MOD Replaced bedroom TV in 2017 Newmar Ventana

[Neal]

I have three TV's sitting on my "living room" floor in my coach awaiting the desire to perform labor to rise. I already replaced the exterior TV, was pretty easy other than it is large and needs precise location of the mount, etc. That's done and posted in another thread. Last night I figured I'd tackle one of the TV's which should be the easiest, the bedroom TV - a Samsung 4K QLED TV. Newmar has a way of entertaining us desiring to do mods and upgrades, this one wasn't that bad at all. The wood that the TV mount is screwed into is the hardest hardwood known to mankind. Getting the screws out took some effort. I had hoped I could just use my easy peezy Dewalt screwdriver but that almost caused more problems in stripping the phillips head screws. I immediately switched to manual mode and it was tough getting the screws out but I got them out. 3 across the top, 2 on the bottom, and TV is out. The plug is removed from the left closet, upper right and the power brick is adhesive attached to the inside wall of the TV cabinet. Newmar likes to have these wide openings for TV mounting which is odd, defeats the ability to mount a bracket to a wall like most TV mounting.

I first decided to test the Newmar installed HDMI cable to see if I needed to pull through a newer and better 8K 48 Gpps HDMI cable. Apple TV reported no issues with 4K HDR and 4:2:2 format so no need to change cables which shouldn't be that hard to tape two ends together and pull a new one through while pulling out the old one (one would hope).

The holes on the Samsung TV matched in width but the location up/down is different from the 2016 Sony Bravia, but of course. So I marked and drilled new holes in the Newmar fabricated mounting plate and attached to the back of the Samsung TV. Good thing I bought a mounting accessories kit and also a mount just in case so I would at least have needed hardware and as Newmar used M8 screws in the Sony and the Samsung needs M4, I was able to come up with the needed screws and spacers.

I removed the 90 degree coax connector Newmar used as any additional elbow or connection is signal loss. I could have used HDMI 90 degree connectors which I have on hand but didn't but the HDMI connections are on the inside "side" of the TV so you have to carefully tuck the cables out of view, wasn't an issue, but again didn't want to add connectors if not really needed.

I didn't think I'd be that amazed from this Samsung TV as it's a 32 inch and I also have this one at home in my kitchen but I was wrong, the picture is amazing, the features of the TV are amazing. However....

The one thing I did not expect was a problem I had been experiencing at this campground. The cable TV here has been horrendous, with the Sony Bravia's I'd get channels that would say audio only, some would have audio from another channel and picture from another. It is NOT this campground, it was in fact the 2016 model Sony Bravia TV. The Samsung scanned for channels and the cable tv here is AMAZING. Digital, High Def, I thought I was watching Verizon FIOS at home the picture is so good on cable. All of the networks identified with the channel numbers, holy wow, for this alone the upgrade is worth it. For those of us that have been struggling with coax in the motorhome, some of it is the splitters Newmar uses which I posted in another thread. But I never realized it was the tuner i.e. television that was the problem!!!

I'm a big fan of LG and Samsung TV's. The other TV's going in are all LG mainly due to LG offers the right sizes (42 and 48, front and televator respectively) and only Samsung offers a 32 inch 4K TV. So this is what I used in the bedroom:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B093CP66L7/?tag=rvf01-20

Overall, didn't expect to be this pleased with the change of TV's and wondered if the 2016 Sony Bravia was really that bad, well, I'm thrilled with the change out and the features and improvements this TV provides. The modern day TV's offer many built in features, streaming capabilities and also their own network of TV channels to also help move away from SAT and more towards streaming in the RV lifestyle.

 

[Gizmo]

I see you had problems getting the screws out and I tried my front TV and no luck. Getting the grates off and reaching up will sitting on the dash it was impossible to get enough pressure on the screws not to strip out the heads. I gave up and run the power cord into the media cabinet above the driver set so I can just unplug the TV so the remote doesn't turn on both TVs in the living room.

 

[Scotttkd2]

I see you had problems getting the screws out and I tried my front TV and no luck. Getting the grates off and reaching up will sitting on the dash it was impossible to get enough pressure on the screws not to strip out the heads. I gave up and run the power cord into the media cabinet above the driver set so I can just unplug the TV so the remote doesn't turn on both TVs in the living room.

Same here, still don't know what I want to do with that space, as we don't use the front TV and fight the remote issue you mentioned. It also seems to allow a lot of heat into the interior, even with the magneshade in place. I think its a lack of insulation behind the fiberglass cap at the top, but haven't taken the time to dig into it yet. For now its just a full time blank TV. Seems like a waste though......

 

[Gizmo]

Same here, still don't know what I want to do with that space, as we don't use the front TV and fight the remote issue you mentioned. It also seems to allow a lot of heat into the interior, even with the magneshade in place. I think its a lack of insulation behind the fiberglass cap at the top, but haven't taken the time to dig into it yet. For now its just a full time blank TV. Seems like a waste though......

I just going to leave it place and unplugged. I was running WAZE on while traveling but quit doing it. Maybe the next caretaker of the coach might want it.