DVD on a plotter, not bad
I tried plugging a regular household DVD player into two video capable plotters last week, and the results were quite viewable, confirming the value of helm stereos that can also play video discs. That’s a Standard Horizon CP1000 10” above and a Raymarine E120 12” below. Both have some control over picture brightness, contrast, and color saturation, though the E’s is easier to find and use. The E also has a choice of aspect ratios, but I still couldn’t get the picture to fill the full width of the screen. And yes, that is the actor from Friends who now mocks his acting career on the TV show Joey. This particular job, Lost in Space, must have been inspirational. I have no idea why the DVD is lying around my house.
Maybe chartplotters will soon store recipes?
Sorry, Ben, even if they supply keyboards and open them up to run Windows applications, I refuse to buy PCs (aka plotters) from Marine electronics companies. I prefer to select superb software like Coastal Explorer, and run it on either of my three redundant notebooks aboard, which surprise no one when they run spread sheets, DVDs, etc. I'm waiting for a self-contained radar overlay/MARPA product packaged like the new Garmin but offering a USB cable to my standard Windows PC. The longer it takes, the more I lose respect for the electronics companies who prefer to gouge us for camouflaged PCs that are not generally useful. After thirty-five years in the computer business, I'm amazed that they're succeeding at this, plus their proprietary networking games, for as long as they have been. Perhaps our young business candidates are lazier/less hungry today than during the seventies and eighties when entrepreneurs ravaged such predatory business positions then practiced by companies such as AT&T, DEC, IBM, Memorex, etc.
Fortunately we have keen commentators like you that point it out when the value added doesn't justify the price. You do that don't you?