DVD replacement?

I have an RCA RTD317W DVD that was part of the original equipment on my 2011 Winnebago Adventurer.  The DVD is part of a suite of home entertainment items including several speakers that I don't need.  The DVD is dead. 

There is a series of six pairs of wires in the cabling bundle that feed each of six pairs of input wire jacks.  I tried to find a replacement DVD Blue Tooth player at my local Best Buy and learned that none of theirs connect to a speaker suite like this any longer. 

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to replace the DVD with something that will enable me to take advantage of the speaker suite?

Thanks in advance,
Dan 


edit by staff - changed message icon to topic solved

Do you have a separate box (like a Q-Surround) to drive the speakers? Have a look at your TV/audio wiring.

Dan T said:

There is a series of six pairs of wires in the cabling bundle that feed each of six pairs of input wire jacks.  I tried to find a replacement DVD Blue Tooth player at my local Best Buy and learned that none of theirs connect to a speaker suite like this any longer.

Click to expand...

Six pairs = 12 wires to attach?  Are they all audio lines to various speakers around the rig, and/or is there a video channel in there somewhere too?  Any color coding or labels on any of the wiring?

What does that mean when they say the speakers are no longer available? There's one way to do surround sound and you have all the speakers necessary to do this. Are they trying to sell you something g different or saying it won't work and walking away?

I think what you need to look for is a "Home Theater System." Now they come with a Blu Ray player, 5.1 Surround Sound. The problem you will encounter is that they will come with speakers. So you have to discard the speakers (except for the part that connects to the control unit). Take the part of the wiring that connects to the control unit and splice to your existing speaker wires. Electrical diagrams from Winnebago will assist in determining what wires go where. I did that about three years ago, but got DVD and not Blu Ray (where was my forward thinking then?). to replace the existing RCA or whatever it was.
As for the speakers in the kit? I used mine on a stereo system in the garage, gave a couple away - heck, even Goodwill will take them and you get a tax write off.

Just my experience.  Photo shows I connected mine - Had to remove the TV to make it happen.

Mickey,

That looks close.  I marked all the speaker wires as I disconnected them from the "home entertainment system" box with the DVD.  By inspecting the box I can tell the resistance rating of each speaker it was supposed to be connected to.  Most of them are supposed to be 4 ohm speakers, the sub woofer is supposed to be 3 ohms.  I'm not sure what the actual permanently installed speakers are.  I assume that they match the rating of the box, but that's an assumption. 

I've concluded that I need a replacement home entertainment system and I will have to chuck the speakers just as you suggested.  Any suggestions on what to replace it with?  Also can I find out the resistance of each actual speaker in the motorhome without pulling them out of the walls?  I want to match things up if possible.

Scotty,  yes they are audio lines to all the speakers around the rig.  I marked them all so I can determine which is which.

John,  I don't think I have a separate box.  It looks like everything ran through this one. 

I think the solution is to follow Mickey's suggestion and purchase a new home entertainment system, use the receiver amplifier than can connect to several speakers, put a new blue ray DVD on it, and donate all the speakers that come with it to Goodwill.  That's not how I wanted to do it but it seems that it's the only way it can be done unless the DVD itself can be repaired which seems unlikely.

Thanks to everyone who responded.

Dan 

 

You could try an Ohm meter, I have had varying results. I found what mine were by looking on my vehicle specific parts list - You might try Winnebago Customer Service, with the SN of the Motorhome and they might be able to help you. Then there is always the take them out and look at them. Most are not that difficult (my experience) to get to.

Replacement - I put in a Samsung - I kind of like them - You should be able to get Blu Ray, Amplifier, Stereo, Surround Sound all in one kit. It will be the main box which will have the electronics, then the speakers.

I purchased a home entertainment system from Best Buy.  I cut the speaker wires and spliced them to the RV wires.  Everything worked fine.  The Rv wires in the 06 adventurer were all labeled. 

Very good! Two thumbs up.

I purchased an upgraded replacement system.  Unfortunately the receiver will only accept an HDMI cable.  There is one dangling from the TV set but it appears that it has come loose at the TV.  I get a "no signal" message on the screen.  I've hooked the receiver up to my TV in my house and it works fine.  The old DVD used the phone jack cables.  The HDMI cable was never connected to the old box.  My guess is that the HDMI cable isn't completely connected to the TV. 

I can see a base plate with three large bolts under the cabinet holding the TV.  The TV is just to the left of the entrance door to the coach.  If I remove these three bolts can I just slide one side of the TV over so I can get to the cable connections on the back?  My adult son will be assisting me so we shouldn't have any trouble holding it in place. 

Thanks in advance again everyone.
Dan

It's a challenge sometimes to disassemble a Winnebago. I recommend you call Winnebago Owner Relations and ask them how to pull the TV out.

Look on the side of the tv for an hdmi slot.  Or google your tv model and find the cable diagram.  You may be able to feel the connector and get the cable up into it.  Then be sure to change the tv input the the connected hdmi port.

Are you sure the HDMI cable is a good one?  I've gotten a couple that weren't.

Not all HT systems and TVs support bi-directional HDMI.  Check if there's an optical output on the TV and an optical input on the HT system.

With the help of your ideas I managed to get it all worked out.  I thought I'd put up a few things I learned along the way.

I bought a relatively inexpensive home entertainment system with a Blue Ray reader built into the mother box from Best Buy.  The mother box is about the same size and weight (2 pounds or so) as the original RCA unit.  In order to get to the back of the TV I had to remove 3 bolts from the bottom of the shelf that it sits one.  Once the three bolts were removed it was an easy matter to swing one end of the TV away from the cabinet that it sits in.  I then had my adult son find the original HDMI cable that was dangling from the TV and never hooked into the original box.  The cable was broken.  The TV end was smashed.  We replaced it.

Once we confirmed that we had a good video signal we bolted the TV back in place and proceeded to splice and reconnect the original speakers to the new box.  We made the splices by connecting the original speaker wire to the new speaker wire that we had cut apart from the new speakers.  This was necessary in order to be able to connect the special configuration speaker jacks into the mother box.  We used tiny 18-22 gauge "butt connectors" to connect the speaker wires to each other.  This enabled us to avoid soldering the wires and made for nice tidy connections.  We checked the polarity of the speakers by touching the wires to a 9 volt battery.  If it is wired correctly the speaker will pop out towards you rather than in towards the back of the cabinet.  It's easy to see if you use a flashlight and aim it at the speaker from the side rather than straight on. 

With a bit of patience to assure that we were matching the speakers to the proper location for them as described on the label on the back of the box we eventually got it all put together and working perfectly including the surround sound rear speakers at the front of the motorhome.

I then attached the box to the cabinet shelf with some industrial strength velcro.  Since it was a tight fit and nearly impossible to see I got the two pieces of velcro to line up by taping one side to the bottom of the box then attaching the other side to the velcro.  So the two pieces were velcro'd together before attaching the box to the shelf.  Then after removing the plastic covering from the sticky side of the lower piece of tape I just pressed the box down onto the shelf and everything was aligned.

Thanks for the tips everyone.  I hope my description helps somebody else.

Good job Dan, thanks for the details. Did you take any pictures?

And what brand/model did you choose for the replacement?

I'm interested in possibly replacing the in-cabinet stereo head unit in my trailer, and I didn't consider until now that maybe I could wrap in DVD and video input capability too.  Then I wouldn't have to carry around a standalone DVD player.