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liveaboard home theater

10K views 42 replies 24 participants last post by  thorrad 
#1 ·
I've got a wild hair to get myself a state of the art home theater in my 30' boat. I've reached a number of dilemmas and i'd like to think aloud in hopes that one of you has solved a similar problem.

I want it to do hdmi 1.3, blu ray, 5.1 surround, 1080p. I'm looking for the best performing components at a sensible price, basically the opposite of what Bose puts out.

A standalone blu ray player won't do. I want streaming video and pirated stuff too. So my choices are narrowed down to a home theatre pc or a standalone player.

Among home theatre PCs, i'm considering either a mini itx box or a laptop. Mini itx is the smallest format for desktops that still performs reasonably, they have very low power draw and can run directly off DC, widely used in cars. The laptop would have to play blu ray, which eliminates macbooks. I'm not eager for the butthurt of routing cables for the desktop, but to hide the system beneath a settee and use wireless kb/mouse/wiimote would be pretty badass. I'm not eager for a loud/hot/heavy laptop, but i'd appreciate some rip-roaring gaming performance and portability. A standalone player would likely have to be part of a larger system, but could prove to be the most compact practical for movie watching.

Additional factors to complicate the matter is whether i should run it through the 12v system or 110v, and a good solution for monitor mounting that is durable and versatile.

My itx idea:
built in slow cpu: Newegg.com - ZOTAC IONITX-A-U Atom N330 1.6GHz Dual-Core 441 NVIDIA ION Mini ITX Motherboard/CPU Combo - Motherboard / CPU / VGA Combo
add your own power hog cpu: Newegg.com - ZOTAC GF9300-D-E LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300 HDMI Wi-Fi Mini ITX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

My laptop idea:
Newegg.com - ASUS N70 Series N70SV-X1 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T9550(2.66GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD 7200rpm BD Combo NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M - Laptops / Notebooks

My standalone media player idea:
Amazon.com: Egreat EG-M34A Network Media Tank NMT 1080p HD H.264 MKV Player w/ HDMI 1.3: Electronics

I've also got an eye out for small speakers and a good display, although i suspect I'll likely use a 1900x1200 24" samsung display and a sweet hdmi 1.3 5.1 samsung home theatre in a box that i have from my dirt dwelling days. Only problem is the subwoofer is the size of a mini fridge, and i'm not sure if i can get away with a full size stereo receiver in a boat for space power and heat reasons.

So there's my mash of thoughts, please feel free to weigh in with your own ideas as how to approach this system.
 
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#31 · (Edited)
I ended up selling my htib as the speakers were a hair too large, woofer was ridiculously too large, price was right. That energy set looks tight, but of course the question is, how small is it? Is there a way I could use the existing woofer in the set? What would be a good spot for a woofer in a 30' boat?

Now since this thread was warmed back up, the thing I really came to say is, I'm seriously considering a projector. Hear me out... LED projectors are hitting the market, so hot expensive power hungry short-lived incandescent (or whatever) bulbs are out of the picture.

Check this:
Amazon.com: iSiVaL LED Mini HD Projector: Office Products
It's from isival, they have like two products including this one. It's basically 720P high def, but the brightness is nothing compared to a conventional projector. But for the spaces inside a boat, this machine might just be enough for what i need, to throw a 60 inch diagonal picture with just 30 watts. The brightness may be a deal breaker, but I'm very excited for the future of LEDs, and this has got me thinking of shipboard projector screens.

For a screen, would I fab my own with drapery backing, a dowel rod, and something to stretch it out? Buy some pre-made roll-up that mounts permanently to the overhead? I could be a real poseur and hank and tension the screen like a sail.

For sound, I'm coming to a conclusion that a receiver is out of the question. It comes with a mess of functionality that I don't need anyway. Audiophiles forgive me, but it seems that the best solution would be computer styles speakers, driven by 3.5mm jacks. I could pick up a 5.1 usb sound card, plug it into the laptop and rock out reasonably simply. I've been spending months looking for compact hdmi 12v marine receivers, or any 2 of the 4, and the search is a fool's errand. HDMI or DVI or even VGA straight to a monitor or projector and that's it. If I had unlimited time I'd run USB through the boat, to plug the laptop into all peripherals wherever I'm using it.
 
#32 ·
Damn, tough call... I think you're best bet if being frugal is a decent laptop and go external display to a LCD of your choosing. Most new lappies have HDMI outs on them. I'd stay PC based for flexibility. Speakers are whatever works really, there are a ton of 5.1 systems out there...

Edit: I would not touch a projector, they are great in low light environments - not so much if day light is around...
 
#33 ·
Issues with a projector, especially a mini LED one would mainly amount to light control of the room. The interior of a boat can be pretty bright with white fiberglass surfaces and windows. You would need complete light control for a projector setup. Secondly is the screen size compared to your seating distance, check THIS out to calculate what size screen you should have regardless of technology.

Specifications:

Frequency Response: Sat: 150Hz-23kHz; Subwoofer: 36Hz-180Hz +/- 3dB
Crossover Point: 3.5 kHz
Sensitivity: 88dB
Power Handling: Sat & Center: 240 Watts
Recommended Amplifier Power: 20 - 100 Watts RMS (Continous)
Impedance: 8-ohm compatible
Subwoofer Variable Low Pass Filter: 40Hz-150Hz
Tweeter: 0.5-inch (12.7mm) hyperbolic aluminum dome
Midrange: 2.5-inch (63.5mm) high-excursion aluminum cone
Woofer: 8-inch (20 cm) Injection molded cone with Ribbed Elliptical surround
Dimensions: Sat: 4.7 x 3.5 x 3.5in; Center: 3.5 x 5.9 x 3.5in; Subwoofer: 12.7 x 10.5 x 12.3in
Weight: Sat: 1.6 lbs; Center: 1.9 lbs; Subwoofer: 16 lbs

You can see the dimensions there, optimally you would have the port and the driver of the sub open to the cabin atmosphere but on a sailboat just getting it to fit anywhere would be a good start. do you have any interior pictures of your boat?
 
#34 ·
Issues with PC/laptops and Blu-Ray DRM playback! I dropped an extra pile of buck$ in my laptop purchase (HP Mobile Workstation) to get a Blu-Ray writer/player... only to discover that there are now licensing issues with playback software (both Nero and Intervideo). It seems that there are no upgrades available to play many "new featured" discs. So if I were in your shoes, I would likely just grab the low-end Panasonic and be done.
(my home theater has a nice Sony BR player, but that's a different story).
 
#35 ·
We live on our 33’ sailboat and spend at least half a year at anchor or on moorings. Although I don’t have a Blu-Ray, I do enjoy watching movies on our system. We have two TVs, a 22” LCD in the Salon and a 13” LCD in the berth. We ripped all our DVDs (over 400 of them) to AVI files and play them using a Brite-View 1080P HD player in the Salon and a Netgear media player in the berth. We connect our USB hard drives to the media players. For sound, I use RCA cables connected to our Aquatic AV auxiliary input. I use the Aquatic AV because of the IPod control and the RF remote. Connected to our stereo I use a Bazooka sub and 4 Polk mid range speakers and 4 Polk tweeters. This gives us great stereo sound.
 
#38 ·
Blu-ray playback on a PC can be solved by using Cyberlink PowerDVD software. It updates over the internet to handle the newest blu-ray disks, I've never encountered a disk I couldn't play. That and Arcsoft are basically the only 2 pieces of software that work correctly.
Of course you need an HDCP compliant connection for blu-ray like HDMI. You can also use SlySoft AnyDVD HD which will decode the content protection on a blu-ray disk and play it over a VGA connection. You can also use it to rip blu-ray images to a hard drive for later playback if you have the space. Each rip is about 45GB. The AnyDVD software also automatically updates over the internet.
Newer projectors, especially the LCD models, don't really need to be used in a completely dark environment, they get brighter with every generation. Optimal viewing distance is 1.5 times the horizontal dimension of the screen, figure out your screen size from this based on your viewing distance then make sure the projector can throw that size image from your mounting location.
On our boat we use an LCD monitor. I have a mount where the swivel arm stays permanently attached to the monitor and slides into a bulkhead mounted bracket. We have a 15 inch monitor that swings into the companionway for use as a chartplotter, and a 24 inch 1080p monitor with the same bracket that can be swapped in and swings into the cabin to watch movies. Any monitor with an external power brick generally runs on 12v power, you can just wire it directly in to your DC panel.
 
#40 ·
Swivel in the bulkhead

I was recently in a yacht where hey had mounted an iMac 24 into the bulkhead and could swivel it within the large port between the dining area and the bedroom. While seated at the table you could work on stuff or swivel it around to the bedroom and watch movies while laying down. When not in use it could be lowered into the bulkhead. I thought it was shear genius. The computer could remain very protected from the elements while underway and then when on the hook simply rose up on demand. I'd copy and paste the link but I've been lurking w/out posting for a long time and therefore cannot. I'd love to mimic this one day as it suits our needs as well. Keep in mind the Kauana (our inspiration) cruises over half the year long. Love it!
 
#42 ·
The wife and I have a great 1080i Vizio 32" monitor that we got at Costco right before we dumped our membership (How can you shop at costco when you live on a boat? I can't get 100 rolls of TP down the companionway hatch!) It was like $575. We don't have the 5.1 system though. On our Catalina, we just didn't want to run all the wiring for rear speakers, but there are those who would find it no problem. We did lead the stereo outs to a pair of great Bose speakers that were originally used for a computer. They are small and efficient and can blow us out of the boat when we crank it up!

We love the setup. We have our setee constantly in the down position so it is just a giant couch and the screen is on the Starboard wall. Everyone gets to watch movies in the evening while we are on the dock, which so far is always. I know that when we cruise we won't have the TV and I bet the kids don't know that yet, but that is why you go cruising, to get away. The rest of the time though we have a great entertainment center. Some of the newer flat screens work great so just look for the best of what you can afford.

Good luck.
 
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