Watching movies when cruising offshore

[Tillsbury]

Movies on some kind of external hard drive. Something to act as a server (we use a Mac Mini as others above mention). Running a server such as AirVideo (or Plex or Kodi are alternatives), then you can view anything you like on any device -- we use a TV in the saloon linked to a Fusion head for good sound, but can be watching on ipad pro outside, kids can be watching on ipads and phones, I have a clip on the ceiling above the bed in the master cabin so can just mount the ipad pro there and watch other episodes.

Sure, you're not really using these at sea, but over here in NZ not only do we have no broadcast television worth watching neither do we have usable wifi nor cellular connection pretty much anywhere you're likely to be, so it's a bit of a waste of time expecting to watch anything that isn't entirely self-contained.

[Reefmagnet]

Our old tv on the boat can read selected movie formats. We do store everything on a number of high capacity hard drives, but I prefer to transfer files to a USB stick that we're likely to watch in the upcoming week or so. If the TV can't read the format, free apps like Handbrake can convert to a suitable format. The reason for this is that we usually watch TV at night, so power on limited battery capacity needs to be conserved and this represents the best economy of power usage.


However, for serious watching when it's damn the power burn, we have a NUC on board that can connect directly to the TV via HDMI and it can also output sound to the onboard stereo via bluetooth (although the direct USB bluetooth through the tv sounds pretty good). It run's Kodi, of course when in multimedia mode.


The NUC is that black box sitting above the monitor. It runs quite happily directly off the house 12VDC supply. Dear as poison new and they need to be purchased as components, but cheap enough to pick up second hand. I prefer the I3 spec for general purpose use with consideration for power consumption.

[mako]

My daughters use the Netflix feature of being able to download shows/movies on their iPad, which they watch on the long 14+ hour flights we take. Not sure if there is an expiration period for those downloaded shows, but it should be long enough to take you across the Atlantic.

[wtmf]

do you know the KISS rule? Also if you are on watch and watching a movie you could DIE!!!
priorities man. however when the USCG asks about a warning system I want the 1000 watt 10 speakers, 5 on each side pointing away 200db to overwhelm them.

[bongo]

Read a book. When I started in the Merchant Marine that is all we had. In retrospect, actually superior to a blu-ray in every room.

[Sojourner]

On watch? Nothing. At anchor? We have 4 or 5 one tetrabyte drives full of movies and tv series to watch on a 43 inch smart TV hooked up to the wifi, so netflix as well. For warm nights we have a movie projector and a 2 meter screen that goes between the backstays

Edit: we do also carry 2 kindles full and a paper library in the forecabin of about 300 or so volumes

[Shaunskie]

Januzr, sorry I cant help with your question as I am in the same position, but was writing to ask if there is any chance you send me that picture of the cat it is brilliant, im still laughing. The Admiral would love it shaunskiew@googlemail.com if not possible no problem, and good luck in your search and fair winds for your journey.

[BigAl.NZ]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I love to watch movies in the evenings when cruising. I watch more movies on the boat than on land.


I have a 32" Samsung screen mounted on the forward bulkhead of the saloon of my boat. It draws very little power (15 watts?) and I simply run it off the inverter.



In Nordic waters we frequently have fast enough Internet (truly unlimited mobile data in Finland, for example, testing at 30 or 40 mbs, so perfectly adequate for Netflix or any other kind of streaming. I also have multiple terabytes of content on portable hard drives. Some of it can be run directly on the TV via USB stick, but the built-in player (it's an old TV) is not the best and doesn't play all formats, and besides doesn't do subtitles, so I also have a long HDMI cable back to the nav table to connect to the boat computer or a laptop.


This works fine, and I'm happy with the built-in sound.


I sometimes toy with the idea of upgrading the old screen, but honestly, it looks great, so this maybe a stupid idea. I display nav data on it sometimes on passage, or the radar screen, so that I can keep an eye on things while I'm in the galley or in the saloon.



I have a large number of DVD's on board from the old days. I should probably rip them to disk and toss them, but I somehow never get around to it. I'm starting to be dissatisfied with anything less than 1080p content anyway.

Got a picture of your TV and the mount? Looking at doing something similar.

[Pizzazz]

The simplest solution is a hard drive plugged into a 32" Smart TV. I use a Vizio that has Netflix and Amazon built in. As mentioned above, there are some odd codecs that would crush the TV and in this case you need to use a laptop connected to the TV. But having one remote and using the TV speakers is simple and convenient. Cruisers love to exchange movies and one can quickly build a library of 400-500 movies that is plenty.

[CatNewBee]

Notebook with HDMI output, hd projector and canvas for prime time, Kodi media center free software for media management, streaming to all smart devices if desired and playback of audio, audiobooks, movies and series on harddisk's, DVB-T by USB tuner, streaming of YT and all the other internet services possible, but unlikely because no broadband internet in most places.

[chuckr]

Originally Posted by MJH

When actually cruising OFFSHORE, WHO HAS TIME FOR WATCHING MOVIES? Who is keeping watch? Who is sleeping? Either the watch schedule is badly arrange or you have too many crew members. We only watch them in port or at anchor.

~ ~ _/) ~ ~ MJH

This is spot on. We are a 2 handed crew and if we start watching movies who on deck keeping watch and whoever is down below should be sleeping or getting food or ect - not taking a couple of hours out to watch a movie.

When on deck we do use a shortwave radio to listen to English broadcasts from a variety of countries.

Now at anchor we use wifi and watch just about whatever we want to watch but then again we are not in the USA - last year we watched all the Oscar contenders just before the Oscars -

Your question needs a bit more clarification

[Charles S]

We have an iPad in a waterproof case and “Ram” mounts at the Nav station, over our double bunk, and under the dodger. We keep movies on the iPad and can watch them anywhere.
s/v Dawnpiper
Charles

[Hornloaded]

I wanted a system that did not require an inverter. I found a LED TV that used a 19V DC external power supply. I bought a precision 12V-19V converter. TV draws 2 amps.
I built a true 12V window computer with HDMI out and an SSD hard drive. I placed a 2TB HD on a separate breaker (draws 5 amps).
To watch a movie, I drag the desired show from the 2TB HD to the desk top (SSD HD) and then turn off the 2TB drive.
This system draws 3 amps total to watch movies (no inverter's). I'm very happy with it.

Doug
S/V Waveguide

[Coltrek]

I am also in the process of constructing or rather rebuilding an Audio/Video system, pretty much from scratch with the exception of existing wiring. So far I have a Channelmaster Stream Plus, which is kind of like a poor mans TiVo. This will stream, when available, and also play back recorded programs from over the air, which I know doesn't help while you are out of range. The HDMI from this will be input to a 1080 Computer Monitor, as yet undetermined. The controls for this are pretty primitive for boats and RV/s, but I have narrowed down to a Jensen JWM90A, or a Fusion Entertainment System, for DVD, amplification, and distribution. The Fusion is twice as much as the Jensen, has 4 zones, but only 2 powered, and I don't think it has a HDMI input, a deal killer.. The Jensen has three powered zones.HDMI in and out. I like that the Fusion can play VHF Marine Channels. I don't understand why these manufacturers would put this much into these units, and no Blue Ray, which is most of my collection. Maybe the answer to this is to figure out how to copy the Blue Ray to Disk.

[sailcrazy]

Since we can not rely on a wifi or internet signal, we built our system around being self-contained. We have a LED TV (24"), connected to an external antenna (for when there is a TV signal), and connected to a DVD player and Brite-View. we have about 400 movies copied onto a 3TB HD. And it's all powered by a 350w inverter off the house bank. We can watch a movie on the laptop (via the HD, one person), or the TV (everyone, via the HD and the Brite-View), or the DVD player. We have about 600 albums recorded on the laptop and an IPOD, and can play it via the AM/FM radio or a Blue-tooth portable speaker. none of it draws much power, and the only thing we're missing is the nightly news! (assuming you want to see the networks version of fake news that night).