Low-powered DVD/avi cinema solution?

demonboy

demonboy

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I'm getting fed up with sucking up 5+ amps whilst watching DVDs on our laptop and wondered what solutions other yotties have come up with.

Admitedly our laptop is 17" and power hungry, and we run the audio through the car stereo 4 speakers, giving pseudo surround (or pseudo quad), but there has to be a better solution. One of these two, perhaps?

1) One of those 12v media boxes that one installs one's own hard-drive in, allowing one to play any audio or video file + seperate VGA computer monitor running off inverter.

2) In-car DVD player (12v) and same VGA monitor set up as above (inverter).

Questions:

What's the power consumption of one of those media boxes?
What's the power consumption of a 21" computer monitor running on an inverter?
Do stand-alone in-car DVD players (ie players without a screen) also play avi and mpeg files or are they still mostly single-region only DVD players?

If I can find a solution where I'm watching an avi file on a 21" monitor with the audio running through the car stero, and all for 3.5 amps (the audio takes up 1.5amps), I'd be a happy man!

Any help greatly appreciated.
 
I bought a Sevic flat screen DVD/TV which takes 12volts/3 amps plus, but can also be run from AC when available.
 
I suspect (and I'm guessing here) that because it is a TV also it consumes more power than if it were a stand-alone VGA monitor. What's the screen size, out of interest?
 
Just bought a 15.4" widescreen tv/dvd, runs off 12 volts or mains, £149 on e bay, 3.0 amps total on 12v. Will do lots of stuff, including plug and play USB/MP3/Camera memory cards etc. all built in and comp monitor. Also very light.
 
Cheers, Colin.

For the record we're not on the market for a TV... we sold ours last year! Just want the VGA monitor. Also we've got used to 17" screen, so not keen to downsize!
 
We use the laptop too, though manage to burn substantially less than 5 amps/hr. I think our big power savings against your set up are: -
1. We've a pair of small USB plug-in speakers rather than using the main sound system, we got them from Maplins for £12-15 and they are more than adequate for boat use.
2. This is possibly the big saving - when we're on mains power or motoring for an extended period, I wil copy two or three DVDs onto the hard-drive. This means that when playing the film at anchor, there's no DVD to spin in the laptop and as a result the fan seems to run less too, so it's quieter and burning a lot less amps. Don't load too many at once though as they take up a lot of hard-drive space.
 
Hi Bob,

I've burned DVDs to hard-drive and, as suggested, watch avis from disc, but the disc-drive power usage is minimal compared to the over-all power consumption of the laptop. It's as much about the processor (and screen size). When the laptop is just on, not doing anything, it is still consuming 5amps, and that's with a fully-charged battery.

Secondly the speaker suggestion is, to me, a compromise I can't accept. Personal preference you understand but we like the cinema effect of surround speakers so running the sound through our stereo is perfect. The saloon possitivley rumbles!

Having said all this I still think we could shave off an amp or two by using technology that is more efficient than a huge laptop that I originally bought to edit large photographs on. This is why I was asking about running a seperate VGA monitor. We have a second laptop on board that only uses 2.5amps - we could, for example, plug in an external monitor to this laptop to watch films. Hell, we could buy a sh!tty old laptop with a disc-drive that only uses 1.5amps to run, and plug the audio and video to external equipment. Maybe that's the answer...
 
I don't think you're going to get away with < 4amps for a screen that size. Running a computer monitor off an inverter would use much more power, and there's a lot of waste.

I think a 20" screen is probably the better option for me too, although I only have a 85aH battery.. "Hmm, anchor light, or film?"
 
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anchor light, or film?

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Do what we do, watch it up on deck using the cockpit speakers. That way you get to enjoy your film whilst being both seen and heard from a mile away /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
For the record I checked my stats again last night and I was wrong in what I said, above. When the laptop is fully charged and just 'on', it draws 3.5amps. When the DVD player is spinning, it draws 4amps, When I run the audio through the car stereo it totals 4.5amps.

To better something like this is going to be tight. I like Nathan's link to the units on offer there and am impressed with the 20" screen running on 4amps, but to keep ampage use to 4amps you have to use the built-in speakers. Running it through the car stereo would bring it up to the same ampage draw as the laptop, albeit with a bigger screen size. So, is it worth spending £250 on that usit to gain 3" of viewing screen? And is the screen res as bright and defined as my laptop's?
 
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