Let's talk Audio/Video...

Alright, so it looks like the Barth is going to be wired for some Audio/Video Action. My brother recently bought a 2003 Jetta with a pretty interesting deck in it that he didn't want, so I offered to take that off his hands for a reasonable price.

The deck has some cool features. Built in 3" LCD screen, 2 RCA outputs and 1 Backup Camera Input. Plays MP3 and DVDs, SD card input, Line in and USB for plenty of flexibility. So it looks like the 8-Track is coming out after all in favor of the new media.

I figure I can run my Droid on Google Maps or Pandora, piped in to the stereo. Movies? Sure I can do that too, and I think I will yank the Dash AC out (pictured below) and replace it with a 21" LCD computer monitor I don't use anymore. Not bad for a back up camera, huh?

So While I have the ceiling down I will run wires for speakers, Backup Camera and all that jazz. I guess I need to figure out a Inverter as well for the Monitor, but that won't be too hard I have a Cheap 300 watt laying around, and that will do the trick nicely. I think I'll hard wire that into the dash switches for easy on/off switching.

For the rear, I will have my old laptop (bad screen and tired battery) mounted in the rear cabinet, running off another inverter or off 110v depending if we are on the road or not. (I wish I kept that 700w inverter from the Aristocrat now...damn) This one will play videos, hook up to WiFi (Pandora, Netflix, Hulu) and output to a 19" LCD (for now until I go larger later...that's just what I have now) and my favorite Altec-Lansing Desktop sub and speakers. I can also bring along a portable external HD with movies and Music from home.

Well that should just about cover it for now. None of this will get put in for a while, need to tackle the other stuff first. But plans are always good... especially since it will be a whiole lot easier to run wires when the ceiling is down, like I said.