Car DVD Players

coleraysmommy

I am thinking about getting a dvd player for my kids in the backseat. I would love your opinions on what I need. I am deciding between giong to my gmc dealer and having a dvd player mounted on the roof which costs around1200...or going to target and buying the dual headrest sets which are around 200... i think the second option may be best because they can be moved between vehicles and when we travel and pull our camping trailer we take my husbands truck...but i like the cleanliness (no wires) that come with the first option....if you have either please chime in and give me your pros/cons for either or both...also recommended brands??

katie277s

Personally, I would go with the headrest ones.  Like you said, they can be switched from vehicle to vehicle, and will cost a lot less. 

calico77

Warning:  ON SOAPBOX!!!  We only have 1 DS and absolutely REFUSE to put one of these in.  I think they are used waaaay too much as babysitters on day to day travels.  It makes me cringe when the lady in front of me at preschool carline pulls her monitor down before we even get out of the parking lot!!!

What we do have is a portable DVD player w/screen....cost us $100.  On out of town trips ONLY (over an hour and half), we will take it with us.  We don't immediately give it to DS but when he is bored of all his other toys or antsy, we pull it out and it sits in his lap and it works great. When we have the next two kids, we've thought about just sitting it on the console between the front seats so all can see.  This way, DS doesn't ask to watch movies all the time in the car and we have conversations with him or sing songs with him whenever we are just around town.

A portable one might be a good solution for your camping trailer so you can move it inside at night for whoever wants to watch a movie. 

maxebook29

We did the headrest one. I love that it can be moved between cars, and we'll be using it on the plane again in a couple weeks. So much more versatile for a lot less money.

bugmommy

I would only ever have the ones that you strap to the headrests.  When I have them in the car (only for long trips, like 1+ hours) my older DS whines to watch it constantly if I don't have them on.  I make sure to take them out when they are in bed, so basically at this point my kids think there is TV fairy that comes to the car.  But when they aren't in the car the kids never ask about them or if they do I just act confused and say we don't have anything to watch TV on.  I can't imagine paying an extra $1k to be nagged all the time.

Sweet&Spicy

we have the one that is installed and also have a portable one. both are very handy. I like the clean look without wires and not having to plug it in or charge it and such and the portable one was like 79 at Target that I got for a long trip when we were not taking our car which has really come in handy at times but is rarely used.  

lsufan

We have a portable one, but it doesn't mount to the headrests.  We have a way to hang it between the two front seats, but it's kind of a pain.  We'll probably end up buying one with two screens to mount on the headrests.  Definitely would not buy the one that's built into the car.  As PP said, we only use ours for long trips (longer than 3 hours or so), and the rest of the time it's just not an option because it's not in the car.

penguingrrl

We're getting a portable one with the headrest mounts before driving from NY to KY next summer (14 hours).  We will not be using it on less than 2 hour trips though.  I wouldn't want one that's permanently installed in the car because I don't want the kids always able to watch TV in the car, only on truly long car trips.