My Portable Media HDD on my stock Navi!!

After getting inspired by this thread http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=52355, I was looking for a slim dvd player on ebay to do the job and in the same listings found something even better! Imagine a 2.5" laptop harddrive, put into a usb external enclosure, and having it's own built in interface to play almost all of your media files natively! I found this: http://www.vantecusa.com/products/avox/p_avx100tx.html (also known as an Al Tech Mediagate MG-25P in Europe)

 

Then through more research, found an Acura TL forum where someone was doing exactly what I wanted with it: http://tl.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=138906

 

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox01.jpg

 

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox02.jpg

 

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox03.jpg

 

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox04.jpg

 

Also comes with component cables and outputs to HD, looks awesome.

 

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox05.jpg

 

So, you connect the drive to your computer like any external usb harddrive. You can then make folders to organize your files:

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox06.jpg

 

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox07.jpg

 

It's as simple as just putting up straight .ISOs too:

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox08.jpg

 

or put up divx, xvid, mpeg2's:

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox09.jpg

 

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox14.jpg

 

Dvds will play just like a dvd with menus and all. You can see here I'm using the Jazzy Mod and also ran an IR extension cable and stuck the receiving end above the power button:

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox13.jpg

 

You can see the 2 holes I drilled for the video cable, aux line, and IR extension cable:

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox15.jpg

 

Just enough room to fit all of the wires and the drive itself:

http://www.mousebox.org/lgt/avox/avox16.jpg

 

So.. Now onto the items you need:

 

1) Vantec Avox - cheapest and best place would be http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16855182001

2) 2.5" laptop harddrive - I just grabbed an extra one from work. I'm not sure if mine is a 5400rpm or 7200rpm drive. I'll check up on that later. Mine currently is a 40gig, but of course you can go a lot bigger.

3) Archos Car Lighter Power Adapter (500503) - Do not get a bootleg one that says will work with your Archos, it won't work - [ame]http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B0000A14T2/ref=dp_olp_2/102-8389569-5383368?ie=UTF8[/ame]

4) Al Tech Mediagate MG-25P IR Receiver - http://www.ewaggle.com/product_p/mg25p-ir.htm

 

optional items:

5) For my 06 I needed the Jazzy Aux In Mod and the GLI b/c of the ground loop noise I got from the cigarette lighter.

 

For the install I used a 1/2 drill bit to make 2 holes on the upper portion of the compartment box. I then ran the audio line, video line, and IR extension cable through some plastic wire loom to keep it neat and not to get caught up in the e-brake cable which you'll see when you pull the armrest out. It is also easier to take the cupholder and top trim out when you're drilling, it is held together by some philips screws.

 

Then I have a small metal file that I used to file a "channel or groove" on the inside of the silver trim on the left side of the radio to run the IR cable along. Filed another small niche at the top for the IR receiver to emerge out of and double sticked it to right above the power button. Voila.

 

Any questions, feel free to shoot them my way.

 

- Mouse

Nice

cool

Wow. Awesome!

Dude. Sweeet. I can't wait to do the same.

Legend!

2) 2.5" laptop harddrive - I just grabbed an extra one from work.

 

And where is work?

I work in computers, so we have spare everything

That looks very nice, good job, im going the ghetto route and using a portable handheld DVD player that is also divx capable.

 

Ed

Nice...I think I have one of those AVO Jukebox's at home....if anyone is interested in doing this...I could sell you mine...if interested send me a PM and I'll check to make sure I still have it from a review I did a while back

This is very very cool.

Pretty damn cool. I'm leaning towards just running a Monster i-Pod A/V cable, so we can plug in our i-Pods and watch the movies from that... I like the install location, I think that'd make a good spot to run the i-Pod cable to!

FYI: I just noticed that when I have the drive plugged into the cig lighter I get horrible radio reception. Not sure if it's how I ran the cables or not, but I have to unplug the power when I want my radio stations that aren't super local to me.

imouseGT...i just noticed your location, huntington NY...interesting...so there are now two black legacy gt's in huntington. Id love to meet you and see your car, i live by Stimpson Middle School off of Oakwood rd. Where you at?

I'm off Little Plains and Park Ave but work in Stony Brook.

holy shit...imousegt...do you by any chance have like bronze BBS rims? and you got your car from metric? becuase if so i one night stopped and saw your car at metric and took pictures. cause i thought our cars looked so familiar. i go to stony brook everyday for school, i park in either south P or the teachers parking lot, where do you park if you dont mind me asking? and if im not mistakin i saw you one night going south on nicols and i was going west on 347.

Nope, I have stock rims, but I'm at Metric once in a while for maintenance. But yea, I work at the University and park in the Union lot. I drove by you on 347 I believe. I have 15% tints too

Nice....well im glad there is someone at school with a legacy gt as well. what do you teach?

My current video wire is runs down the front of my ac and cd controls, where did you tread your video wire and how difficult was it?

I don't teach, I run the computer labs (SINC sites).

I ran my video cable along the right side (passenger side) of the LCD, there's a small channel along the right side of the stereo and come out under it.

I'm off Little Plains and Park also. How come I've never seen you? I would really like to check out your Navi install.

DUDE i need help. i just got my avox a few days ago and i tried plugging it in with the cd and the manual said i needed to run the windows 98drive. so i tried installing it thru the cd and it said that it is only compatible with win98. now i know noone uses 98 anymore. do i not need the cd to use this?

 

did you need to format your hdd? how did you do that without the cd? please reply because i'm having some difficulty.thanks in advance.

just plug it into your computer with the USB connection, if your O/S finds it, then just format the HDD NTSC is fine, it should all be in the manual for the AVOX.

Yup, what alphabit said. It's just a external HD, you throw in a 2.5" laptop drive, format it if it's brand new, otherwise your computer should just see it as a drive.