Thread: Multi media centre

Hi

I am right in the middle of the same, what I am doing is as follows
WD Mini TV (only 49.99 at Dick Smiths) connected to a 60gb Hard Drive. I have stripped everything down to its components and then from Jaycar I bought a small 12V DC cigarette connector, as well as an ABS enclosure.

I am in the process of mounting everything in the ABS enclosure with all the circuit boards etc mounted on small rubber "studs" to absorb vibration.

I will then mount this under the passenger seat above the ECU for the Transmission, with a permanent wired in power (stripped the ciggy lighter down), with the remote "eye" pointing to the rear for my passengers to have control, this then provides the signal/music/movies/audio books to the two portable DVD screens used by my sons (no more lost DVD's, or scratched DVD's etc)

I am past planning and have all the bits stripped and tested, and this weekend will start to solder and connect everything.

Hmm interesting. Just bought a WD HD Live a few weeks back for home and love the thing. Would be great in a landy

Not sure how much you have played with your WD HD, but it is possible to hack the firmware, to make it more feature rich and also to add a WiFi card thereby allowing you to stream media to your TV rather than directly connecting a hard drive etc.

You should have no problems with vibration damaging the WD player unit itelf, it's fully solid state.

If you attached a usb hard drive to it this would be the only bit that would need to be protected somewhat, but even then they are generally pretty resilient.

Having said that, I gave up on using the WD HD Live after a couple of days use as I found it very sluggish to respond, the codec support was really patchy, and the user interface really clunky to use.

For those wondering, Astone make a nice little client media player that might be useful for Automotive applications.

Normally i just use Mediagates in my work.... but the Astone products are cheap and will handle more codecs and are very small with front mount USB.
Perhaps an option for those that run a dash mounted GPS that will allow external video input??


http://www.astone.com.au/index.php?productID=21

I have worked on Mediagates since the MG-35, and have have had a lot of input into the development of the MG350HD.... WDTV units are ok... cheap and they work i guess, but there are a lot of other options out there.
I think it's a great idea you guys use them in vehicles, something i have not quite got to as i don't have a vehicle i love that much anymore ;(

Another thing i did a few weeks back, was to install a Telstra NextG Internet Gateway into a car, worked a treat!!!!
850Mhz Next G wireless internet into the car and a 2.4Ghz Access Point in the same unit.
Great signal strength in country areas... you could hook up laptops or iphones or stream live radio shows from around the world while you drive along.

Unit worked on 12Vdc and could be mounted anywhere (External antennas could be used, but i never tried that)... and the best part, when you're finished with it in the car, just take it inside.

Great for people with Holiday Homes, gives them Internet on the journey and internet at the holiday home (or caravan park etc etc) all for $24.95 a month.
And as much as i HATE Telstra, i have to admit, they have the coverage and speed.

I was getting 5meg a second while driving at 100km/h

And maybe another idea for those going down the compact Media Player road is a fully intergrated 2.5" media player like the one below.


Astone Media Gear AP-200 Portable 1080p HD Media Player - Astone - Design for Life!

Sorry, i don't mean to keep posting Astone products, Mediagate make the same type of unit also, they have been around for years and now that 2.5" HDD are affordable, its nothing to have 500gb and player for under $200... all in the same size enclosure of a normal external 2.5" USB HDD.
Plus running a unit like the above, also allows you to still plug in USB thumb drives or other USB external drives.
And don't quote me, but the firmware may also have a copy feature whereby you can suck the files off the external drives and save them on the internal drive with out need for a laptop.

Food for thought.... Just another idea... hope it helps