Audio/Video help needed
 

Hey guys need some help with an A/V issue...

I orginally had a separate Apline head unit with an Eclipse DVD player in the cabin. The DVD player feeds two small TV screens and there is also an underwater camera that fed through the DVD to the TV screens.

I recently upgraded the head unit to an MBQuart WM1-DVD which is a DVD/CD/SAT/iPOD headunit with RCA ins and outs, etc.

Problem is, before I could have the underwater camera playing on the TV's while the stereo was playing and now I can't because I have to change the input on the headunit. So while the camera is cool it's pretty much useless, now if I can't even listen to music while it displays on the tv's then it's totally useless :lolhit:

So does anyone have any ideas how to get around this? I thought about running the camera direct into the tv's but then on ocassion when i want to watch a DVD what would I do? Have to unplug RCA cables? Don't want that...I'm thinking I'll need somekind of video switch or something, but not sure.

Any help would be appreciated :drink:

I am not sure if this will help you or not....

I have a Pioneed in Dash DVD/NAV w/Video input unit in my Suburban. The Video input was used for a back up camera. By default it is set to only automatically come on when the truck is in reverse. But this didn't help when hooking up my trailer. So I took the reverse signal input on the radio and wired it to a 12v switch. Now no matter what is playing (radio/ipod/sat radio) when I flip the switch on it will provide video from the back up camera and still play music...

Are these "TVs" or monitors? TV's have TV tuners built in while monitors just have a video input. Do they have just one input for each screen? How does the DVD video connect to both screens?

It sounds like you may need a 2x1 video switch.

low_psi, you just jogged my memory, lol. There is a switch in the breaker panel in the cabin that was used to switch between the DVD and the TV's before, I guess I just need to figure out how to wire that into this new head unit now

Nort you are right, they are monitors only. But it sounds like Im half way there, just need to figure out how to wire this switch in properly now :lolhit:

A simple A/V switch to change from DVD to camera should do it. I would assume that the DVD deck is only going to show video when you have a DVD in it.

What is interesting is that you had (have) two monitors running from one video source. Either one video monitor has a "loop" port on it to loop the video to the next monitor, or the single video source is connected in parallel to both monitors at the same time. If you don't use a video distribution amp the displays will usually be dimmer than normal if in parallel. If the brightness is fine then you may be able to just use a toggle switch to get it done.

I'm doing a custom video install on my Sunseeker with multiple video sources (a few cameras and DVD) and a few displays plus a security DVR. It's been fun and should be coming together shortly. Here's the simplfied schematic for the project. :drink::drink:

Holy crap Nort! That looks like quite the system you got going on there.

First let me say that I'm no electrical expert, if you couldn't already figure that one out :lolhit:

Second, I'm not sure how they have the monitors run. There are two and they both would display the same image. They did seem to be at different brightness levels now that you mention it, but this setup is in the cabin of a Cigarette Top Gun so I am not down there chillin and watching movies, lol. The underwater camera is cool but also not something that I am constantly fixed on, so my guess would be that they are run in parallel as you suggest. There was a toggle already wired in to switch from DVD to camera.

I guess I just need to figure out how that switch now needs to be wired into the new setup to be able to switch and display the camera even when the music is playing...I'll take a look again this weekend when I am back down there.

Thanks for all the help so far guys!

Nort you ever hear of Digital? Don't ever call me behind the times. :D

Most guys in a system like this will just split the video with a Y cable. Nort is correct it can cause some video issues but on screens the size that you are talking about can ussually be adjusted for as long as you are only splitting it one time. It would be a rare bird that your monitors only had 1 video input on them so see if they have more then one. If so then you can wire them up so that you can watch different inputs.