Community Forums

gator67 · 03-12-2007, 04:53 AM

We have a "Kenwood DVD/AV Control Center" as the tuner, DVD player, etc. part of our entertainment system. It's located to the left of the TV at the front of the coach. A thunderstorm appears to have fried the unit and I want to get access to it. It's not clear that you can remove the front panel easily because 1) it looks like the front panel will not come out without removing the door hinges, and 2) the buttons for the KingDome are attached to the panel and I don't know how to handle that when removing the panel. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions?

gator67 · 03-12-2007, 04:53 AM

We have a "Kenwood DVD/AV Control Center" as the tuner, DVD player, etc. part of our entertainment system. It's located to the left of the TV at the front of the coach. A thunderstorm appears to have fried the unit and I want to get access to it. It's not clear that you can remove the front panel easily because 1) it looks like the front panel will not come out without removing the door hinges, and 2) the buttons for the KingDome are attached to the panel and I don't know how to handle that when removing the panel. Does anyone have any experience or suggestions?

Wayne R · 03-12-2007, 05:03 AM

Gator67,

You're correct in assuming the doors need to be removed. I believe the King dome control has a plug on it, if not there should be enough slack to remove the panel.

Jim A · 03-12-2007, 06:26 AM

On my coach there were two screws holding the wood rack to the bottom of the cabinet that need to be removed to get the unit to slide foward. Once I moved the unit forward a few inches, there were two screws holding the block where the A/B switch is attached. I removed them, and then the switch and its coax could stay where it is. The Kingdome control probably has quite a bit of slack in the cable, or at least mine did.

The DVD player is probably velcroed to the wood rack. If it isn't already wired to the TV using the component video outputs of the DVD player, consider doing it while you are at it.

When I rewired my unit, I used Velocity mini-coax cables to connect the various units to the Winegard box, if you have one. They are much more flexible and makes it easier to move the unit around. I left the coax bundle in the back and used these to connect to everything from there. They aren't cheap, but I thought they were worth it.

http://www.impactacoustics.com/categ...?cat%5Fid=1100

I used the 3 foot cables. Between the coach and my home entertainment center, I have spent a small fortune on Impact Acoustics cables! Their Sonicwave cables seem to be very good quality.

gator67 · 03-12-2007, 04:31 PM

Thanks! I removed the doors and removed the panel. There was enough slack in the KingDome controls to pull out the panel and then pull out the Kenwood unit. I carefully tagged all the wires... I'll be amazed if I get all the speakers and cables hooked back in the right place! I took the unit in to be looked at... hopefully it's something fixable... it sure smelled bad!

I'm no electronic genius but I'm lucky enough to be able to find the cable ends that attach to the Kenwood unit, let alone find the other ends that connect to who-knows-what!

Jim A · 03-12-2007, 06:06 PM

I have a different DVD player than you do, but I am sure your manual will show how to connect the component video outputs (they are red, green, and blue) to the component video inputs of the TV. If your system is not using them, you are missing out on a lot of the picture quality of your DVD player. The progressive scan feature does not work without them. (Digital versus analog.)

Please be aware that if you do this, you might need to change the input of TV. The TV manual will tell you how. There should be a button on your TV remote labeled "input" that will cycle through the different inputs.

My coach came with a schematic diagram of the entertainment center wiring. It might help you understand how it is currently wired. But you already did the most important part: TAG THE WIRES!!

gator67 · 03-14-2007, 11:02 AM

Well... it turns out that lightening apparently fried the whole circuit board. Two days after dropping it off at the electronics repair shop it still smells! So, I need to replace it. Unfortunately, it is a Kenwood DVD AV Control Center DVR-6300 and Kenwood informed me that they no longer manufacture home audio products, and haven't since 2005, so I cannot replace it with the same unit. But, I obviously need one with a similar footprint.

For anyone with a 2006 or 2007 Alpine coach, what kind of Control Center (I guess it would be called a DVD player/receiver) is in your coach? Thanks.

Jim A · 03-14-2007, 11:19 AM

Do you know the length, width and height of your Kenwood unit? Since you have it out, meaure the dimensions of your cabinet, especially the depth. You need to allow some room for the connections on the back. If things get tight, you can often use right angle connectors to give you a little more room. Websites like Best Buy and Circuit City usually have the dimensions of the units shown somewhere. You might even call some place like Crutchfield.com to see what they can recommend. I always found them to be pretty helpful.

Jim A · 03-14-2007, 11:31 AM

Also, if you don't find the dimensions of a unit on the websites I mentioned, you can often download the manual for it from the manufacturer's website, and it will have the dimensions, usually near the back of the manual.

Good luck searching!

DCTENT · 03-14-2007, 01:02 PM

I have 2006 picked up from Yakima in December of 2006, I have the Kenwood in Mine, Guess WRV had a bunch on hand.
Sure hope It works better than the rest of My Coach-IE, Had to have Silver Leaf replaced, Haven't had Heat inside the Coach since the factory, I Have an appointment in April to replace the Hydro Hot unit, Water Pump keeps shutting off during showers, Had to Have roof AC piping connected seems WRV forgot to hook them up,need to replace the Alternator as that keeps discharging, Cannot add water through Reverse Osmosis System, I had to revamp that during Winter Months hopefully it will take water in the Spring,. I had A Country Coach, Should have kept it, Not happy with Alpine.
Dave In Minnesota!

OldForester · 03-14-2007, 03:31 PM

Gator,

We had a Kenwood unit in our '06 similar to yours. When we tried to add a DVD recorder at the factory, the technicians determined the Kenwood unit got fried, and they replaced it with a Sony unit, the same as in the Apex. It has worked well, although it takes a while to get used to the buttons on top the unit (I generally use the remote or the Harmony remote to deal with it).

Anyway, the Sony unit appears to fit the same hole as the Kenwood, or it's close. The Sony unit is a model DAV-DX150. You might get one either from the factory or someplace else.