Poor Man's Boat Theater System

[thunderbird1]

I'm writing to report how pleased we are with an alternative cabin AV system. While not nearly as fancy as the factory-installed solution, we've discovered a very practical and inexpensive solution for boaters without TV.

Start with an inexpensive laptop computer. Ours was under $500 and has a 14" widescreen display. Not huge, but bigger than most portable dvd players, and plenty big for a small cabin. We use it to watch television shows (downloaded from TiVo), watch movies on dvd, play computer games (okay, just pinball and solitaire so far, but the capability is there), and surfing the internet via Wi-Fi, where available. As an added bonus, we also use it to store charts.

For the audio portion of this "boat theater," a $10 cable connects the computer audio output to the boat's stereo auxilary input providing above-average stereo sound.

The best part is when it's not in use, the entire system fits into a laptop case and stores neatly away in a cabinet.

 

[eddiezuskin]

The laptop is much better than the 7" screen on the portable DVD player. We plan to use my 3yr old business laptop that I just replaced. I will power it from an inverter that is mounted next to the galley that is fed directly from the house battery. A few years ago I had run battery cables from the house battery into the galley to the back of the inverter and a 3 way 12v outlet tapped off the back of the inverter. We mostly use it for charging phones but has come in handy as WiFi becomes more available.
The aux input on the stereo sure gets a lot of action these days, Ipods, Sirius radio and the DVD player.
Good Plan for boats our size.
Eddie

 

[chazaroo]

Thanks for the tip. Great idea!! :thumbsup:

 

[Nehalennia II]

We were thinking of one of these

It has a transmitter that can plug intot the headphone jack of the iPod and the speaker is wireless and water resistant. I thought it would be nice while we sit on the dock rather than crank up the boat system. Our Neighbor has one and sets it next to his hot-tub works great. Made by Acoustic research, it has settings for left right or center allowing you to buy more than one and setting one for Left and once for Right. If you have an inverter you can recharge the batts with that.[/img]