Wall mounted touch screen jukebox- newbie questions

[bryanport]

ok I am finishing my basement and can make up my mind weather to make a bar top touch screen or a wall mount touch screen Jukebox. I am leaning towards the wall mount. Is there a site that gives step by step instructions? This is all new to me so I may ask some stupid questions.

 What Hardware I will need? hard drive size? which processor? how much ram? What size touch screen is best?  I have read here that the sound card is the most important part. Does anyone make a in wall mount for a touch screen monitor?

 I was going to use wall mounted speakers. Is this a good Idea ? If  so can someone recommend some wall mounted speakers.

I was going to run the speakers to two or 3 different rooms, do I need a volume control in each room? Or should I just keep it to one room?

Any sites you can direct me to would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you

[Space Fractal]

First, welcome om board. Is it a wall mount type like mameroom.com you seek for? I know they have plans to sell, but you of course not need to any buttons as well... Otherwise I have not created a jukebox cabinet by myself, due the tiny place I have.

About the touchscreen size I guess it depend of the jukebox app chosen. For a wall box I think about 14" -> 17" would been very fine as long it have around 800-600 to 1024x768 resolutions (or above), due most software use that resolution.

Otherwise it for the PC hardware, this depend very much the song collection you have (singles, albums or both), how have set it up (example have you tagged them, or use a file mask system), and if you have videos as well.

For most chase a 1ghz processor around 1gb ram should been fine for most software out here. Some can even run on less hardware on these. On the graphicscard I think it only my own software that might require a little bit more than others, since it use OpenGL and not GDI as most others due). But for the soundcard part, any soundcard can been used, but of course better soundcard have more clean sound and procures less noise.

With videos it might require a bit faster processor......

[Nostrildomus]

I used a MacMini to power an ELO 15" Touchscreen in my Basement Bar/Theater Room. Bluetooth keyboard and Mouse [if needed], but runs iTunes very nicely as a Jukebox. Ceiling mounted speakers with 2 floor Subs; Seperate volume controls, for each room.

[bryanport]

Do I need an amp to power the wall mounted speakers?  I am planning to mount the ELO touch screen on the wall (recessed) and put the computer behind the wall,  in a closet. Who has the best prices for these monitors?  Is this a good idea? Which software works best without a keyboard & mouse? Any other suggestions would be great! Thanks!

[Space Fractal]

maybe, its depend which speackers you have. If you have HiFi Seakers (no PC speakers), you propenty need to have a good amp. have a amp and wire a cable from PC's soundcard to that.

For the software no software is the best, since people is diffecents. So i recommered you to see the wiki.arcadecontrols.com and check out touchscreen jukebox software under software.

Example Some prefer Barcrest's Freebox, other example Touchtone, AlbumPlayer and the really nice Uncle'T Jukebox. I even have my own software, which might been some more simple in featurelist compared on others software (but it was not the case since I wrote my own).

Itunes dosent work 100% for touchscreen and can been breaked, which it dosent have a save/party option.

There are a least one projectrs ot two that do the the same, but I do cant remeber which thread that was.

[Zeosstud]

I did a touchscreen mounted on the wall with 2 different sets of in-wall speakers each with their own volume control so I guess I will toss my 2 cents in.  Here is a pic to start with.



I got my speakers here:  http://www.onlyfactorydirect.net/servlet/Detail?no=6
I got my volume controls here:  http://www.outdoorspeakerdepot.com/vmimmavocow.html
I got my speaker selector here:  http://www.outdoorspeakerdepot.com/is6paspseimp.html
I bought my speaker cable on ebay:  http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=ADME:B:EOIBSAA:US:31&Item=120306510939

I also purchased a cheap receiver from Best Buy to finish it all off.  I am totally satisfied with the sound in the basement now, I have a pretty good sized basement, 30 x 35 or so, I have one set of speakers firing from south to north on the west side of the stairs and the 2nd set aimed north to south on the east side of the stairs, all in all its pretty good.  As with all things you could spend ALOT more money and accomplish the same thing, but as far as bang for the buck, I think I did pretty good.  I dont have a separate powered sub so the bass isn't exactly thumping, but really that was never the goal.  I like to have music playing when I am playing pool with friends and always during poker tournaments and this setup has been very well received.

I like having the separate volume controls located near the speakers but I don't know that it would be a requirement, I think its is recommended however.  Hope some of this helps and if you have any questions feel free to ask.  I am also including a link to my thread on this in case you want to check it out.

For software I choose Albumplayer, it has all the features I could ever ask for.  Like others have said though, thats a very subjective topic.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=79878.0

Zeosstud

[bryanport]

Zeosstud --

Thanks for the info! Can you direct me on how to wire up the volume control. I placed my order today for the same speakers, wire & volume controls!
Thanks- again!

[richms]

I have never being a fan of those stepped autoformer speaker level controls, but installation should be straightfoward, 4 wires come from the amp to the terminals marked "amplifier"  and then 2 from each pair on the out go to your speakers.

If you are paralleling volume controls onto your amp then you may need to change the jumpers for the impedance on the control to x2 or higher to stop the amp from overloading. I would be tempted to try it at x2 even if the amp is ok down to lower impedances since it will reduce the current and heating in the amp, so long as your not driving it to clipping. The added heat an amp makes going to 4 ohms from 8 is quite signifigant, even if you keep the volume the same.

[jaysen]

Here is my in-wall project I started last week.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=85482.0

Hopefully you can get some ideas in terms of mounting/etc

[Fritzy]

I did a quick and dirty touchscreen mount to the wall and put the computer in a closet I had behind the wall.  The computer just hooks to a pioneer amp i had and runs through standard speakers.  In the pic you can see the touchscreen mounted on the left side.  This was a early pic.  Someone brought up framing the monitor and it makes it look tons better. 



Like I said it was quick and dirty but it gets a ton of use in the gameroom.  It is currently still using SKjukebox since I just cant seem to find juke software I like as much.  If someone has a recommendation for Juke software which is comparably yet still being updated pm me the link to a thread discussing it.