Sound on Board -- Bringing it Up to Date

[SailRedemption]

Originally Posted by funjohnson

With the Fusion speakers, I think you really need an external amp like you're using to power them. We're using the stereo 50x4 and it can't drive them enough to get even usable sound... they're the flattest sounding speaker I've ever heard. I'm just not willing to add an amplifier to our power budget.

Matt

Yea, I understand that. The two inside speakers definitely don't sound at good as the amplified ones outside. The amp really one draws more power when you really start getting loud. Regular listening volume its barely more than without the amp. I'm sure there is more but I haven't really noticed much difference, though I haven't solely looked for it. I really only hooked the amp up on the boat because I had it in a closet and I know I won't get much money for it.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by rwidman

I'm surprised when boaters get so worked up about fancy sound systems. As someone pointed out, there's no good place in a boat to seriously listen to music. You can't place the speakers where they should be placed and the acoustics are all wrong, Then there's background noise. For the best sound you should be wearing high end earphones.

When I hop onto my boat, it's to get away from noises and the sounds of civilization. I replaced the original stereo in my boat with one that lacks a CD player but accepts a USB drive or an SD card. I can put hundreds of songs on either of these with no moving parts.

This is just a standard car stereo with four 35 watt channels. As a practical matter, I seldom even turn it on. The sounds of nature are my music.

BTW: If you do feel the need for a 400 watt sound system for your boat, please be considerate of other boaters and even waterfront homeowners. Whatever your choice of music, there will be some who don't like it or are trying to sleep.

Speak for yourself about the place to listen to music -- the salon of my boat is as good as most living rooms, from the point of view of acoustics, speaker placement, and space.

But I agree very much with "the sounds of nature are my music." I can't stand music used as background noise -- I don't play the stereo except when I have the chance to sit and listen with concentration. Most of the time, what I listen to with concentration is not music, but the natural sounds around. And that's one reason why I haven't gone overboard, to date, with stereo equipment.

[jkimbu]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I already have a sort of media server -- the 2TB drive attached to ship's computer, and other devices networked to the ship's computer (but I don't really need to "serve" any media to anything else so far as sound and video can be handled by the ship's computer). The cheap Atom computer is actually designed for handling video and it is not burdened at all by this duty.

Could you elaborate on this? Getting ready to make the transition aboard, we're a Windows house and other than having all my music ripped to mp3's (I like MediaMonkey but there are a ton of options), there's zero video on computer. Would like to get a library of DVDs and rip them to an external NAS as you describe, but I cannot figure out how to do that... seems everything is set up for AppleHeads these days... I guess I could make the switch, but would love to hear from someone who's still Windows-based and has a streaming video solution aboard!!

Cheers!

[john61ct]

Either a Kodi box or Plex is a good start for managing a library, dlna if the screen-attached device isn't the actual server.

If you have good Internet (fast & unlimited) for a while, IMO it's not really worth the time ripping the DVDs, almost everything's available for free download via torrent.

For that reason I don't store the files long term, once done just delete, can always get them back later.

[jkimbu]

Well we don't have a ton of DVDs... so I'm sitting here trying to decide whether to stock up or what... I know what torrent is but have no idea how to get movies from it, where to store them, etc. etc. Which is sad because I'm actually a programmer, and I understand all the tech, I just don't use it personally because I don't listen to music 24/7 and we just redbox/dvr our TV content.... so having a library of own stuff is new ground.

[goat]

Generally speaking, downloading movies is illegal in most countries. If you are determined to go that way poke around the Reddit community.

All your torrent client is doing is sending a link to others that have a program to share, be it a movie or whatever. Apple Linux and Windows can all handle downloading. Finding a legitimate site that has the actual torrents and not viruses is the hardest part. Windows being the most susceptible.

Once you head out cruising you'll undoubtedly bump into someone with a few terabytes of movies on a hard drive. Might take overnight to transfer them to your own harddrive or you could just bring a few thumbdrives and borrow some movies that way. Figure about 1 gig per movie depending on recording quality.

goat

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by goat

. . . .
Once you head out cruising you'll undoubtedly bump into someone with a few terabytes of movies on a hard drive. Might take overnight to transfer them to your own harddrive or you could just bring a few thumbdrives and borrow some movies that way. Figure about 1 gig per movie depending on recording quality. . . .

Once you've done that a few times, you will wake up with 10 or 20 terabytes of movies, and no need to even think about DVDs.

Full HD movies will be more than a gig apiece, however, but with the price of storage these days, it's not an issue.

[john61ct]

Step one, cancel your home cable services. (optional)

Step two, install μTorrent ("mutorrent") for whatever OS you use (Android PlayStore for me)

Step three click on the search button and enter e.g.

Butch Cassidy 720p

and your browser will open DuckDuckGo (google+privacy) appending that search string with "torrent". That resolution is fine for most screens, smaller filesizes help.

Look for "magnet" links, but don't just click on them, copy and paste the text to μTorrent to make sure they start with the string "magnet:"

VNC is a great media player, will also connect to your dnla server storage or online streaming URLs.

Google will give you more step by step instructions if you need them. Obviously live-updated anti-malware tools are important, disable popups in your browser and don't accept any downloads that have a file extension other than *.torrent

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by jkimbu

Well we don't have a ton of DVDs... so I'm sitting here trying to decide whether to stock up or what... I know what torrent is but have no idea how to get movies from it, where to store them, etc. etc. Which is sad because I'm actually a programmer, and I understand all the tech, I just don't use it personally because I don't listen to music 24/7 and we just redbox/dvr our TV content.... so having a library of own stuff is new ground.

John61 answered your question pretty well.

You can rip your DVDs (or Blue Ray disks) to video files, using Handbrake or similar plus a plug- in to deal with copy protection.

Then keep all these files on a portable hard drive connected to a computer which you connect to your TV monitor with HDMI or DisplayPort. Simples.

I use an Atom-powered super tiny, super low powered media computer as ship's computer, and this works perfectly for movies. Control it with a micro wireless keyboard/trackpad and Bob's your uncle.

[john61ct]

Something also to be said for being able to wirelessly dlna-stream to screens (e.g. tablets) in the bunks.

Either Kodi or Plex handle that fine, but maybe best to dedicate a little box to such entertainment functionality rather than maybe messing up something more mission-critical.

Partial to Intel NUC myself if you want to stick to Windows, but those little Android units are temptingly cheap.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by john61ct

Something also to be said for being able to wirelessly dlna-stream to screens (e.g. tablets) in the bunks.

Either Kodi or Plex handle that fine, but maybe best to dedicate a little box to such entertainment functionality rather than maybe messing up something more mission-critical.

Partial to Intel NUC myself if you want to stick to Windows, but those little Android units are temptingly cheap.

The little Android (or cheap loophole Win 10 license boxes) are not only far cheaper than the NUC, they also use far less power, and have really good video-optimized graphics sections. In my opinion, just ticket, especially if the box will be used as a constant running ship's computer, such that power consumption is a consideration.

[Colin A]

You could try one of these 15VDC power so you may need a converter or regulator. 2 units would allow 2 zones.
https://www.parts-express.com/dayton...mote--300-3820
I run a Dayton audio version of the little blue tooth mini amp you posted earlier in my shed for music on the patio works great.

Other then that I would suggest a car audio or marine audio head unit with USB input and a good blue tooth.

I was looking at one of these myself
Clarion U.S.A | CMS20