a 12v fuse block under the steering wheel and in your MDP in the cabin. Just a matter of pulling wires. We have internet at the dock and use an iPhone as a hot spot when away. The Glomex antenna works surprisingly well all over the lake for OTA channels.

Bennett

 

[Cocktail Time]

I've now gotten 3 of the 4 tv's hung & installed. The power for the tv runs to the 110/120 volt system. When we stay overnight, we run the generators, but often in the evenings, swimming, eating lunch/dinner, we do so on the top deck & don't necessarily need to run the generator. My idea was that, if I could swap out all of the light bulbs on the boat to LED, I could easily run the TV's off of the batteries while we're out, without running the batteries down. It may end up being more trouble than it's worth.

Firestick's are great little devices & we have a lot of them. Emby/Plex servers are easy to tap into, from both Firestick's & Smart TV's alike, & have the ability to integrate IPTV providers into them. I need to assess 4G / 5G coverage of Lake Lanier, but I think we're about to drop Direct TV (KVH System) & throw a Hot Spot on the boat & move switch to streaming.

I installed a T-Mobile Home Internet Gateway on the boat a couple weeks ago and it is working perfectly all over the Lake. I get 200+mpbs download and 30+upload on the water and there is no data throttling. $50 a month all in. I can run all kinds of devices on the water now and DirecTv Stream without buffering/glitches. It's faster than my home internet from Charter.