small, lightweight Digital TV Converter Box c/w 12VDC input

[dmews001]

Our 2007 BF26RSB came with a 12VDC LCD TV mounted to the center cabinet door of the cabover entertainment center. Unfortunately, the TV did not have a build-in digital TV tuner suitable for digital over-the-air broadcast.

Shopping around for a small and lightweight converter, we found the Artec T3AP Pro at http://www.dtvboxanswers.com/artect3apro.html.

A must-have for me is 12VDC capability, as we tend to stay in State and National Parks with no electrical hookups. Although this converter comes standard with a 110VAC adapter for home use, a 12VDC car adapter is available as an option (at the time I bought mine, the 12VDC car adapter was not available, so I built my own).

I've included three pics of the installation and setup. Since we have the cabover entertainment center with 12VDC outlet behind the center [swing-up] cabinet door, installation was a snap. All I needed was a 12V splitter (Radioshack #270-043 Enercellâ„¢ 12VDC Vehicle Power Outlet Y-Adapter). It was easy to route the 12VDC wires from the outlet/splitter to the converter box through the existing split cable tubing for the TV. I fastened the converter box with hook and loop on top of our TV - a little bit angled down for better receiption of the remote control signal (I cut a piece of scrap foam into a wedge shape and placed it between the bottom of the converter box and the top edge of the TV - holding it in place with a dab of goop).

The channel setup of the converter is easy to follow using the remote control it comes with. There are also controls on top of the converter box.

We are really happy with this converter and the quality of over-the-air broadcast is excellent. It worked out the box and so far (with some 1 1/2 years of use) it has been reliable and never let us down. Best of all, no shore power, inverter or generator is ever needed.

Note: For some reason it does not have the Pass Through feature anymore. At the time we bought ours this feature was included. We paid $53.99 (minus $40 from the TV Converter Box Coupon Program at the time). The current price is $41.99 - that may explain it.

--Detlef

[whemme]

Note: For some reason it does not have the Pass Through feature anymore. At the time we bought ours this feature was included. We paid $53.99 (minus $40 from the TV Converter Box Coupon Program at the time). The current price is $41.99 - that may explain it.

--Detlef

In my opinion that Analog Pass-Thru feature is really desirable in a Born Free coach because without it, you will need an A-B antenna switch in order to run your LCD TV off of cable when you chose. An unnecessary complication in my opinion.

I have been using a Zenith DTT901 Digital TV converter for the last 2 years and it works well including the analog pass-thru feature.

[dmews001]

I should have mentioned that, if analog pass-through is desired, Artec makes other 12VDC models in the same lightweight housing, namely the Artec T3AP Pro DTV Converter Box (see more here: http://www.ezdigitaltv.com/Artec_T3AP_Pro.html). It's just that at one point they dropped this feature from my particular model for some reason.

What I liked about the Artec is the small footprint and direct 12VDC capability.

--Detlef