DVD player change, again

booster · 07-30-2016, 11:23 PM

Our little two day trip confirmed what we had seen on our fall trip last year, that our third (yes third, all different brands) 12v native DVD player was on the way out. This it the single DIN style that used to be pretty common, but now seem to be an afterthought. I think all of them are made by the same Chinese factory as the remotes and such are awfully similar (and very confusing to use), as is the quality.

Our use of a 12v DVD player goes back to when we first got the Roadtrek. The Samsung monitor for a TV, Magnovox surround sound DVD player, Tipplite inverter, combination used big time power for our two gp27 batteries to try to handle, at over 10 amps. We put in a Vizio TV without the wall brick, so at 12v, a voltage stabilizer, and a 12v DVD player, for when on batteries, and a Philips surround sound DVD player for when we were on shore power. Worked great, a bit under 2.5 amps on the battery mode with inverter off playing a DVD, but the DVD players have been a continuing issue.

If we run the new Magnum 2000 watt inverter, the Philips, and the TV to watch DVDs, we get to about 8 amps, so still pretty high even though we do have plenty of battery to do it now.

We decided to just give up on the 12v DVD players as they all seem to be junk, and we really like the picture on the Vizeo, so don't want to get one of the trucker combo TV/DVD units. We just got a $40 Samsung 110v DVD player and a 120 watt Samlex PSW inverter to see how that would do. The DVD player is rated at 8 watts (.66 amps) running, and the inverter at less the 500ma, so a total of just under 1.5 amps at rated.

I just got through hooking it up to see what we would get, and was a bit surprised. The inverter and player together, on but not playing a DVD, was only .8 amps. With the TV on, playing a DVD through the TV speakers, came in at 1.9 amps. This is lower draw than we had with the with the 12v DVD player, plus we get the 1080P, upscaling, HDMI, decent remote, etc that come with a home DVD player. It also doesn't require the 3 filters we had to have on the audio and video cables with 12v versions, just HDMI cable. I will put it in permanently tomorrow, so we hope it will hold up better that 12v versions did.

The little Samlex PSW inverter seems to be very nicely done. Well built, has it's own accessible mini automotive fuse, on a 12 plug cable to the unit, USB charge port. At these low loads, it doesn't ever have the fan come on and feels essentially cool. Not cheap, but nice compared to the low end stuff. We would expect it to perform well, as did the 1500 watt PSW Samlex we used to have in the van before the last upgrade to the Magnum setup.

booster · 08-01-2016, 07:41 PM

I cleaned up the wiring, which was much simpler now, and got all the parts tied down, including the remotes.

This is the power control so we can have just the TV and powered antenna or TV and 12v DVD while on batteries.

The tow A-B switches allow us to switch between antenna and cable inputs, and between TV and FM radio for those inputs.

We have quite few different combinations that we can use depending on what we want to watch/listen to, and power source.

If on shore power we get full surround sound DVD, TV, and radio through the Philips on AC and the TV and antenna on DC.

If we are on batteries, we can get TV from the TV and antenna on DC.

If we are on batteries we can get TV/DVD from the TV on DC and the Samsung running through the Samlex inverter (total 1.9 amps).

We have found having all the combos very useful for us, as they have been available for 5+ years. All that is different now is how the DC DVD playing is done.

Hopefully, now the reliability will be improved.

mkguitar · 08-02-2016, 08:21 AM

suggest next time around consider a tv which has a media player and accepts media stored on a usb thumb drive.

it is easy to convert dvds to a file type the tv will play and many downloaded shows can be viewed that way.

a 128 GB drive will hold about 60 movies.

in my van we have a $120 samsung from costco ( 12 volt native), in the house a large panasonic.

Mike

booster · 08-02-2016, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkguitar

suggest next time around consider a tv which has a media player and accepts media stored on a usb thumb drive.

it is easy to convert dvds to a file type the tv will play and many downloaded shows can be viewed that way.

a 128 GB drive will hold about 60 movies.

in my van we have a $120 samsung from costco ( 12 volt native), in the house a large panasonic.

Mike

How do you navigate the menus in the DVDs that are controlled from the remote for player? Does the TV have to include the capability to do that through the TV remote?

mkguitar · 08-02-2016, 04:42 PM

this isn;t possible- when you convert the dvd to a file ( mp4 or other format) you decide at that time whether you want to include subtitles etc. or which audio.
you could burn one version with English, another for Spanish and say another version with the director's commentary if that's what you wanted.

This is similar to recording to a vhs tape- it is a read only file

I use a mac and usually use "handbrake" to convert the dvd's to files.

the moral/legal concept ( for those concerned)is that you are merely converting a media which you have purchased from one storage type ( dvd) to another such as an MP4.
this is especially germaine as it is now shown that cd's and dvd's degrade physically over time and purchased media can be unusable if not converted or backed-up to another file type.
digital rights include allowing backing up files for personal archival use

and I can carry the entire dvd, cd collection from our home on a dozen thumb drives

and the TV itself as a player consumes less power than a spinning disc player in addition to a tv and maybe a powered switcher etc etc.

the samsung media player offers play/pause, FF rew etc controls as does our panasonic in the house. the thumb drive is plugged into the usb port on the tv and both tv's have apps which play many file types.
the thumb drives I format as fat32 which works for both tv's- some 'sperimenting needs to be down on thumb drive formatting and which file types will play

some media, books, movies, tv shows etc are available for free/legal/moral download and most of those files will play on the tv, but not always

Mike

Davydd · 08-02-2016, 05:25 PM

DVD players built into small TVs probably are not the best on the market. If they fail you replace DVD, TV and all. I think traveling is hard on DVD players. I've had two failures. Those are old arguments of do you like all in one items or individual items in case of failure.

I'm thinking of moving away from DVDs since I now mostly rent via Apple TV or use Internet services like Netflix. For those I want to keep forever, like Casablanca, I will purchase via digital download in the future. I still pick over those $5 DVD in the discount stores while traveling since they are cheaper now than most rentals. We are shipping most of those out to Goodwill now that we are de-cluttering our house for a move.

mkguitar · 08-02-2016, 09:34 PM

pics here:

https://goo.gl/photos/8FURu2JRAzJv8NoV7

mike

hbn7hj · 08-03-2016, 04:31 AM

I use an Audiovox Blu-Ray AVDB1, single DIN, mounted under the cabinet the TV is mounted on. We are satisfied with it after 3 years but it is no longer sold. Outputs are HDMI and RCA, no composite outputs. It uses 12 volt power and very little of that. Don't remember the exact number but I can find out if anyone cares.
Harry 2003 C190P Roadtrek

booster · 08-03-2016, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hbn7hj

I use an Audiovox Blu-Ray AVDB1, single DIN, mounted under the cabinet the TV is mounted on. We are satisfied with it after 3 years but it is no longer sold. Outputs are HDMI and RCA, no composite outputs. It uses 12 volt power and very little of that. Don't remember the exact number but I can find out if anyone cares.
Harry 2003 C190P Roadtrek

We looked at that model the last time ours failed a couple of years ago (Crutchfield is always a good reference point, also on Amazon), but the then $300 price tag was way out of what we would consider reasonable at the time. It was nice, though because it was the only one with the HDMI output.

The rating plate on the Audiovox lists 2 amps, or 24 watts. Most things use a little less than rated, so it probably does also. As reference, the Samlex inverter is rated at .5 amp (6 watts) at idle, and the Samsung player at .66 amp (8 watts) for a total of 14 watts. They actually run at about 10 watts total.

hbn7hj · 08-03-2016, 08:20 PM

Yep, we grimaced at the price, too. With it we get HD and use no storage space for electronics. There is an equivalent now called Autopro for $200. We don't Want to take the room for a DVR. It would require going your route with an inverter and a shelf unit as you have done.

booster · 08-03-2016, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hbn7hj

Yep, we grimaced at the price, too. With it we get HD and use no storage space for electronics. There is an equivalent now called Autopro for $200. We don't Want to take the room for a DVR. It would require going your route with an inverter and a shelf unit as you have done.

We were lucky in relation to the space needed. The old DIN unit sat on top of the Philips, and there was just enough room for the Samsung in the same place, with inverter on top of it, so we didn't lose any space. I thought I would have to move the shelf down a notch, but we got by without.

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