When I get my new camaro fixed up, I would like to have a DVD player, as well as a X-Box onboard and ready to play. Now I've seen these "DVD in a backpack" setups for SUV's. And I've seen the pre-made overhead console's you can buy at Circuit City. But these are very limited in my opinion and hella expensive for what you get. So I've decided to use some leftover pc parts and cards to make a rolling entertainment center. It would have a DVD drive and a cd-drive (for mp3's) and a massive hard drive (also for MP3's and emulated nes, snes, and tgraf-16 games) all in a small desktop case. As for the LCD screen i know where to buy a decent sized one with AV/in out jacks for a great price. I also want to upgrade the deck to a nice Pioneer one, with rca outs/in and a Pioneer 200 watt amp and a 10 disc cd changer. The LCD screen would be housed in a custom made wood overhead console that would be taken to the upholsters upon completion. But my questions are....

1. How would I run the video from the xbox rca jacks and the video card's rca jacks to the same screen? do they make a <A><B><C> switch box with buttons like coaxial cable has??

2. Could I intergrate the sound into my car speakers since my video card uses rca in/outs?

3. How do I power the x-box, lcd moniter, and the small pc with the non AC current the car produces? Would some kind of inverter work? Would I need a high watt alternator as well?

4. The RCA cables I would need would have to be plenty long (Around 10-15 feet?) do they sell rca cables in this length? And would that effect sound video quality?

Thanks alot,

-Rabid

 

I've got just the thing for ya

I've got a brand new Alpine IVA-C801 still in the box that you can use for the display. It fits in the factory location and it has two A/V inputs that you can use to get the sound in to the car speakers.

1) The unit I'm talking about has two sets of RCA A/V inputs for that. If you need more than two, there are multiple input selector units available. Check out Radio shack or a similar place and that's going to be the most likely place to find them.

2) You will need an aftermarket deck of some sort. With the unit I have this happens automatically because of the A/V inputs. With other decks you'll really want to make sure you can have an audio input on it. Check the Premier stuff for that. I think some of their higher end units have that capability. (I'm no fan of Pioneer or Premier - just for the record).

3) They make DC to AC converters. Just look around for them and they're not that hard to find. Most of the devices that you'll be plugging in are DC devices. You could go through some voltage regulating circuitry and just use the DC that's already in the car. (The computer you're thinking of using is powered by 12VDC or 5VDC and probably even 3.5VDC). The Xbox has an AC power cord but I'm pretty sure it is changed to DC immiately inside the consol. To skip having to make those kinds of things, you would probably be best just searching for a DC to AC convertor. I think they even have them at WalMart...

Depending on how big of a system you are building, you probably will not need a higher output alternator. If you're going nuts on a system with more than one sub or amp, you'll want to invest in a bigger alternator.

4) Yes they sell them even as long as 20 ft or longer. No there shouldn't be any loss in sound. There are higher grade RCA cables which are intended for use in a car.

If you're really interested in that unit, email me at drmilhouse@attbi.com. There's complete information on the unit here: click me
You can see pictures of the similar unit I had in my car. There's links in the signature.

It's good that you're coming in to ask questions about this. What you're thinking sounds much easier than it will be and placing a computer in to a Camaro (or any car) is not something you want to do as your first install. From your questions, it does not appear that you're probably ready for this but asking questions here is a good place to start.

 

KUDOS!! Thanks much!


Well I'm no expert at total system desighn as far as soundstages, speaker specs, and voice coil desighns go, but I have built many a custom console, and installed many a radio. I have also built computers for people for more than 5 years, 99% of them were custom jobs. You can see a sample of my work here See page 2 for the major stuff.

Anyway, I was just making sure that what I was ***uming, lol was what was correct. And I was wanting to know about the sound, as I do not want to use PC speakers.

BTW email me at everclear94@hotmail.com about the pricing youd like on that unit.

-Rabid