Are you watching?

A good range of 12V TVs is now available for the leisure market. All seven TVs tested here had Freeview installed and most had an integral DVD/CD player fitted.

The main criteria assessed were:

• picture quality (viewed straight ahead and at an angle)

• sound quality

• ease of use and price

All the units reviewed (except the Visua flip-down unit) can be wall-mounted in a caravan or motorhome. Sizes and weights listed are therefore without the stand.

Viewing angles: Since all LCD and some LED TVs suffer from some loss of clarity when viewed at an angle, if the unit is to be mounted above eye level, the use of a swivel wall mount is recommended to allow the TV to be tilted down and viewed directly.

Sound: As TVs have become thinner the speakers have, of necessity, had to get smaller resulting in several of the units having poor sound quality compared to the average larger home TV. This can be greatly improved by using external speakers from the headphone socket. Apart from the extra cost, there will be an additional power drain of about 3W per speaker. Speakers need not be expensive to do the job, but you do need to consider where to mount them and run the wires.

The Foehn and Hirsch unit (which has been recently replaced with a new model) had flat speakers incorporated into the glass screen and the quality of these and the Avtex and Versat speakers were better than the others. The Avtex also incorporates a FM transmitter which will actively broadcast sound to other speakers in the motorhome or caravan which can greatly improve audio quality and give a ’surround sound’ effect.

Off switches: None of the TVs, with the exception of Avtex, had a dedicated OFF switch and therefore remained in standby mode with a drain varying from one to three watts. This may not seem a lot, but it adds up if the TV is left on without any battery charging. Wiring the unit via an ON/OFF switch is therefore recommended, which will involve extra expense for those not confident enough to do this themselves.

Picture quality of all the units was very good and was not particularly influenced by the resolution. At 19” and below a lower resolution than full HD (1920 x 1080) will give a good, sharp picture, but if you want to watch Full HD video recordings or connect a Blu-ray DVD or a full HD game console, the only set that offers full HD at the time the review was conducted is the Foehn and Hirsch. However, Avtex is introducing new full HD models in early 2012 and they will be available by the time this review is published at about the same price as its current models.

Signals: Tests were carried out using a normal antenna, which gave good reception on all channels in an area with an adequate signal, but an antenna booster would probably improve reception away from towns. Only the Versat TV had a built in DVB-S receiver to receive Free to Air satellite programmes in addition to Freeview, but a satellite antenna will be needed.

12V power: Three of the TVs (Inovtech, Avtex and Meos) have a built in 12V regulator circuit. This allows the TV to operate when the battery is below 12V and also provides full protection against voltage spikes, which can occur on 12V circuits. The specific advantage of TVs with an internal voltage regulator is that the cigarette lighter type connector provided can be removed and a connection made to a convenient 12V supply anywhere in the motorhome. Price should not therefore be the sole consideration, as a model with a built-in voltage regulator circuit will typically cost 25 per cent more than one without. Other TVs have an in-line voltage regulator supplied and others incorporate it into the cigar-type connector.

Digital: Of the TVs tested, only the Avtex carries the Digital Tick Logo. The logo means a TV has been tested by the Digital TV Group (DTG) and is certified as fully reliable and compliant with all digital technical standards; it is guaranteed to work through digital switchover and is future-proofed against any changes that may be made in digital broadcasting. It will also have target region tuning which assists with selecting and tabulating the strongest transmitters when there is an overlap of two or more transmitters. This can be an important feature for people who are touring.

However, all the TVs were tested in an area that has already switched to digital, and all received the digital Freeview stations without problem. In areas that have yet to switch over, some of the non-DTG-compliant sets may need re-tuning.

Guides: The EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) varied from those able to be toggled between showing the full programme for a particular station or what can be viewed on every station at the current time, and those that would only show what is on every channel at that particular time. These are annotated as Time and Channel, or Time or Channel only. The ability to choose one function or another we considered to be a bonus, although serious TV watchers would probably buy a weekly programme guide.

There was no attempt to ‘star rate’ the TVs as much will depend on what you want or are prepared to spend. We found no real faults with any of the TVs and, generally, you get pretty much what you pay for.

The televisions

	Visua 10.2in TV/DVD/radio	InovTech 15.6in TV/DVD	Cello 19in TV/DVD	Versat 18.5in TV/DVD	Avtex 18.5in TV/DVD	Meos 19in TV/DVD	Foehn & Hirsch 22in TV
Supplier	In21Now	RoadPro	TV Village	Leisurepower	Avtex	Wedodigital	AC DC TV
Digital Tick approved
Size (mm) without stand	W360 H260 folded out	W400 H282 D47	W460 H305 D50	W457 H341 D47	W325 H329 D47	W462 H309 D53	W552 H383 D50
Screen size (Diagonal)	10.2”	15”	19”	18.5”	18.5”	19”	22”
Screen type	LCD	LCD with LED backlight unit	LED	LED backlit	LED	LCD	LCD with LED backlight unit
HD ready	Resolution not stated	Resolution 1600 x 900	Resolution 1366 x 788	Resolution 1366 x 768	Resolution 1366 x 768	Resolution 1680 x 1050	Resolution 1920 x 1080 (full HD)
Weight	2.4kg	1.96kg	3.8kg	3.4kg	4.3kg	5kg	4.45kg
Stand	Flip-down mounting	Swivel only, removable	Swivel only, removable	Fixed	Fixed	Swivel & tilt, removable	Tilt only, removable
Wall mounting	see above
Freeview built in
Integral DVD	Multi-region		Multi-region		Multi-region
Multi standard TV tuning	PAL only	PAL and SECAM (Euro coverage)	PAL and SECAM (Euro coverage)	PAL and SECAM (Euro coverage)	PAL and SECAM (Euro coverage)	PAL, SECAM, NTSC (Worldwide)	PAL and SECAM (Euro coverage)
Quoted power consumption	18W	30W TV 50W DVD 1W standby	26W for TV 30W for DVD	15W TV 24W Satellite 1W standby	30W max DVD 1W standby	30W	22W 2W standby
12-volt regulation built in	External in-line device supplied		External in-line device supplied	External in-line device supplied			External in-line device supplied
On/Off Switch	Remains in standby	Remains in standby	Remains in standby	Remains in standby		Remains in standby	Remains in standby
Record programmes	Via USB	Via USB	Via USB	Via USB	Via USB	Via USB	Via USB
Memory card reader
Auto tune	Digital & analogue	Digital & analogue	Digital & analogue	Digital & analogue	Digital & analogue	Digital & analogue	Digital & analogue
One button tuning
Automatic programme sorting
Sound system	2 x 3W speakers in main unit	2 x 3W speakers	Stereo speakers	2 x 3W speakers	Stereo speakers	Stereo speakers	Flat stereo speakers in the LED
TV/DVD sound quality	Good	Fair	Fair	Very good	Very good	Fair	Very good
CD Sound quality	Good	Poor	Poor	Good	Good	Poor	N/A
DVD picture quality	Very good	Very good	Very good	Very good	Very good	Very good	N/A
DVD problems	None	None	None	None	None	None	None
Electronic Programme Guide	Time only	Time and channel selectable	Time and channel selectable	Time and channel selectable	Time and channel selectable	Time and channel selectable	Channel only
Teletext
Picture quality - head on	Small screen, but very good and sharp	Very good, sharp, clear picture	Very good, sharp, clear picture	Very good, sharp, clear picture	Very good, sharp, clear picture	Very good, sharp, clear picture	Very good, sharp, clear picture
Viewed at 10° angle	Very good	Very good	Very good	Very good	Very good	Very good	Very good
Viewed at 20° angle	Good	Good	Good	Very good	Very good	Good	Very good
Viewed at 30° angle	Good	Slightly darker	Slightly darker	Good	Good	Slightly darker	Good
Viewed at 45° angle	Good - slight loss of clarity	Darker but picture still visible	Darker but picture still visible	Good - slight loss of clarity	Good - slight loss of clarity	Darker but picture still visible	Good - slight loss of clarity
Handbook							Instructions on DVD
Warranty	1 year	1 year	1 year	2 years	3 years (with 0 pixel failure guarantee)	1 year	3 years
Sleep timer
Additional Inputs	HDMI VGA USB SCART AUDIO	2HDMI VGA USB SCART AUDIO	2HDMI VGA USB SCART AUDIO	2HDMI VGA USB SCART	2HDMI VGA USB SCART AUDIO	HDMI VGA USB SCART AV	HDMI VGA USB SCART SPDIF
Common Interface facility
Free to Air Satellite receiver				Requires satellite dish
Headphone connection
External speaker facility	Audio output facility	Via headphone socket	Via headphone socket	Via headphone socket	Audio output & FM transmitter	Via headphone socket	Via headphone socket
FM transmitter
RRP	£239	£249.99	£199.99	£399	£399	£249	£199