Add a dual screen iPod video system to your car for under $200
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
A couple weeks back we did a review of the DLO TransDock, and I mentioned I had set up a sort of “poor man’s” iPod video system to my car which did not have a built-in DVD entertainment system. We received an overwhelming response (well, 1 reader, actually) from readers asking for more details on my solution. So, here are the basic steps as to how to recreate my dual screen iPod video system for under $200.
[Note: This all assumes you already own a video iPod. If not, the cost of this system goes up rather dramatically]
Above: The finished result. A few more wires visible than a factory ordered model, but about 10% of the cost as well. Doesn’t look all that bad. If I cared a little more, I could easily wrap the wires together and make a slightly nicer presentation, but this is currently meant to entertain a 3 and 5-year-old, and they do not notice such things.The most important (and expensive) part of the system is of course the video screens. Personally, since I have 2 kids to entertain, I decided to opt for a dual screen system, which adds a bit more expense and cabling than a 1 screen solution. The most important thing to keep in mind when choosing your screens is that you need a model with an audio/video input. Given the price range we’re working in, it isn’t all that surprising to find out that many do not, as these are designed to pretty much play DVDs on one screen, and then mirror the output on the other screen. The tricky part is, even some systems that DO have AV inputs do not list them in the descriptions online or on the box.
On the night before a big road trip I went out to Target and Circuit City and bought 3 different dual screen systems. When I got home and checked out what the various inputs/outputs were like, I returned two and ended up keeping the RCA DRC629N model. It was on sale for $140 at Circuit City at the time (I mistakenly said I got it at Target in the review). It doesn’t seem to be available online anymore, but call your local store. Additionally it is on eBay now for around $150 if you want my exact model.
Above: I used a 7-inch dual screen model from RCA, but you can use pretty much any model that has AV inputs. A single screen solution will likely cost less and be easier to cable.The RCA model is a decent unit. The picture is soft, and nothing a true videophile is going to go nuts over, but it is slightly better than you would expect for a $140 unit with a DVD player and two 7-inch LCD screens. You can certainly spend more on other units, but I found most systems fell within $20 of this price range. And to be honest, I am never going to watch these things; they are for the kids, and they are young enough at the moment that they don’t care about such foreign concepts as “picture quality”. The screens seemed bright enough to be viewable during the day, and since I was setting up two screens (one behind each headrest) the viewing angle was not an issue, although it was decent as well.
Each screen comes with velcro straps which you use to attach the screens to the back of the front seat headrests. This is not as nice looking as built-to-order solutions where the screens are mounted inside the headrests, but it is also about 10x-12x cheaper.
Above: The screens attach to the back of most headrests via velcro straps. I had no problem using these, and I did not notice them being uncomfortable. (Actually, my head doesn’t come in contact with the headrest when I drive). Women or men with long hair could conceivably get their hair caught in the velcro I suppose, but my wife has thus far not during some 30 hours of driving with these, so I think you’re safe.
Technical hurdles
The main technical hurdles you will face is the challenge of routing not only audio and video to the screens, but also power. How expensive and complicated your cabling ends up being depends on the type of screens you buy, the types of cables you already own, and how your car’s electrical outlets (ie cigarette adapters) are configured.
Above: You can see that the RCA unit I chose has a port that serves as both the AV in and out. This means to get video to both screens, I had to split my signal.The first thing you’ll need to do is get the video out of your iPod. I happen to already own an iPod AV cable that I bought on Amazon a year ago. If you have a mini DV camcorder, odds are you already have a cable that will work. Basically, it has a mini AV jack on one end, and then 3 RCA (aka composite, aka the “red”, “white” and “yellow”) jacks on the other end. The only difference between a cable calling itself an iPod video cable and a standard mini AV to RCA cable is the order of the colored stickers. If you are using the mini DV camcorder’s cable, just swap the red and yellow connectors, and you can watch your iPod on your TV screen (or use it in our scenario). Right now you can find both iPod video cables and Stereo Audio/Video Camcorder Cables on Amazon or Radio Shack for $1.14 to $9.99-ish (note, I bought the $1.14 one from Amazon, and I do not recommend it. It takes a great deal of fiddling to get the perfect connection).
OK, so you have your system and a video cable for about $150. Next, you’ll need to take a look at your screens and map out a cabling scheme. In my case, since I have two screens to feed, I wanted to take those 3 RCA jacks coming off my iPod video cable, and split each one so I would have a left audio, right audio, and a video signal going to each screen. To do that, I had to buy a bunch of specific RCA splitters (3 to be exact). I was amazed at how hard it was to find these. What I needed was three 1-female to 2-female Y-connectors, and apparently no one else on the planet ever needs this type of split. You will find a ton of 1-female to 2-male, and 1-male to 2-females, but 1-female to 2-female Y cables are almost impossible to find. I ended up finding some at B&H Photo online, and they ran a reasonable $2.99 each. The good thing about the RCA standard is the same splitter can split an audio feed or a video feed, so you can order 3 of the same. Since I had to order those, on our first car trip we had to make due with only one screen working.
So, once the Y-adapters arrived, I split each of the red and white (audio), and yellow (video) RCA cables into 2 outputs. The next step was to rejoin each new set of split RCAs and feed them to each screen. The model of screens I used each had a separate video and audio input. The video was a mini video, and the audio is a standard stereo mini headphone input. I happen to have a ton of cables that I could use (these seem to accumulate every time I bought a new video card or TV and they all get tossed in my inextricably tangled AV box), so I was able to re-patch these without spending any extra money. Of course, neither set matches, and if I wanted to make it all nice and pretty I could go to Radio Shack and buy the exact cables needed (these cables Radio Shack DOES have in stock). What you need are 2 sets of 2-male RCA (the red and white) to stereo mini (for the audio) and then 2 sets of RCA video (yellow) to mini video adapter (to plug in the video).
Above: The final “beautiful” cabling job. You can see that since I used existing cables I had, the left side uses a single cable that combined the 3 RCA connectors into one mini video and 1 mini stereo audio, where on the right I had to make do with 2 cables, a RCA video to mini video, and a RCA stereo audio to stereo mini cable.You can see in the above picture, I happen to have a cable that did the RCA to stereo audio and mini video at the top in one nice cable, and at the bottom I needed to use 2 separate found cables to do the same job.
Power
OK, in theory now we can just plug one of each set into each screen and we have our video. However, we need to power these screens as well, and the unit only ships with one car power adapter. The way the unit is designed to work is there is a proprietary cable that transmits audio, video and power from the main unit (which plugs in the car’s AC adapter) to the secondary screen. Now, if I didn’t care about the looks of the units, I could still use this cable to transmit power by just plugging in the power portion of the cable, and then angling it in such a way as the other AV connectors are not plugged in, thus allowing me to insert our newly paired off sets of AV cables we made. But as it stands, I felt buying another car AC adapter was in order. Radio Shack has these as well for about $20, and they come with a range of tips that fit most devices. I would recommend having the folks at Radio Shack look at the electrical requirements of your screens and set it for you to minimize the risk of blowing a screen with the wrong amperage. But as I said, this is an optional step, as (at least with my particular model) I did not HAVE to do this to get the system running, it just looked neater.
Above: The proprietary plug that came with my unit is designed to transmit video, audio, and power from the main screen to the secondary screen. You can see the Power plug at the bottom is positioned far enough from the audio and video ports that it allows me to turn the plug, and bring power from the main unit to the secondary unit without having to plug in the audio and video jacks. That way I can use my new cables to route the AV, and just use this for power.My car also happened to include two AC outlets in the front seat, and many newer cars do. If your car only has a single outlet, then you’ll find you also may have to buy an AC splitter as well. This is about $4.99 at Radio Shack.
Options
If you aren’t all that strapped for cash, there are a couple other things you may want. First, I like using the TransDock (or something similar). Using it, you could broadcast the audio from your video to your car’s sound system, which makes for a much better audio experience than relying on the audio delivered from the puny speakers located on the 2 RCA screens (plus it will charge your iPod as well). In fact, I would recommend this, as on the highway, you’ll find that road noise may be too loud for the puny speakers on the screens to compete with. (One suggestion, if you are having trouble hearing your videos due to wind/road noise, I found selecting all your videos in iTunes, and then doing a “get info” on them and boosting their volume there to 100% helped out. How much to boost depends on the source of your videos. Most of ours are recorded from Eye TV off a Dish Network System, and the audio seems to come in a little low.)
However, if you do not wish to opt for an iPod docking cradle with FM broadcasting capabilities, you could also opt to just plug headphones into the screens (each screen has its own headphone jack). Also, many cars (including mine) have the AUX input in their stereo, and you can optionally split just the video and send that to the two screens, and then join the audio and send that to your AUX input. This again will deliver much louder and clearer sound, and minimize cable clutter.
Above: The front seat is a lot less pretty than the back… In reality, you can tuck most of these wires away, I just thought I’d show it for shock value.So there you have it. Obviously, this is just an outline, and the fewer screens you need, the cheaper and less ugly the end results will be. I found I was able to tuck most stray cables in between seats to minimize the kids accidentally kicking them and knocking them loose. The final result is not nearly as nice or seamless looking as the factory installed entertainment systems many cars ship with, but this also does not add $2000-$4000 to the price of my car either. Plus, I do not want screens in my car for daily driving, as I know my kids would want to watch TV on even a short trip to the store. We use our system only as a sanity-keeping device on long trips at the moment. One final word of caution, once you patch together your Frankenstein’s monster of a cabling job, odds are you’ll not want to ever disconnect it, since it is a pain in the ass to rebuild. So if you are stealing cables from somewhere else (like the mini DV camcorder) be sure you can spare the cable.
Price:
DVD player/screens: = $140-$150
Y-Splitters (x3) = $2.99
iPod video cable = $9.99
Various other RCA cables = $30
Total = approximately $189-$199 (tax not included)
Optional:
Power splitter = $4.99
Extra Car AC adapter = $20
TransDock (or similar) = $99
Apple releases first DRM-free “Free song of the Week” on iTunes
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
Apple has made its first DRM-free “Free Song of the week” available on iTunes using the new “iTunes Plus” audio format (well, actually it’s a Discovery Download, not sure what the difference is).
The track, “Lightning” by Eric Church, prompts a user to choose between the regular old DRM-ladden AAC file, or the iTunes Plus format when they attempt to download it. A dialogue box alerts you that by choosing iTunes Plus, “you will always be offered the DRM-free, highest quality audio when available.” However, don’t worry that you’ve set the preference forever you’ll be stuck paying more for all your tracks (the iTunes Plus tracks cost about 30 cents more than the DRM versions). “This preference can be changed via the iTunes Store account settings,” adds the warning box.
This is a great chance for users test out whether or not they can notice a difference between a 128 kbs AAC file and a 256 kbps AAC [edit] file without having to spend any money. Personally, I can’t tell the difference in audio quality on this particular track, but then I have never heard it before either.
Download the free track Lightning here and test it for yourself.
Cracked copies of every iPod game hit the web
Posted by iGor
Has it been awhile since you did something geeky lately? Can’t remember the last time you “stuck it to the man”? Well, why not remedy BOTH travesties at once by installing cracked versions of all Apple’s iPod games on your iPod!
If you’re the kind of person who doesn’t believe in capitalism and a free market economy, then this may be of interest. Forum member slus over at zomgstuff has posted links to cracked versions of all of games currently available on iTunes (even the new LOST game!), along with instructions on how to load them on your iPod using iPodWizard.
We haven’t tried it yet, as we certainly are not ones to condone such illegal behavior. However, as news people, we felt compelled to alert the public as to the whereabouts of the detailed and easy to follow directions on how to accomplish this, so that all law abiding citizens can avoid these pages. And for those straight shooters, we have thoughtfully provided a link to the games section of the iTunes store, so you may legally purchase the games, which as mentioned above, are free and easy to install.
But illegal.
Review: DLO’s Home Dock Music Remote
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
DLO has answered the prayers of many an iPod user with their new Home Dock Music Remote. Gadget aficionados familiar with DLO’s excellent Home Dock Deluxe will find the Music Remote’s concept easy to grasp. The unit consists of a sleek docking/charging station for your iPod which you connect to your home stereo via an included mini audio cable. We’ve seen cradles such as this before, however what differentiates the Music Remote from the competition (as its name would imply) is the remote.
The Music Remote sports a very bright OLED display that allows you almost total control over your iPod from anywhere in your house. Just dock your iPod into the Music Remote’s charging cradle, sync the remote, and you are free to wander aimlessly through your house, navigating your iPod’s playlists, skipping songs, adjusting volume, even create on-the-go playlists.
Above: The Music Remote’s bright display is easy to read, and allows you to navigate your iPod’s music and playlists.The remote is extremely small, yet not un-usably so. I’d say it’s roughly 2/3 the size of the iPod nano. The remote consists of 5 navigational buttons, and a bright 1-inch OLED display. The Music Remote’s display can show up to 3 lines of text, and can be set to display either song and artist or (my personal favorite) song and NEXT song. It’s amazing how quickly I have gotten used to being able to see what song is coming up next, and this feature impressed many fellow geeks here at the lab.
Navigating the remote is quite similar to navigating an iPod’s menu structure, and it shouldn’t take most iPod users long to feel right at home. The remote has a rechargeable battery which you charge directly from the cradle when not in use (TIP: initially I thought you could not charge the Music Remote while playing songs on your iPod, but you can by first changing over to “iPod mode” in the remote’s “Settings” menu). The charging cradle can also be used to sync your iPod with iTunes, as long as you buy the necessary USB adapter cable to connect it to your computer.
Using the remote, you can do almost everything you can do while holding your iPod; set up an on the go playlist, set the iPod to shuffle mode, adjust the volume, scroll through artists, playlists, or songs (via the “all songs” playlist), all from up to 150 feet away. In my house, I am unable to get 150 feet away from the unit, however I found the remote’s range was sufficient so that even when I was many rooms and a floor away from the Music Remote’s base station, the remote worked perfectly. Odds are if you can hear the speakers the Music Remote is attached to, the remote is in range. In the remote’s “settings” screen you can actually see a display of the remote’s signal strength, which can be hampered by distance and other sources of RF interference (however I did not experience any such problems).
Not just a 1-trick pony
The Music Dock’s big brother is DLO’s Home Dock Deluxe, which, while lacking the “cool remote with display” of the Music Remote, boasts the ability to be able to display videos from your iPod on your TV via an intuitive Tivo-like menu for only $20 more. The Music Remote offers a somewhat stripped down version of the HomeDock’s video capabilities as well. You can connect the Music Remote to your TV via an iPod video cable (not included) but the remote’s control over your iPod’s videos is more limited than with music. You must manually navigate to the video you wish to watch first and start it playing from the iPod itself. The Music Remote will then allow you to pause/play and adjust volume, but that’s it. Still, it’s nice to see DLO not forsaking the video aspect of the latest iPods entirely, and after all, it IS called the MUSIC Remote.
So who needs this?
I do.
There are any number of scenarios where the Home Dock Music Remote would come in handy. We had a backyard barbecue just this weekend and I hooked the Music Remote up to a Harman Kardon Go + Play we are also reviewing (ahh, the life of a product reviewer) and it was very convenient to be able to manage the party’s music without ever leaving the grill. Additionally, the thing is just plain fun to use. I could be sitting 3 feet from the actual iPod, and still get a sick lazy thrill from skipping songs without getting up or pausing the music for a telephone call. Hammock owners in particular will appreciate the ability to manage music without having to extricate themselves from their cushy webbing. The Home Dock Music Remote may be the perfect Father’s Day gift for that tech-obsessed dad in your life.
While the Music Remote can be enjoyed by any iPod user, I imagine it would be best suited to folks who have a “whole house” or multi-room type of audio system. In such a setup, the same audio source can be fed throughout the house to different speakers, allowing you to enjoy your music as your roam through your mansion. For those lucky (or rich) enough to have such a system, the Music Remote will allow you to wander far from your docked iPod and stereo and not only hear your tunes, but be able to skip songs, make playlists, see what song is coming up next, and control the volume as you go through your daily routine of hiring and firing servants.
I have the “poor man’s” equivalent in my home (well, maybe it’s the mildly-wealthy-man’s solution). Using two Airport Expresses, I can beam the same audio to both my upstairs and downstairs stereos via iTunes. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to figure out a feasible workaround that would allow me to do the same with the Music Remote. This is kind of disappointing, as to me the ability to control your stereo’s music from a distance loses its usefulness if you can’t get too far from the stereo (and your iPod) in the first place. It would be nice to be able to use iTunes to stream via the Aiport Express when the Music Remote’s cradle is connected to a computer, or at the very least to see the Music Remote tied to some wireless speakers (note to DLO, get working on that).
Above: The back of the Music Remote’s dock, showing mini USB port, Power, and AV out ports.
Issues
The Music Remote offers a great deal of functionality at a great price, but there are of course a couple things we could wish for. First, while the menu navigation is similar to the iPod’s from a hierarchal standpoint, it is not from a hardware standpoint. Since the Music Remote doesn’t come with the iPod’s speedy click wheel, it is a little hard to navigate through large libraries as quickly as you can on an iPod. Imagine you are listening to AABA and want to quickly to get to your favorite Zamfir track. I would love to be able to push “UP” and get there instead of scrolling down through every other artist I own.
Second, I wish the Music Remote would remember settings once set. For example, as I mentioned, I like the display to show me the name of the current and upcoming song. Once I set this, it should stay that way until I tell it otherwise. As it is now, every time I disconnect the iPod and reinsert it, the display defaults back to the original setting of song and artist. The same goes for the volume level. When hooked to my stereo, I set the Music Remote’s volume to about 100%. That input level works well for my stereo, and I turn my stereo’s volume up around 26, which is a normal listening volume on that model. However, again, when I disconnect the iPod, even for a moment, the volume of the Music Remote defaults back to around 20%. This caused me some confusion at first, as I saw the Music Remote thought it was playing, but I wasn’t hearing anything. And one final comment on settings; changing settings such as shuffle on the Music Remote actually changes them on your iPod, and they stay changed when you undock. It would be nice if the Music Remote could make note of current settings, and somehow restore them on undock. All these things are not overly annoying once you realize how it works, but they ARE a little annoying, and could confuse first time users.
The thing I feel may annoy users most about the Music Remote is the resyncing issue. You must resync the Music Remote with your iPod any time you add music or change a playlist (or use a different iPod, for that matter) in order for the Music Remote to notice a change has been made. The syncing process doesn’t take too long (it takes about 2 minutes for me on an iPod with 9.5 GB or music loaded) but could get annoying if you purchase new music often or are often rearranging and creating new playlists. If you don’t resync (but are using the last iPod the Music Remote had docked) then it will still work fine, it just won’t recognize the latest additions you may have made until you redownload the lists.
Finally, and this is minor, I would like the option to leave the remote’s backlight on longer. Currently you have the option of “30 seconds” “1 minute” and “2 minutes”. I would like to see a “5 minute” option, or even an “always on” mode. I know this is a battery saving measure, and I don’t really know how long the remote would last in such a scenario, but I wasn’t able to drain it after 5 hours of what I consider “normal use” (which is me skipping songs like a mad man) at the 2 minute setting. It’s just so fun to see what song is coming up next, I don’t want to have to keep waking it to see as each song changes.
From this list it may seem as though I found much to be bothered by with the Music Remote, however that’s not the case. In reality most of these are very minor issues or suggestions for future versions (or even firmware updates, should that be possible) and listed here more to let prospective buyers better understand the workflow involved with the Music Remote than anything. In fact, I’m not sure I can recommend the Music Remote enough.
Conclusion
The Home Dock Music Remote is a very cool gadget that will elicit “oohs” and possibly even “aahhs” from your fellow iPod loving friends. The remote looks cool, works as advertised, and does more than simply promote a sedentary lifestyle the way most remotes do. The ability to control your iPod from virtually anywhere, as well as create playlists and monitor upcoming tracks means this remote is more about you being up and active, enjoying the party instead of hovering near the stereo all night.
Price: $129
Pros: Bright, cool-looking display; great remote range; can manage your iPod as if you were holding it from a distance of up to 150 feet; some limited video capabilities as well
Cons: Remote needs to be resynced with the iPod every time the iPod’s content is changed; can be slow to navigate through large libraries
Apple issues Security Update 2007-005; Now averaging 1 security update a month
Posted by Helper Monkey
Apple today released a 32 MB security patch (its 5th this year) bringing its average for the year to one Secuirty Update a month.
The 2 main vulnerabilities patched in this update both dealt with exploiting a UPnP IGD (Internet Gateway Device Standardized Device Control Protocol) vulnerability to gain access to a user’s computer and possibly launch a denial of service attack or execute arbitrary code.
From Software Update:
Security Update 2007-005 is recommended for all users and improves the security of the following components:
bind
CarbonCore
CoreGraphics
crontabs
fetchmail
file
iChat
mDNSResponder
PPP
ruby
screen
texinfo
VPN
Security Update 2007-004 has been incorporated into this security update.
For detailed information on this update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798
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