(Music)
Good morning! Morning! How are you? I'm good. Good good!
Today on Narrowboat Silver Fox we're going to tell you all about the home
entertainment system that we're having installed on the boat. So the TV, and the
music system, and how we're going to use the internet for on-demand and things like that!
(Music)
Some narrow boaters are not really that bothered about having a TV
on the boat. In fact, we know quite a few boaters that don't have one, and that's
fine if that suits you. If that's what you want. That's absolutely fine.
We DO want a TV and we've not brought many home comforts from the house onto the boat.
But one thing we do want is a good home entertainment system. So this is
what we've got. We've got 40 inch smart HDTV in the saloon, and Rob's built us
this brilliant cabinet to surround it. It just frames it perfectly doesn't it.
Now the thing is with all these modern TVs, the speakers I don't think are as
good as you used to get on older TVs. I think it's just the size isn't it,
because newer TVs are so slim that there's not really enough room for
decent speakers, and even though this one says it's got Harman Kardon speakers
which are a good brand of speaker system, it's still not that good if you're watching a movie.
So what we've done is we've invested in a separate sound bar.
Now I've got a bit of a confession to make. We got this one half price and this is a good tip.
The TV - 40 inch, 4k, Smart TV... £170. We just waited for the Black Friday
sales last year, where we got the washing machine from as well for half price, £170.
I walked in Tesco one day and it's there on Black Friday.
More than half price! So I picked that up. The sound system, we're using a Yamaha sound bar.
This is separate from the TV.
Again. Bargain! On Amazon this time. Should be just under two hundred quid.
This one was listed as having an open box. Somebody's been in the box but the
item's brand new, not been used. £100!
So for £270 we've got a 40 inch, 4k TV and a sound bar. I think that's a bargain!
Rob's made us this is brilliant frame. We've connected them together. All you do is
plug this in (TV), plug this in (Sound bar). This connects to the TV via an optical cable.
Most modern sound bars and TVs have got these now. Connect them together. Job done!
When we were thinking about how to integrate the TV into the boat we got some
inspiration from another boat builder that we saw last year, and he installs
his TVs on a bracket that swivels. So even though we're sat in the saloon
we've copied his idea. We can actually take the TV, pull it out, and swivel it round
so we can watch the news while we're having lunch, watch it if I'm
just sat working, and I can just have it on low, but it's great because we can
move the TV around, watch it from the dinette and then just put it back in place.
There we go - on an evening - and it's back in position to watch from the sofa.
I'm in the bedroom, and we've got a 32 inch HDTV installed. This is the back of
the shower, and we've got sockets and Ethernet and aerial cables up here.
I just wanted to show you this because you won't see these cables once it's all installed
because we're going to have just like a lip that hides the cables. And the TV, again
is on a bracket, so we can pull this forward. So we've got sockets obviously
to power the TV. We've got an aerial attached to the high gain aerial outside the boat.
And then we've also got the Ethernet cables. One running to this TV, and
another running to the TV in the saloon. These go from the back of the router
that we've got. And don't forget we've got an external antenna, so we get really
good 4G signal, which means we can run Netflix and on-demand. We can watch programmes,
Internet based programs through both TVs. Cool!
It was easier for us on narrowboat Silver Fox to connect this together.
Mainly because we had access to the boat at first fix. It's more difficult if you've
got an older boat because you've got to get the cables in and around somehow.
So it can be a little bit harder. For us it was easy. First of all we ran some
sockets, 230 volt sockets, to the back of the TV. That powers the TV and the sound bar.
We also ran an aerial from the roof down via the cable routes to the back of the TV.
And ethernet cables, they carry the internet. So our external 4g internet
comes in just opposite the stove. We've got a router sat on the shelf, and the
ethernet cable comes from that router up and across, plugs into the TV.
That's all we need. We've got power. We've got the external aerial for terrestrial
channels, and we've got the ethernet cable so we can access Netflix and
Amazon Prime and all the on-demand channels. It's as easy as that.
We did the same thing with the TV in the bedroom, so we can access the on-demand
and the terrestrial channels from both TVs.
Now all this is ok if you're in a
place where you can actually receive a terrestrial signal, or you've got 4G data
coming through. We're going to be out in places sometimes, I don't know, shrouded
by trees, or just really so far out in the open where we've got no terrestrial
signal and we've got no 4G data. What then? That's quite a tough challenge isn't it?
These new TVs have got USB inputs, and we've been quite ingenious here.
Before we move on the boat, we've been busy transferring our DVD
collection onto these. Now this is a 256GB memory stick, a USB flash drive.
And we've got, all together, on about half a dozen of these, about 2,000 movies and
about 4000 TV shows. Just series that we like to watch. All we do is plug this
into the TV and we can watch them. So we've got like 3 different
types of TV. We've got terrestrial from the aerial. We've got on-demand from
Netflix, Amazon Prime, BBC, all the on-demand things through the internet.
And as a fail-safe we've got 6,000 different things to watch just
through the USB sticks. Now what's the point in having all this TV when you've
got the canal, and you've got this gorgeous landscape outside.
A different view out of your window every time you look from it.
That's exactly right!
And the magnificence of the British countryside is really what this life is all about.
But we live in Britain. I mean, come on! Cold, wet, windy nights. We want a
little bit of entertainment, and that's why we've gone all out to get this set up.
If you want some more information on the TVs and the sound bar that we've
installed on narrowboat Silver Fox, I've left links just down below.
Next time, we're going to show you the finished narrowboat Silver Fox. I can't wait to show you!
We can't wait to show you. We've also got details on the launch and of Crick too.
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got any questions or feedback on the vlog, and we both will see you next time
to unveil the completed narrowboat Silver Fox. See you later!
Morning! Good morning! And welcome to narrowboat Silver Fox!