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Updating the Audio Video!
Well finally got some time and help to bring the Ol’ Marathon up to date in the AV department.
I will post before and after as well as in progress pictures a little later.
The TV’s had already been updated to HDTV flat screens from the old tube Sony’s but the front TV was behind some acrylic doors and was pretty small…it had to go! In its a place a new Samsung 40″” LED smart TV.
We will run HDMI from the back to this TV, I also tether 4G off my phone to watch stuff from Youtube etc, will use wifi for Netflix etc.
In the back, ripping out the VCR (lol), non working Dish box (which we may replace) DVD player and the original Pioneer amp that was an option. My bus came with nice Miller and Kreisel speakers and sub in a surround arrangement so that will work nicely with the new amp.
New amp is HDMI capable, has a 2 room option allowing us to remove the old Clarion amp for bedroom speakers and Clarion car stereo that Marathon had installed.
In its place is a small HTPC running Win7, and JRiver this will play all content off a big external drive, also has a blu ray player. I also may run a Raspberry Pi I have as well. Wireless keyboard to control PC and using Salon and Bedroom TV’s as monitor…I also have an app on my phone to control all music through program on PC.
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26 Replies
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Before any of you clowns starts in, I want to tell you I understand everything G-man said because we just upgraded our whole house system at home and while he is obviously making fun of the new technology VCR, we went to great pains to not only go upscale with our technology having capability to do all the current stuff on our multiple Samsung Smart TVs with Netflix and other capabilities, we went retro with now having the ability to play 33, 45 and 78 records, cassettes, and CDs, but we can get satellite music, plus we now have a tuner for local radio, we also can play DVDs and blue ray plus VCR.
I know what HTML is and does and on top of all that our security cameras will play through any TV in the house or (hang on here folks) I can watch each camera in real time on my computer PLUS I can use my computer to go back and access any motion each camera has had because the events are marked and easily located. All from the bus.
And one single remote can control everything, just like the Crestron in my bus.
So folks, as soon as I upgrade my rotary dial cell phone with no camera, voice mail or internet access to a smart phone, who are you going to pick on????????
G-man, nice to see you following my lead.
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Awhile back I asked Jon how many gigs he had and the answer was 2. I couldn’t quite figure that out and after some senior moments by both, I realized he was talking about East Tennessee frog gigs and I was trying to talk puter.
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Thanks G-Man. I’ll have to Google all the stuff you put in your coach to figure out what it all does. I read posts like this and learn about stuff I didn’t know I needed to have.
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We finished up the new acrylic face today for the AV cabinet in bedroom, will get pictures up later.
Bottom line all that crap back there put off WAAAAY to much heat, it was rediculous, and it was drawing lots of power with all the wall warts Marathon used to power the switchers and other stuff, and it was a total rats nest of wires.
So far today, we also got the little cooling intake fan working again. I will mount some exhaust fans to help circulate the air, but already I have been able to unplug a lot of stuff which will reduce the heat and stop sucking so much power when dry camping which is a good thing!
You can buy or build a small home theatre PC for not much money, I got one off craigslist for $350, I added a $56 Blu Ray burner if I ever want to play any kind of disc, it will output 1080 video via HDMI.
I can now lie in bed and surf the internet too with wireless keyboard and wifi dongle on a usb port.
I believe the future is the internet, I may not even try and get my satellite going. I will load up content I want on a hard drive and distribute that to the TV’s and Stereo.
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Hey Tom, did you still have a bad Fet Node for lighting? If you have not looked into that (mine are all back in the AV closet) double check the fuses.
Turns out mine was fine, there is another set of 5 amp fuses on what I think is called a Waygo, check those…that was my issue!
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Tell us the make and model you bought off Craigslist. Thanks!
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Do we really need all this shit. When they come out with a reasonable way to give me all the gigabytes I want every month I will embrace this new stuff they are selling us now. You still have to pay for the signal, your choice, pay Peter or Paul.
I am not against it, just not ready to go full bore because suppliers of the signal monitor usage on what I use a month and I feel like a 10 year old being told to eat one cookie only. It’s BS.When I got my bus a couple years ago the P.O. was a tech guru who didn’t drive, he had a driver. So my bus came equiped with Direct tv, Dish tv, Playstation, Apple tv and WI. It had 2 routers, internet in motion and a marine booster antenna that looks like an oil can on the roof. The AV system is out of the Crestron and is operated by a couple of remotes no bigger than the one you have at home. When I got in there I said, man, this is great. Bull, first off how the AV cabinet never started on fire I don’t know, there was enough heat to roast marshmellows.
I really tried to embrace the Apple tv and streaming movies but I just wasn’t ready to be put on a clock on how much I want to watch TV. I know alot of guys out there make it work and that’s a good thing but not everybody is.
I pulled the Dish tv boxes out and us a seperate Direct tv box to watch in motion (not HD) and the other 2 Direct boxes that run off the Wineguard for stationary HD. I still have all the other stuff in there hoping maybe I will understand it better one day and maybe the providers will make it easier for us to understand.
In case a few of you are wondering the Dish ran off the dome so you could get HD in motion, You can’t do that with Direct. The Wineguard was used for stationary HD thru Direct. He was able to go down the road watching HD programing in motion while someone else drove.
My soapbox is over.
Later
bv -
Dick, it is a no name build, just got it from some guy who slaps em together out of his apartment. I looked up some HTPC builds and there are great builds on line with links to buy everything on Amazon, but this was actually cheaper and faster finding one local.
If you want one let me know, I am gonna have him do another one for my condo.
Bernie, T Mobile says I have unlimited data…however I hear they start throttling you after 5 gb a month, but so far I am at 12.5 gb this month and still get pretty fast 4G lte….anyways, long term this will not work great for netflix and stuff, but when I have a good wifi connection I will download what I want and watch it later, or rip dvd’s, blu rays etc.
With audio it just makes sense to ditch all the cd’s, I had like something close to a 1000 after friends gave me thier old collections they had ripped already. Now I can control all that via my phone and the PC.
Its just me driving so not watching TV going down the road, 99% of tv is gabage anyways so I think in my case I am gonna load up on a bunch of video and watch it on demand. I just watched Generation Kill from HBO that a buddy gave me on a hard drive like 3 years ago…so I am way behind.
I eliminated so much crap and power robbing stuff, now have a very low power pc that can supply pretty much everything you could want except live cable/dish tv.
I am not sure but I think with the Apple TV you can do the same thing, watch a bunch of stuff you have on a drive.
Besides dont you guys hang out at fancy RV parks where they have free hi speed wifi? I gotta use my phone at the Pilot and Walmart parking lots 🙂
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I know one thing for sure…….While the ease of use of the Crestron on my coach was the inspiration for the upgrade to the AV stuff in our house, we are not prepared to convert our coach into a rolling AV system. When we are in the coach we are not spending hours listening to music, watching TV, surfing the internet, etc. We are visiting friends, doing tourist stuff or being otherwise occupied so our use of the AV stuff in the bus is limited.
I can understand how we would change our opinion if we spent a lot of time in one spot such as an RV resort, but we haven’t done that yet. We do already have a lot of complexity in our coaches and I don’t want to add to it. I am just now getting used to carrying a cell phone. Someday I hope to have it turned on for longer periods other than when I want to use it. Same with AV equipment.
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G-man – I have enough electrical stuff in my walk in closet to run a space shuttle and like you, I have removed a bunch of AV cables and junk from previous updates over the years. It does get hot back there, but mine has the bedroom A/C ducted in the closet for cooling and there is a snap disc controlling an exhaust fan near the TV. I have been in the Node boxes and checked fuses as you suggested.
Bernie- I feel your pain, we have to really monitor the data useage with Verizon and I end up bumping 12 gig if not careful. We don’t do any movies or streaming and it still eats up our data with just internet and e-mails. We turn off the wi-fi on all the apple devices if not needed and still rack up the data. I’ve bitched at Verizon about the usage and they just blow you off telling you you’re watching too many movies.
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Tom,
Did you get rid of that buzzing on the front TV? If so what was it?
Diane
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Yes he did Diane, he pulled the tube tv out.
Later
bv -
Yes Diane, it was the Modulator and I did switch to a Smart TV as Bernie said, but that had nothing to do with the noise.
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Tom, not the fuses inside the node, they are in the big fuse holder mounted on the wall. A 5 amp one as opposed to the 10 amp ones in the node itself.
I am ditching that modulator in your photo as well!
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Are you referring to the fuse block?
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