T.v Upgrade M35

[Ben Henry]

Hi Guys,

Picking up my Arx in a couple of days, very excited!

Have read loads on this and have P.M people.

Just want to know what the latest is on the Tuner upgrade.

Cheers

Ben

[ironpaw]

Are you actually intending to watch TV? If not I suggest fitting a raspberry pi or some other cheap SoC carputer...it'll be 100x better then those crappy Asuka units.

Unless you're dead set on watching TV that is

[Jetwreck]

I have a complete TV setup for sale.

Comes with the HiTV Digital tuner, SpecDock(for I phone 5...can convert to Iphone4), English Language conversion, Override switch and all cabling. If you any good at wiring I can explain how to put it in or I can do it at a cost.

[joshm35]

Issue with tv tuners is if u change regions ypu need to retune. As car is moving (not recommended) signal strength changes and causes screen to freeze or flicker. This is based on my experience. I have recently removed my tuner and gone with a sony double din dvd player ($349).

[M35woah]

You can get TV tuners that can play stuff from USB, great benefit for long drivings.

[joshm35]

Yeah the one I had from commsman had that option.

[ironpaw]

You can get TV tuners that can play stuff from USB, great benefit for long drivings.

My Asuka had that, but it only recognised mp3 and certain avi/mpg. XBMC plays anything you throw at it...

[Rotaman]

Has anyone actually hooked up a Raspberry Pi and been happy with the results.

Why I ask, is I have a 2005 stagea M35 with factory Nav/TV etc and connected my Raspberry Pi via the aux input at the factory TV tuner box in the rear left quarter.

I have tried two different ways to connect the Raspberry Pi, one via the analogue video output using RCA cable and 3.5 phone jack for sound out connected directly to the aux ( VTR ) input.

This gave me a good sound, but picture quality on the factory screen was fairly poor.

The other method was using HDMI output from the Raspberry Pi then via a HDMI to composite adaptor out to the aux ( VTR ) input again. Results again were much the same, good sound, but picture quality was average.

I'm using XBMC on my Raspberry Pi.

I would like to get this so the picture is of good enough quality that I can easily read the words on the screen without them being a little fussy and very small.

I guessing this may be a case of changing settings in the workings of XBMC maybe, but as of yet I have not managed to be able to change the screen resolution size to see any difference in what I see on the small car screen.

I know if I changed the screen to one that had HDMI input, that I would get a lot better screen picture, but I would think the factory screen would still give reasonable results.

Before anybody suggests taking my car to see who ever, I just wish to point out that I'm in New Zealand.

I'm happy to change any wiring, or direct link something into the factory tv tuner if that is needed.

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Rotaman

[Tommy Kaira RL]

Try setting your device to play ntsc format instead of pal that you probably have it set too. Does your screen appear also in black and white. Never had a problem getting a decent picture upto the screen

[Rotaman]

The Raspberry pie outputs in NTSC anyway via the analogue output at around 640p and in HDMI mode it outputs at 1080p then via the HDMI to composite adaptor it is set to NTSC mode on the adaptor. I don't think this is a device problem. I think it is something in the settings of XBMC and I have'nt managed to work out how to change the screen resolution size so that what you see on the screen is large enough and clear enough to see.

Thats why I am looking for someone that has setup a Raspberry pi in their car using XBMC as the media centre.

Unless someone has a better Media Centre they can suggest that will work on Raspberry Pi.

Thanks

Rotaman

[M35woah]

I don't think you're going to get it much better, unless you change the screen to one which accepts a digital input and/or can display a better resolution.

The small writing on my screen is just legible. Down scaling from HDMI to composite is really not a better idea in terms of quality.

All in all I find the TV more a novelty that comes in handy when waiting for someone or reversing, so I rarely use it.

[conan7772]

Hey, anyone know if sound cuts out too with video when hand brake is released from the oem tv tuner ?

cheers

[joshm35]

Just earth out the handbrake wire or add in a switch

[conan7772]

where's the best place to intercept it?

I don't plan on pulling out my head unit/ centre fascia.

cheers

[Tommy Kaira RL]

The sound will keep playing when the hand brake is released. It is only video that is cut. Also you will need to do more than earth the handbrake. Unless you plan on driving under 5kmph. There is a speed sensor wire to cut. It is behind the DVD rom.

The best way to remove video block is to get it done programatically.

[conan7772]

Good, I don't care if video cuts out, just want music.

Thanks for that ..

[conan7772]

Anyone know what the resolution and refresh rate the factory pop up screen is...

Still trying to get my media box to work.

cheers

[BoostdR]

I have a quad core android deck which does it all very well. Tv tuners in a car never work well since line of site reception isn't consistent

[conan7772]

Yeah , not interested in tv, just had trouble with picture on my mini media box.

It was black / white and fuzzy, and I also managed to get it in Chinese so was guessing in the menus.

Set to NTSC and found english, works fine.

Had to make my own lead with Jaycar 4 pin connectors.

Shaved them a bit, glued them together, then had to hack out the socket on the tv tuner a bit too.

Got a good fit in the end.

Soldering was a bit fiddly.

Mounted it up on the rear window shelf so the remote works from the front.

Got 16Gb of music in that thing.

No more cds...

Edited February 2, 2016 by conan7772

[stripey]

I have a quad core android deck which does it all very well. Tv tuners in a car never work well since line of site reception isn't consistent

joying ? By any chance