Will putting a DVD player in my van make my kids car sick? (1 Viewer)

[Steve Ridges]

We travel a lot and are considering putting a drop down screen and DVD player in our van for the kids (1 & 3). Will all of our travels be blissfully quiet or will the kids just get car sick and puke on everything? If you've got one, do you like it? Is it worth $2k?

Thanks!

 

[JasonMC]

I have a DVD player in my Pilot and it is awesome. We drove from Denver to LA and the children (2 and 11 yrs) were quiet the whole way!! Neither one of them got sick. Plus, we hooked up an XBox for the older one.
I rode in the back once and I started to get sick. I'm pretty sensitive to motion though. We've had it since Nov 2002 and neither one of them has complained about being sick. I say go for it.
Jason

 

[Mark Fitzsimmons]

$2,000 is a bit steep.

Now, these are quite low ball figures because my friend did it as cheaply as possible, but he recently added DVD to his truck.

He spent about $130 on a 7" widescreen LCD
another $180 on a PS2 (doubles as a DVD player)
and about $50 on a power inverter
self installed

As you can see, mobile dvd can be done quite a bit cheaper. I would recommend spending a bit more on the tv though, because his doesn't look the best.

 

[Kirk Gunn]

My $1k IBM Stinkpad w/14" screen worked great with a power inverter. Plus I get a P3 computer as a bonus !

No way would I get anything built in - a nightmare to repair/replace. If you don't get car sick reading books, then you probably won't watching videos. My kid and I are fine with it, but my wife feels queasy. Then again, my wife feels queasy on our boat before I leave the dock !

 

[Dan Joy]

Steve, A little Dramamine for children goes a long way. Both my children can suffer from occasional car sickness and we take the 11 hour trip to Chicago 5-6 times per year. The addition of that drug has completely eliminated that problem. Call your pediatrician if your not sure. I have a 9" TV/VCR combo that has a ac/dc cord that plugs into the cig lighter. This way I put the tv in when needed. The tv was about 189.00 at target and has a headphone plug for my wife and I:b This way, when I buy a new van, I still have my tv

 

[Brian Mansure]

My wife and I did the same thing Dan just mentioned with a combo 9" TV/DVD player. We spent a little over $200.00 at Costco on the Toshiba combo unit and it works great for our minivan. For long trips it snuggly (sp?) fits between the front seats, I prop up the front of the TV with towels to get a better angle and the kids are happy watching from the middle bench seat. In between road trips the TV goes in my son's room so he can watch DVD movies in his room.
The added bonus as Dan said, we can move the TV/DVD combo unit from vehicle to vehicle.

BTW, my kids (3 and 9) have never complained about being sick while watching the TV in the van.

Brian

 

[D. Scott MacDonald]

Trying hard to NOT make a clever observation at my nephew's expense.

The real question, Steve, is if YOU will get sick listening to Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank Engine over and over and over and over and over every time you jump in your car.

 

[Brian Mansure]

Good point Scott.

That's why I rigged a splitter off the single headphone output jack from the TV/DVD combo unit so that both kids had their own set of headphones.

Our road trips have never been more quite since purchasing the 9" TV/DVD player. At one point I asked my wife if the kids were even back there because it was so quite the last trip to the Jersey shore. Nice

Brian

 

[Ted Lee]

my sister also did the same thing as dan et al. she has some kind of sling-thing she puts between the two front seats, then the tv/vcr combo goes in it.

she says it's absolutely worth it's weight in gold.

i may try something similar but with my laptop.

 

[Alex S]

Ted,

I use my laptop to play dvd's in the car, it works great !

 

[Mark Fitzsimmons]

An excellent trick with the laptop is you can get a GPS antenna that plugs into your serial port for around $60 on ebay. Combine that with Rand McNally StreetFinder and you have yourself a very cheap GPS/Navigation system.

 

[Ryan Wright]

Our road trips have never been more quite since purchasing the 9' TV/DVD player.

Holy cow. Do you need those oversized vehicle signs when you drive around with that thing?

 

[Christ Reynolds]

Is it worth $2k?

i'm pretty sure this is for an in-dash unit, correct? i used to be a mobile installer, and i installed a couple in-dash dvd units. if installed correctly and legally, you cannot watch a dvd if the parking brake is not engaged. theres a ground interrupt switch that must be wired into the e brake. of course i was offered money to wire around that almost every time i put one of these in. however, i didnt do it, the kind of idiot who would watch a dvd whilst driving is the same kind of idiot who would blab to all his friends about how the kid at the install bay hooked him up, and word would get around, and i'd be out of a job quickly. a job that i wanted to get fired from...maybe i should have taken the money. actually i'm glad i didnt, having the driver watching a dvd would prob be as bad as having a drunk driver behind the wheel. mark's friends setup would work well, especially having the ps2 as a dvd player.

CJ

 

[Brian Mansure]

Ryan, ya caught me before I could go in for the edit. :b

Brian

 

[Dan Joy]

i'm pretty sure this is for an in-dash unit, correct? i used to be a mobile installer, and i installed a couple in-dash dvd units. if installed correctly and legally, you cannot watch a dvd if the parking brake is not engaged. theres a ground interrupt switch that must be wired into the e brake. of course i was offered money to wire around that almost every time i put one of these in. however, i didnt do it, the kind of idiot who would watch a dvd whilst driving is the same kind of idiot who would blab to all his friends about how the kid at the install bay hooked him up, and word would get around, and i'd be out of a job quickly. a job that i wanted to get fired from...maybe i should have taken the money. actually i'm glad i didnt, having the driver watching a dvd would prob be as bad as having a drunk driver behind the wheel. mark's friends setup would work well, especially having the ps2 as a dvd player.

Christ, Wow such hostility Steve is really talking about HIS KIDS WATCHING TV/DVD IN THE BACK SEAT !
Installer angst gone postal is how I see your post!

 

[Christ Reynolds]

Christ, Wow such hostility Steve is really talking about HIS KIDS WATCHING TV/DVD IN THE BACK SEAT !

sure, i had installer angst, but i i didnt demonstrate much of it in the last post i had. if you think my "hostility" came from my calling many of the customers idiots, then i'll need you to point out WHERE he says his kids will be watching dvds from the back seat. i've been searching around, and i cant find it. please let me know where he tells you this, because he doesnt tell the rest of us. and anyway, chicago blackhawk angst is how i see YOUR post. when was the last time the blackhawks even won a playoff series? before car-dvd players even existed, thats for sure. anyway, explain your argument, because i'm confused at all of it.

CJ

 

[Dan Joy]

We travel a lot and are considering putting a drop down screen and DVD player in our van for the kids (1 & 3).

Where I live kids should be over 80lbs to sit in front seat and seeing that his kids are 1 and 3 this is a safe assumption. Also "we" probably means him and his wife and I do know of .....well lets see NONE vans that allow 4 people to comfortably or safely sit in the front seat.
Chill out dude!

As for my Blackhawks, well I am still hanging with them

 

[Christ Reynolds]

Where I live kids should be over 80lbs to sit in front seat and seeing that his kids are 1 and 3 this is a safe assumption. Also "we" probably means him and his wife and I do know of .....well lets see NONE vans that allow 4 people to comfortably or safely sit in the front seat.

maybe where you live, this last sentence is considered to have proper grammar, but not here. chill out dude.

CJ

 

[Cees Alons]

This thread better get back on track soon - without unnecessary mutual personal attacks. And also, there's no need to distribute "fatherly" warnings to fellow posters.

Thanks,

Cees

 

[Steve Ridges]

Thanks for all the replys. I thought about doing the portable tv thing that straps between the seats but that would prevent us from being able to reach back and hand the kids food, wipe noses, pick up dropped toys, etc.

We've decided to go ahead and have a system installed. The final total is around $2600. This will get us:

Rosen 10.4" screen installed in a custom panel in the roof which will preserve the rear A/C controls

Eclipse DVD player that can mount veritcaly in the bin between the seats so we can easily change discs. They originally wanted to put it in a storage space in the dash but the cup holders come out above it there by hiding the player.

FM modulator will allow us to tune the factory radio to some station to hear audio from DVD.

2 wireless head sets for the kids - so only they have to listen to Bob the builder

Alpine video switcher to allow aux input from game consol etc.


I know is it a lot of money but I'm one of the neat car freaks that likes everything to look factory installed etc. I hoope it will be worth the money. One issue I can already see is that now the kids will always want to watch a movie every time we get in the car. Even if it's only to the store or church etc close by.