It’s that time of year again and time to work out what to get the girl who has everything she wants…or more precisely if she wants something, she goes out and gets it!

When we replaced the TV in the saloon, we moved the TV that was there into the bedroom which means maria gets to watch the omelette challenge on Saturday kitchen in bed. Unfortunately, the remote control on the old TV didn’t fully work and none of the universal controllers work with it so the TV has to be switched off on the box itself.

Now the boat may be quite large, but from my side of the bed it is one step to do this. If the cats have taken up residence and have me pinned down, it is a maximum of six steps for Maria to get there. However, this was considered unsatisfactory by her ladyship.

Therefore the valentine’s present was an upgraded TV, and by upgraded I mean one with a working remote! This is because I do not see the harm in one or even six steps so therefore this is a Maria focused present. 🙂

There are a number of options:
· Go for a small TV, which would normally have a transformer to reduce 240V AC to 12V DC, cut the transformer out and wire it into a 12V supply.
· Go for something slightly larger and plug it into the 240V circuit, since the inverter will provide the power from the batteries (not particularly efficient since you are converting 12V DC to 240V AC to 12V DC again!)
· Buy a cheap 12V/24V TV from a little known manufacturer (or even the smaller equivalent of the Cello that we have in the saloon)
· Go for a 12V/24V TV designed for use on-the-move (much more expensive option)

No prizes for guessing which way we went and I’m sure there are people who would have gone with a different decision. Our decision process was driven by the experience we have had with the motorhome which came with an Avtex TV fitted. The Avtex L218DRS 21.5-Inch Widescreen 1080p Full HD Super Slim LED TV with Freeview HD comes with a DVD, freeview HD tuning and satellite tuning (the later not quite as useful for us on a moving boat!). We decided to go for a similar size to the old TV but the new technology meant it was smaller overall and a lot slimmer. Since this TV supports 24V, which is the main voltage on Mariadz, it meant no need for any voltage adjustments. I was even able to do all of the wiring in to the existing setup. The alternative would have been to spend a lot less money on a TV that may only last a few years (assuming quality is meant to last longer!) and would then need replacing, if we chose to do so, when we were on our travels, which would have been more expensive and would reinforce the old adage of “buy cheap, buy twice”.