Thinking of Getting InCar DVD System For The Kids???

[JCOJ]

We do try and entertain the kids as much as we can but for our big July trip with some long days behind the wheel we are thinking of getting a dvd player for the kids to give ourselves a break every now and then.

We've had one quote for $1400 for an overhead roof mounted one:

Positives: It's Alpine so the quality is very good
            : Apparantly it won't jump around on corrugations
            : You can play the sound through the car stereo, or through headphones so we can listen 
              to our own music

Negatives: Do I really have to spend that much??
             : They have to be watching the same thing (is that an issue for those that have them?)
             : Not sure I want this 'thing' mounted to my roof!

The salesperson was pretty keen on selling me this over a headrest type of system - mainly due to the picture quality.

My questions are:

- Have you now got an incar dvd system and do you find it a help to give you a break from the kids?
- What do you have - a centre roof mount, a headrest one (and if headrest can you play separate things or not), or portables strapped to the back of the seat?
- Headphones - do you think they are great or do the kids break them, step on them, and/or sleep with them on and therefore bend them?
- What incar dvd system would you recommend, how much is it, and where can I get one from?

THANKYOU!!
    

[Paul and Bern]

 
Hi JKohn, a couple of years ago we went all out and bought a $300 DVD set for the car.  Came with mini DVD player and 2 screens with game dvd and 2 controllers (haven't used) + headrest mounts... 12v as well as 240v adapter, normal tv cable and desk stands for the screens.  plugs into cig lighter And I regulate amount of time.  If you go to c van park or cabin it takes 2 sec to grab the dvd and plug into their tv set.  In qld it's illegal to have a dvd player that the driver can see.  pretty sure you can get a cheapie like ours to do a job... depending on what/who needs to see it ie in a van or over two lots of seats.

[Ben...]

have had a car with all the headrest monitors all the business, but when we got our new car we bought 2 x cheap models from aldi. Now the kids have there own each, they can play what they want, and all there dvds are on a 32GB USB flash each, this means no dvds to carry, and no skipping on bumpy roads. good set of headphones and they are away. fraction of the price and they can use them in there beds once the camper is setup. this works for us.

[Ricey]

Kjohn
I have been looking into this also and I am leaning towards this one
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/DUAL-SCREEN-17-5CM-7-PORTABLE-DVD-PLAYER-AMAZING-/260571455538?cmd=ViewItem&pt=AU_Players_Recorders&hash=item3cab44e032
It is cheap and the quality will be OK and it just attaches to the head rest with velcro straps so easy to remove and use elsewhere.
I also have a single unit that I can plug into 1 of the screens if needed.

[Wazza]

We have a roof mount one. Its been in the car almost 4 years now. We chose the roof mount because at the time our kids were small, 2 and 4, and the cheaper head rest ones would of been a pain in the a$$ with the cords and the fact they could reach them and the screens easily.
I cant fault the roof mount one. It has never skipped, never ran out of battery, dont have to worry about plugging it in etc. And perhaps the funniest thing is our kids are always the popular ones where ever we camp because we put all the backseats down at night and they have a cinema in the car, and every kid camped near us usually piles in for movie night.
We also bought the kids a cheap $79 dollar portable dvd player for inside the camper for those days when they are up at 6am and mum and dad want a sleep in. But they use them all the time at home as well because they dont have a TV in their rooms, some nights they have movie night with the portable DVDs.

[dazzler]

We have a couple of the 7" portable ones for each of the kids so they can watch what they want (4 kids from 0 to 15  :'( ).  At night we hook it up to a portable LCD Flat screen tv and have some quiet time watching a movie.

L U X U R Y!  

[jwb]

My thoughts would be to buy 2 single units with straps to attach to the headrests.
I got one for my daughter a few years ago & I wish I'd done it many years before.
On the initial Tuff Truck return (driving  11hrs + on monday) all I heard from her was, Laughter from the funny bits,
Dad- I'm hungry or Dad - I need to go to the toilet.
Much, much better than the usual stuff kids ask when travelling
Pro 1- they vary rarely will want to watch the same movie at the same time
Pro 2- if needed they can be removed easily for viewing elsewhere.
Pro 3- Price varies but I suspect cost would be less than $5-600 for a couple of decent brand named units.

good luck with what you choose!

cheers

[Dasnowman]

When I brought my falcon, it had a roof mounted DVD player in as standard (I brought the Classic), and used it when I drove from Hobart to Surfers, and had no complaint from the Boy or the Wife. Must have looked funny me going along the Hume, and the boy and the wife in the back being chauffeured while watching movies. 

The system runs through headphones, and is only viewable whilst in the back.

Yes there are regulations about screens in the fronts of cars, and most state that they have to be hooked up the the handbrake switch for them to display movies/videos.

Ours has been a good decision and one that I would do again for a new vehicle.

Dasnowman

[Karen]

We have had the roof mounted Alpine system now for over 3 years.  It still works fine and the 2 kids are happy with their own remote headphones which are kept in the back pockets of our front seatcovers.

Only issue we have is that the unit over time rattles, especially on corrugations or bumpy road.  We even took it out for our trip to Cape York last year. 

I think if we were looking again we would go for inbuilt players in the front seat headrests.

Having said that the kids hardly watch a DVD these days and are happy to look out the window or read a book.  What the!!

Karen

[palais]

You could buy 2 iPads for less than $1400. Movies, games, good battery life. Just a thought.

[ripas]

We have a portable DVD player shared between 3 kids - all movies stored on a USB thumb drive - gets a tad difficult at times finding the right movie due to the age range of the kids.

After thinking about it a bit the last few weeks I am going to buy three new Ipod touch's - each kid then has their own 'console' - can play games, movies, music and a host of other things to keep them occupied.  Only downside is that the screen is small compared to a 7" DVD player.

[db]

We have a couple of portable DSE dvd players - these can be slaved one off the other, or run independently (different movie on each screen - good as the age difference kicks in).  The only problem we have had is that they don't like even slightly rough roads - bit of a problem. 

We have ended up with a couple of portable media players - Cowon D2.  These have 8 Gb internal capacity, take SD cards (so can add movies etc) and have TV out so can hook up to the DVD players if needed.  But we have found the kids are more than happy to just hold them and watch on the little screen (great screen quality).  Only down side is you need to re-encode movies to fit the screen size, but otherwise are great.  Plus not affected by bumps / vibration and take up no space.

Cheers,

Richard

[AKB]

In the 4wd we have the dvd screens mounted into the back of the headrests and our boy listens to it via head sets.  The only other thing is we have a screen so we can watch what he is playing (the control unit in the front passanger seat footrest and you need to see when you have to press play). Switch it on check what the problem is and then switch it off.

In the 911 we have a screen in the front and no headsets.  Get the headsets I have listened to star wars more times than I care to remember.

Having said all this he is now 6 and has a nintendo ds which he can watch movies on.  The dvd is all good and we use it because its there but honestly at his age I would go for something like a Nintendo Ds or Itouch etc

[Sharky]

My questions are:

- Have you now got an incar dvd system and do you find it a help to give you a break from the kids?
We bought a DSE twin screen player that straps to the headrests - best decision we ever made! Enjoyment for the kids and peace for us. We only use it on long highway trips and pack it away for trips where we want the kids to see the countryside.

- What do you have - a centre roof mount, a headrest one (and if headrest can you play separate things or not), or portables strapped to the back of the seat?
Headrest mounted portables with Velcro strap and safety bungee. Cant play separate DVDs but this hasn't been a problem. The girls take it in turns to choose a DVD

- Headphones - do you think they are great or do the kids break them, step on them, and/or sleep with them on and therefore bend them?
They are great as they add to the peace for us! We ditched the crappy earpiece headphones and bought a cheap set of over-ear headphones but they only lasted one trip - too cheap and nasty and broke very quickly. I went and spent $140 ($70 each) on a pair of decent Sennheiser headphones and haven't looked back.

- What incar dvd system would you recommend, how much is it, and where can I get one from?
I don't think you need to spend $1400 - you could buy 3 portable sets for that. Unless of course you want the all singing and dancing built in version with IR headphones. Actually, I would like the IR headphones to reduce the cables in the back but despite their inconvenience, the cables have been manageable. You can get them from any number of suppliers ranging from DSE, JAYCAR, JB Hi-Fi as well as all the Car Audio suppliers

THANKYOU!!
You're welcome!
    

[DANBRI]

I didn't want to spend too much money on these things, as I figured what ever I get will crack up from the abuse of dust, corrugations and typical child operational aggression...

$198 from Big W, two screens, one master with DVD unit (also has usb etc) the second screen is a slave unit. It's really surprised me how good they are, we used them for the first time on the weekend. They used head phones - and not a word from either! Gold. 

They strap to the headrest which was the versatility we needed. We have a few cars and obviously the patrol only gets used offroad, so if we're doing a quick dash to qld or something - they need to move to another car.

$198 is church change now days, I am very impressed for the the price. I would have expected to pay $500-600 for the same units. They have a 2 year warranty, so if they survive 2 years and crack up - I'll buy another set.

[singo-26]

We bought a cheap set of headrest dvd players about 4 years ago fo $199 and they have been great. The biggest problem we have travelling now is the kids singing and laughing with the dvd. we also have a 240v adapter and everything to hook them up to a tv, so when in a motel or friends place we can hook them to the tv there. They are also allowed in the camper but only just before bed. For headphones we buy cheapys and replace them as needed for about $4 at the reject shop or similar. We generally carry ours in a laptop bag with everything in the bag so we can switch from car to car easily. we are now starting to look for a seperate unit for our 8yo as he is starting to grow out of the movies the littlies watch. Hope this helps.

Cheers

Steve

[yakodi]

G'day guys, we have used the incar portable DVD players with the kids for about the past 4 years and have gone through 3 DSE units and currently have one Phillips twin screen unit. We have used all units in all types of terrain and found that dust and corrigations/vibration were probably the cause for the 3 failures that we had. All units we purchased had 12 months factory and 3 yr extended warranties and were purchased at Dick Smith electronics, as most regional centres and capital cities have a Dick Smith franchise for support. The DSE extended warranty company were great to deal with also. Cheers.

[rossow]

+1 for the el-cheapo solution.
Is great for the longer trips (usualy the trip home, once the kids are a bit grotty).
5 and 3 year old so still watching the same movie, although it can get tricky to choose.

I'd go the removable one only cause we've used it in the camper on battery while its been pouring down.  It was the middle of our 4 week road trip and only stopping for 1 night and the kids were grotty so it was a quick setup and then into the tent for a movie while dinner was being cooked.

I suppose they could have stayed in the car, but they were much happier in the tent as they could stretch out and get comfy.

It doesnt always come with us on trips either, which is a good thing.  We really didnt want them to get used to watching movies in the car or when we are away.

cheers
Rossow.

[SteveandViv]

We used to use the strap on ones. had one with a single player then one with a dual player so they could watch a different movie. For our last set though, the ones we used in our 22000K across Aus trip we got a set of Option Audio ones. These replace your head rests and so are built in, great not to have the player sitting some where getting banged, crashed and knock all over the place. They have built in player so they can watch their own movie, you can play a movie in one and also watch it on the other if they want. Wireless head sets so we don;t have to listen to the movie - bliss...They can also accept RCA in such as the I-Pod adaptor or play station which we let the kids use when we were at camp for a few days. These are still going strong after a lot of rough stuff. Yes there were times when they would jump.

Just a note. While the player may not jump you will get scratching of the disks if you play them in very rough conditions. it just has to happen as the laser has to float to read the disk. You will end up wit rings on DVDs if you play them in really rough stuff.

Oh, cost about 1000 Bucks

[Taz]

My wife has an installed unit in her Honda Euro. When operational its great but the unit was installed under the drivers seat and its a pain for inserting / ejecting DVD's. It came with IR headphones which require batteries - 2 issues, kids don't remember to turn them off and the infant in the baby seat kept kicking the IR sensor off the centre console and no other location for it.

I have el cheapo headrest strap on units in my Prado. Yes cables are a bit of a pain but can be tucked away and they alleviate the need for batteries. The USB port is the best option IMHO but I travel a lot and have hundreds of movies on an external HDD so there are plenty of choices for the kids. The teenager has the responsibility of downloading 8gigs worth of movies onto a stick prior to departure. The only drama with my el cheapo unit is that it has a small internal battery which doesn't appear to recharge when the system is plugged into the 12V but will recharge when plugged into 240V. When the internal battery is flat the system doesn't operate.

If it wasn't for the internal battery issue the portable units would win hands down. If you spend a little more than the $200 I spent you should be ok but make sure you ask about internal batteries and ask for a unit with USB ports if you are set up to benefit from them.

Cheers ... Taz

[Lowlander]

I have a roof mounted soundstorm in my xj and for 350 odd $ its been great for the last 3 years!

[Madcat]

We've been thinking of a dvd setup also.

How do people go with the twin head rest versions, but with 3 kids across the back seat, does the centre child get problems from looking to one side to watch?

Cheers
Sam

[Shemdaph]

um how do you get the movies onto USB?

[JCOJ]

OK,

When I make my mind up to get something it doesn't take long for me to do it.

I must thank the Mrs for winning this on ebay tonight: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/7-TWIN-SCREEN-W-H-DVB-T-CAR-PORTABLE-DVD-PLAYER-/170483289104?cmd=ViewItem&pt=AU_Players_Recorders&hash=item27b1988c10 

It looks as if the two screens can run independant without the base bit by using USB's in the side.

So Shemdaph, when we have worked out how to do it I will let you know!

[Madcat]

OK,

When I make my mind up to get something it doesn't take long for me to do it.

I must thank the Mrs for winning this on ebay tonight: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/7-TWIN-SCREEN-W-H-DVB-T-CAR-PORTABLE-DVD-PLAYER-/170483289104?cmd=ViewItem&pt=AU_Players_Recorders&hash=item27b1988c10 

It looks as if the two screens can run independant without the base bit by using USB's in the side.

So Shemdaph, when we have worked out how to do it I will let you know!

Good buy Catie.

I like the idea of the TV too.

Looks like you might need an electrician to connect up all those cords you can see in the photograph 

Sam