Media Center / AV Considerations / 12v Networks

[Mohsen]

Moving on the from the traditional and more obvious arrangement of a car head unit, amp and speakers and perhaps a 240ac HiFi to supplement...

So the I am looking to tick the following boxes.

1) One centralised media server - films/music on a hard drive

2) Be able to play said media from 2 locations (Saloon and Cabin)

3) Be able to introduce media from another device via spotify, apple airplay, vlc and the like..

As I am yet to line out, wired solutions would be fine. I would of course prefer to run as much as possible on 12vdc however, I think Raspberry Pi and Arduino might require too much learning. I haven't yet decided on speakers, however, 6x9 car speakers and a slimline sub would hide nicely in the lining.

Has anyone had any success bodging together a similar system?

[bill brown]

Simplest 12 volt option would probably be a wifi hard drive such as the WD My Passport which could stream to a tablet of your choice which would then link to a 12 volt bluetooth amplifier, I use one made by E-Audio. It can be placed out of sight and connected to (wired) speaker of your choice. You can then play any media on the drive or stream from Spotify, Netflix etc if you have a suitable internet connection. If not Three's Go Binge seems like a cost effective solution, tethering via a phone or tablet.

[AjW]

A Raspberry pi with an installation of kodi and a external USB drive is not a very difficult setup; there are plenty of step by step guides online.

Have a look on eBay for T class amps as these can be run from a 12v supply. I used a 3amp 12v variable voltage step up convertor (cigarette socket plug) to drive mine, though the amp will give about 200w if matched with the right speakers and current source.  You could also use a normal car amp.

If you use a 3/4g WiFi dongle you can control the Pi using your phone/tablet, though this can be done without a dongle. Initial setup of the pi is easiest with the pi connected to the TV and a keyboard. 

Not as tricky as it seems!

 

 

[Dr Bob]

1 hour ago, AjW said:

A Raspberry pi with an installation of kodi and a external USB drive is not a very difficult setup; there are plenty of step by step guides online.

Have a look on eBay for T class amps as these can be run from a 12v supply. I used a 3amp 12v variable voltage step up convertor (cigarette socket plug) to drive mine, though the amp will give about 200w if matched with the right speakers and current source.  You could also use a normal car amp.

If you use a 3/4g WiFi dongle you can control the Pi using your phone/tablet, though this can be done without a dongle. Initial setup of the pi is easiest with the pi connected to the TV and a keyboard. 

Not as tricky as it seems!

 

 

+1

raspberry pie + Kodi + hard drive is what we have. Control via wifi to mobile keyboard. If in doubt put a lan cable ( or two) down the boat. It was easy to do and I am an idiot.

[Mohsen]

1 hour ago, AjW said:

A Raspberry pi with an installation of kodi and a external USB drive is not a very difficult setup; there are plenty of step by step guides online.

Have a look on eBay for T class amps as these can be run from a 12v supply. I used a 3amp 12v variable voltage step up convertor (cigarette socket plug) to drive mine, though the amp will give about 200w if matched with the right speakers and current source.  You could also use a normal car amp.

If you use a 3/4g WiFi dongle you can control the Pi using your phone/tablet, though this can be done without a dongle. Initial setup of the pi is easiest with the pi connected to the TV and a keyboard. 

Not as tricky as it seems!

 

 

Youre probably right. Its just that with my fit out I feel like I am having to learn so much all the time, be it wiring, plumbing, carpentry... the thought of having to sit down and learn another thing feels like a pain.

So assuming I had KODI setup on Pi connected to a usb hard drive, what is the best method of receiving that data to lets say 2 video outputs (TV x 2) and 2 audio speaker sets?

[Ssscrudddy]

A 12v pc was mentioned. Have you seen the price of 12v PSUs.

[Robbo]

7 hours ago, Mohsen said:

 

Have a look at Fusion (https://www.fusionentertainment.com/marine) - does most of what you want already.

[mrsmelly]

We have a portable wireless, very easy to move from cabin to cabin.

[Rob-M]

1 minute ago, mrsmelly said:

We have a portable wireless, very easy to move from cabin to cabin.

We went modern and bought a portable DAB radio. Same benefit of being able to listen throughout the boat with no cabling required and we can even take it outside.

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, Rob-M said:

We went modern and bought a portable DAB radio. Same benefit of being able to listen throughout the boat with no cabling required and we can even take it outside.

We tried dab but found it didnt work everywhere but coverage may well have improved. We now have a fab Sony portable ghetto blaster with radio, cassette and cd player combined so we can record from cds onto cassette for the car. Sound quality is awesome and it was a tenner from the charity shop in immaculate condition cos of course its not the latest fad 

[Dave Payne]

45 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

We tried dab but found it didnt work everywhere but coverage may well have improved. We now have a fab Sony portable ghetto blaster with radio, cassette and cd player combined so we can record from cds onto cassette for the car. Sound quality is awesome and it was a tenner from the charity shop in immaculate condition cos of course its not the latest fad 

haha totally missing the point of this thread.

 

[mrsmelly]

2 minutes ago, Dave Payne said:

haha totally missing the point of this thread.

 

Err actualy NOT..........just extracting the michael 

[Dr Bob]

9 hours ago, Mohsen said:

Youre probably right. Its just that with my fit out I feel like I am having to learn so much all the time, be it wiring, plumbing, carpentry... the thought of having to sit down and learn another thing feels like a pain.

So assuming I had KODI setup on Pi connected to a usb hard drive, what is the best method of receiving that data to lets say 2 video outputs (TV x 2) and 2 audio speaker sets?

Have 2 Pi's networked via a network (Lan cable) with the USB drive on one of them. That's what we did at home for two TVs, but just one on boat.

[Mohsen]

6 hours ago, Robbo said:

Have a look at Fusion (https://www.fusionentertainment.com/marine) - does most of what you want already.

Cheers Robbo, seems great for Audio but not so great for Video.

[Mohsen]

2 hours ago, Dr Bob said:

Have 2 Pi's networked via a network (Lan cable) with the USB drive on one of them. That's what we did at home for two TVs, but just one on boat.

It seems like Raspberry Pi is the solution and I'll just have to do the requisite learning. I'll take your advice and run a network cable down the boat whilst I still can!

[Rob-M]

44 minutes ago, Mohsen said:

It seems like Raspberry Pi is the solution and I'll just have to do the requisite learning. I'll take your advice and run a network cable down the boat whilst I still can!

Setting up Kodi on the Pi is very straight forward, have a look at https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/usage/kodi/.

 

[WotEver]

51 minutes ago, Mohsen said:

I'll take your advice and run a network cable down the boat whilst I still can!

Use Cat7 cable while you’re at it to be at least somewhat futureproof. It’s only a short run so the cost difference is irrelevant really. 

[Dave Payne]

Think SSD also!

 

 

[Dave Payne]

6 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Use Cat7 cable while you’re at it to be at least somewhat futureproof. It’s only a short run so the cost difference is irrelevant really. 

I hear this every now and then, i cant think if many benefits really over 5e in such an environment?

[WotEver]

Just now, Dave Payne said:

I hear this every now and then, i cant think if many benefits really over 5e in such an environment?

Who knows what the future will bring?  If the next all-singing media player runs 4k at 10Gbps then Cat5 would be a non-starter. It’s only a short run so why not put a few metres of Cat7 in?

[Dave Payne]

1 minute ago, WotEver said:

Who knows what the future will bring?  If the next all-singing media player runs 4k at 10Gbps then Cat5 would be a non-starter. It’s only a short run so why not put a few metres of Cat7 in?

From my limited knowledge, and going back a few years, do you not have to earth the shielding in cat7, not sure how that would work on a boat.

Cat5e can handle 4k streaming no problem, plenty of people are doing this already via netflix and such like, with a standard 5e cable and gigabit ethernet ports.

[Dr Bob]

2 hours ago, Mohsen said:

It seems like Raspberry Pi is the solution and I'll just have to do the requisite learning. I'll take your advice and run a network cable down the boat whilst I still can!

Think about future proofing the boat by running a few cables. Our TV/Pi/usb disk/4G router is at the front. If I had a second TV (as you are doing) then you need a Cat7 cable to there and then why not run a second cable from the 'mission control' point (main telly) to the back of the boat so you can network in all the controls and dials and boxes and shunts and switches (I could go on) etc etc. I am sure in a few years you will be able to tie your battery monitor into the network and then be able to access that when you are off the boat. Maybe also a cable to the front of the boat to connect to a camera (so when your kids steal the boat for the week - you can see where they are going!). If your router is going to be separate from where the Pi's are going to be then make sure you have terminations at that point. We built a new house in 2011 and ran Cat5 cable to every room from a 'mission control' cupboard. Seemed oot at the time but its proved very very useful for networking in the house. 

Raspberry Pi's are pretty easy. I know nothing about Linux programming but with Kodi installed on the sd card, it is very easy - and lots of info on t'internet. My son did the networking in our house tying the 2 Pi's together and then being able to wifi files from the laptops to the router which was hard wired to the Pi's and the hard drive. The Pi's are very cheap and seem to increase in power every year - but the two in the house are 4 years old now and work well for multimedia so no need to fork out on the newest ones - ie we  have a first generation and 2 second generation ones -but it may be the latest 3rd generation are just as cheap (£30-40).

[WotEver]

2 hours ago, Dave Payne said:

Cat5e can handle 4k streaming

Highly compressed yes. Note the rest of my sentence - “at 10Gbps...”

[Mohsen]

Cheers for your help Dr Bob.

Im assuming cat7 being unshielded means its susceptible to interference? Would putting it in conduit solve this?

[AjW]

20 hours ago, Mohsen said:

 

So assuming I had KODI setup on Pi connected to a usb hard drive, what is the best method of receiving that data to lets say 2 video outputs (TV x 2) and 2 audio speaker sets?

Simplest option is to use an HDMI splitter at the TV nearest the pi to create another hdmi cable run to the tv furthest from the pi.

Audio wise you could take the outputs from the amp and put them into a speaker splitter.

 

15 hours ago, Ssscrudddy said:

A 12v pc was mentioned. Have you seen the price of 12v PSUs.

£45 for an 8.5amp supply. Way more han necessay for the small space on a boat.https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/15-24v-laptop-car-adapter-85a-with-9-charging-tips-a33hu

I used a 3amp supply and it was fine. Cost about £15.