Car PC 101

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 11th, 2006, 10:27 pm

I'm hoping to get educated by a few knowledgable audiophiles about purchasing an in-dash DVD player.
I'd like to find something like this;

Something that has the flipout tft monitor/screen has similar options like this unit but not mandatory. Are all in dash DVD units like this come in a double DIN size? I'd like to find a single DIN one if such a creature exists. I guess some will come with enough onboard power to drive the centre channel and I'll source another amp (remotely located) to cover the other 4 corners and the sub. I know my way around wiring and hook-ups but I haven't kept up to speed with the current market on DVD units. Best suggestions/recommendations as to product name and quality would be nice. Oh ya, I'll pay for a quality piece of equipment, but I do have my limits. Thanks for any advice,

John

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » July 11th, 2006, 10:41 pm

Actually Pionner makes an amazing unit. It's single Din with the pop out screen.

Are you looking at just a DVD unit, or are you using this as your pimary audio player too?

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v ... 72,00.html

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/v ... 74,00.html

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 12th, 2006, 12:05 am

Nd4SpdSe wrote:Actually Pionner makes an amazing unit. It's single Din with the pop out screen.
Are you looking at just a DVD unit, or are you using this as your pimary audio player too?

Thanks Mike. I''d like a single DIN unit with a motorized pop-out display that will have 6.1 Ch capability and hopefully, but not necessarily, a power centre channel and will also play CD's, VCD's and have the AM/FM capability too. Am I asking for too much? Like I mentioned before, of course there's not going to be the capacity to dive 6 channels from a single DIN unit so I'd plan on getting a separate amp to cover the other 5.1 channels. I'll have the amp located somewhere else in the car. I'm assuming that if the situation presents itself, a head unit that has a couple of aux video outs for some small satellite monitors for the visors or the headrests. I wonder if there's a discount place in Toronto to find these sorts of units. Even past year's models and discontinued models are also a possibility since I don't turn over audio/video systems very fast anyway. I installed my current Clarion head unit in 95 if that gives anyone an indication how often I change my systems. I guess it's time for a change, don't you think? ...LOL.

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » July 12th, 2006, 12:48 am

For that much quid John, I'd look into a CarPC. It will do more, could sound better and is upgradable. There are some posts regarding the subject and Barry seems to know quite alot about them if you need help. Not to mention that a CarPC is capable of Satelite Nav, larger screens, storing WMAs and other audio files in high capacity, etc.
Just my .02

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 12th, 2006, 1:05 am

PATDIESEL wrote:For that much quid John, I'd look into a CarPC. It will do more, could sound better and is upgradable. There are some posts regarding the subject and Barry seems to know quite alot about them if you need help. Not to mention that a CarPC is capable of Satelite Nav, larger screens, storing WMAs and other audio files in high capacity, etc.
Just my .02

I didn't know about the car PC thing. I'm not sure if I'd be getting over my head in something like that. I'd like it to be as little obtrussive to the interior as possible. In other words, when nothing is playing, all that one might see would be the faceplate of the head unit . Just like any other head unit. I'm not sure if Satelite nav is much of a priority for me since the car is not a daily driver anyway. Then there's the size of a car PC also. Where could I hide a beasty like that? I really didn't want to eat up any trunk/hatch space on this one. Maybe Barry could recommend some units or enlighten me as to what's good and what to avoid also. Thanks Pat!!

mr1in6billion · Post by **mr1in6billion** » July 12th, 2006, 1:55 am

mp3car

My mother board (m10k) is only 6.6in x 6.6in, and the nanos are under 5in by 5in. It's a lot of work involved, but it can save money and they are generally more flexable in doing what you want.

It's all personal choice tho.

Nd4SpdSe · Post by **Nd4SpdSe** » July 12th, 2006, 2:01 am

Lol, when your thinking of a CarPC, don't think of my setup. When I started my project over 4 years ago, the market didn't exist, so I had to built it from scratch with what was available, but I did as I saw fit as well. You can get dedicated CarPCs the size of an A/C inverter, and even some the size of a desktop CD-ROm drive. About those systems, talk to Deimos and Bockek, Deimos has been working on one for a while now, and Bochek actually has his runing I believe. Even then John with the Mazda3 in TSS has one implemented in his car since winter, you could come down to check it out, but you do have several "local" resources if you want to go with that path.

If you don't want to go with the CarPC router, myself I
m a big fan of the Pioneer AVIC line, but you may have to choose between that and the AVH-P7800DVD pending if you want to sacrifice GPS or 5.1 sound, but I may be wrong

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 12th, 2006, 4:14 pm

Bump for some more ideas of different head units and possible sources. Will even consider a good used one too since there's lots of showy cars that like to keep up with the mainstream of ICE and need a place to sell off there old units.

alleycat29 · Post by **alleycat29** » July 13th, 2006, 2:35 pm

hey js just wanted to say ur car is pretty sick...

Typhoonk · Post by **Typhoonk** » July 13th, 2006, 11:58 pm

Pioneer's are sweet.

but this is the one I'm leaning toward if I take the plunge

It's the Clarion VRX765VD

http://www.clarion.com/ca/en/products/2 ... 35720.html

-Fully Motorized 7-Inch LCD
-Touch Panel Control with Soil-Resistant Finish
-3-Band Parametric Equalizer
-Built-in Amplifier Canceller
-DVD±R/RW Ready
-CD-R/RW Ready
-iPod Control
-CeNET Control of: DVD Changer (easy), 5.1-Channel Processor, TV
Tuner, 6-Disc CD Changer and Satellite Receiver
-1-Channel Video Output
-6-Channel RCA Line Level Output
-200 Watts Amplifier (50 Watts × 4 Channels)

Bochek · Post by **Bochek** » July 14th, 2006, 9:52 am

Typhoonk wrote:Pioneer's are sweet.

but this is the one I'm leaning toward if I take the plunge

It's the Clarion VRX765VD

http://www.clarion.com/ca/en/products/2 ... 35720.html

-Fully Motorized 7-Inch LCD
-Touch Panel Control with Soil-Resistant Finish
-3-Band Parametric Equalizer
-Built-in Amplifier Canceller
-DVD±R/RW Ready
-CD-R/RW Ready
-iPod Control
-CeNET Control of: DVD Changer (easy), 5.1-Channel Processor, TV
Tuner, 6-Disc CD Changer and Satellite Receiver
-1-Channel Video Output
-6-Channel RCA Line Level Output
-200 Watts Amplifier (50 Watts × 4 Channels)

LOL look what we where talking about in the toronto mx3 club forum
http://www.mx-3.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.ph ... c&&start=0

exact same head unit (1/2 way down) BTW you need their digital decoder to get full 5.1 surround sound. (MSRP 599.99 CAD)

Bochek

Typhoonk · Post by **Typhoonk** » July 14th, 2006, 4:38 pm

ya that's right the decoder thingy.

Have u checked out the panasonic flip out. Has RCA's for front, rear, sub and a center channel rca out

hmmmmmmm

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 15th, 2006, 9:50 pm

PATDIESEL wrote:For that much quid John, I'd look into a CarPC. It will do more, could sound better and is upgradable. There are some posts regarding the subject and Barry seems to know quite alot about them if you need help. Not to mention that a CarPC is capable of Satelite Nav, larger screens, storing WMAs and other audio files in high capacity, etc.
Just my .02

Pat, once again, you have the inside scoop and are always one step ahead of me.....and I like that...LOL. Went to a car show today and was pleasantly enlighten as to the flexability of the newer generation PC's. To be more precise, I had no idea that there were PC's made especially to be used for automotive applications. Or more specifically, just plain smaller motherboards and designed to work in a higher heat environmant. What suprised me was that there are a lot of add-ons available for these PC's strictly aimed for ICE. But the big one that put it over the top for me was that I can use one of the serial ports to connect my megasquirt to. Viola, no laptop needed anymore and I can have real time visualization of the megatune guage spreadsheet while data logging at the same time. Kinda like Fast and the Furious. Not that It was intentional but I really like the fact that I can leave it connected to the Megasquirt / megatune all of the time.
Now here's where I could really use Barry's guidance. I'll list some of the items that were proposed to me by the vender and being a computer noob (yes I'm a noob....just type a lot of posts on BB's, that's all...LOL) I'm hoping that Barry or someone can say , "yep go for it...good idea", or, "not such a good idea, I recommend this/that".

Processor - EPIA Mini-ITX (MII12 - basically it's the MII motherboard with a processor speed of 1.2 GHZ), 1 GB Ram, 60GB HD, DVD ROM/CD-RW, 2 serial ports, 6 USB's, 1x Expansion slot
Options - Optical out, 5.1 Dolby Digital/THX/DTS, TV Tuner, Am/FM tuner (although vender is a bit skeptical that there's an AM tuner available out there), Possibibly nav too but not sure at this point. OS is Windows XT I believe???
I won't be running an ancilliary tuner whatsoever. The plan was to get a home computer 5.1 sound system and integrate those speakers into the car intself, including the 10" subwoofer. There will be a small brain /controller for these speakers that will do all of the level adjustments including volume. And I belive there may be a remote for that too but I'm not sure. The trick I guess will be using the tuner on the touchscreen display to tune in am/fm/TV. That's where I'll need some education on. I realize that I'll need a power converter for the sub from 120V to 12V. I'm hoping the PC will fit in the glove box or at least uner the seat. Because it has the expansion slot, I'm somewhat resticted to a minimum overall height/thickness of the unit. The vender basically builds these at his shop according to customer needs. Which makes sense since you'll get only what you want as far as features go. From what I've been told, the home computer 5.1 speaker system adapted to a car is on par with some very high end sound systems because of the lack of need for high wattage amplifiers. Again,I could use some confirmation on that too. Of course I'm looking at getting a micro keyboard so that I can play with the computer (hopefully one that has a volume control on it too) since it'll have a CD burner in it too. I'm also thinking of a wireless mouse that I believe can have a built -in volume control on it to???? My other concern was the touchscreen LCD display. I was originally going for the motorized unit but apparently, they won't swivel or tilt towards the driver, whereas the manual one can or does twist or swivel to either side. Also, I was told that for a quick verification of screen quality is to look at the display from a side angle and see if the picture wash's out. The 3 that were on display all did, including one that costs 599cdn. So I think to get a single DIN retractable 6.5" or 7" LCD touchscreen, I'd have to pay more than 600 or 700 $$$$ ???? That's the biggest cost in this whole project so far, which kind of bites considering I could get a nice 15" flatscreen monitor for cheaper. Where's the logic in that??? A big motivator for me is that everything will be hidden - the monitor will be retracted, the CPU tucked away under the seat or in the glovebox, the mouse and speaker controller under the other seat. Basically, stealth mode when not in use .
Anyway, Barry or anyone, please, you computer geekies (Mikey is included in there too....LOL) let me know your thoughts, pros/ cons, recommended brand names for components in the system etc. Thanks for any insight one may provide.

John

Oh ya, almost forgot. Vender told me if I also got the wireless internet feature, all I'd have to do is find a suitable hotel or office complex parking lot and do it from there. Is that possible??? I told you I was a noob....LOL.

Bochek · Post by **Bochek** » July 15th, 2006, 10:13 pm

there was a car pc on the mp3car forums that fit inside a double din slot. the whole thing. done. used laptop harddrive and other odds and ends parts.

Bochek

jschrauwen · Post by **jschrauwen** » July 16th, 2006, 2:00 am

Bochek wrote:there was a car pc on the mp3car forums that fit inside a double din slot. the whole thing. done. used laptop harddrive and other odds and ends parts.
Bochek

Thanks Adam, I think I may have saw that. If it takes up the double DIN slot, where does the Monitor go? I actually had that option too, but I'm hoping for an as stealthfull set-up as possible.With the HD in the glove box or under the seat, I'll only have to access it when changing movies or CD's. But with a 60 GB memory, there's tons of space for tunes. I'll have lots of extra USB ports for IPod or memory stck usage too. The other point is that a cloth covered grill will be made for the bottom cubby space (when it's removed) under the disply to accomodate the centre channel of the 5.1. I still have the option down the road to convert to 6.1 or even 7.1. Although I'm not a gamer at all, I won't have to worry about valuable memory space being eatin up by their programs, which I've heard can be quite healthy.
I had a brief look on Barry's Garage and it appears that there are some familiar names with his car PC and i'm hoping he has the time to elaborate in here.

Hey Adam, what did you guys do after leaving the Solo II place?