Stock DVD System Question....

[madamadness]

Can you use the head unit speakers to listen to movies, or can you only use the wirless head phones. I purchased an 04' WITHOUT the DVD system, and an toatlly regretting it. I found a stock unit for about $800. Any way to tap it into the stock speakers, or does it have a built in speaker?

HELP. My kids are going CRAZY!!!!!

[llajumpvid]

Originally Posted by madamadness

Can you use the head unit speakers to listen to movies, or can you only use the wirless head phones. I purchased an 04' WITHOUT the DVD system, and an toatlly regretting it. I found a stock unit for about $800. Any way to tap it into the stock speakers, or does it have a built in speaker?

HELP. My kids are going CRAZY!!!!!

UPDATE: NOTE THE FOLLOWING IS BASED ON MY 04 ARMADA MODEL. Several 05 owners have found that the hidden harness is not installed on their vehicle...several 05 owners have though found it there so I can't gaurantee it to be there or not. If it's not there you can still use my method but you will have to pull the radio out and add wires to the harness (m46) that attaches to the radio. One person got pins from their dealership another used computer ribbon and pushed the pins in while the harness is attached to the headunit. Another Armidian picked up at Radio Shack Radio Shack a 9 position Female D-Sub Connector (276-1428) and the pins that were included fit into the harness. Read on for how I did it. If you have any questions let me know I'm happy to help if I can. This thread will help in adding the wires to the HU if you don't have the prewire

Don't get the stock unit. I am very happy with my Blaupunkt ME3 for $155. you get mp3, dvd, vcd, svcd, dvd-r/+r and television. Here is how you tie into the factory wiring.

This is based on my DVD player assuming others connect the same way. Just like your home DVD unit you will have RCA's coming out of the back of the DVD player. If you cut off one end of the audio rca's (a patch cord not the ones coming out of the dvd player)there will be two wires. Use a tester and touch the collar of the RCA that's still attached and one of the wires that you cut the end off of to determine the negative wire. What I did was take a foot or so of thin wire (18ga I think) and soldered it onto the cut ends of the RCA's. The RCA wires are thin and need to be soldered so it's easier to solder on a bench than in your front seat. (The reason to add the wires is so I can use crimp splices and have enough wire to bite onto)..(update I have redone this part on my system. Get some high quality shielded RCAs and the ends should unscrew then unsolder the wires they used on one end and solder or use crimp splices. The high quality cables have wires that are much higher gage so you don't need to add wires to it.)
You don't need to take the dash apart. Put on your parking brake, shift the shifter to drive Unhook your negitive battery cable and unscrew the shifter handle. Then pull up on the rear of the trim around the shifter, back by the big bin between the console and shifter. You should then be able to work your way up towards the dash and pull it off. Just unhook the brown harness shown in the lower right corner of the photo below. Once it out of the way, look at the bottom of the dash where you will see four plastic rivets sticking up and you should find the empty harness on the left.

If the Image does not show click here

Pop out the rivets and there is enough slack to pull it into sight. It has a lot more wires than you'll need on it. The only wires you need is on one of the short rows.

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Now that you have ends soldered on the RCA's (see update on not needing to do this above), take the wiring diagram that's linked to below and use some crimp splices and match up your audio connection wires that you just soldered and crimp onto the harness. (left neg. to left neg etc.) There are two wires on the harness called FES enable and Audio on. You will cut those wires and splice them together. This tells the headunit your DVD player is on and lets the steering wheel, headunit and rear controls select DVD. Here is theWiring daiagram for the audio.




You will be connecting to the M64 harness but the the diagram shows the mating M202 harness. The harness has video and power as well. Ignore the video as it'll be easier to run your own cable. The audio is on a short row of the harness M202, as you are looking at it its on the lower left you should be able to figure it out from the wire colors. (white,black,green,red,yellow/blue blue).
For Acc power the purple wire on the harness can be tapped

If for some reason photo's no longer show up. click here



If for some reason Image doesnt show click here.


Here is the power diagram, there should be a switched power on pin 15 (violet wire). There is another harness, M56, located next to the audio one and has a constant power on pin 16 (yellow wire shown above) note the mating harness M201 is shown. (update: a better way is to run the power from the fuse box)




Here is the video diagram



One thing is that you may need one of these pie line level amps. Your DVD may have a built in amp and you won't need it but I bet you will. To find out in advance, you can plug your DVD into the aux jack using a rca to mini plug adapter, if the audio is a lot lower than the radio you'll need the amp. The amp is around $35, If you don't need it for the DVD you can always add it behind the dash and hook it to the aux jack. You'd hook it up to the AUX the same way by cutting off the end of the RCA's only there is 3 wires on the aux so you tie the two negatives into one wire and the pos into the right and left wires. If you can't find the wiring diagram or which wires are which let me know and I'll look it up for you.

Hope this helps. good luck it's really not that hard to do. A pro could do the whole DVD wiring and install the first time in less than an hour....the next time probably 15 minutes.

Oh and this allows you to listen over the speakers by holding down the RearAV button for like 1.5 seconds, or use the steering wheel controls to select dvd. It will also put audio to the rear controls to use the prewired wireless headphone transmitter. Sony has some IR headphones that work. they aren't the most comfortable but for like $16 they are worth it. I think a place called hammerheadtech sells them. Here are some better ones and ones that are smaller for smaller heads...I have a pair of the bigger one that my 3yr old can wear. But they were a little bulky so I got a couple of the smaller pair and like them better. They fold up compact and are big enough that an average adult head can wear them.

You shouldn't regret not getting the factory system as by the time you put in a video monitor and dvd you should be less the $800 depending on what you by vs. the $1600 nissan wants, plus you'll have a better player.

[madamadness]

SO, if i was to purchase a stock 7' inch LCD screen from Ebay, that way the LCD mounted easily, i would be able to hook up the ME3 to it? I DON'T want to modify the flip down piece if possible. i do see on ebay, that they are sellinga 10.4 inch LCD and the ME3 unit as 1. Is that hard to mount? it has a built in speaker, which would allow my kids to watch a DVD while the wife listens to music. Thanks for ll you help!

D

[llajumpvid]

Originally Posted by madamadness

SO, if i was to purchase a stock 7' inch LCD screen from Ebay, that way the LCD mounted easily, i would be able to hook up the ME3 to it? I DON'T want to modify the flip down piece if possible. i do see on ebay, that they are sellinga 10.4 inch LCD and the ME3 unit as 1. Is that hard to mount? it has a built in speaker, which would allow my kids to watch a DVD while the wife listens to music. Thanks for ll you help!

D

You'll likely have to trim the flipdown piece some and create a frame for the monitor. Don't buy a cheap monitor, make sure it is TFT and namebrand or you'll be disapointed. I wouldn't put a 10" up there unless you can get the reinforcement bracket they are giving to owners with the factory DVD. A 7" is hard to watch because of the bounce and I suspect the 10" to be worse....If you don't have a sunroof then there is more support for the headliner and a 10" would be fine. A built in speaker is useless once it is mounted if it's like mine, in the back of the monitor, it only adds weight as you cant hear it once mounted. I'd suggest removing the speaker if you can. If you tie into the HU audio like I explained the cabin can listen to any source am, fm, cd, dvd, aux while the rear listens to am,fm,cd, or dvd via the IR headphones....for whatever reason the aux won't go to the rear controls....

I may of misread your post at first. I'm not sure how the factory monitor is wired. I think I see the monitors on ebay you are referring to. Those are not from an armada, they are likely a titan as it does not have the rear ac controls. What I think would work though is to remove the drop down part from the console they are selling and put it in the one you have. The biggest problem will be connecting it to the dvd player. For my system, the ME3 comes with a little addapter that you plug RCA video and audio and a power source into, it then connects to the blaupunkt monitor using a DIN connector, which looks like a s-video cable, the cable also supplies power to the monitor. My guess is that you would take the factory monitor video + and - wires and slice on a RCA. What I don't know is how you would hook up the power etc. The wiring diagram for the monitor shows 12 wires coming out of it. I'm guessing the data wires it shows is just the remote eye relay so you wouldn't need to hook up those 3. You can probably wire in a switch and hook to the pwr wire to turn it on. No clue on the filtered batt wires. For the price they are now ($150) I'd get a aftermarket and put it in. It will be easier to integrate I think.

[madamadness]

So what kind of video do you have in your Aramada? Is it the stock 7', or an after market 7' that you were able to get into the drop down compartment? I want it to look clean, and with the least mods as possible. Will an aftermarket 7' LCD fit in the drop down compartment, without having to cut anything? I really like the specs on the ME3, i may go with that, but now i have to figure out which video display to go with. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,

D

[madamadness]

LLAJUMPVID, m I just bought the Blaupunkt ME3 and 7' blaupunkt monitor. Thanks for the recommendations. Do you have pics on how your looks now? I would be curious. Also, how hard is it to install the monitor in the existing drop down compartment? I hope it is not too difficult. thanks for the wiring diagrams!! Any more that i may need to get this wired up? For the monitor? Did you need a preamp?

Thanks,

D

[llajumpvid]

Originally Posted by madamadness

LLAJUMPVID, m I just bought the Blaupunkt ME3 and 7' blaupunkt monitor. Thanks for the recommendations. Do you have pics on how your looks now? I would be curious. Also, how hard is it to install the monitor in the existing drop down compartment? I hope it is not too difficult. thanks for the wiring diagrams!! Any more that i may need to get this wired up? For the monitor? Did you need a preamp?

Thanks,

D

No preamp needed and you should have all the wiring diagrams. Here is a photo of my monitor install. I paid a shop $125 to mount it for me. Here is a link to another armada owners install/how to. His monitor install is similiar to what the shop did with my install.

[madamadness]

Did you have to do any "special" wiring to get the monitor installed, or could you use the existing factory harness (if any) to connect to the console? Is there a video source in the over head console, which connects to the DVD player harness? Do you recommend using it (if any) or running my own video source cables?

D

[llajumpvid]

Originally Posted by madamadness

Did you have to do any "special" wiring to get the monitor installed, or could you use the existing factory harness (if any) to connect to the console? Is there a video source in the over head console, which connects to the DVD player harness? Do you recommend using it (if any) or running my own video source cables?

D

Just use the monitor wiring. Take the assist handle from between the doors off on the passenger side and then pull the trim off. You should now be able to feed the wire from the headliner and come out under the carpet around the passenger seat floor bolt.

I took pieces of foam rubber wrapped around the cord and used a zip tie to hold it on this will keep the wire from bouncing in the headliner. probably put a piece or two in the door pillar too. Don't use tape as it will melt and make a mess....I know.....

[OffRoadinArmada]

Oh man DONT make my mistake and buy a factory LCD!! They do come with a better, sturdier mount, but damn the wires are NOT run. You would have to try and figure out what wires do what. I have the service manual, and even with that, I couldn't get it to work (It has the common Video + & -, but it has +5V power and 2 "batter filter" wires. No matter what I tried, nothing happened. And then, worse yet, my dumb *** crossed the power wires from the battery and fried it!! sigh). Take my advice and go full aftermarket