Connect TV to speakers in front shell

You might reconsider installing the radio IF you have an iPod for music. We find this to an extremely positive addition to our TM. The iPod just plugs into the AUX jack on the radio and gives us access to all of our tunes. The TV could probably use the same jack. It makes a nice clean installation, and a very good quality radio can be had for way under $200. If you decide this is the direction you want to go, be sure to get a radio with a front AUX jack rather than one at the rear.

My Trailmanor was missing a radio when purchased. I bought the radio below, that is a dvd player, has a sd card slot to view pics on the television, has a built in NTSC analog tv tuner (that I attached a coax from the aux winegard coax/12v plate), RCA output jacks (that I mounted to a surface mount box, to plug the television into), and a front aux a/v input to plug IPODs, etc, into.

I just finished installing and testing everything tonite. It works great. I can watch tv with dvd's, watch analog tv using the external Trailmanor wineguard antenna, watch the pics from my sd card from my digital camera, listen to IPOD, and listen to the radio/cd.........all thru my built-in trailmanor speakers.

I should be able to take my HD television now, and while utilizing it's built-in internal ATSC digital tuner, plug it's audio output into the radio's front aux input, and listen to it thru the TM speakers. I haven't tried this setup yet, but it should work.....in theory. Wish me luck.



The beauty of it, this radio didn't cost but $130, where I got it from. If anyone is interested, I can send you the info where I got it.

http://www.bossaudio.com/main/529

I don't want to sound like I'm tooting my own horn, it's just I get that way when I'm hungry, which I am because I missed dinner while installing the radio.

After discussing with my son (electronics/computer geek) I am going to try this set up first. I have a RCA RED/Yellow/White cable and we removed the yellow cable portion. That leaves RED/White to connect to the speaker wires and the other plugs fit the back of my LCD TV for left and right speakers.
Depending on how this works and how loud the speakers will be will determine what I will do next with it. Low cost approach first! Thank you everyone for your suggestions I really appreciate them.

MidWest Dave
NorthWestern Illinois

Bobby,
Your BOSS, In-dash player & radio looks very interesting. Did you get it up and running and did it meet or exceed your expectations ?
Eric

Originally Posted by Eric Larson

Bobby,
Your BOSS, In-dash player & radio looks very interesting. Did you get it up and running and did it meet or exceed your expectations ?
Eric

Yep Eric, it did the job nicely. This particular radio installation is where I did an rca jack modification to my telephone outlet box (which I have been asking if everyone uses in another forum post).

http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ead.php?t=6303

I have been meaning to take some pics and post how I did this mod. After this easy mod, all you have to do is to plug rca jacks into the box, then your tv set, and you're ready to go. I'll try to finish this tomorrow, to show everyone.

I can watch regular tv, watch dvd's, play cd's, plug Ipods (etc) into the radio, and more......all this with the sound coming from my built-in radio speakers.

Thanks for asking, and you have inspired me to finish my posts on this radio installation.

A few observations:
The documentation that comes with radio is fairly vague. It's nothing that anyone with any electronic experience couldn't overcome easily though. This vagueness is why I wanted to post the radio installation in the forums so ANYONE could do it.

The online specs for this radio says it has front and rear rca outputs. This is misleading, because the first thought is that it has front and rear rca JACKS....which it doesn't. It has front and rear SPEAKER rca outputs, but all of this is on the backside of the radio. I used the front speaker rca outputs to plug the tv set into, while hardwiring the built-in trailmanor speakers into the rear speaker wiring from the radio. This gives me a semi-surround sound, and lets me use the front/rear speaker fade control to adjust sound levels either thru the rear trailmanor speakers or thru the front television set speakers.

Boss makes a model BV3950T that has rca outputs built onto the front of the unit. This makes plugging a tv set into it very easy, however this player doesn't have a radio tuner, like the BV4450T does. I would think everyone would want a AM/FM radio.

I really can't gripe for the price, but I just wish the unit had a built-in ATSC (high definition) tuner, instead of just a NTSC (regular analog) tuner. All the television stations are turning off their NTSC broadcasts in 2009, by federal law. This will make the radio unit's built in NTSC tuner worthless then, unless I want to hookup a ATSC convertor box. But who wants another piece of electronic equipment taking up space and power in their trailer. It bewilders me why television manufacturers are still making stuff with only NTSC tuners in them, but they are.

Bobby

Bobby,
Thanks for the response. The BOSS internet ad for this item (BV4450T) only says "built-in TV tuner". It doesn't say anything about "analog only" --- I'm grateful that you pointed out that a buyer would need to add an ATSC tuner in the near future. I'd bet that BOSS and others will quickly add the new tuner. But the concept for TM'ers --- is great. I might decide to wait a bit for the whole enchilada. Glad we have you in the forum.
Eric

I finally got time to post pics of my BOSS dvd/radio installation, along with the rca jack modification.

1. I did away with the inside telephone jack, and put a flush mount box in it's place. I then cut out the paneling behind the flush mount box to allow more room for the rca connectors. By using a flush mount box, and cutting the paneling, this allowed enough room for the longer rca wire ends to not touch the framing member in the refrigerator cabinet. I routed the rca wires behind the television coax/antenna boost plate and snaked them thru the same hole that the electrical wires are routed thru. This put the rca wires on top of the refrigerator, allowing access to hook them to the back of the radio. You can purchase an RCA wall plate with video, left & right audio connectors at Radio Shack for $12, as pictured installed. This will allow you to hook up a television set to the rca connectors.

2. I hooked up another coax wire to the auxillary output on back of the Winegard DC/Antenna plate. It's the unused coax connector in the pic link below. I routed this coax the same way as the rca wires and hooked it into the back of the radio. This allows you to tune to analog television stations using the BOSS's internal tuner, along with the Trailmanor's amplified antenna. You still hook up the television set using the rca connection as in step 1. You'll just change the input on the radio to TV.



You then hook up all the power, ground, and speaker wires to the radio, along with the antenna wire as pictured. I hooked the trailmanor speakers to the rear speaker wires of the radio. This way, the television set will be your front speaker and the trailmanor speakers will be your rear speakers, to give you a semi-surround sound. You will adjust the volume for both, using the radio volume control. You can fine tune it by changing the fade control for the front and rear speakers.



After installation, you can use the BOSS radio tuner to listen to regular radio or play cd's.

Hook your rca connections (the flush mount box) to a television set inputs:

Insert a dvd into the radio to watch it.

Change the radio input to TV and crank up your trailmanor antenna. Power your amplified antenna, then watch regular television stations. You'll change the tv channels using the radio.

Now change the radio input to auxillary:

You can insert sd cards with MP3 songs to listen to them

Hook up an IPOD to the auxillary input and listen to it too

ALL THRU YOUR TRAILMANOR BUILT IN SPEAKERS

It's working great for me, and hopefully will help anyone with similar ideas. I will post later how to use a HD television set with it/

[Leslie & Nick]

Nice job, Bobby! Very neat installation. I also want to use our TM's front mounted speakers.

When using our TV's built in DVD player, the volume is just not loud enough - even on 'max'. I want to run the TV's audio signal through the radio/receiver and utilize the TM's much larger, and better placed speakers.

My 'low tech' approach is to run two RCA cables (L & R) from the TV's audio outputs, to a 'Y' connector 1/8" jack, that will plug into the AUX input on the face of the radio/receiver. I have been using the AUX input to connect an iPod to the system. Our LCD TV is mounted on the outside of bathroom wall, above the kitchen sink, so I'll have to contend with the two cables showing while we're watching a DVD.

Nick

Wow, this explanation is so complete and thorough. Thank you very much. I only have one question... How do you keep your nails so perfect through all of this modification work (smile).

Great job.

These are primarily designed to be used in vehicles to play an mp3 player (like an iPod) through the car stereo which does not have an aux input jack. They work by transmitting an FM signal from the mp3 player to the antenna of the radio and then plays out the speakers. It is in effect a very small broadcasting station. The problem when used in a moving vehicle is finding and keeping an unused FM frequency so the signal does not conflict with an existing radio signal. So they work in a pinch but are the worst method to get the mp3 to the radio. Having said this, I have no idea how it would work in this application as there is no radio for the modulator to transmit to!!!

But as has been mentioned, a radio with an aux input is a great way to play a mp3 player in your rig. We have our iPod loaded with every album we have + lots of children's music for the grandkids (over 300 albums) and it works fabulously playing music through our existing TM speakers. If you like music, this is really the only way to go. And the free iTunes software available by download from Apple is amazingly easy to use.

A very decent radio with aux input can be had for WAY under $200, is relatively easy to install, and solves a couple of needs for playing both television and music through your existing TM speakers. You might reconsider whether or not to get one.