some car multimedia questions...

[Steve02GT]

Im sorry that I am jumping right in and asking a question, but I've asked on a few other boards and haven't gotten any good answers, so I figured a car audio board would be a clever place to look next.

I just purchased an Alpine CVA-1003 Mobile Multimedia Station™ AM/FM Receiver w/ a 6.5" Video Monitor. I'm not sure, but I don't think it makes sense that the indash TV would be $1000 + in order to get DVDs I have to pay another $$$ for an alpine DVD player. For $1300.00, you can get a pioneer or kenwood that does both.

So here's my questions, I really appreciate any help you guys can offer me.

1) Do I *have* to use only an Alpine DVD player to use with my screen? If not, what model do you recommend? All I want to do at the moment is be able to play CDs and DVD's.

2) Is there just one universal mounting bracket that allows you to mount 2 single dins in a double din? Or do I have to buy one specific to the DVD/LCD I have?

3) What exactly is Alpine's Ai-Net and Ai-Talk??? I did a search all over altavista and I couldn't find anything of substance. All i found was websites listing that Alpine players had these options, not what they were.

4) lastly, what are some good books to read on car audio? I dont always want to have to look like a stupid newbie, where can I start to learn more?

Again guys, thanks for any help you offer, and sorry if these questions are dumb.

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[donlovescaraudi 10+ year member]

post this ? on general discussion because no one usealy post here

 

[BonusBobo 10+ year member]

hey man, I respect all of your questions and your curiousity in car audio in multimedia. with that gone, here goes a few helpful hints:

1) No, you do not have to use Alpine, to the best of my knowledge. Alpine's engineers wouldn't do that because they aren't that mean. I don't know of any good units, I would suggest shopping around, finding some model numbers, then posting them on this site to see if anyone would suggest for/against them.

2)I don't really know. There probably are a few different mounting brackets, but once again, go to a car audio place and ask some people there. They will be able to look at your car and tell you exact specs.

3)Ai-Net: you can change this to any RCA input, i.e. portable MP3 Player, VCR, DVD Player, etc. I don't know what Ai-Talk is.

4)No idea. The book I read is called Caraudio.com forums. I learn from the dudes with a lot more posts than I have.

Hopefully I gave you a little bit of help.

 

[Brock 5,000+ posts]

Go here for a lot of information : http://www.eatel.net/~amptech/elecdisc/caraudio.htm

As far as your dvd goes, you can use basically any unit that you want, hell you can even use the dvd player from your home (but I wouldnt recommend it).