Laptop/LCD screen hookup...

UrbanTacticz · 11-28-2001, 05:48 PM

Okay, I am going to install a laptop, and a LCD screen in my car, and I had a few questions. I was thinking about getting a regular LCD screen, and I probably will still, but what do you guys think? I want to hook the laptop to it, so that has be done. Do I need to get a LCD screen with a specific defice on it for me to be able to hookup a laptop to it? Like does it have to have anything special? Also when you are installing the LCD screen, how does the audio factor work? Like how do you hookup the screen to your current sound system in your car? Does it use a harness like the HU? If it does, how would we use the HU, and the LCD? Can I just splice into the HU wires from the LCD harness? Would that work? Would I be able to run both at once?

Also, I wanted a DVD system also. What I was thinking was getting an external DVD drive, hooking it up to my laptop, and extending the wires through out my car so I can mount the DVD drive somewhere in the front of my car, maybe the glove box or something? Or should I just buy a laptop with a DVD drive already in it? The only problem with getting a laptop with DVD is that you have to get to your laptop to change CDs which is a hassle. The pro of having a external DVD drive is that you can use that as a CDROM also like if you wanted to play a regular PC game or something you know? You don't have to go to your laptop to switch cds.

I was thinking of mounting my regular HU where the little "cubby" space is where the Ebrake handle is. Someone here on this site has already done that, and claims that it doesn't skip. What do you guys think? Or maybe install the HU with the DVD drive in the glove box? The only thing is that you would have to open up your glove box to change cds and such, and I would loose the ability to use my remote which I dont like. Any ideas on where I can mount everything?

Anyways, I also had a question about GPS. How should I go about this? If I were to install GPS on my laptop, then that would mean I would have to wait for the laptop to bootup before I could use the GPS system correct? I was wondering if there was any kind of standalone GPS system that wouldn't be tied in with the laptop because bootup times are a biatch! I want to be able to "turn on/off" the GPS though so I can switch between laptop use, and the GPS system. Maybe just do install GPS on the laptop, and just live with the bootup times? They wouldn't really be all that long...

Hit me up with some answers, I'm really getting into this project!

Telek · 11-28-2001, 06:49 PM

you should really read all of the current posts and use the search function before you ask questions that have been answered many times before, it seems that many people here have short tolerances for that behaviour

In any case, I don't know what you're talking about when you refer to hooking your LCD up to your sound system.

You can get a GPS that plugs into the laptop, and just use the GPS whenever you want, it's not like it's a big hassle once the laptop is already on. Also you can take advantage of the suspend mode of your laptop for very quick bootup times.

be careful about the DVD drive, as most cables have a maximum length that isn't all that long. depending where you mount the laptop most likely an external drive would be better, but seriously, I have no idea why everyone is so gung-ho on putting DVD on their carputer. It's not like you're going to watch movies while you're in control of the car.

Without posting some pictures of your car, and telling us how big the components are, it's impossible for us to judge where you should put stuff.

Read around here and you'll get all the answers that you want to your questions.

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