Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I would like to put say a 32" LCD on a pontoon boat so I can watch football on Sunday out on the water. Is there a way to do this economically? I've seen waterproof tvs for several thousand dollars. I know that on large offshore boats you can get marine type satellite tv but it's expensive.

Is there anyway to hook up a regular LCD tv? How would I protect it from water? Can I just attach an antenna to it and watch tv? Any info would be appreciated.

If you can get power to it (shore or inverter ) I don't see why not. Marinas here have a lot of boats with Dish Network or Direct installed in slips.
I guess just hope the weather is good when you do it.

The trick will be grabbing the signal. If you are close enough to the tower to use a non-directional antenna you should do OK but if you have to point at the tower I don't see it working very well.
We run TVs on inverters with no problems when the power is out.

I have not tried.... but here are some thoughts

check out antennaweb.org and put in closest zip code it will show you what stations you can get with just an antenna.

Have you considered getting a computer with a 3G network card and streaming the video via an HDMI port to a TV?

Good luck

waiting to here what you do...

I see alot of outdoor tv's on porches and patios. I'd think that one of those would work. Get one with a built-in HD tuner and all you need is an antenna.

your BEST solution is to get a laptop, (IPad would work nicely also) with a 3G connection. Get a product called slingbox (hardware for the home) and software for the laptop. You can then watch YOUR cable/dish at home on your laptop from anywhere you have access to the internet. We LOVE it and use it all the time. Even at home when we are sitting on the porch or deck. It isn't your 32 inch HD plasma, but it is as good as your laptop resolution can be



and you can get a cable to plug it into a TV if you have one around.

I thought slingbox only worked on wifi?

Agree the slingbox/laptop/3G is a great way to accomplish the task.

bobabooey wrote:I thought slingbox only worked on wifi?

not sure about your statement. I can access and watch my cable/DVR anywhere I can get internet access. I can also watch it at home within my home network. Best thing we think about it, it is a one time cost for the equiptment, and we get to watch my cable that we pay for weither we are home or not, from anywhere. Also set the DVR to record if we forgot and watch what we already recorded.

As for power supply. My Honda 2000 is great. No battery worries.

Sweet Generator setup!!! I too use a Slingbox and can stream to my laptop, and netbook, as well as Netflix for movies via 3g.. I have a dual bank of batteries in series that an Inverter is connected to, which works great, this way my starting marine battery is not taxed for power. I do have a small generator, just need a place to install it, unfortunatly my Pontoon does not have a free space like the last picture. We also have a small 25 inch LCD that I stream from my laptop to, on occasion, problem is that light washes out the picture, even under the Bimini top, but at night it is the bomb.
Ron

Do you guys know if I could stream slingbox to my iPhone and then hook the iPhone into a tv?

I don't see why not, but the quality may not be that great...keep in mind that the slingbox is going to stream at best case, IPhone resolution. You'll then be upscaling that all the way to tv or HDTV resolutions.

Imagine taking a 3 inch picture and then stretching it to 24 inches (or more).

Just for gee whiz info these are my experiences with digital TV.

I have a couple of small TVs, one portable and one a 13" 120v that runs fine from an inverter for hurricanes and such. I tried running them off of my guv'mint converter with this Ebay antenna to see how it would work after a storm.



My towers are 25 miles away according to that antenna web site mentioned above.

Most of the stations came in fine with quite a bit of flexibility in aiming the antenna. The whole kludge was running off of a 135w inverter plugged into my golf cart.
For some strange reason I couldn't get the PBS station, no matter what I did.

Here is mine............ JUst kidding....... Thought it was an interesting set up though