moorehed

anyone have any experience? im curius as to if there are any affordable solutions.

i saw a blaupunkt on ebay for about 280. it looked like maybe it could go indash. not sure. but it would need to be seperate from your normal head unit. it would be cool to have a normal head unit for cds and stuff but that also played dvds. crutchfield had 3 of these but they were like $1000+.

is anything else needed besides the dvd player and an LCD screen? anything to power it? connect it to the LCD? to the speakers? anyone have one of these?

moorehed

my car is my home. hence car dvd = home theatre

Master J

I don't have one yet either but am about to take the plunge I think (I have to get up the balls to do some cutting to my 2001 Ford Ranger). If you are against going the in dash route Apex actually has a small external player that outputs a DTS/DD signal for about 300 bucks or less. If you are going with an external player, you will have to install an LCD screen and run a composite video cable to it from the player, and possibly left and right RCA audio signals if the unit you buy has built in speakers.

Preferably you would like to have a dedicated 5.1 system, requiring external amplification for each channel as well as a decoder. I picked up an older Sherwood DTS decoder off an auction for quite cheap, that will also do a type of pseudo pro-logic decoding for analog/non DTS sources called crcle surround.

The advantage to the indash players is that they do not require extensive interior modifications to mount screens and you can use the built in amplification, as well as the smallish built in center speaker on some of the units. Of course the price is a bit higher but you have to ask yourself if the built in amplification will be enough.

J

Master J

Another option I have been tinkering with as well is to integrate my laptop's DVD player into a system and possibly install just one center roof mounted drop down LCD as well. This would be a little more intensive to wire correctly, not to mention the laptop would have to be set to output each time, so I will probably by pass this route.

My main priority will be to install another amplifier for the rear speakers which currently are just used for rear fill and factory powered. The fronts and 12" Kicker Solobaric sub are already amplified, so they will not be a problem.

Right now a center channel will probably not be included just to due to the simple fact that I dont want to cut up my dash to do it right. I will just run the processor in phantom center mode.

moorehed, if you have any specific questions drop me a line in this thread or e-mail, and we can trade thoughts. I have done alot of car stereo installs but this will be my first go at mobile video. Kind of makes me wish I knew someone who didn't care if I practiced on theri car first

J

moorehed

well, i was looking on ebay and saw this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI...tem=1247226955

a DVD player for $289, which looks like i would mount it in the dash? i dont know, but id have to also have my regular head unit. then get an LCD for anywhere from 150+.

i guess i would run the dvd player audio outs to my head unit and it would play through the sound in my car? not sure if my head supports this.

the other option i guess is to just upgrade my head unit to an all in one for a LOT of cash.

im not quite sure how any of these would work as ive never actually had my hands on a unit...

master j, if you want a car to practice on... buy the equip and you can put it in my car free of charge.

moorehed

im also not quite sure how you'd power this thing.

Master J

Well that unit you are looking at is not an in dash type. Most likely you would mount it under you seats or even better in the glove box. Though I do not see the power hook up, it will almost positively be hooked up with a 12V positive wire coming from the battery (or jumped off the 12 V positive line going to your head unit). The unit will then need to be grounded to the car chassis or once again tie into the head units negative ground.

If your head unit has an auxillary stero input you will have no problems hooking it up for stero sound only, if not you are kind of out of luck using the factory deck though you could install a dedicated amp and set of speakers just for the DVD player.

If you dont want to mess with external amplifiers just get a new head unit with an AUX input, hook the player to it, install your screen and be on your way

Justin

moorehed

are there any units that are a head unit w/all normal head unit features and also can play DVD for less than 1k??? im not relaly ready to spend that type of cash at the moment...

Master J

Well Panasonic makes a unit CQ-DVR7000U which is an in-dash player that goes for about 1000. You may be able to find a deal on their last years model which is more or less the same thing.

With either one you still need to add a monitor. For the price that external Blaupunkt coupled with a monitor will still be your best bet money wise.

The Blaupunkt is actually intiguing me quite a bit. Its only about 2 and a half inches in height so should be able to be tucked away easily out of sight or in my glove compartment.

J

moorehed

i was looking around and foudn these less expensive in dash units... check em out. what do you think?

http://www.electronics-pluz.com/mobvisdvplay.html
http://www.electronics-pluz.com/panindasdvdp.html
http://www.ugonet.com/powacpadmobi.html
http://www.kandtsales.com/auto/dvdpl...vdplayers.html

Master J

Out of all three brands of players I would go with the Panasonic first, Power Acoustik second, and Mobilevision, who I have never heard of last.

The mobilevision is only 15x4 in the power department which is very low now of days, not to mention I would have to really wonder about any kind of customer service or warranty with an unknown company if a problem arose.I am guessing by now most disc compatibility issues should be taken care of, but you never know with no name players.

The only problem with the Panasonic is I am pretty sure it is a first gen unit I remember coming out a couple years ago so it may have similar problems other early Panasonics encountered dealing with discs like the Matrix. Also I think this unit has a digital output that is proprietary, and only works with the Panasonic in car DD/DTS decoders if you should go that route, though an adapter may be available. This Panasonic is a stand alone in dash player though, so you will need external amplification of a head unit with an aux. input to pass the sound to.

The in dash Power Acoustik models are very intriguing if you want to keep your current head unit as well. Because they have a rear auxillary input for another A/V source, you could hook the RCA outputs from your current in dash player to that input and the speakers in your car to the Power Acoustik so you would not have to install external amplification of any kind. Of course this DVD player also plays CDs so you could do away with your current head unit all together.

The external Power Acoustik players are about the same as the Blaupunkt you were looking at and would still require you to buy a new head unit with an Aux. input. The two players in their product line are identical feature wise, with one just being a bit smaller.

There's alot of choices out there and you have yet to even think about your LCD display.

J

ECydeDave

http://www.streeteffectz.com Go check out the section called Street Video. LOTS of pics of in car multimedia systems.

moorehed

this is my favorite so far:

http://www.millionbuy.com/pancqdvr7000u.html

i foudn it there for i think 699, as opposed to 1k at crutchfield.

as for amplification, and only being 15x4, i dont think it woudl really matter as im already running everything through a 4 ch. amp.