Home stereo receivers

[DutchmanAZ]

I’m looking for a home stereo receiver that would allow me to hook up an external disk from which I could play movies. Does such a thing exist?

 

[puckhead]

Like a USB hard drive? What video file types are you looking to play?

 

[puckhead]

Also, how are you playing them now?

 

[cardncubfan]

My buddy has a Yamaha RX A3000. It's made for audio/video & has a computer interface. It's discontinued but you should be able to find the upgraded model.

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[DutchmanAZ]

It’s a USB 3 or 2 drive. Now I play the movies from a laptop. I’m guessing either the TV or receiver would have to have an app to let me play them.

 

[BigRedRage]

I have an old 99 coachman 5th wheel that I stay in in Mexico. It has a built in am/fm cassette receiver that plays to all the speakers throughout the camper. I've been considering taking it out and replacing it with a newer model that does Bluetooth and stuff instead of only am/fm and cassette. I could probably even buy some cheap speakers that will be better quality and just plug and play them into the system if they are like normal car speakers.

With it being a 99, I haven't pulled the receiver out yet but I feel it has a good chance that it is not RCA cables like new stuff is but actually normal speaker wire. Are receivers still built for this?

Itd be even more awesome to set up so movies would play over all the speakers in the camper when we watch them but the TV isn't in the same area as the receiver so im not sure that would be possible unless I got a real long HDMI and ran it across the ceiling or something.

 

[puckhead]

It’s a USB 3 or 2 drive. Now I play the movies from a laptop. I’m guessing either the TV or receiver would have to have an app to let me play them.

You could hook the labtop up to the TV if it has HDMI output.

I thought it was an interesting question so I looked around a bit yesterday. Very few receivers will do what you want because they're designed to offer audio decoding and video switching. There are quite a few media players out there that could likely handle the videos and then you would hook that up to the receiver. You might even have something built into your gaming system or blu-ray player. Nvidia makes a really nice looking unit called Shield. Lots of options these days. Even some smart TV's could handle it.

It will depend on the video file types you have on your drive, but if your labtop can handle it without any special apps, you should be ok with most media players.

 

[puckhead]

I have an old 99 coachman 5th wheel that I stay in in Mexico. It has a built in am/fm cassette receiver that plays to all the speakers throughout the camper. I've been considering taking it out and replacing it with a newer model that does Bluetooth and stuff instead of only am/fm and cassette. I could probably even buy some cheap speakers that will be better quality and just plug and play them into the system if they are like normal car speakers.

With it being a 99, I haven't pulled the receiver out yet but I feel it has a good chance that it is not RCA cables like new stuff is but actually normal speaker wire. Are receivers still built for this?

Itd be even more awesome to set up so movies would play over all the speakers in the camper when we watch them but the TV isn't in the same area as the receiver so im not sure that would be possible unless I got a real long HDMI and ran it across the ceiling or something.

Car audio is the devil. I don't touch it. If it's a '99, I doubt it has RCA connections, but RV's may be different. The problem with hooking up a "theater" sound in there will be designating which speaker is center, left, right, etc. For music, it's cool to have everything everywhere, but with movies, the dialogue will be in one channel, sound effects will go to certain speakers and if you're not oriented in the right place, it might sound pretty weird.

A soundbar would be a great option for the video IMO. Then you would just hook up your video sources directly to that.

 

[BigRedRage]

Car audio is the devil. I don't touch it. If it's a '99, I doubt it has RCA connections, but RV's may be different. The problem with hooking up a "theater" sound in there will be designating which speaker is center, left, right, etc. For music, it's cool to have everything everywhere, but with movies, the dialogue will be in one channel, sound effects will go to certain speakers and if you're not oriented in the right place, it might sound pretty weird.

A soundbar would be a great option for the video IMO. Then you would just hook up your video sources directly to that.

Ive thought of a sound bar too. I have one in the house from vizio that was under $150 and it sounds amazing. Putting it in the RV could go a long way. If I did the speakers throughout, Im not really aiming for 5.1 or anything, really I would just have every speaker play in mono but then you can hear the movie comfortable anywhere in the house instead of cranking up the TV because the watchers are 12 feet away.

It even has two speakers outside so ultimately, I wouldn't have to take a Bluetooth speaker with me anymore for music as it would even play the music outside along with throughout the camper. Id be okay with the movie sound being exactly the same.

I assume with the campers receiver, that's what its doing already so I would think I could recreate it with a different system that also can play my music, cardinals games streaming on azsports live stream and more.

I just know next to nothing about this type of stuff. I remember hooking up receivers in the 90s and just putting R speaker in the R jacks and L in the left and etc but this would be a bit more complicated and I worry about tearing down the old receiver and just screwing up the somewhat used system I currently have now.

I need clearer photos of the receiver:

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[puckhead]

I was thinking it was like a car deck. You should be fine, it likely will have RCA ins and outs. It might be tricky to find something that fits exactly in that spot though.

 

[puckhead]

It's hard to tell from the photos, but it may even have an extra input or two back there you could plug stuff into.

 

[puckhead]

Or you could just buy a bunch of cassettes.

 

[puckhead]

If you can take a picture of the rear of the unit, I could help more.

 

[BigRedRage]

I was thinking it was like a car deck. You should be fine, it likely will have RCA ins and outs. It might be tricky to find something that fits exactly in that spot though.

I figured newer ones might be smaller, which is fine.

 

[BigRedRage]

It's hard to tell from the photos, but it may even have an extra input or two back there you could plug stuff into.

This is a good point, maybe it had usb that I could plug a Bluetooth dongle into. hmmm.

Ideally id like to get all around sound, Bluetooth and chromecast all going so I can just sync my laptop to the tv, cast a movie to it and play it on all the speakers. But, I want to do it all with a tiny investment as we only watch movies at bedtime or on rainy days when out there.

Or you could just buy a bunch of cassettes.

after CDs had been out a few y ears, I bought a car that had a cassette deck and even zia no longer had cassettes. I don't think they even exist at this point.

If you can take a picture of the rear of the unit, I could help more.

I imagine once I did pull it out, it will be pretty self explanatory and tell me exactly what I need to get.

 

[BigRedRage]

although if I just got the soundbar and a chromecast, I guess id have everything and don't really need to mess with the other setup.

The problem is though that in a camper, there is limited space and having a soundbar out with the tv out is just taking up more of the non existent counter space around the RV. I might get a mount soon for the tV on a swivel arm so its not on a table anymore.