KVH TV on an MFD, YGWYPF

Continuing on the subject of testing KVH’s M3 TV system, pictured above (and bigger here) is the nifty little 12v Direct TV receiver and RF remote that are included. The 3 LEDs along the top left of the receiver tell you most everything you need to know about voltage status, antenna activity, and overall system happiness. In the background you can make out the single coax cable that both powers the antenna and brings back the signal. And then there’s that Navman 8120 multifunction display (MFD) I’ve been testing recently. Pretty cool that you can watch TV on a 12” plotter/sounder/(radar soon) that seems to be selling for around $2,200 on the street.

But the video quality did seem to vary noticeably and in price order, with the Garmin 3210 below (and bigger here) in the middle, and the E-120 pictured last week—which has a video coprocessor—at the top. Hence my cute You Get What You Pay For title. Incidently, none of these MFDs seem able to use their full screens for any sort of video display. But, of course, if you did have a KVH M3 aboard, watching it at the helm would be very much secondary to using it with a nice flat screen TV or two (which I just don’t happen to have on Ralph).