Upgraded Audio/Visual System

[jd1923]

The first thing I did, as an upgrade our new-to-us Oliver, was to upgrade the A/V system. The prior owner recently replaced the original lame corner-mounted 24" TV (TV means television in this post, not tow vehicle) with an Insignia smart TV running the Amazon Fire TV OS.

OK, it was an upgrade, since it was then capable to stream from Amazon, Netflix and other services. But come-on, the TV was ugly and BLACK, 4" deep, had a ginormous black 1 1/2" wire harness, etc. I could go on-and-on! (see pic) I have never watched TV on a 24" screen, and do not plan to do so going forward. We enjoy TV and watching movies and I not going to start squinting to watch a low-rez 24" TV. I'm thinking 32" hi-rez would be perfect in this space! 🙂

First thing I did was to realize and test all the accessories we have in the new Oliver. Like the Weingard Sat dish upgrade, nice! The Furrion radio audio system, can play CDs, DVDs, but not Blu-ray. OMG, I looked at Amazon and other providers to replace this head unit, and still today, now that Blu-ray has been around for 16 years, you cannot replace this system, with a wall mounted unit, that also plays Blu-ray.

In our beautiful Oliver, view of the rear living space, let me ask you, what stands out as being out of place? It's of course the BLACK, UGLY TV!!!

[jd1923]

Being confident, the old has to go... Next day, I just pulled everything old!

Request for those reading... How should I fill these holes?
I'm an engineer/mechanic, not an artist or autobody/paint guy. I want to be able to later finish the fiberglass and polish the corner, without evidence of original installation (finish work TBD by a professional).

[jd1923]

New TV, ceiling mount and cabling all have to be thin profile and white in color. 

[jd1923]

Given my goal is to mount a hi-rez 32" screen, my first thought is why does OTT only mount these small 24" screens? Then I realized the answer. When they are corner mounted, there is barely enough real estate to go much larger (it can be done, barely). The newer installs are center mounted. You would think there is ample room in the center of the interior living space.

They want to the screen to fold up. I agree, there are times when camping when you want the TV screen out of the way to enjoy the view out the rear window. TV mounts that fold up, also fold back. They all work this way. The height of the 24" screen truly is all the room you have. When folded, you must have depth (under the attic) equal to the height of the TV monitor plus approx. 2" for the mechanics of the mount. In our Elite II, there is not enough ceiling space under the attic to fold back a larger screen.

My next thought is that I need a TV ceiling mount that will fold forward. If this can be sourced, or if I can build one, the TV in the down position would be far back close the rear window. This would be great! Watching TV, lying in bed, it makes sense to have the TV at my feet, close to the rear window. I do not want it to fold down and closer to me, like by my knees. Closer, given a low-rez 24" screen OK (not!). Back near the rear window, the larger hi-rez screen would be perfect!

Well, they do not design folding TV mounts this way! So, I'm thinking, can I buy a standard mount and turn it around? Turns out it worked fine. I bought this mount on Amazon, for $41 total and reversed everything and removed the funky latch mechanism. I will later design something for the folded position. I do not trust these latches anyway. I got to believe many of you get to your campsite to find your TV has bounced and is sitting in the down position.

This is the mount I used. It is solid and fits my criteria of being low profile and white! VIVO Manual Flip Down TV Mount, Folding Ceiling Mount for Flat TV Monitors: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BDSPGZWY/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

[jd1923]

I purchased a Samsung TV and soundbar. I wanted Samsung, South Korean made, running their Tizen OS, not the TCL/Roku TV I had years ago (is China watching?). Not the Sony TV I have in my living room, running Android, Google owned. And, it was the only white 32" TV monitor I could find!

Samsung HD 32” TV monitor white (monitor means no TV tuner, no antenna input):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B89L2WNV?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

SAMSUNG HW-S61B 5.0ch All-in-One Wireless Soundbar w/Dolby Atmos, Alexa, Bluetooth:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09X61YYJB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I like that Amazon sells used electronics and parts. Generally, when items are marked in like new or good condition, another customer opened it and returned it, perhaps damaged the packaging. If not working, just return it. The TV new was $500 plus tax, now it's listed at $400 new, I paid $328 with tax, in used like-new condition. The soundbar was $182 and the TV, soundbar and mount total came to $550. 

[jd1923]

I received the mount, disassembled it and reversed the direction of all parts. I removed the latching mechanism, cut and ground the latch metal from the frame, so that in the reverse direction it would not damage the TV screen in the folded position. The install looked like this:

[jd1923]

Notice how far back the TV screen is in relation to the rear window. To make it solid, I bolted the mount through the attic ceiling and used long brackets I had in my shop to distribute the weight across the width of the attic ceiling.

[MAX Burner]

Nicely done - very clean install!  Thanks for sharing your mod with this thread...

Cheers!

[SeaDawg]

On 7/18/2023 at 12:54 AM, jd1923 said:

Being confident, the old has to go... Next day, I just pulled everything old!

Request for those reading... How should I fill these holes?
I'm an engineer/mechanic, not an artist or autobody/paint guy. I want to be able to later finish the fiberglass and polish the corner, without evidence of original installation (finish work TBD by a professional).

Nice installation. 

Could be a great place in the corner for a Caframo fan. Or, some command hooks for sun hats or pajamas. Or, some nice little plastic framed photos of your adventures. Or, remote control mounts.

You could just cover them with some screw cover dots, or plug in some Ikea hole plugs, if you have any the right size. 

We fill screw holes in the boat with marine tex, to eliminate water intrusion. The white is probably pretty close. (It's pretty expensive to just fill a couple holes, but I'll bet a friend with a white boat has some. Just about everyone who has a boat, has marine tex in the supply locker.) There are tons of YouTubes and posts on sailing forums on how to use it. Cover your work with saran wrap or visquene, tape it tight until the epoxy cures, and you'll get a glossier finish. But, if you're going to have a pro refinish with matching gelcoat, I'd go with one of the earlier options, because the repair pro will likely drill it out, anyway. Just maybe put a bit of foam backer rod in, and a touch of white caulk, cover it, and call it a day. 

You can clean up the dirty corner with the same techniques we use on the outside. (We wax the interior once a year, exterior 2 times a year.)

Is that the reflection of your safety glasses in the photo?

[jd1923]

Thanks MAX Burner, i appreciate it, though I'm not near done yet in describing this installation! Please come back for more.

And thank you SeaDawg, the Caframo fan is a great idea. The curb side is where my wife Chris sleeps, and she loves her fans. We had a hole in our Bigfoot, when I replaced and moved the thermostat with an AC upgrade. Chris found a pretty little butterfly artwork piece that we taped in place to cover that hole. 

I think for now I will just plug the holes with white Styrofoam. Pull out the plugs for the correct fix later. Next year, we will camp by Lake Mead and that would be the place to find a boat guy!

If there is a way to mount a fan using the existing holes, or at least cover the holes, that would be awesome. Too bad it's near impossible to run power wires behind the interior walls, for anything not near a cabinet opening. There is power above and a huge grommet from the original TV install. A rechargeable battery-operated fan could work nicely.

[SeaDawg]

Where @John E Davies mounted his would pretty much hide white screw cover dots. 

Just a thought. 

 

[jd1923]

Thanks again, SeaDawg! BTW, no that's not reflection of safety glasses. LOL, looks that way! That is a reflection that shows OTT did not get the back corner round, just an imperfection in the round and finish of the back corner. 

When I received the SAMSUNG 32" M80B 4K UHD HDR Smart-TV/Monitor, my first thought was, "this is a thing of beauty!" The picture is amazing, as the picture has a 3D look to it, with 4K UHD HDR resolution! The entire monitor measures 12mm thick (<1/2"), across the entire screen except for a 4x4" input panel in the rear that protrudes another 1/4" or so. Looking at the input panel, I was worried at first, since there is only one micro-HDMI input and a USB-C for computer use. NP, I could add an HDMI switch up above for additional inputs.

I require 2 HDMI inputs, for the Blu-ray player and the Dish Satellite Wally receiver (more on this later). This is a smart-TV/Monitor, meaning it has no TV tuner, nor RF cable input. So, I cannot add an antenna for broadcast TV (one project off my list) and you cannot connect cable TV from an RV park. NBD, I think I tried that once, never again. A real TV would be 2-4" deep and black.

The TV was supposed to come with a VESA mount adapter, to be connected to the ceiling mount. Well, this was Amazon used and it was missing. They got me one later, but I installed without it. I decided to mount the screen merely using 3M 4950 VHB Tape. This tape is STRONG! On our Class-C, I used it to tape the Solar panel mounts to the fiberglass roof, no screws used here, and this TV is only 14 lbs.

I used my jigsaw with a medium steel blade, to cut a 4x4" opening in one end of the TV mount, to surround the input panel behind the TV. I covered the entire face of the mount with VHB tape (clean both sides with rubbing alcohol) and pushed it, massaged it onto the rear of the screen. There must be a good 20 square inches of tape contact, and this TV is not going anywhere. I don't have assembly pics, and it was difficult to get a decent picture after everything was mounted, but here it is -

[jd1923]

So, you do not need a 1 1/2" ID opening as in the grommet OTT put in the corner. I drilled a 3/4" opening for the 2 TV cables (power and HDMI). I seal this all openings simply with a round of white Styrofoam. For the large original opening I took a piece of Styrofoam, that you get in any electronics packaging, use a hole saw without the mandrel bit, and by hand, just cut a round piece of Styrofoam just a little larger than the opening to get a tight fit.

Next step was the soundbar. I chose another Samsung product (Amazon link above), for compatibility, like wanting the TV remote to adjust the volume (it does way more than that!). Another requirement was the soundbar needed to connect by Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, since this TV Monitor does not have an audio output. Wow, this product synced both interfaces automatically, take your pick. My TV and soundbar are now connected to our Oliver Wi-Fi VPN defined by the Wi-fi Ranger.

Like the TV, the soundbar does need AC power, and thankfully there is already AC power at the foot of the street-side bed. See my install pic of the AC outlet. I drilled another 3/4" hole there, since the soundbar has an inline power supply, the "brick" which I wanted inside the center nightstand (tied up behind the drawer) and not outside, tucked under the mattress!

I mounted the soundbar about 4" off the back wall, since it has rear speakers too. The soundbar is mounted to the nightstand tabletop merely with Velcro tape. No way I'm using the wall mounted Furrion player, anymore to play CDs, since I can play CDs in the Blu-ray player with high quality audio output to the Samsung soundbar.

[jd1923]

A few pics of the TV install to follow. When I first installed it and connected to the Internet, the movie Fletch was streaming on the Samsung network! 1985 OMG!

Then pic with TV off and soundbar installed. Next pic shows the slim profile and a final pic shows the Samsung network, and notice the HDMI input, currently no HDMI input powered up. The TV can swivel left and right and front and back. Pushing the TV back gives the best viewing angle when lying in bed. 

[CRM]

Very nice and clean install! I was thinking of a similar setup to replace the terrible original equipment 24" LED Jensen I had, but the cheapskate in me decide to use a spare TV I had laying around instead.. Mounted a rail system so my 34" TV would sit behind the front face of the attic when folded up but then still be able to slide all the way back to the window when in the down position. Was thinking about a permanent mount back by the window like you have but didn't want to block the emergency exit. With the thinness of your monitor it doesn't look like you'll have that issue in the folded up position.. If I could find a similar monitor with a tuner I might be swayed into stealing your design!

Track Mounted TV

[John E Davies]

Nice and clean! Finish up with a new pair of “turn handle” stickers, one on each side so they are visible to all sleepers.

https://www.amazon.com/CORNERIA-Vehicle-Emergency-Warning-Sticker-Pull/dp/B073GG66N7/ref=sr_1_16?crid=1229RG1JR4O6A&keywords=Emergency%2BExit%2BWindow%2BVinyl%2BSticker&qid=1689859677&s=automotive&sprefix=emergency%2Bexit%2Bwindow%2Bvinyl%2Bsticker%2Cautomotive%2C281&sr=1-16&th=1

How are the acoustics, echoy? Is the bass acceptable? Did you disconnect the main speakers? They are good for paper weights, they sound pretty awful. Maybe OK for an AM talk show…

Have you tested your new soundbar? 

https://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_index.php

Thanks,

John Davies

Spokane WA

[jd1923]

Hey JD, thank you for these ideas. I will say, I have read so many of your upgrade posts, some amazing work! Thank you for sharing and I will study your work in the months and years to come, as we get to know our Oliver better.

As far as warning labels, they're not of interest to me. The insurance industry and Federal Government have dummied down America, to make everything idiot-proof, with WARNINGS! I have already taken my heat gun to several labels (use a little Goo-B-Gone after), the one by the smoke detector, those by the cooktop, other labels outside are soon to go. The visual noise removed, all clean white fiberglass.

Thanks for the sound quality app. I will show it to my son who is a sound engineer. Perhaps he can run the test.

More to come soon on this post, as I have time not working. I will add a post re adding the Dish receiver, configuring the Weingard Satellite, and adding a rack in the attic for multiple A/V input sources. My final post will be to show how I made this TV monitor fold up to the attic ceiling, being out of the way of the rear view and emergency exit window. It's not a simple push mechanism, what OTT uses on their smaller 24" TV, but given the thin profile of this TV, you will hardly see it when folded, all parts white! Thanks for reading! 

[John E Davies]

Chris, the Emergency Exit sticker(s) definitely should  remain, and should be highly visible, otherwise you risk a lawsuit if the worst happens and a guest doesn’t understand that that is the only way out in the event of a galley fire. 

Speaking of which, have you tried crawling out the back? Do you have a second extinguisher in the rear of the cabin, for when you can’t reach the front one?

You can easily run those sound tests using your phone or load them directly onto a USB memory stick. Just select the track and hit Play. Try them out on your home system, then the Ollie. It might be entertaining and educational. 

Thanks very much for the kind words.

John Davies

 Spokane WA 

 

 

 

[jd1923]

CRM, thanks for sharing your track system! You get that when the TV folds down, it's too far forward. There is only 76", top of bed to the back wall. My TV is 4" off the wall, so you have a full 6' viewing length to the hi-def screen, vs 4 ft distance to the low-rez 24" screen. 

I'm with you on using what you got, but the only TV I have lying around is a 47" TCL/Roku. It's large, thick, black and heavy! I wanted clean and white, like everything else in the Oliver. Could not pass up this screen at $328 Amazon used, at only 14 lbs. and 12mm thick. Thanks again.

[SeaDawg]

I agree that the tvs are kind of a "black eye." It's why I've refused over the many years to have a TV in the living room or bedroom. Plus, I believe the living room is for conversation.  Any light in the bedroom is disturbing to me.

When our original little Jensen dies, we probably just won't replace it. We never use it.

Other folks love tv , and for you, the white and thin unit is a terrific upgrade. Enjoy!

 

[jd1923]

6 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

🤕I agree that the TVs are kind of a "black eye." It's why I've refused over the many years to have a TV in the living room or bedroom.

Thanks SeaDawg, we had the same rule in our family. No TV on Sundays, when we drove to visit our cousins and Yiayia (that's Greek for Grandma), or they came to our home. For the first 20+ years of my life, it was every Sunday. Yep, no football, no-way, nor anything else on the TV! 

We lived in Europe during the 60's and had no TV, no radio really, and we played music on the phonograph and families talked (no cell phones, video games and social media, oh I long for the days). Moved back to the states in the 70s and there was TV! The great TV westerns, Gunsmoke (our favorite), Bonanza, and the great sitcoms of that era.

The larger family get-togethers are not with us anymore. I love to wind down, after working a long hard day, get my mind off my responsibilities, watching TV choosing the most brain-dead show I can find, to stop processing and fall asleep. Or watch a great movie, when we can find something new!

You really need to delete your TV. Simple rule for organizing a space, if you haven't use it in the last 2 years, throw it out, drop it off at Goodwill. If we meet you at an Oliver owners meet, give me 5 minutes and I'll delete it for you! Lol, best wishes, JD

[jd1923]

So, I have the TV up, connected to Wi-Fi to stream Amazon, YouTube, Newsmax or any other streaming service, paid services or free apps. Bluetooth is linked to the soundbar, and all is good. Next step is a couple of inputs we desire, our old Blu-ray player and a new Dish Wally receiver: Amazon.com: Dish Wally HD Receiver : Electronics

We liked that our older used OTT already had the Winegard Satellite dish built in. If you were to add one, you may be interested in a full system:  Amazon.com: Winegard Factory Refurbished Dish Playmaker with Receiver : Electronics

The double clamshell design of the OTT makes it seriously difficult to run coax cables from a dish mount up front to the attic in the rear, professional installer or not (coax could be run through the upper cabinets). These Sat dishes only need a coax cable connection, as they feed power directly from the coax to operate the dish rotation and angle (that's cool).

The Winegard default targets DirecTV satellites. Nobody RVing wants this service, but they have market share, and require a 2-year minimum contract (we had DirecTV with TiVo in our homes from 1999 through 2014, never again with this greedy company, saying “we don’t carry your plan anymore”, charging more year after year). Dish Network is expensive enough, $120/mo for 200+ channels (with nothing to watch), but you can pay for one month when traveling and if you do not pay again, the service stops automatically. We did enjoy watching Wimbledon after we recently activated our new Dish receiver.

You need to get up on the roof of your OTT, remove the cover of the Sat dish, and change the dip switches in the control panel, from the DirecTV to Dish Network configuration. My son Adam climbed up a ladder, with Phillips and dip switch drawing in hand, had it reconfigured in 10 minutes. I cleaned the cover in and out and he dusted the dish internals with a wet rag.

There already were two coax cables in the attic. You need to figure out which is which, one from the Winegard and the second feed is from the coax port, street-side rear bumper for RV park cable connection (never going to use this one). I have a coax cable tester, but trial and error works fine since there are only two cables. Chris called Dish. We already had an account from our last RV. She gave them the new receiver ID and in a few minutes were watching TV.

I needed a small rack to hold the two components. Most are designed to be wall mounted. I mounted a 1x1” piece of wood under the front so it would sit flat on its own. A little carpet tape underneath keeps in from sliding forward. The plastic bin on the right holds our backup cables, DVD and Blu-ray discs. I used just a little 3M VHB tape to mount the components to the rack, so they will not move.

This TV monitor only has one micro-HDMI input, and they supply the micro to HDMI cable. All kinds of fancy HDMI splitters are available. Some require a power supply, but the simple ones draw power from the HDMI. Many have a remote control which is the last thing we need, another remote! I figure the default setting would be for Dish TV and if I was to play a DVD or Blu-ray, I would open the attic anyway to insert the disc and would toggle the switch to change input sources. I need to add a small square of 3M VHB tape, and the HDMI switch will site nicely on the wall above the AC outlet.

I purchased this rack for $32 and $12 for the splitter:
Amazon.com: HNVNER Floating AV Shelves,TV Wall Mount for Entertainment Center,DVD DVR Component Shelf for Cable Boxes, Games Consoles, TV Accessories (Double Layer) : Home & Kitchen
Amazon.com: HDMI Switch 4k@60hz HDMI Splitter, GANA Aluminum Bidirectional HDMI Switcher 2 in 1 Out, Manual HDMI Hub Supports HD for Xbox PS5/4/3 Blu-Ray Player Fire Stick Roku (Support 1 Display at a Time) : Electronics

Edited July 22, 2023 by jd1923
add sentence

[Mike and Carol]

13 hours ago, jd1923 said:

You really need to delete your TV. Simple rule for organizing a space, if you haven't use it in the last 2 years, throw it out, drop it off at Goodwill. If we meet you at an Oliver owners meet, give me 5 minutes and I'll delete it for you! Lol, best wishes, JD

I need to do the same.  Haven’t used it in years.  For us, Sirius/XM is enough.  Mike

[jd1923]

2 hours ago, Mike and Carol said:

I need to do the same.  Haven’t used it in years.  For us, Sirius/XM is enough.  Mike

We have SiriusXM in two vehicles (not our new tow vehicle) and we occasionally play music via their app on our phones. It was a challenge to get SiriusXM to charge us for 1 vs. 2 receivers monthly. We argued that we generally drive only one vehicle at a time. How much would they want for a 3rd receiver in our TV or OTT?!

Chris synced her phone via Bluetooth to the wall mounted Furrion audio system, so we can play SiriusXM. However, unless we install a SiriusXM antenna/receiver in our Oliver, we could seldomly use SiriusXM when camping. Many of our campsites out here have little to no cell service. No way a SiriusXM antenna/receiver can be integrated to the archaic Furrion systems.

Dish Network has many music stations too, and we can get that anywhere. We often play a jazz or country station while playing our favorite Rummikub!

Any of you ordering a new OTT? Let them know you want a white wall-mounted receiver (if you can find one, or at least silver) with higher quality speakers in the corners with white covers. Look back at the first picture I posted. What are the only other black objects in the photo?

I may upgrade the audio system a few years down the road. The speakers could be upgraded, for sure, though something like this might add a simple cosmetic touch (not sure of correct size): Amazon.com: uxcell 2pcs 6.5" Mounting Hole Diagonal Distance Speaker Grill Mesh Decorative Circle Woofer Guard Protector Cover Accessories White : Electronics

I understand there is a way to turn off speakers in the current system. I'll have to figure that out, because the one by the dinette, just over your head, needs to be off when sitting there. 

Mike and SeaDawg, delete those old dusty TVs, clean up your space visually and save about 20 lbs. in the rear of your Ollies! And btw, thanks for taking interest in my installation thread, even though TV A/V is not your thing!

[Mike and Carol]

4 hours ago, jd1923 said:

Mike and SeaDawg, delete those old dusty TVs, clean up your space visually and save about 20 lbs. in the rear of your Ollies! And btw, thanks for taking interest in my installation thread, even though TV A/V is not your thing!

Always interested in modifications and installs even if I don’t do it!  I did move our TV from the corner to under the attic years ago (2017 I think, I posted what I did on the forum somewhere back then).  We used to watch DVD’s in the evening but now we settle in with a good book, haven’t had the TV on in 3 or 4 years.  I did install a Sirius/XM receiver in the attic with the antenna in the back between the insulation and the outer shell.  I have it wired in to the Furrion you show above.  We get news and music just about anywhere without worrying about cell coverage.  Mike