Thanks for your input, Turbocad.
I thought about that, and I haven't discard this possibility yet. But I see some downsides too:
1. The quality of Xenarcs and Lilliputs under the sun is poor. Now I find my monitor outstanding, even under direct sun. I can leave the sunroof open anytime, while I hear stories of people with Xenarc & Cia tinting rear windows! Frankly, that does not sound good to me. Unless I run into a resonably price 7" transflective (I'm not paying $800 for a refurbished lilliput), I don't see many hope on this solution.
Right I'm thinking that maybe without touchscreen things could work out, meaning, not much glare, good colors, brightness, etc.
2. Now, if I put another 7" monitor there, touchscreen or not (more likely not, unfortunately, see above point), running at at least double the stock resolution, how will the car graphics look like? Probably DirectX 3D will be responsible for upscalling it. Now again I might run into the problem of poor text rendering (text for songlist, outside temperature reading, clock, etc.). Take a look at the difference between an arcade game (similar to the stock screen in a car) running through Windows and running through its stock monitor/hardware. I'm afraid the results might not be stellar, but one have to see first to judge.
If all else fails, I'll buy a cheap touchscreen and mount it into the headliner somehow. If I was confident on how to finish the back of the screen to look stock, etc. I would have already done that! :-)
I think upscaling is not as bad as downscaling. I think an rgb converted to vga would look fine & be very readable, but I ain't no expert so I could be wrong. if it provides multiple syncs I don't think a converter would use them all but it might be able to work with just one of the syncs...
as far as finding a great screen, ah, that could be another journey I guess...
MY NEWEST INSTALL:modded infiniti fx with big screen
first windows carpc install........my liquid cooled LVDS screen :D
The very first link you posted for the AVElectronic box seems to be an awesome solution I wish I had found 6 months ago. Did you do much research on this device? Expensive yes, but it also replaces the PAC or G-NET device (approx $300) that I thought I would have to buy in addition to whatever adapter I needed.
I have my mac mini sitting in the corner collecting dust because I couldn't find a reasonable solution to hook it up to my nav screen. I think S-Video is a decent enough connection to display on a 7" screen. I believe S-Video outputs 480i (640x480), what are the typical resolutions people around here run on their 7 and 8" screens? I have no idea what my nav screen supports.
I may go pick up an S-Video adapter and test it out on a small screen around my house to get an idea. But if that looks well I think I may give this box a try. I can't believe I never came across this device after countless hours of searching for something similar.
If I had the right screen (maybe an Alpine liked to the computer with tactile feedback and whatnot), I would try somethng like that.
But as I said, I suspect the scaling is not going to be that good. This is the link showing how an arcade game, PacMan, on a modern video/monitor would look like:
http://www.ultimarc.com/avgainf.html
No wonder people go to great lengths after vintage arcade monitors.
Yeah, definitely, I'd say the AvElectronic box is the second best thing. It also has a tv tuner, a video amplifier (I guess) and a video switcher. You don't have to use the FM transmitter (also included, if I recall correctly) for sound, of course.Originally Posted by ladams02
Please, post your findings, if you go that route! I'm really curious on how text and everything else will display via S-Video.
Mmm - this post is quite inaccurate for the most part.I rejected the ArcadeVGA card for the following reasons:
1. It is BIG card, no chance of using it with an Aopen, MacMini or Laptop computer, or any small form factor computer (unless used with an AGP raiser card...does one even exist? I know PCI raiser cards only)
2. It is an AGP card (why not PCI?); hard to find suitable motherboards with newer processors, although doable;
3. It needs drivers and lots of work within Windows to make it work. I wonder how stable that would be with advanced windows software, like MPEG 2, MPEG 4 and DivX, XviD, Mkv file decoders, such as FFDshow, etc. What about DVD player software? Would that work?
1)Admittedly it is a standard-sized graphics card, no getting away from that fact.
2)They do come in PCI-Express versions too, I have one, and it works very well on my Commell LV-677 mini-itx board.
3)Driver-setup is as easy as for a normal graphics card, mount the cd, run setup, and your done.
4)It works million times better than the crappy vga-cga converter you have - how do I know that? Well, I have the same, tried it first, and it is crap. Got the card, and it was way better - only reason I am not using mine is because I have a 10" screen for my carputer project.
I doubt there's a better card for cga screens, a few guys in Australia is using these arcade cards on the stock Ford SatNav screens, to very good effect.
Good luck with your effrots though
F6 Tornado Project Log ; HP Blackbird Watercooled Server
Beta Tester for Centrafuse and 3dConnexion (No business affiliation with either)
Okay, then, finally somebody came with experience with the Arcade VGA (and the Converterstv card to boot)! I found your posts on the car project couple of days ago, do you still have some pictures of your earlier install? In any case, it works, that's good news then!
Sadly, I guess it won't fit on my notebook, all my project revolved around that. So be it.
If it can successfuly convert from VGA to RGBs, I can see no reason why it can't be used with Alpines, Kenwoods, HU, provided they use RGBs then.
Guess I'll be returning my card soon, if a solution is not coming from the Converter's tv people.
@ Ripplinghurst: Yes, I paid something $85 Aud for the little converter, and was sadly disappointed - image quality on the display was really bad, yet, using the Arcade VGA, made all the difference in the world!
Crisp text, vibrant colors, much more vivid - pity you cannot use it, as it is possibly one of the better solutions out there - and, as long as the displays use std CGA, (with 15.7khz composite sync) it will work
Good luck though, keep us posted to your solution.
Best regards,
MrBean
F6 Tornado Project Log ; HP Blackbird Watercooled Server
Beta Tester for Centrafuse and 3dConnexion (No business affiliation with either)
Just got an answer from tech support:
Well, I'm not gonna send my stock screen to Australia, but appreciated the oportunity to do so if I wanted to. So I'll be returning the card tomorrow.Yes, I have received a report from my technicians (yesterday afternoon) and because the Componants on the #40 pcb are not adjustable there is little that can be done as re-engineering of pcb parts is required.
In effect, to best sort the problem, we would require your screen to be sent to us so that we could test and refine a converter to best suit.
And I just ordered the Arcade VGA card.
@ Bean, did you ordered the amplifier also with your VGA card? The arcade VGA only outputs 1v signals, the amplifier boost this to 5v. According to the page linked, if you experience a "dim" monitor you should use the amp. Looking at the Infiniti service manuals, 1v is okay for RGB, but 5v is expected for H&V sync (but not RGB sync). Since I plan to use RGB+sync, I figure I didn't need the amp. Let's see how it will look.
I have an mATX board and X2 3800 [Edited twice: the 3800 isn't 65W, but 89W - too much. I'll have to ditch another 4600 EE 65w from my HTPC then, and put the 3800 89w in its place...oh, dear...] lying around, that will be my car pc I guess. Hope I can find a decent DC supply for that. I'll keep you guys posted as soon as I get the Arcade VGA card I'll post the results (fingers crossed).
I am eagerly awaiting a post. I have a 2004 accord with oem nav system. I have been looking for the best way to integrate my carpc into it since 05 and now have a little time to finish.
Sorry to nag!
Thanks!
Joe
2004 Honda Accord V6EX - OEM Navigation plan to integrate CarPC.
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