CONNECTING PLAYSTATION 2 OR XBOX TO AVIC-Z1

[BOBPOWELL]

HELLO EVERYONE OUT THERE I AM RELATIVLY NEW TO AUDIO/VISUAL SIDE OF CAR AUDIO. I WAS WONDERING WHAT ALL I WOULD NEED TO CONNECT A PLAYSTATION 2 OR XBOX TO AVIC-Z1. ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

[cntrylvr79]

Youd need a power supply for them. Be t a power inverter or a dc-dc convertor. Oh and the av cable to plug into the z1. There really isn't much to actually putting one of those in. The trick comes in when you want to make it disappear into the car somewhere.

[Cirbirus]

Welcome to the forums.

Hooking up an Xbox to the Z1 can be very easy but you'll need to do a little prep work. It can also be very complicated depending on how cool you want to make the install. I did a ghetto install in about an hour but I was just doing it to see if I could.

Here's what you'll need:

1) Power. This is really the only difficult thing you'll need to do. Your car outputs ~12VDC while your Xbox uses 120VAC. You can buy [url=http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1196407&CatId=237]power inverters[/url]for around $20-$30 bucks to convert from AC to DC or you can replace your Xbox's power supply with a [url=http://www.llamma.com/xbox/Mods/12V%20Mini%20Xbox.htm]DC-to-DC power supply[/url]for around $100-$150.

Either way you will need to tap into your car's power. You need to get power from the battery since you don't want to try to use the tiny low amperage wires of your cig/aux power adapters. Let me repeat that; DO NOT USE YOUR CIGARETTE LIGHTER FOR POWER! The Xbox is a computer and uses a lot of juice. You could literally fry your car if the wires melt.

2) RF wireless controllers. I use the small Logitech ones.

3) Switches. My car is tiny so I can just reach behind me into the compartment that holds my Xbox and turn on the inverter and Xbox but you may need to wire up some switches to the switch on the inverter and the Xbox. If you go with the replacement DC-to-DC power supply you can avoid this and just have the power supply turn on the Xbox when you start the car and turn it off when you turn off the car.

4) A hacked Xbox. While it isn't necessary to have a hacked Xbox it makes life so much nicer. I have all my games copied to the upgraded hard drive I put in the Xbox so I don't have to carry around all my disks. I can also run software I write using the Xbox SDK.

5) Ground your Xbox to the chassis of your car. If you don't ground it the video cable will carry interference and you'll probably get nasty interference patterns all over the screen and it'll sound like you just hooked up a static generator. I soldered a wire to the chassis of the Xbox and attached that to the body of the car; no more static.

P.S. Please do not type in all caps. That means you are yelling and I hope you don't walk around your house yelling everything you say. ;)

[ducatiboy]

I agree with Cirbirus and the hacked xbox with #4. It would make things much easier to have a Xbox with tons of games preloaded right on the hard drive... no disks. It would be way easier.

[Navyguy]

I agree with Cirbirus also about the hacked XBOX. I have one installed in my F150. I have it hooked to a DC-to-DC inverter. Also, like Cirbirus mentioned I have that connected to my battery(fuse in line). When I start the truck it is on and when I turn it off it goes off. This is good if your kids will be the one playing. In my other vehicle my son would forget and I would go to start the vehicle and the battery was dead. I did not ground my XBOX and it works great. It is not permantely attached in the vehicle. We built a small platform that the XBOX sits in. So when we get to a hotel or at home when can take it out and play it or watch movies stored on the HDD. Wal-mart sells some awesome wireless (2.4 GHZ) controllers. I got the kid's controllers in a pack of two.
Hope this information helps you. When you get it in let us see how you did.