Our front tv has stopped working ( Visio) I am tempted to open it up and look for swollen / burnt capacitors and replace boards but think this may be short sighted .
Anybody have thoughts on robust brand of tv that can endure the bashing of the interstate
We also had a Visio that failed in 11 months. We sent it in for repair, but were told the display had failed, so it was toast. Our Samsungs have performed well with no issues.
The samsung in our bedroom is still working
I've installed 2 Toshiba Brand Flat panel TV's in the coach in 2009. Both are just fine and the quality is very good. Needs sound amplification though.
My Visio tv failed and was replaced under warranty. Samsung has great products and now buying that brand for home and they are great smart tvs. Could not hear the tv in the kitchen area when the ACs are both going. Got a small sound bar and installed under the cabinet on the passenger side. Works great.
I also have a Samsung that has held up well so far. I don't know if this makes a big difference or not but it seems to me that the mounting system you choose also matters. Some mount directly to the wall, which I think would transfer more shock and vibration than the articulated type. I mounted my front TV over the drivers chair with a swing arm mount that lets us move the TV. I think it also acts like a shock absorber that makes traveling easiier on the TV. If your situation allows for it, I would consider a flexible mounting system.
Had our Vizio for three years, still working fine. Put 10K miles per year on the coach.
Roland
Two years on our 39" Vizio and no problems, about 12K miles. I used a very sturdy mount and it is pretty stable. it has a small (100x100mm) attachment point to the mount. It would have been mice to have it be bigger, more stability. it was about $350 at Amazon +$39 for a 4 yr extended warranty. They told me that after the first year they never fix them they just replace them. I figured a coach is a tough environment for a TV so $39 to get a free replacement in year 2-4 was OK. When it is 5 years old it may be time for the next greatest thing.
Samsungs are nice but quite a bit more $. I have 2 Sony's at home and they are spectacular. Be sure to go LED. Cooler and much less power. If you can get 3 or 4 HDMI inputs.
Roger
Agree most newer TV's are sound challenged, and require amplification - sound bar (or in my case the Bose that was standard).
I have had my vizio 7+ years - no issues to date (watch, that will jinx me for sure)
I love Costco for any TV - they add a year to the warranty - so the one year MFG warranty becomes two years. Then they sell you a three year extended service policy (warranty) for a low price. (Only extended warranty I have ever seen consumer reports endorse) so you get 5 years warranty. Plus liberal return policy and a great technical help line, make Costco my go to choice for TV's - they usually have a good selection, but in most cases it is models the MFG is closing out to update to a newer version, so when they are gone, they are gone. No big deal, but just how their business model works.
If you don't have a membership, you can still have someone else purchase the TV and service policy as a "gift" to you, so it can all be in your name when you register, etc.
Just spoke to vizio and they recommended a replacement which has similar dimensions but noticed all connections to bose DVD , antenna etc are on sides rather than straight out back
Jimmy, you can buy a Square Deal three year extended warranty for electronics ($350-$400) for less than $35 at Amazon even if you didn't buy it from Amazon. More of my connections come out of side panels than the back. They halp to keep it tight to the wall.
Our 39" Vizio mounted up front is about 3/4" from the ceiling and the bottom is about 1" beloe the horizontal valance. The front shades hang lower than the TV.
Roger
Roger
Do the connections extend beyond the overall casing dimensions .
Not on mine. They are in about 4-5" from the edge.
We bought a 46" Toshiba at Costco. Its been installed for about 2 years now, no problems. I wired it to the Bose sound system.
Hardly ever watch tv in the coach. Never finished the sat hookup to dish either.
Like fires outside at night too much.
We have two Samsung's going on 5 years.
Two different cable boxes and thereby can watch different channels keeping peace in the tepee!
David
My mom's two year old Vizio quit. Found bad surge protector. Plugged set in directly and it worked fine. New surge protector coming. :D
Just removed the broken tv , got the measurement and now starting to look for a replacement , think I will stick with vizio as the boxing is built to take it .
My current VX32L has the following cables connected to it
Component 1. Green -blue -yellow
Video. Yellow
DTV/TV. White
Analog out White - red
S-Video. Black
Total 8 connections
Looking at pictures of the new vizio tvs I can't figure out how I could connect to a new unit
Getting a straight answer from the vizio help line is like talking to a politician
Agreed. Costco tech help line very good with all brands they sell including Visio
You will always get the best picture if you use a HDMI cable. Inexpensive and Dish or DTV receivers have a HDMI out. If you also have a DVD player with HDMI you can get an inexpensive wireless switcher with tiny remote. We have one HDMI cable running all the way to the back salon wall from the front. Switcher controls everything well.
HDTVs use less than half of the bandwidth that HDMI cables are capable of. With future improvements like 4K TVs, they have more than enough headroom.
Pierce
You might want to draw up a schematic to help identify how all the A/V in your coach is connected, and how to do it going forward. A primary challenge will be the lack of S-video on newer equipment - I recall that's the output from the Bose for video. We ran into this a while back when we replaced our front TV. Ended up giving up on using the Bose head for DVDs, bought a BluRay player that had component, composite, and HDMI, and feed the TV sound output to the Bose as input - it's basically just there to drive the speakers and subwoofer now. Unfortunately, the BluRay unit we bought has been discontinued or I'd suggest it as an option.
In various coaches we have had Insignia(?), Visio and several Samsung. The only ones still in use are the Samsung! I visited Gary Omel in his coach and was smitten with his 46" 3-D Smart TV ... and that led to a major remodel and install of the same honking screen in our coach! BEWARE Gary Omel!!
I was just reading about the problems of picture feed from bose unit !
Really don't want to get into blue ray player etc .
Do any new tvs take the feed from the bose ?
May look to repairing existing tv .
Any solutions happily considered
My current VX32L has the following cables connected to it
Component 1. Green -blue -yellow
Video. Yellow
DTV/TV. White
Analog out White - red
AV 1 Black
Total 8 connections
Just rechecked everything to start making diagram and realized that the black cable goes to AV1
Does this suggest I would be ok with new tv ???
You can get a wifi connected to the internet, blue ray player that will connect to your HDTV with a single HDMI cable for less than $100. Audio and sound through one HDMI cable to the TV. Audio out to the Bose video (sound) input (red and white plugs). Maybe even a digital optical connection for TV audio to the Bose. Bose aux connection to your smart phone or music player.
New TV, new connections.
Roger
Roger
Thanks for the advice but it was way over my head , can I buy a new tv that will be a direct swap for the Brocken one ?
Would like to use existing bose for picture and sound .
Photo of my existing 8cables
You can get adapters these days for almost any wiring combination you can imagine. If you have a device with S-Video output, you can convert to HDMI with a converter box, then hook to any modern TV. Same with composite and component and analog RCA outputs. Figure out what you need to get from your present wiring to HDMI, then Google it - it's probably available.
S Video to HDMI Adapter | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/bhp/s-video-to-hdmi-adapter)
RCA (Composite or Component) to HDMI Converters - Monoprice.com (http://www.monoprice.com/Category?c_id=101&cp_id=10114&cs_id=1011406)
Lots of super deals on plasma tvs now but they don't like much vibration, high altitude and use a lot of juice. My neighbor bought a huge plasma TV and I have to say the picture is outstanding with blacks really black.
Pierce