The Basics for an On-Board System

 

On board La Vida Dulce movies are a major form of entertainment for us.  We've been using the Mac mini with a 23" flat screen for a while now but stretching out on the settee in the Main Salon just isn't all that comfortable.  We felt the best spot on the boat would be sitting on the bunk in the forward stateroom with a bunch of pillows propped up behind our backs and a big bowl of popcorn in our lap.  At the foot of the bunk is enough wall space to allow a fairly large screen.  We had hoped for a 40" but it measured out as too tight.  (Note: once we got the screen up we found there's probably enough room for the 40").  Samsung makes a 37" LED flat screen that nicely fits the bill.  Without the base it's only 1.2" deep which is good because it's already a tight squeeze getting around the foot of the bed.  We found a wall mount made by Sanus Visionmount that holds the screen 0.6" from the wall so the total depth comes to only 1.8".  Perfect.  As a bonus the screen only weighs 23 pounds and is also very light on power consumption.

We started out by laying the screen face down on the bunk to attach the mount.  This is a universal mount and I quickly found out it would require some customization to get the most from it.  There are four attachment points on the back of the screen and using spacers this is where the uprights for the mount attach.  The spacers that came with the mount were either too short or way too long so I was considering cutting down the long ones until I came across the ones that came with the screen.  These were just right in a Goldilocks sorta way.  The two vertical brackets have a lip at the top that hangs over the upper edge of the horizontal plate mounted on the wall.  The bottom edge is attached by a funky contraption that's designed to disengage by pulling on spring loaded strings so you can pull out the bottom of the TV and then lift it off the top of the bracket.  The spring loaded strings are connected to cheap plastic brackets and the whole thing looks like a disaster waiting to happen.  It'd probably be fine for a home stuck in the dirt but our home is in constant motion and we needed something really secure and dependable.  In the end we used a strap across the bottom of the monitor to secure it while at sea.

The HDMI and power cables all exit from the left side of the screen about 2/3 of the way down.  They have to travel across the bulkhead to the top of the cabinet in the corner.  We're working on a teak trim piece that's milled out on the back to provide a cable run and for uniformity will continue on the other side to the nook behind the mast.  This piece of trim will also act as a stop to prevent the screen from moving side to side.  Since taking these pictures we've routed the power cables through the cabinet for a cleaner installation.  To secure things for sea we originally had thoughts of a really clever teak and brass contraption to hold down the bottom of the screen.  In the end we went with footman's loops and 1" webbing.  Right now we have snaps at each end and it's doing a good job and looks nice too.  If it relaxes too much then we'll install a strap with an adjustable buckle at one end.  After six months of sailing, including some pretty nasty weather, this strap has proven itself as the best and simplest way to go.  The screen remains snug up against the bulkhead in all conditions.

We mounted the screen so it's at eye level when we're sitting up on the bed.  Under the screen we mounted a sound bar made by Polk Audio.  It only requires two screws on the wall and it feels very secure.  That thing's not going anywhere.  Audio input is through optical cable and power for the bar runs up to the TV and then over to the cabinet with the other cables.  There's also a wireless subwoofer that sits on the floor.  Power for that will go through the cabinet and connect at the top with the rest of the gear.  Before moving aboard I was a serious audiophile.  We had a gorgeous home theater with front projection, 200 watts per channel, home made speakers and stadium seating.  It was really nice.  Of course we don't have the room or the power to run anything like that on the boat but I'm finding that what we have here is really very nice.  We sit close enough that this size screen is plenty big and once we went through the menu and adjusted everything the picture quality is quite good.  The sound is pleasant, clear and full range.  Even though we don't have rear channel speakers we find that the sound wraps around us in this small space and gives a good sense of "being there".  I'm really pleased with the set-up we have now.

The source for most of our movies is a Western Digital control with 2 two terra-byte hard drives.  We've also got a Samsung Blu-Ray player that up-converts so any DVD's we get will play at 1080p.

Our boat has a 2kw inverter but it was installed about 8 years ago.  The voltage it provides is not a "pure sine" wave and it creates problems for some of the gear onboard that runs off of 110 VAC.  To prevent problems with our new home theater as well as our cool-man Mac mini computer, we decided to install a dedicated 600 watt inverter that provides "pure sine" power.  Since the power is provided from the "house bank" batteries the equipment can stay on in standby mode instead of being powered off every time we disconnect from shore power.  Standby mode for this gear is milli-amps and isn't a major drain for the batteries.  Sweet!

Update 10-3-15:
We got rid of the subwoofer because it was just overkill for such a small space and it got in the way.  The soundbar provides adequate bass and we don't miss the sub at all.  We replaced the two hard drives with a single four TB drive.  These things are relatively cheap and going with the single larger drive saves space.  We also added a Glomex 14" TV antenna at the top of the mast with a line amp mounted in the cabinet with the rest of the home theater stuff.  Sitting at the marina in Deale we picked up 56 channels from Washington DC and Baltimore.  We finally replaced the old inverter with a "pure sine" type but kept the dedicated inverter for this system.

We enjoy watching movies and the occasional TV series, all copied over from Netflix DVD's.  With the large amount of hard drive storage we have a nice variety and enough to keep us entertained for months.  We've also set up our Mac mini computer as a music server.  The boat currently has Infinity speakers mounted in weird locations in the Main Salon and the cockpit.  We plan to make improvements to the speakers in both quality and location to improve the sound.  I've been eyeballing the Focal Bird speakers for down below.  Look for further updates.