New Receiver ideas

[Larry Dedrick]

The Bose receiver was missing when we purchased our coach.  We did get TV service by putting one of the Directv receivers from our house into the coach.  My question is what have you used to replace your receiver?  I have looked at Blueray players with built in wifi.  I'm hoping this will allow us to stream Netflix while on the road.  But what about getting use out of all the speakers installed in the coach?  We also have a flat screen tv in one of the bays that we have not even attempted to try.  Will this run on the satellite as well or is it strictly cable?  We have yet to see if the cable is working in the coach.  We are headed for a short camping trip with the kids and grand kids so will try and check it out.  We are hitting the road soon for our first long trip (3 months) so want to get things settled before we head out.
Thanks,
Laura

[Gerald Farris]

Laura,
The speakers are wired to the Bose amplifier, not the receiver. It was originally mounted inside the dash behind, the wooden panel that is on your right as you walk up the entry steps.

Gerald

[Bill Sprague]

....  I'm hoping this will allow us to stream Netflix while on the road.

Laura,

I'm interested in that too.  How do you plan to get enough of an internet connection to make streaming Netflix work?

Thanks.

[William Brosam]

netflix, will work fine with the blueray player, if the wifi is good enough, or you have a mobile internet device like a millenicom mifi 20/gig a month data.

the flat screen will work on cable, its just a matter of finding the right wires/switch combination to get the signal from receiver inside to down below.

the speakers now that is a different story i haven't tackled that as of yet.

my plan is put up a soundbar or wireless speakers in the house cause the bose unit in my coach recently died.

[Stan Simpson]

Most campgrounds don't have enough wifi signal to allow you to stream movies, and they likely have a restriction on how much bandwidth they will allow. If you use your own data plan, a couple of movies will really hit hard.

Stan

[Gerald Farris]

The problem with Netflix when you are on the road is bandwidth. You almost have to have an unlimited bandwidth internet source if you use Netflix extensively. The problem is that there are no unlimited bandwidth internet sources available for mobile usage. If you subtract your normal internet usage, you only have enough bandwidth left for 4 or 5 movies a month on the most generous 20 gig plans that are available.

Gerald

[Stan Simpson]

The alternative is Red Box. All over the place. You can take a rental back to any location. Inexpensive. A BluRay movie a day would only be $45.00 a month. There is a Walgreens or WalMart everywhere. They both have Red Box, and so does CVS. And if you get the mobile app, you can check what's available in any kiosk location, and then reserve it for pick up when you get there.

Stan

[Bill Sprague]

........ or you have a mobile internet device like a millenicom mifi 20/gig a month data.....

I looked up http://millenicom.com/plans/.  There plan appears to be $90 a month.  Is there a "discount deal" somewhere?

[William Brosam]

I looked up http://millenicom.com/plans/.  There plan appears to be $90 a month.  Is there a "discount deal" somewhere?

last month it was 69/month now it went up cause verizon raised the prices.

there is a company called clear wireless, and others that have a tethering plan where you can use your phones internet for other devices. but ima data hog and i go over 20gig regularly.

[Joel Weiss]

We also have a flat screen tv in one of the bays that we have not even attempted to try.  Will this run on the satellite as well or is it strictly cable?  

If you are a DirecTV subscriber you can now get satellite on any TV by installing a Genie DVR as your main receiver with C41W wireless clients at each TV.  The clients communicated with a Wireless Video Bridge which can be installed near the receiver.  The DirecTV hardware sets up a Wifi network that is independent of your regular router and which should not interfere with it if proper installation separations are observed.  

BTW, instead of using a Blu-ray player for Netflix, I strongly recommend buying a Roku.  Blu-ray players and smart TVs often do not have their software updated once they are no longer the current model.  In contrast, Roku software gets updated periodically and there are far more channels of information available than are ever built into a Blu-ray or smart TV. JMO

[Larry Dedrick]

Thanks all for the info...lots to consider.  I never thought about the wifi not being able to handle streaming although with our experience at Hilton Head with the wifi just to use my ipad I should have!  We do have Verizon hotspot but that won't get us very far.  I guess we will just forget about using Netflix for the three months we are on the road.

Gerald can we then use the cables from the Bose to any receiver to get surround sound?

I have heard of Red Box although we have never used it so that will be a great option for us on the road.

Hopefully we will be out and about so the TV issue won't be a big deal.  This being our first long trip we don't really know what to expect.  Will play around with the TV in the bay next week when we are out for a short trip.
Thanks Again!
Laura

[Gerald Farris]

Laura,
The Bose speakers are wired to the Bose amplifier that I referred to above. If it works, you can use any analog audio input to it for surround sound. The original dash radio used the Bose system for speakers, so to listen to the dash radio, you had to have the stereo switch turned on.

To solve your surround sound issue, you need to determine what is left of the original system, and what condition those components are in. Then you can come up with a system to meet your needs.

Gerald    

[Larry Dedrick]

Gerald,
Ok thanks...we do have to turn on the speaker power to listen I the radio so that all still works.  We also have many wires coming into the roll top console below the dash so I'm assuming that's where the original receiver was?  There is a DVD/VCR Player in the cabinet above the driver.  We haven't tried it yet but will bring a DVD with us on our next trip to try it out.  We plan on replacing it with a Blueray player or Roku type box.