My RV's 12 Volt TV Has a Built In DVD Player Do I Still Need a Digital TV Converter Box?

by Tina
(Pinellas Park, Florida)

My TV has a built in DVD Player do I still need a converter box and if I do is there any way of hooking it up to run on battery?

ANSWER: Greetings Tina thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.

The answer to your first question is yes you may need a Digital TV Converter Box for your current TV. The fact that your TV has a built-in DVD Player does not mean that your TV has a Digital ATSC Digital Tuner built-in. In fact the older your TV is the less chance it has of having a built-in ATSC Digital TV Tuner.

You need to look at your TV's Owner's Manual in the specification section to see if it shows having a built-in ATSC Digital Tuner. Do not confuse this with a NTSC Tuner, an NTSC tuner is an Analog Tuner and will need a Digital TV Converter Box in order to receive Digital TV signals.

If your TV does not have a built-in ATSC Digital Tuner then you need to look at the options below on what you can do to start receiving Digital TV signals.

Option 1: You can buy a Digital TV Converter Box. The Converter Box I highly recommend for RVers is the Zinwell ZAT-970A Digital to Analog TV Converter Box which is very highly rated by its users. Unfortunately that converter box runs on 120 volt power and you would need to hook up a 12 Volt To 120 Volt Power Inverter to your RV's batteries in order to use it.

In searching the internet I have found some Digital TV Converter Boxes that have been modified (hacked) to run on 12 volts. I am not going to link to those boxes as the modifications have been done without the converter box manufacturers permission. I will tell you that the modified boxes I found were expensive running anywhere from $99.00 to $199.00. Of course there are no manufacturer warranties on those boxes.

Option 2: You can purchase a new 12 Volt TV that has a built-in ATSC Digital Tuner. This way you would not need a Digital TV Converter Box or have to get a Power Inverter to run the Zinwell ZAT-970A Digital to Analog TV Converter Box that I recommend.

If you do choose Option 1 or 2 and you are not happy with the number of Digital TV Channels you are receiving you may want to look at the answer I gave to the question below:

How Can We Improve The Digital TV Reception In Our RV?

Hopefully the above information will help you resolve your current TV dilemma.

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Happy RVing

RVing Al