TV upgrade audio

[jelmore]

I getting ready to upgrade all the TVs and satellite receivers. Before I pull out the TVs and see what I need, (Paul?) did Liberty patch into the TV speakers to drive the overhead speakers, or did they use an amp on the audio out? I suspect they hardwired it, but thought I should check.

[garyde]

Both Tv's in my Coach have no speakers, they are LCD Monitors essentially. the sound is thru the Bose Tuner.

[0533]

Hi Jim,

I am at Marathon in San Antonio Fl. Today having a few items addressed before we leave Florida for the summer.

I item is to replace a bad receiver that has a bad power supply. Last year I replaced both Tv's with LCD's both Sat receivers, dish, all audio components.

I am not sure if Marathon installs their A/V systems the same as Liberty, but here is how mine is done.

We have 2 receivers with connections to our auto eye on/off infrared light system working with the single (Pronto)control device.

All speakers including all subwoofers are attached to the receivers. When the Pronto turns on the power, it powers up the Sat receiver, the receiver and the Tv with one unit. The receivers, Tv and sat receiver are all in sync.

I replaced the Tv's with Sony 40" Bravo in Salon, and a 20" Sharp for the bedroom overhead, both LCD.

It is not as easy as your home system, at least not as easy as mine.

The TV replaced a 40" Sony that was a big glass tube unit, big big. The cost of the new Sony was only a small part. If Marathon installs a TV they must meet DOT requirements (so they said) when installing the unit. My Tv is in my slideout and they had to take the room apart to weld a stand and brace to the back of the new Tv so it will not fall out on my head turning a hard stop or accident, worth it. I saved enough room in the cabinet to add a pull out shelf.

[nrhareiner]

Good morning,

I just went through the process of upgrading all of my A/V equipment in the bus. I decided to have the ability to use the audio out of the TV (not just monitors) as well as through the bose system. For really no extra dollars spent (TV not much more than monitor) I have a built in backup system for the audio. All you need to make sure if you are going to run new wires is that an extra set of audio wires are run from the receiver/switcher. I did not have to change out the Bose equipment in the coach since I already had surround sound capability.

Parliament coach did a great job for me with running all of the wires and mounting the three televisions. I had an old fashion system with only a monitor up front and the CRT style televisions in bedroom and outside. I went to HDTV LCD at all locations. I designed the system using an active matrix switcher so that I can get any input to any or all of the televisions at any time.

The important process is the planning so that the correct wires are run at one time. Also, it is smart to run extra wires in case you need in the future.

[dreamchasers]

Kim,

Did Parliment re work any of the cabinetry for the television upgrade? Pictures would offer great guidance. I am looking at audio upgrades also.

Hector

[truk4u]

Jim,

Yours may be amplified, but mine wasn't. My old TV had wires coming out of the set (through the vent holes) that attached directly to the overhead speakers and must have been amplified from the TV.

I just put in a new flat screen and found a small amplifier (79.00) that I mounted in the audio cabinet. I then used the flat screen headset plug to drive the amplifier and all is well. It's hard to find a new TV with audio out and if you find one, it won't drive any speakers since it's not amplified.

[jelmore]

Tom, thanks. I'd guess mine is set up like yours was. Before I ordered the amplifiers (one for each tv), I just wanted to make sure. Seems I had heard Liberty hardwired the overhead speakers to the TV. I presume a separate amplifier will drive those speakers much better than the TV amp. The new TVs (Viewsonic) have headphone out audio. Did you notice a difference in sound quality with the separate amp? In the salon, we also have the Bose system. It's nice to have a choice between audio systems, combining them for shows like 24.

Kim, did you install a satellite receiver at each TV? If so, can you switch satellites from any receiver?

Bruce, we've seen your set up. Very, very sweet. Great installation. You should post pictures.

[jelmore]

Both Tv's in my Coach have no speakers, they are LCD Monitors essentially. the sound is thru the Bose Tuner.

Gary, Liberty didn't install any speakers in the ceiling separate from the Bose system? I had considered installing monitors since you can get a much bigger screen in the same space as a TV, but that would suffer since monitors don't have a remote to control brightness, power, resolution, etc. Also, I didn't want to lose my TV audio since sometimes it's nice to just use one remote.

[garyde]

Hi Jim. What I have is a Bose surround sound system and a RCA Sat reciever in the front and the back. Each Bose system has 5 speakers, two speakers in the front, two in the ceiling of the galley, and a woofer under the couch. Crestron controls the TV's but I also have two RCA remotes which came with the Sat recievers. It controls channels as well as volume thru a IR controller which syncs with the Bose and the RCA Reciever. Both monitors have their own remotes for adjusting for color, brightness, etc.
I hope all of that makes sense.

[truk4u]

Jim,

The amps will blow you out of the bus compared to just the old TV hardwired direct to the speakers. Here's a picture of a basic Pyle Pro amp I found:

4673

Couldn't you run the headphone out on your new TV to the Bose amp?

[jelmore]

Tom, that's what I'm doing, running the headphone out to a Pyle amp. I pulled the downstairs TV out and indeed Liberty has speaker wire coming out of the TV vents. I'll bury the amps behind the TVs and use the TV audio controls.

Gary, your Bose must have IR control. Ours has RF only and I haven't found a way to translate IR to Bose RF.

[jelmore]

Couldn't you run the headphone out on your new TV to the Bose amp?

Oh, missed that. Yes, could. There are overhead speakers separate from the Bose that I want to continue using, so the headphone out will go to the Pyle amp which will drive the two overhead Alpine speakers. It will be set up that way in the salon, bedroom and down below. In the salon, the audio out from the satellite receiver (which will also handle the antenna & cable TV) and the DVD player will go to the Bose Video 1 and Video 2. My computer iTunes goes wirelessly to the Bose Aux. The way Liberty has this set up, I can turn on the TV and have audio separate from the Bose. I can also play the TV audio and the Bose audio at the same time for really big sound.

[truk4u]

Jim,

Liberty must have just cut the internal speaker wires and then hooked the externals. I haven't opened up the old TV, but I doubt they had any kind of built in amp, what do you think?:rolleyes:

[jelmore]

The TVs do have a built in amp. In our JVCs it's 1W x 2. I doubt Liberty buried any additional amp inside the case. The new TVs will be here next week and when I get to it, I'll crack open the JVC cases and take a look. If I'm going to donate the old TVs, I guess I should rehook the speakers. Would anyone take them? They may be just junk.

[jelmore]

This project is mostly done. Still doing a few refinements, but it is nice and up-to-date having high definition wide screen TVs in all the original places. Tom, I did use those Pyle amps on each TV and they do a great job of getting sound out of the 5-1/4" speakers.

When inverting power, there is a "buzz" in the background that I presume is from the modified sine wave inverters. I haven't found a filter.

The living room and bedroom audio items are on the same circuit. Perhaps I could do a small pure sine wave inverter just for that circuit? Haven't thought how that would wire up.

Or I guess I could replace the inverter on that leg with a new pure sine wave inverter. That sounds like a big event.

Any other thoughts? I guess I could just have good audio when plugged in or the generator is on and give up on the dry camping for good audio. Really rather have it good all the time.

[gmcbuffalo]

Jim I get the Buzzin" from my radio speakers if the radio is revieving DC power whether or not it is turned on. Is there a filter for this problem? I'm assuming the buzz is generated by the inverters charges.
GregM

[jelmore]

Jim I get the Buzzin" from my radio speakers if the radio is revieving DC power whether or not it is turned on. Is there a filter for this problem? I'm assuming the buzz is generated by the inverters charges.
GregM

Is this a radio connected to your chassis batteries, like a car radio would be? Or is it a radio portion of a receiver/tuner? Odd that the buzz would be there if the unit is off, but it seems I heard that over my Bose system. When the main amplifier is off, the subwoofer still has power. I removed a factory installed filter and the buzz went away. This had something to do with things being on different circuits and is called (something like) ground interference, but I don't know for sure.

[phorner]

Hi Jim,

Our TV's are hard wired into the ceiling speakers by Liberty. Essentially, they simply cut the internal speaker wires and routed new wires through the back of the set, which terminate in plug ends.

These plugs then match up to plugs behind the set that run to the overhead speakers. When I replaced the bedroom TV, I followed the same procedure, which worked great!

[gmcbuffalo]

Jim I don't know where it gets it power, but it is the dash radio that then goes to a equalizer, and amp then on to about 8 speakers. It is not the TV/VCR system. Where was your filter located in the system?
GregM

[jelmore]

I'll guess this is the radio that your use while driving . . .

It sounds like yours is something with the engine side and I've heard about line filters you can install on the back of the radio, maybe in-line with the incoming power. I think I had one installed on an earlier motorhome. I'd check with Radio Shack or Best Buy.

[jelmore]

Hi Jim,

Our TV's are hard wired into the ceiling speakers by Liberty. Essentially, they simply cut the internal speaker wires and routed new wires through the back of the set, which terminate in plug ends.

These plugs then match up to plugs behind the set that run to the overhead speakers. When I replaced the bedroom TV, I followed the same procedure, which worked great!

Paul, you opened the new tv case and patched into their amplifier? I didn't want to do that to these tvs, so I added amplifiers that get their signal from the headphone out jack on the back of the tvs. The tvs did not have audio out jacks. I sacrificed that for a really good fit in the existing space.

[truk4u]

Jim,

I don't get any feedback while on inverters from the amp. Could you possibly turn down the Pyle amp power and up the TV sound coming from the headphone jacks? Maybe that would take away the noise..

[phorner]

Yep,

I opened up the BRAND NEW TV's, cut the wires going to the speakers, and soldered in the wires that Liberty had installed in the old TV's.

There are usually openings in the back for cooling, which work out fine to run the wires through.

Not saying I was thrilled at first about the no-turning-back-now decision to splice into the TV speaker wiring, but it did work out great.

Sounds as good or better than the original Liberty system.

[jelmore]

Jim,

I don't get any feedback while on inverters from the amp. Could you possibly turn down the Pyle amp power and up the TV sound coming from the headphone jacks? Maybe that would take away the noise..

Tom, the buzz is on anything that is on that circuit, the TV/VCR circuit. I need to check different volume levels on the amps to see if that makes a difference, but right now, and it probably does, but the amps are balanced to the room.

I found some Liberty installed audio filters in the oddest places. Could you have filters someplace, like next to an outlet?