Tv Tuners Once Again - The New Asuka

[Commsman]

Hi everyone

the new tuners are finally in. Testing shows they perform the same (or better in some situations) than the Asuka tuner.

They cost $230 plus $15 postage.

What's in the box?

Gold anodised tuner & mounting brackets

power lead (cigarette lighter lead not required)

2 powered antennas

5m infra red receiver lead

remote control

AV lead (3 x RCA connectors each end)

AV input lead (RCA connectors to headphone style plug that goes into tuner)

If you live in Sydney or southern states, you can contact Andy (Andy65b) to buy one or ask about help with the install if you need to.

Likewise, if you live in Adelaide or western states, you can contact Brad (ducati02) for the same.

Cheers

Leon.

[Commsman]

I love DIY, so to make the intall as easy & cost effective as possible I put together some items that you may need.

For Stagea owners with factory antennas, you'll need 2 F-type connectors.

These $1.30 each (Jaycar's 10+ price) and I will add them to the box with the tuner if you ask.

[Commsman]

You can power the tuner from the OEM tuner's power, but I think dedicated power is better. When I did mine, I ran a power cable from a 15A circuit in the front driver's footwell fuse box. You can use this 12V supply for other things later also.

I figure you've got to run the IR lead to the front, so it's not much harder to throw the power wire in at the same time. And an earth wire for locking the OEM tuner to the aux input (so it works all the time, even when moving) is a great idea too.

So, here's the wire & connector pack if you need it. BTW, soldered and taped connections work best. But some of these connectors can come in handy, especially when trying to tap into a cable right down in the footwell as it's a bugger to solder down there.

What do you get for your $8?

6m of black & 6m of red hook up cable (16 x 0.30)

3m of white (not sure why, but it may come in handy)

2 x eyelets for connecting an earth under a screw

2 x quick wire connectors

4 x 3-way scotch-loks

[Commsman]

A relay or 2 can come in handy depending on what else you want to control. I used one when I put in a reverse camera so that it applied an earth to the C1 (or Cont1) terminal to force the screen to the auxillary input.

If you are not sure if you need one, just let me know what you are wanting to do & I'll see if I can offer advice. I may look at posting some diagrams later of how to wire up for typical applications.

Anyway, I have relays with the wired bases available for $5 each (Jaycar's 10+ price is nearly double that!) so let me know if you need any when ordering.

[Commsman]

I have an Eclipse double DIN screen that I needed to connect to the tuner (video also goes to factory screen) so I needed a 5m RCA-RCA cable.

The tuner comes with a cable but it's not long enough to reach the length of the car so I bought one from here http://www.4cabling....o-Cable-5m.html & it turned out to be really good quality for ~$15. As an aside, they can take a few days longer than you'd expect for shipping.

The normal mounting spot for Stageas is in the rear cubby hole adjacent to the OEM tuner, but space can be limited. When I plugged in the RCA lead, I thought the bend radius to be too tight, especially for the heavy duty video coax (see pic).

To save kinking this cable I used right angle RCA adaptors. I you are thinking of using a space like this, these could come in handy. You can buy them online or I have them for $1 each.

[Commsman]

Most people will also want to feed the video & audio signals into the OEM tuner so that it displays on the factory screen and plays thru the sound system.

You can make these yourself if you're a little bit handy. This is the one I made for my setup, but it's only for the video since my sound is via an aftermarket system & connects via AV (RCA) leads.

If you would like me to make one up for you, please ask. The price for a full set (3 x RCA) will probably be $40, but that may change if I find it taking too long. I would encourage anyone to have a go themselves. There's a few threads/posts around that discuss this & I'll try & link them at the end.

[Commsman]

One thing I didn't try to offer to supply was a switch to force the OEM tuner to the auxillary input. Everyone would want something different, depending one where you wanted to mount it & personal preference. I decided to use a blanked off switch position, the only one I had left, to put 3 small switches. the top one is for the TV.

Whenever it is flicked over it puts an earth on the C1 terminal & the tuner is displayed on the factory screen. Turn it off & I can see the fuel consumption green leaf or compass etc.

[Commsman]

Some useful links to help with the installation or just to get some ideas of what others have done. Pretty much search on Asuka in this forum for heaps of info.

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/347479-fitting-an-asuka-tv-tuner-in-a-m35/

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/184366-diy-put-av-input-for-350gt-wo-reverse-camera/page__hl__diy+ipod+frank

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/topic/203961-stagea-series-2-m35-digital-tv-upgrade/page__hl__asuka

[Tommy Kaira RL]

I can vouch that these tuners are great value for money. The USB input is great also for watching movies and playing music.

The AV1 input is fast when switched using the 12v reverse wire. It dosent have to think about going in reverse like some tuners which can have a delay. Its instant.

AV1 can be used for other inputs not just reverse camera.

The powered antenna that are in the box worked quiet well in the GTR around Adelaide. Having them powered definately makes a difference compared to the non powered ones.

And the tuner is nice and small for easy hiding or showing. Id make a clear window in boot just to see the gold tuner there.

Another cable I would run down the front is a 5M USB extension and put it in the back of glovebox or get a 90deg USB bend and mount it where the ETC unit is next to dvdrom.

This makes it easy for pluging in USB if your tuner is hidden.

Then all you need to do is remove the video block for off road use (can be done with english conversion)

[joshm35]

im in brisbane. i have 01m35 how do i get my hands on one of these. very interested

[Commsman]

Hi Josh.

Just PM me your address & I will post one out to you. If you just want the TV tuner it will cost $245 to get it to you (or if you are driving south past Byron Bay you could pick it up & save the postage!).

Since your car is an M35, at the very least you should get the F-type connectors (2 of for an extra $2.60) so you can use the factory antennas for best results.

If you have some multi strand wire laying around then you probably don't need much else. You can always add a switch to bypass the in motion cut off, a USB extension cable, reverse camera or RCA leads for an Ipod connection later on. There's lots of nice options you can look at doing. You can get some great tech mods done in an afternoon that make you driving experience so much better than driving some old Volvo

[Commsman]

Then all you need to do is remove the video block for off road use (can be done with english conversion)

Hi Brad. Thanks for you input. When you say you can remove the video block, you mean as an extra job whilst you are doing the english conversion, right? I was never offered this as part of my my english conversion.

[Tommy Kaira RL]

Hi Brad. Thanks for you input. When you say you can remove the video block, you mean as an extra job whilst you are doing the english conversion, right? I was never offered this as part of my my english conversion.

Yes programatically it can be done. But its for off road use only

[joshm35]

if i install it closer to the front of the car is it a straight plug and play unit or is there more to do than what i expect?

[andy65b]

if i install it closer to the front of the car is it a straight plug and play unit or is there more to do than what i expect?

No point putting it in the front of the car as the OEM TV tuner is in the back and the access to the AUX input is through the OEm Tuner.

[joshm35]

ahhh gotcha. I was under the undstanding that i had to pull the dash apart and the tuner is in there. Thank you for clearing this up for me. Where abouts in the rear is it located? Close to the passenger rear removal panel in the previos pictures.

[andy65b]

ahhh gotcha. I was under the undstanding that i had to pull the dash apart and the tuner is in there. Thank you for clearing this up for me. Where abouts in the rear is it located? Close to the passenger rear removal panel in the previos pictures.

It is located just in front of that box. To access it properly you will need to pull the side panel off.

[cha_cha_]

great info guys.

commsman: in your travels, have you come across a tv tuner with an hdmi receiver? I'm keen to run hdmi out of my phone and into the factory A/V system. The phone (samsung galaxy s, soon to be a galaxy s 2 ) will also do RCA via 3.5mm, but it's a noisy signal that i think would need particularly high impedance inputs to counter this :\

edit: forgot to mention, I'm aware of the hdmi to rca convertor boxes available from ebay, etc, but with the A/V signals already bouncing through so many boxes, i'm keen to avoid any extra equipment if possible...

Edited March 8, 2011 by cha_cha_

[andynogo]

That's just typical. Installed my Asuka a couple of months ago and now this one comes along with HD- the Asuka is only SD. Hmm.... might have to get one....

Great looking tuner and good price too Leon!

[zei20l]

because your popup display can do 1080p

ohh i guess 11 and 7mate are HD only. so i take that smart ass comment back lol