Considering an AppleTV2 in my car - question

03 Hodag · Feb 3, 2011

I'm considering using an AppleTV2 in my car purely for the use of Airplay to wirelessly stream audio/video from my iPod Touch 4g to my stereo/monitor.

My question is this: Does airplay require actual internet connectivity or just a wireless network?

Short of having wireless internet in my car (expensive), I figure I can just use a wireless router in my car to create a wireless network (without internet) and use that network to utilize Airplay.

Hopefully my explanation is clear enough. Thanks for the help!

Adobe75 · Feb 3, 2011

AirPlay does not require an internet connection. All you need is both the ATV and other devices on the same local network.

leigh103 · Feb 4, 2011

Best bet would be setup your ipod as the router, using wireless tethering - or hope that rumor of it being inbuilt comes true... is personal wifi or something, I forget the name now.

Another idea would be to use an airport express, rather than a router - be easier on the power. Plus it has an audio out, so there would no real need for the appletv - apart from the funky interface

Nice idea tho - I've had a few car PC's running on various things - u've got me thinking about doing it again!

BeachChair · Feb 4, 2011

leigh103 said:
Another idea would be to use an airport express, rather than a router - be easier on the power. Plus it has an audio out, so there would no real need for the appletv - apart from the funky interface

I wouldn't use airport express. It's too wonky without an internet connection.

Evgenyy · Feb 4, 2011

Just use a little MiFi dongle. It creates local network so both ATV2 and iPod will see each other on the network. It's small and requires little power to work. Additional bonus is that you can use 3g as well if you want to.

EvilC5 · Feb 4, 2011

I have thought about this as well for my show car, but cannot figure out how to connect the HDMI out to my older composite monitors and still have a good picture.

I was going to use an airport express and ATV2 to set this up. I might use one of my older ATV1's and an airport express and just not worry about the airplay feature, but still be able to hold lots of content on the hard drive in it and control it wirelessly with my iphone.

paulrbeers · Feb 4, 2011

EvilC5 said:
I have thought about this as well for my show car, but cannot figure out how to connect the HDMI out to my older composite monitors and still have a good picture..

Yeah, someone find me a reasonably priced converter to go from HDMI to composite and I would be all over this. I actually considered the same thing for my Expedition, but lack of HDMI was my undoing. I'm hoping that apple opens up Airplay to go between all iOS devices. Then I can just use the ipod connector on my head unit connected to an iPhone or iPod Touch and pass videos that way.

spiffers · Feb 4, 2011

I would consider a Mac Mini with some disks to serve as a library, and use a crossed tp cable to the aTV. I prefer streaming over cable, not wifi.

alFR · Feb 4, 2011

spiffers said:
I would consider a Mac Mini with some disks to serve as a library, and use a crossed tp cable to the aTV. I prefer streaming over cable, not wifi.

That's quite a lot of hardware to put in a car...

EvilC5 · Feb 4, 2011

alFR said:
That's quite a lot of hardware to put in a car...

lots of people have put mini's in the car, it seems a little overkill for what I want to do, plus I have an extra ATV1 and Airport Extreme....lol

if you youtube Steve Meade Designs, he runs a mini in his portable blowdryer....lol

you have to watch the videos to get the joke...

03 Hodag · Feb 4, 2011

Thanks for the responses. Just to touch on a few of the different suggestions:

"Personal Hotspot" is a forthcoming feature in iOS 4.3 that is (I think) exclusively for the iPhone. I am using a iPod Touch 4g.

A Mifi portable wireless router would be great but I don't need any more monthly bills. It would be cool though.

An Airport Express would be a good option for a router but I don't see any reason to spend the money if I can get a different router for ~$30. It doesn't need to be fancy or have good range. The Apple TV2 and the router will be right next to eachother.

My 7 inch in-dash monitor also only has composite video inputs so dealing with the HDMI Apple TV 2 output is indeed an issue. However, Ive been able to find HDMI to RCA composite video scalers (powered) on eBay for $50-100, which seems somewhat reasonable when compared to buying a new monitor with HDMI inputs. It's hard to say what kind of quality you're gonna get from a scaler like that though. Could be issues with audio and video matching up properly too. Anyone have experience with one of these scalers?

tbayrgs · Feb 4, 2011

03 Hodag said:
Thanks for the responses. Just to touch on a few of the different suggestions:

"Personal Hotspot" is a forthcoming feature in iOS 4.3 that is (I think) exclusively for the iPhone. I am using a iPod Touch 4g.

A Mifi portable wireless router would be great but I don't need any more monthly bills. It would be cool though.

An Airport Express would be a good option for a router but I don't see any reason to spend the money if I can get a different router for ~$30. It doesn't need to be fancy or have good range. The Apple TV2 and the router will be right next to eachother.

My 7 inch in-dash monitor also only has composite video inputs so dealing with the HDMI Apple TV 2 output is indeed an issue. However, Ive been able to find HDMI to RCA composite video scalers (powered) on eBay for $50-100, which seems somewhat reasonable when compared to buying a new monitor with HDMI inputs. It's hard to say what kind of quality you're gonna get from a scaler like that though. Could be issues with audio and video matching up properly too. Anyone have experience with one of these scalers?

I might be missing something but what's wrong with just connecting your iPod directly to your composite inputs for playback? I have my old iPhone 3GS loaded up with my kids movies and plugged into the composite inputs in my SUV--much easier than carrying around a bunch of DVDs. No router, no cable adapters, no :apple:

TV.

03 Hodag · Feb 4, 2011

The idea here is wireless.

My current car setup is exactly what you described: iPod Touch connected to the composite video inputs on my monitor using an Apple Composite AV Cable. I like it but my project is to do it without the wires, hence the need for an Apple TV 2, wireless router, HDMI scaler and AirPlay.

I also charge my iPod Touch in my car by using the same Apple Composite AV Cable. This made me consider using Powermat for wireless charging for my project, however they don't currently offer a receiver case for the iPod Touch 4g. If they eventually do, I'd be able to play music and videos, as well as charge my iPod, all wirelessly.

tbayrgs · Feb 4, 2011

03 Hodag said:
The idea here is wireless.

My current car setup is exactly what you described: iPod Touch connected to the composite video inputs on my monitor using an Apple Composite AV Cable. I like it but my project is to do it without the wires, hence the need for an Apple TV 2, wireless router, HDMI scaler and AirPlay.

I also charge my iPod Touch in my car by using the same Apple Composite AV Cable. This made me consider using Powermat for wireless charging for my project, however they don't currently offer a receiver case for the iPod Touch 4g. If they eventually do, I'd be able to play music and videos, as well as charge my iPod, all wirelessly.

So you'd rather make it incredibly more complicated just for the sake of eliminating the wires from your iPod to your vehicle composite inputs--to be replaced by 2 additional devices that will require power, one of which will need WIRES to be plugged into the same composite inputs using an adapter because the native output won't work. But hey, it'll be wireless (but not really).

To each their own, I guess

.

03 Hodag · Feb 4, 2011

tbayrgs said:
So you'd rather make it incredibly more complicated just for the sake of eliminating the wires from your iPod to your vehicle composite inputs--to be replaced by 2 additional devices that will require power, one of which will need WIRES to be plugged into the same composite inputs using an adapter because the native output won't work. But hey, it'll be wireless (but not really).

To each their own, I guess .

tbayrgs, you make me laugh. Car AV is a hobby for me. Its fun to tinker and see whats possible. Of course there will be wires and need for power but all that will be behind the dash and unseen. Of course its more complicated but the end result will be a reasonably clever solution to wirelessly play music and videos from any seat in my car with any AirPlay equipped iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Apple laptop.

I'll still keep my Apple Composite AV Cable hooked up to my monitor for when I want to charge an iDevice or display iPhone/iPod Touch apps/games on the monitor, but the idea behind the project is to generally eliminate the wires for music and video playback in a quasi-elegant manner.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious tbayrgs. To each their own indeed.

tbayrgs · Feb 4, 2011

03 Hodag said:
tbayrgs, you make me laugh. Car AV is a hobby for me. Its fun to tinker and see whats possible. Of course there will be wires and need for power but all that will be behind the dash and unseen. Of course its more complicated but the end result will be a reasonably clever solution to wirelessly play music and videos from any seat in my car with any AirPlay equipped iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or Apple laptop.

I'll still keep my Apple Composite AV Cable hooked up to my monitor for when I want to charge an iDevice or display iPhone/iPod Touch apps/games on the monitor, but the idea behind the project is to generally eliminate the wires for music and video playback in a quasi-elegant manner.

Thanks for pointing out the obvious tbayrgs. To each their own indeed.

Should've mentioned that before

. Having the hardware hidden behind the dash--makes more sense now. And don't get me wrong--I'd love a slick wireless setup as well--would keep the kids from fighting over movies as I'd have control from the front seat

.

Mromberg · Feb 4, 2011

We have a 2011 Honda Odyssey, which happens to have a HDMI input and a video monitor that can display 2 sources on a split screen. I was able to use an Airport Express with an Apple TV (2nd gen) as a 2nd source via the HDMI. The HDMI port is in the 3rd row of the van, so the beauty of my set-up is being able to stream videos/movies from my iPhone or iPad from the front seat to the monitor. The van has true 5.1 surround sound as well, and as long as my DVD rips preserve the AC3 encoding I've got sweet sound with those videos as well.

Overkill, but very cool.

Bbaik · Mar 2, 2011

Clarifing

Can atv2 and iphone see each other w/out airport. And how is power supply managed considering a car being used to run errands in town turning on and off during said errands. Im worried about shutting down and booting up of equipment. What would be best solution?

Thanks

EvilC5 · Mar 3, 2011

Bbaik said:
Can atv2 and iphone see each other w/out airport. And how is power supply managed considering a car being used to run errands in town turning on and off during said errands. Im worried about shutting down and booting up of equipment. What would be best solution?

Thanks

I do not think they can see each other, but I could be wrong.

my testing on an ATV1 and Airport Express in a car showed that its not an instant on kinda thing fro the reasons you mentioned. the ATV2 seems to boot allot faster, probably because its using flas memory rather than a hard drive.

plus the AE takes about 2 min to fully boot and allow ip addresses from the pool.

redondo5 · Jun 9, 2012

car power

hi,

sorry to bump an oldish thread.

but im looking to do the same sort of setup in my MPV.

i want to use apple tv2, wireless router but connect atv2 via ethernet and use a hdmi to composite converter for £25 on ebay.

the routers i already own is apple airport and a linksys wrt-open / tomato compatible router. i will choose the one which requires least power.

what i want to know is with those devices :

atv2
router
hdmi-composite converter 5v
2 screens in headrests

would i need any additional battery power in my car?

i will go to an expert to install all the stuff, im just worried about it draining power from my vehicle and leaving me stranded.

atr45 · Aug 5, 2012

Before you "go ahead" have you figure out a way to get SOUND on your atv2? With the hdmi to composite converter you get no sound. I am still figuring it out. (unless the converter has audio/video out from hdmi)....idk

Let me know.

As for your question about power. You can upgrade to a higher voltage battery (the ones not for your vehicle) or leave your car running when your are using the (atv2, router, ..etc). I am running a power inverter (custom on/off switch) and a fully powered carpc (car computer) system.

Considering an AppleTV2 in my car - question

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