I'd like to have a small TV, and I mean 11-13" diagonal would be fine, for setting up in our screen tent outside. It would get its signal from a cable jack on the side of the MH. Signals would either be DISH, park CATV, or OTA digital.How much hassle is it to use a Windows 7 laptop for this duty? How about if the laptop is a Macbook Air instead? I sort of think that for the price I would expect to pay for a little TV, it's not worth hassling with the computer approach, but let me know.Thanks.

Dish, forget about using a PC for TV you would have to have a "tuner" card which has at least analog (SD) inputs. In the USA there is no (ATSC/NTSC) tuner cards that have HD (HDMI) inputs being sold although tuner cards may be able to tune analog channels which the modulator on the sat receiver would output on but that would be just plain ugly looking.Personally to me, attempting to use a PC as a "TV" would be more hassle than it is worth. The only nice thing though is with most tuner cards you often get a "recording" feature which is sort of like having a DVR but you have to deal with a lot of hassles to get it working correctly..I actually go the opposite way I bought a TV which has COMPUTER VGA inputs, then connect my PC to the TV. Most TVs now days are as good as a PC monitor so you will not notice any loss of quality while using the TV for a PC monitor.I will suggest though that you should consider skipping the TV sizes of 15", these sizes for some reason have a very bad limited viewing angle and finding 12"-13" LCDs with VGA inputs are hard to find. I do have a 12" and for TV and computer viewing it is really small (widescreens are a pain).Your best bet for TVs is 19" size will get you a wide viewing angle (this is important since this is the off axis angle from the center of the screen you can view the picture correctly).

I have a MacBookPro & use an Elagto EyeTV USB stick for TV. I rarely watch TV, but I have fired it up to see that it works on both OTA and cable sources. If I watched a lot of TV, I'd prefer a separate set. In any case, since I'm usually in a different campground every night, setting up any HD TV, laptop or actual TV set is a pain since you have to do a channel search each time you move to a new location. Depending on the TV, that can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes to an hour. If you do a lot of traveling & want to watch TV most nights, it would be good to check out the initial scan time for the device you choose. Unfortunately, I've never seen it as a written specification.

Much easier to use an LED/LCD HDTV though you may need to get a little larger screen size if you want to do so at a brink and mortar store.

TV's for TV. Computers for computing.JMHO!

When we want a TV set outside i just tap the camp ground cable with a TEE and run a RG cable over to where we want the TV and hookup the 22-inch VIZIO... Keeps it simple for us...

Small TV, or use computer for TV? | Good Sam Community

burlmart
Explorer
Aug 17, 2013
I am no fan of HDTV - it wasn't done for our benefit for sure.
Gdetrailer
Explorer III
Aug 17, 2013
burlmart wrote:
I am no EE, but I have seen paperclips deliver 20 HDTV channels via wired connection - a simple coax cable...but I can maybe see that it is more complex, and the article I linked did talk about a wierd system of 5 boxes spaced in a room to deliver the OTA signal to a wireless network.

You need to get out of the city more often.

I am 50 miles from the nearest transmitter, for me it takes #1, 20ft long antenna, #2, high gain, low noise antenna preamp, #3 20ft of pipe, #4 quad shield RG6 (as short as possible), #5 antenna rotor, #6 low noise amplified antenna coupler (amplifies and splits the signal for multiple ports).

About $400 in the parts above just to get 20 digital channels.

To think I used to get 40+ analog channels using a set of rabbit ears :S :M
burlmart
Explorer
Aug 16, 2013
I am no EE, but I have seen paperclips deliver 20 HDTV channels via wired connection - a simple coax cable...but I can maybe see that it is more complex, and the article I linked did talk about a wierd system of 5 boxes spaced in a room to deliver the OTA signal to a wireless network.
Gdetrailer
Explorer III
Aug 16, 2013
burlmart wrote:
No no, I meant that maybe instead of the antenna being connected to the tablet by a wire, maybe it could be done by bluetooth (or something?) that frees the tablet holder to move around while the antenna was stationary,

Wouldn't work, BT does not have enough "bandwidth" in the allotted "channels" to stream video reliably.
burlmart
Explorer
Aug 16, 2013
No no, I meant that maybe instead of the antenna being connected to the tablet by a wire, maybe it could be done by bluetooth (or something?) that frees the tablet holder to move around while the antenna was stationary,
Gdetrailer
Explorer III
Aug 16, 2013
burlmart wrote:
I believe that. Seems to me a separate antennae would be used (maybe wirelessly??) that unfolds into a nice n strong signal grabber, and an app could help you quickly rotate for best reception. Coupled w/ WiFi or cell data, You could listen/watch a ballgame or local news while playing angry birds or posting some wild threads in the General RVing forum :)

:h

Umm.. Over the air (OTA) ATSC broadcasts ARE WIRELESS :S

Perhaps you are thinking of back in the old says when folks used "rabbit ears" and used tin foil to "enhance" the snowy pix? Back in the "old days" of analog (NTSC) broadcasts you could get away with that, not so much now days.

Unless you are able to see or throw a stone at the broadcast tower a "portable" TV is worthless. ATSC broadcasts basically makes using a laptop or even a "tablet PC" with a USB tuner card worthless unless you can connect it to a REAL STATIONARY antenna.

Even holding the PC using a small antenna would be extremely hard to use since the ATSC broadcasts REQUIRE a rock steady signal in order to not block, freeze and or disappear.
burlmart
Explorer
Aug 16, 2013
I believe that. Seems to me a separate antennae would be used (maybe wirelessly??) that unfolds into a nice n strong signal grabber, and an app could help you quickly rotate for best reception. Coupled w/ WiFi or cell data, You could listen/watch a ballgame or local news while playing angry birds or posting some wild threads in the General RVing forum :)
Fizz
Explorer
Aug 16, 2013
burlmart wrote:
burlmart wrote:
For the life of me I cannot understand why tablets or cell phones don't have OTA tuners built in - tuners are cheap.

Google, and ye shall receive

As always it always looks good on paper.
In real life it's next to useless with todays digital reception.
That antennna can't move around too much without losing signal.
burlmart
Explorer
Aug 16, 2013
burlmart wrote:
For the life of me I cannot understand why tablets or cell phones don't have OTA tuners built in - tuners are cheap.

Google, and ye shall receive
AllegroD
Nomad
Aug 16, 2013
You will need a tuner for any PC to get TV channels, cable or antenna. We have used our 18" computers for TV reception for years, including during power outages.

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