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kevinK
12-05-2006, 11:34 PM
One of my customers decided a few years ago that they would purchase some LCD tvs for their neighborhood bar. They knew someone, who knew someone, who was in the right place and got one heck of a deal on four units.
Sharp LC37G4U The one with the external AVC box.

Well they installed them on the wall, with the box sitting on an ugly shelf right next the to screen.

They are now looking to clean up the install and have asked for my help. I would like to relocate the boxes to a remote area, or at least a hidden area. My first thought is to move the AVC boxes to the equipment rack, approximate 75ft from each display. I've looked at the user manual (http://sharpusa.com/files/tel_man_LC32_37G4U.pdf) a few times, but I have not been able to find out if their is a longer system cable, or if I can substitute the cable for something else.

From what I can gather, the system cable looks like it is made up of an S-video, DVI & HDMI cable.
I would MAKE A GUESS that...
- Composite & s-video signals come down the S-video line.
- Component and DVI signals come down the DVI line

In this install, the only input to the AVC will be component video & audio from a cable box or matrix switcher. Using my educated guess, I should be able to run a DVI cable from the AVC box to the screen.

Any thoughts?

Upgrading / replacing the screens are not an option.

kevinK
12-06-2006, 01:11 AM
okay... so it took me only about twenty times of flipping through the manual to see that there is an extension cable of 23ft.

It looks like the AVCs do not have an IR sensor on them. I would have to guess that the 3rd cable (possibly an HDMI) probably carries the IR data from the screen to the AVC,

I was planning on using RTI for the control system

For those wondering, yes I have not played around or examined the panels closely. I'm gathering a ballpark price for the project to make sure he is serious about proceeding with the project. Nothing worse then spending a couple of days working out the system diagrams, pricing out the equipment only to have them say... "um.. for that much, we will just deal with the ugly shelves."


Thanks again for any input.

OEX
12-06-2006, 06:55 AM
i'm going to go out on a limb and venture to say the cheapest route is 4 new units. by the time you figure new extension cables, labor to terminate and run them, rack the media boxes, create a propriatary mess that wont be able to be reused for future gear: you could slap 4 new sets on the wall, customer could have 4 sets to take home or put in an office and money wont be wasted when the sets die in a few years.

my 2 cents

kevinK
12-06-2006, 08:21 AM
Yea... I could agree... after sleeping on it, and looking at the number I came up with, I'm not sure they are ready to drop that much dough into redoing the system.

Due to a small reconfiguration of the bar, the equipment rack needs to be split and relocated. After the cost of the racks, matrix switcher, and as you pointed out, cabling and termination, that is a heavy total... even without new screens.

It is up to them... after all it is their money.

Thanks

djnorm
12-06-2006, 08:40 PM
Just FYI, it's a DVI, an MDR (semi-proprietary), and some small din connector (completely proprietary). Key Digital makes extension cables (I believe as long as 75') and they work. We've used them with great success. If you change your mind, drop me a line. I think we have one gathering dust in the stock room that they'd love to turn into money.

TTT
12-16-2006, 09:18 AM
MDR comes in several different configurations. Pioneer use the 20 pin, Sharp used to use 26 pin, someone uses 24 pin... Basically, it is a family of connectors manufactured by 3M that are used in similar applications. Make sure you get the right version for the TV you are using. I believe that Sharp changed size at some stage.