2004 Mountain Aire 3778 HDTV upgrades

[mikewy]

Well...we have finally upgraded all 3 factory TV's to HDTV's. Thanks to everyone help on this site who helped answer our techincal questions.
Vizio 32" 1080P 120 hz (front) Vizio 32 1080P in the outside storge, and 26" samsung in the bedroom. Ran HDMI's thru the ceiling, and under coach. Used HDMI Power splitter to run both the front and outside HD's. (same programming) used the existing wiring for surround sound, upgraded DVD player and running DISH HD Sat network with with DVR. (model vip 612 DVR)
kept the factory video selector control box in place to run the manual roof antenna.

mike wy

[Route 66]

Excellent!

HD and larger TVs.

I did the same thing.

[roadwalt]

Very nice job. Could you share the information on the front mount that you used?
Also interested in the HDMI power splitter. I have not seen those yet. The cables must have cost as much as the TV's to get to outside compartment. Thanks Walt

[mikewy]

front mount was a tube weld assy made from wrought iron tubing and sheet metal. the HDMI power splitter was from www.monoprice.com (can't beat these guys, they have everything. csot was $59.00. the power splittter enbles you to watch 2 events at the same time (i.e. watch a HD game /or whatever inside or outside)
HDMI cables 10 ft and 20 ft ran about $10 to $20 each. 50 ft. HDMI to the back bedroom ran $40 (back TV runs off a 2nd independant reciever)
I'll add more pics

[Floridakamper]

Mikewy, I REALLY like your installations. It looks like your "before" setup is exactly like mine. I'd like to do the front and bedroom but from the photos I really can't figure out how you did it. I've noticed a 26 inch Samsung recently on sale at Wally World and Costco. If you have any more photos or instructions on how you did your magic, I'd appreciate it. Did you make the mounts yourself???? Did you have to rework the bedroom bezel? How is that one mounted. Sorry for all the questions. Bob

[mikewy]

Bob,
I have planned this for over a year, considering all options, yes I did make the mounts, the bedroom was easy, all home depo type stuff, added the largest HD that would fit in the bedroom which was the 26" samsung without any change to the face bezel. I have drawing of the mounts but they are in power point. this site won't load them in,
if you email me, I can send you illustrations of the mounts,
mikvicwy@msn.com

[roadwalt]

Mike wy,
Great job and nice mount. Don't qite understand the power splitter csot? How does that allow you to watch two channels at the same time with one Receiver? I would be happy to tune the receiver to the channel I want to the outside TV. How did you route the HDMI cable to the outside compartment? That must have been a challange.
Thanks Walt

[mikewy]

see www.monpprice.com part number 4921 (HDMI power splitter. you need this to split a HDMI form 1 input to 2 out puts( for me, one output to the front HD, one output to the outside tv, both in HD, both with sound)
if you buy a simple HDMI splitter, you will not get sound to the 2nd HD TV

Routing was easy,
from the outside compartment, drill 1" dia hole (hole saw from Lowes) in the backside of the compartment, added a rubber plug , run HMDI under coach behind the enrty step, to the from compartment, drill another 1" hole in the fron compartment, ran HDMI cable up from there (in the forward compartment) near the fron of the compartment door (very forwrd right hand side), drilled down from the inside into the compartment. from there ram the hdmi cable up along the door frame up into the stereo upper cabinet compartment. took about 2 hours to drill and route from outside compartment (behind the front door up to the cabinet) used the foam filler sparay after everything was routed to keep out bugs and stuff.

[mikewy]

here are some of the routing photos:

[chief400]

Mike,
I have the same model motorhome as you and I have a question I hope you can help me with, where does the white and red wire run to from the video switcher box? I have no power to mine and have checked all the fuses I can find, everything works except for the power to the tv/video switcher box. Thanks in advance....

[mikewy]

the red and white wires I seen go to the back of the front TV, they run the audio to the surround sound. they run form the video selector box to the front TV. you may be able to see them in one of the photo's

[Max Hubrich]

Mike --

Great job. I've been there and done that too--


Does your front cabinet doors clear the TV when opening them? Mine didn't. I had to trim about 3/4" off each door and move the doors slightly outboard.

chief400 ,

If you are talking about the red and white "RCA" cables hanging around in your front TV cavity, they are for the TV input into your surround sound system.

I did away with the "mixer" box.

Connect them to your sound output of the new HD TV, then turn your dash radio on to AUX 1 (that's the tie in for my rig) and crank up the volume. The TV sound should now come on in all the coach's speakers, front to rear. The TV volume, via the remote control, will now give you the ability to control volume settings.

Good luck,

[chief400]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikewy the red and white wires I seen go to the back of the front TV, they run the audio to the surround sound. they run form the video selector box to the front TV. you may be able to see them in one of the photo's

looking at the last photo, the red & white wires are connected together with a brown wire splicer which connects to the power plug to the video switcher. same as mine, only my red & white wire run up thru the ceiling to ? not to the back of my front tv. I will look as soon as I can at the surround sound box which on mine is located inside the dash. Thanks for the comment.

[mikewy]

Cheif 400,
there are 2 sets of red and white, (one set are RCA jack type that are for the audio goes form the viseo box to the front tv, But in the last picture your talking about the 12v power input wiring, I'll see if I can blow up the last picture. the vidoe box will come out when you remove the 2 srcews above / top. Just pull out the vid contoller box, flip it over to get access to the wiring, maybe its disconneted.