Tailgate question

[StreamCat]

We want to have a TV at our tailgates this year to watch games. Those of you who do this, could you tell me what I need? Looking for several options. Thanks. Go Cats!!!!

 

[SciCat]

My older brother has a tv at his tailgate. He has a generator for power, hotspot for internet connection, laptop for interface, and table to hold his TV.

 

[FloridAlum]

If I am not mistaken, if you have TV at your tailgate you also must have extra beer to accommodate The people from the message board who will congregate around your television

 

[Sheffielder]

I looked into this last year. For me, the generator was cost-prohibitive (and a little too big to fit into the car with all the other stuff), but apart from that I would actually recommend a Directv portable dish over a hotspot unless you're sure that your LTE connection can support that kind of sustained connection...nothing worse than having choppy, unreliable video after you've spent all that $ on a setup, unless you just want OTA network access to ABC.

 

[Williesfan]

You don't need a generator if you have a marine deep cell battery.

 

[StreamCat]

If I am not mistaken, if you have TV at your tailgate you also must have extra beer to accommodate The people from the message board who will congregate around your television

We always have extra beer.

 

[Cardiacagoan]

Get a power inverter that hooks into the cigarette lighter and use an extension chord. You will obviously need to keep the car running though. We normally do the bunny ears/converter box setup and watch games on channels 2 5 and 7.

 

[hdhntr1]

I looked into this last year. For me, the generator was cost-prohibitive (and a little too big to fit into the car with all the other stuff), but apart from that I would actually recommend a Directv portable dish over a hotspot unless you're sure that your LTE connection can support that kind of sustained connection...nothing worse than having choppy, unreliable video after you've spent all that $ on a setup, unless you just want OTA network access to ABC.

There are some pretty cheap small generators. Amazon.com has them as cheap as about $100 and Harbor Freight sometime has an add for a cheap one. With todays LED tvs, don't need a big one unless you are trying to provide other services. Could run the car but that gets expensive. THat said, Battery with inverter would keep you from hauling gas. Look in solar energy suppliers. Other alternative is I would look at propane fired. Rather cart around a propane tank than a gas can. Those will cost you about $250.

Hey if you are talking a Honda or Yamaha, those will cost you $1000 but you likely do not need something like that.

 

[Williesfan]

Led TV to a laptop or IPad surge protector to converter to marine battery. No noise from a generator, you don't have to keep a car running. You will need some streaming source.

 

[hdhntr1]

Led TV to a laptop or IPad surge protector to converter to marine battery. No noise from a generator, you don't have to keep a car running. You will need some streaming source.

A solid battery and inverter should be able to do the job with the low power requirements of newer tvs. Solar system batteries could work as well. Typical cost for 12 volt 100-125 amp hour battery would be about $250 but would still need a charger and an inverter. Inverter probably costs about $65. Otherwise could go for 35 amphour batteries at around $100 but still need inverter and a way of charging it.

 

[Bwm57]

We used Slingbox and the Slingbox app out of a phone last year, it worked well.
Ran the TV off of a portable battery power source.

 

[StreamCat]

Hey, thanks everybody! You were a lot of help!

 

[docrugby1]

Make sure you get a quality inverter-many a dead laptop from cheap inverters