what would i need to make the stock nav screen hook up to a carputer that im building?
-matt

 

Matt,

I believe the stock Nissan navigation screen connects and displays composite video. A carPC uses a RGB connection to a LCD screen that is capable of providing much higher resolution. If you are able to connect your carPC to the OEM Nissan navigation LCD, the image would look fuzzy.

--Spike

 

You've got that backwards - the OEM screen is an RGB device and the carpc will most likely have a composite output (yellow plug).

You can get conveters and they don't look that bad. You won't be able to read any small test as the screen is pretty small, but you'll be able to read large fonts and watch DVDs/control music/use any carPC software with it.

 

awsome thanks. is there any special type of rgb converter i will need?

 

What!? My PC uses a RGB connection. Computers do not use composite video without using converters.

I wonder if we are talking about the same thing.

--Spike

 

Are you talking about RGB as in VGA (15 pin dsub connector on back of PC)?

If so, I wasn't able to find any converters that would convert the VGA signal to a striaght RGB-Sync signal that the navi screen could use. The VGA signal is much more complicated then the RGB-S signal required.

There are tons of computers with composite outputs (may even be an Svideo, so you'll need an adapter).

On my CarPC, my VGA port isn't hooked to anything, and my composite video output is hook to an RGB-S converter to run the Navi screen.

I bought my converter for about $50 from a company in China. Like I said above, the picture isn't VGA quality, but for what I'm using it for it is more then good enough.

 

Kevin,

I didn't understand what you were saying. Thanks for the clarification. I think I understand now.

I have a bench setup I use to test signals sent by video output devices to different types of LCD's using various connections. My interest was image quality. I use a voltage converter (AC-125 v to DC-12 v) so that I can see and test the devices as they would be in the car. Not even sure why I’m doing this… I need to get a life.

One thing I see (and this is mostly the case with composite video) is that the application software driving the output device can have a significant influence on the video display. For example, Garmin provided an application update a few months ago that noticeably improved the font resolution with the GVN 52 navigation “black box.”

I did test one converter, and was not impressed (there was perceivable image degradation). Of course testing one device (converter) is not statistically significant.

--Spike

 

I, myself, went through at least 4 converters before I was happy.

I started with a Pioneer unit, and it was basically a big hack job. I never got it to even display video, let alone quality video.

I then bought a Blaupunkt. The image wasn't very good.

I then bought a converter off of Ebay. It was about 10 years old and didn't work at all.

I then installed my converter I had shipped in from China. It is the same converter that others in the US sell for >$200. I paid $50 for it! It works pretty good. There is definately a HUGE difference in quality from unit to unit.

 

kpierson do you think you could give me the name or possibly a link to there website so i could check the converter out as i am very interested.
thanks for all your help
matt

 

could you also let me know please, as cannot get hold of one in the uk, and have been quoted 110$ just for shipping the pac vci-x to the uk