Rod Batts called about the Concertone and TV Converter issue.

Rod just gave me a call about how Forrest River is putting together their units with the TV Converter now.

Here is the way as I can recall the conversation...I was driving when he called of course!

For 32 QBBS campers specifically (Although the same system holds true for any of them)...You will need to unhook the coaxial cable going into the Concertone. Make a wall plate so that you can hook a line from the "new" wall plate (that has the coaxial cable for the Conertone hooked to it) to the back of the Digital TV converter box.

From the Digital Converter box...you hook to the back of the TV. From the TV you then run the red/white audio out to the audio plug available in the entertainment center. Switch the Concertone to "Input 2" and now you will have the surround sound available.

I believe he said that you still need to have the jumper on the two plug in the entertainment area just like you do if you are jumping them for a cable feed in from a campground or what not.

Make sense?

farmer,

My Cat is too old to have the newer concertone, but with that said, that does sound very complicated. Seems someone at FR missed the boat with designing how this system interfaces with other audio/video equipment.

Sounds simple enough to me. Then again, I'm into the tech stuff too.

ok, I didn't do a good job of explaining myself. I agree it is not that hard to do, but it sounds like it could have been designed for easier use by the owner. Not everyone has the ability or the want to do this type of mod to play the concertone. Just my $0.02!

I think the Concertone needs to have a analog AND digital tuner built-in. If they are still building trailers with the analog only, that's just not right.

I agree 100%!

I'd give Rod his own little section somehow if he was brave enough to do it. Might could save him a lot of time on the phone and be able to communicate with multiple people at one time. ?????

Admin wrote:I'd give Rod his own little section somehow if he was brave enough to do it. Might could save him a lot of time on the phone and be able to communicate with multiple people at one time. ?????

Phillip,

That would be a great idea, that way we all can see what he has to say for future reference.

I did ask him if they were still using the Concertone...he said they were and they were wiring them up this way. He said something about the FCC not allowing units like this to be built with digital tuners in them or something along those lines.

I did mention this site and he said he was aware of it but didn't come out to it...sounded like if it wasn't a Forrest River site he probably better just let everyone email or call him! :-)

You can also use the cable like the one in the link below. The one I have was about 8 bucks from Walmart and works just fine. It is the same cable as this one just not the "Monster" brand....which you don't need. Just plug the red and white audio jacks into the back of the TV or satellite and plug the single pin into the jack on the FACE of the Concertone. I plug my Ipod into the same jack on the Concertone. No need to drill or put face plates in. Of course, you still have to select the imput.
Good luck,
Mmiller

http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2110497

Well actually...you are not having to drill for audio...it is the antenna feed over the coaxial cable to the concertone that needs to be hooked to the digital converter box...that is the cause of that...if you don't get that cable out of the concertone and into the converter box...there will be no tv signal (unless the converter box can pick up the signals without an antenna)! The audio would run from the TV to the already installed audio jacks in the entertainment center of a 32 QBBS.

If other Cat models don't have this type of audio jacks available then I totally agree with what you have here. :-) Or if someone wanted to run it the way you have the audio because something else is plugged into their audio jacks then this is another good option as well!

So I completed this set up last night. I works as advertised! I replaced the video jack up in the entertainment center with a coax cable jack and ran the cable from the back of the concertone to the jack on the wall (takes a bit of fishing the cable back up the wall for where it came)...then plugged the digital converter box into that jack. From the digital converter box I ran the 3 composite wires (yellow, red, white) to the back of my TV. Worked great!

I then wired in a composite wall jack (yellow, red, white) to the wall next to the coax plate. Ran the red, white, audio out of the TV to the new jack. On my concertone the "Input 2" (red, white) audio lines were not being used. So I hooked into those directly and ran those to the red, white jacks on the newly installed plate up in the entertainment center. Hooked up the red, white from the TV to the new jacks...switched the input on the concertone to be "Input 2"...and voila....surround sound system works just fine with any audio coming from the TV!

I will try to get a picture or two and post them so you can see.

Glad everything worked out for you, that's great!

Mine cat is an 06, all i did was put the didgital box between the concertone and the tv useing the cable connection then i used the red, white and yellow connection for the surround sound to work with the concertone set on on the av 1 connection and it works ok.