Entertainment centre for new boat

[anniebray]

I am getting ideas together for our new boat which is a Sadler 290. I envisage using a laptop for nav planning, digital photo editing & storage, TV, DVD etc. I imagine I would have a car type audio which could also provide hifi amplification for the laptop as well as mp3 input. Could some kind Techy Soul provide me with some selection hints maybe even make & model nos.
Laptop (processor, Ram, ROM & what else?)
Car audio perhaps marinised, what connections to have.Remote control sounds good.
Speakers (Surface or flush mounted, 2 or 4)

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Do you marina or moor?

 

[anniebray]

Both ??

 

[mikejames]

We use a laptop for DVD playback and CD players for CD playback plugged into a 1970's Sharp car stereo for amplification.

One problem we get quite a lot of is that the mains power supply of a laptop is able to inject a lot of earth-loop electrical noise into the the headphone output of the laptop especially when driven by an inverter. Unless the laptop is running off batteries there can be a nasty buzz from the amplifier, which does not necessarily change with the volume settings.

I have both a Mastervolt pure sinewave and a cheap Maplins inverter and they both can cause this problem

The car stereo is most likely expecting either battery powered or car-adaptor powered equipment in a car like MP3 players which do not need AC inverters to power them (the main cause of the buzzing). They also use a lot less power to run so the interference is less.

Or in other words : all the portable kit that runs from a car DC adaptor plugged in to a 3.5mm jack for the audio will probably be ok

but then you can get a car player that does CDs, MP3 disks and plays MP3 from USB flash sticks and/or SD cards for £100 and then you put the £150 saved by not getting the waterproof one into the pot for when you do trash the car player.

The laptop will probably be less successful when run with an inverter.

As for the performance specifications : Any laptop with a single processor of more than 1.2 GHz speed and almost any video card can play DVDs. It depends on whether you want 13 inch 15 inch or 17 inch widescreen.

But if you add Windows Vista then your minimum laptop goes up in power consumption, memory size requirement and processor speed. You also need a better graphics card.


Sadly the marketing of video on laptops has become a little bit 'dodgy' as there are two different arrangements of video RAM memory which make for the same CPU giving different performance.
1. Shared RAM. Stolen from the main CPU. Marketing will indicate the maximum RAM stolen for video and make that the specification feature. But you lose memory for programs. So a machine with 1GB RAM and 256M video RAM gives you 768M memory for you which will be eaten by Windows Vista leaving you about 0M for programs :-(. Worse still is sharing the memory slows the computer.

2. Dedicated video RAM. Often the marketing has a smaller number like 128M but this leaves 128M for video , 1GB for Windows Vista and still space for programs. It costs more.

3. Something between . My Acer for instance has 1GB of main memory and a further 128M for video , but can steal up to 256M extra if needed. So it varies between (1 and 2) options above.
I am sure of this because I took the cover off and identified the chips.

These depend on the 'chipset' and it is extraordinarily difficult to recommend a model - e.g. Acer will have style (1) on e.g. model 2000 , style(3) on model 2001 and style (2) on model 2004. Although they are all the same basic machine , and share the same user manual, and nobody in any computer shop, supermarket or dedicated store can tell you the truth because they dont know either.
The machine itself will tell you : go to 'My Computer->properties' and if the amount of RAM indicated is less than the amount fitted then the video card has 'stolen' some. I write this on a machine with 384M of RAM and it says it has 368M of RAM : 16M of RAM is stolen. (its 6 years old)
What I can recommend is to buy from somewhere like PC World or Dixons, not because of quality or price but because the rather expensive insurance cover that they sell you is a godsend when you smash the screen or fill the keyboard up with coffee. Basically if you return a pile of bits corresponding to the machine it will be replaced.

 

[fluffc]

[ QUOTE ]
One problem we get quite a lot of is that the mains power supply of a laptop is able to inject a lot of earth-loop electrical noise into the the headphone output of the laptop especially when driven by an inverter. Unless the laptop is running off batteries there can be a nasty buzz from the amplifier, which does not necessarily change with the volume settings.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is an earth loop, and can only be solved by breaking the earth circuit somewhere.

It is 'normal' to disconnect the earth wire from the mains plug to overcome this problem with laptops, although the lead wouldn't subsequently pass a PAT test.

[Ducks as various forumites explain in detail and at length how dangerous this could be]

 

[ShipsWoofy]

[ QUOTE ]
Both ??

[/ QUOTE ]

The reason I ask will ultimately decide what is best for you as an all-round solution on the boat.

For the same purposes as you I bought a 1.6Ghz machine with an intel Mobile processor, this in my opinion is the perfect size and trades the power and performance quite nicely. Try to find a machine that allows you to 'turn down' the processor, my 1.4Ghz does not, it always runs at full chat, I don't know if this is something only added to machines of 1.6Ghz and above.

When I was looking at machines I first had my heart set on an advent 3.6Ghz multimedia machine that was the business, but as I delved into the specs found it ran at around 6A, yes 6A. My current machine on DVD playback is a little over an amp. Quite different.

I also chose a 15.4" widescreen (you will be amazed how much juice the bigger screens drag out of your batteries). Again, the 15.4" was the perfect compromise, if you are a big movie fan then you will hate the 4:3 screens.

I am not convinced personally that a laptop is ideal for watching television and you may find yourselves having both a television and laptop on board. It is just too much hassle to pull out and set up the laptop to watch a program.

I wonder if you might be better buying a smaller laptop and a dedicated tv + DVD player?

 

[capt_courageous]

Have you lot thought about going for a sail? /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[kengill]

Speakers are key. What I did was get a set of Bose speakers and carve the bass reflex speaker into the chart table out of the way of everything and then put the cubes up by the deckhead.

Result brilliant sound with little or no impact on boat spaces and by focussing the sound into the boat you can listen at reasonable volumes without disturbing your neighbours.

Alternatively I reckon a full cinema Bose system is the biz

 

[pappaecho]

When you choose a car type entertainment centre be careful, and choose one which stores preset channels in such a way as when you take off the face off front the system remembers the settings even when the power is off. Most boats havea switch which completely disconnects the battery. and so the unit must remember the settings. Get it wrong and you will be forever trying to remember the frequencies and setting them

 

[ShipsWoofy]

[ QUOTE ]
Have you lot thought about going for a sail? /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

solo sailer by any chance?

 

[colvic987]

although we have music and tv on board, it very rarely gets a look in, in the 7 years i have had the boat, i think the tv has been on 4 times, and the music about 10. I prefer to go to the boat and sail somewhere and have a good chat and drinks with friends then watching tv and listening to music, although we do prefer to bring our own instruments and have a sing song around a bonfire or bbq.

trying to store the piano on board is a pain, but it has to be done...??!!! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[capt_courageous]

No - its just that what I thought boats were for /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[anniebray]

Of course we enjoy sailing ! We do however take great joy in having grandchildren with us & then there will be the days when we get lots of rain & bad weather. We simply aim to make our new boat a very comfortable home but we know very well the joys of the simple life. Sometimes we even read books !!

 

[kirielad]

Here, here. We go sailing to get away from all that cr#p!

 

[polantom]

Entertainment?
Whats wrong with dominoes? A deck of cards?
..hmmph.. new fangled electric rubbish!!
In my day... blah blah blah...etc.

 

[Sgeir]

Banjo? Bagpipes?

 

[ShipsWoofy]

[ QUOTE ]
capt_courageous - Have you lot thought about going for a sail?

DogWatch - solo sailer by any chance?

capt_courageous - No - its just that what I thought boats were for

kirielad - Here, here. We go sailing to get away from all that cr#p!

[/ QUOTE ]

where where do you go sailing?

did you mean hear hear or are you trying to call the dog, duh..


Why bother to enter a thread then which clearly holds no interest for you; other than to bore us half to death with your views on the media and what you decree we should all use our boats for.

What possible reason might you have for spouting this personal view, expecting others to do what exactly? Should I throw away my laptop because some boring old fart from Hampshire doesn't like it? Or go sailing there there to get away from all that crap?

Why is it so important to you miserable old control freaks what other people are doing on the privacy of their own boats, should we ask you for a reading list too.

Why don't you stop fence peeping and get on with your own lives, leaving others to do the same. Jees, I bet people run a mile when you enter the boat compound!

Anyway, haven't you both got a local free newspaper you can write to and moan about people shopping on Sundays or something equally as important!

 

[ShipsWoofy]

[ QUOTE ]
Banjo? Bagpipes?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well that's one way to secure a private anchorage for the night!

 

[kirielad]

Quote;

'Anyway, haven't you both got a local free newspaper you can write to and moan about people shopping on Sundays or something equally as important!'

I was just waiting for this weeks' to be delivered and ' get stuck in' when next doors dog chewed it up!!

Sorry, and you're right my original post was poor and pointless. I just get a tad fed up with posts asking endless questions about technology on boats. Of course I know its peoples freedom of choice, etc, but IMVHO I find ever increasing amounts of electrickery on boats (and life in general) all a bit sad, strange as that may seem as I'm sitting here typing away on my GPSSatnavNMEAGarminRaymarineChartplotterComputer XT2000 (with built in Radar and nosepicker).

By the way, I'm neither old (whatever that means) and neither are my farts. I'm off to clean out my clay pipe now and muse on the good old days. Harumpph!

 

[anniebray]

Thanks very much to all who contributed & apologies for having upset a few. In all probability I would be like one of the correspondents who rarely uses his electronic entertainments having installed them because I find that going out sailing produces so much inspiration. The addition of a pair of folding bikes last year added greatly to the ships entertainment & as compared to many other yachts we looked at, the Sadler 290's cockpit locker looks big enough to store them !