T.V. Hook UP

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Bob Dugard

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Joined
Nov 15, 2012
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I'm sure you heard this before all the paper work is missing in my new to us motor home.
We are new to RVing and reading up as mush as we can. There is a dome on the motor home and two inside TV's and one outside with it looks like a switch box. There is nothing else apparently the last owner put it in his new 5th wheel. Can I use regular DVD and tuner or do you suggest something else.
Is the hook up something a blue collar worker can do or do you need a tech?.
Trying to get ready for a Nashville trip in April first trip!

BobnJude
Bonfield On. Canada
Gulf Stream Tour Master
 
I think we are going to need some more information - visual (i.e. pictures) if you can swing it - or at least some model and makes of any of the TV equipment in your 5er. You can plug a DVD into any modern tv. If you want to run it while boon docking you'll need a converter - or maybe you can find a DC one. My kids have a portable one they can use in the car, off 12v - no inverter necessary.

"TV" signal will come from either 1) off the air with an antenna, 2) cable (wire), or 3) satellite. It's entirely possible that dome on your roof contains a satellite dish - or maybe it's just an antenna...


Mylo
 
For the dome to work you will need a satellite tv receiver and a subscription with Direct TV or Dish. You can use a standard DVD and there is probably an over-the-air antenna on the roof too. These would normally be wired though the switch box so the various sources can be selected for each tv. However, you may need to find an older DVD with coax output, cause newer ones usually have just HDMI and RGB and you may not have wiring for those.

Yes, you can probably do it yourself. There are likely to be coax cables already in place (I hope so - pulling new ones in an RV is often difficult).
 
If you are in upstate SC, I do RV calls, but you have to come to the park where I'm parked (no car.. yet).

The switch box, I gather this is a box with many push buttons, as opposed to the common wall plate.  This is good.

Are your televisions old type, (NTSC) or new type (Wide Screen with ATSC receivers) ?

Once we have that figured out we get into what cable goes where and are they labeled at all.

However this I can tell you, for over the air television you need either a modern TV (ATSC) or a converter,  Assuming modern TV you select ANT for the TV in question and make sure the POWER is on on the box, Raise and aim the antenna to where you THINK the stations are (NOTE: The pointer inside is 90 degrees off)  Then do a channel scan with the TV, If the TV is a Vizo, that's the best you can do, Most makes have a "Signal Strength" indicator on them.  you use that to "Peak" the signal (Aiming the antenna) on the desired station,  NOTE depending on where you are, stations may be in different directions.  Or they may be "Clustered".
 
Thanks everyone TV's are flat screen with DVD built in.
It is still just below freezing here but I'm turning on furnace and have a few pints and a buddy coming over to give me a hand tomorrow. I will print out your tips and hope all goes well! Please stay tuned as you probably have not heard the last from me.

JudenBob
 
Just so you know "Flat Screen" is meaningless in the context of this thread.. The Samsung Multi-Sync I just replaced (Died of old age) was a flat screen, (LCD type)  NTSC and digital cable (QAM or QLAM, can never keep it straight) only TV.

The one that replaced it is also a Flat Screen, wider however, it's also LCD, but it does both NTSC, ATSC and digital cable.    I'm not sure "Wide Screen" always equals ATSC but I'm fairly sure ATSC = Wide screen.  (Old elementary school logic question explains that, If you need me to type it out, ask).
 
Thanks John
Doesn't mean a lot to me but hopefully will mean something to my buddy!
Stay tuned.

BobnJude
 
The point is over the air digital TV uses a different system than digital cable, even though they share the same channel numbers.

NTSC is the old analog TV standard, and shared the same transmission system both over the air and on cable.  You could hook up a standard TV to standard cable and get at least channels 2-13.  Higher channels required a converter box.

ATSC is the over the air digital TV system.  It stands for the Advanced Television Standards Committee - the people who designed the over-the-air system.  It didn't come into widespread use until slightly before the digital changeover and flat screen TVs preceded that, so it's possible to find some that cannot receive over the air digital signals.

QAM is the cable equivalent for digital signals.  It came into use well before the over the air digital broadcasts so you can find TVs that can receive digital cable but not digital over the air signals.
 
I had two points:  ONE: Flat Screen, in and of itself, means it MIGHT be modern, or not.  As I said, my old Samsung, was a flat screen, but it could not receive digital OTA tv.

And READ THE FINE PRINT before you buy the thing to make sure it can receiver Never Twice Same Color (NTSC, Ok, National Television Standards Committee) ATSC (Always the same color?, I doubt it) American Television Standards Committee, and QAM (Quadature Amplitude Modulation?)  I think I read too much :)
 
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