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erstwhile+maven
member
Built in vehicle DVD players worth it?
erstwhile+maven
member
I have been minivan shopping for awhile. In your opinions are the built in DVD players and/or back up assistant cameras/screens worth the extra $2000?
Or, am I looking at a possible electronic malfunction in a few years that will make me regret the decision?
Thanks!
Succes after IF - DXN PCOS 2008
Surpise BFP 7/2009
Baby B was born 2/2010
Baby A is on her way; surprise! Due 2/2012
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Built in vehicle DVD players worth it?
easier to go with a strap on portable player.
they have GREAT sales this time a year on them,.
For us, the portable ones were an incredible PITA. But our boys like to mess with things they can reach so having the screen fold up into the roof of the car is great for us. It's out of the way and I control it from the driver's seat.
As for the back up camera, we did not have one with our mini-van but do have one on our Suburban. I use it all the time and feel much more confident when backing up. But big SUV's are higher off the ground with more impaired rear views so not sure if it's necessary for a mini-van.
My twins are 5! My baby is 3!
DS#2 - Allergic to Cashew, Pistachio, Kiwi
DS#3 - Allergic to Milk, Egg, Peanut, Tree Nuts and Sesame
Gisele messed with it once. I stopped, pulled over, unhooked it and put it away- and told her she couldn't watch it if she was goign to touch it.
Hasn't been a problem since.
Lol!
ETA: I wish I could believe my DS would follow a similar path.
This was something we considered before buying our new car, but quickly changed our tune when we started hanging out with some friends who have a dvd player in their van. I know every parent is different, but the kids are allowed to watch the TV every single time they get in the car. Even for a 10 minute trip. We took an hour and half trip up to the mountains and my husband suggested they turn it off so the kids could look at the scenery and one of the kids cried and pitched a fit for 30 minutes. It was awful.
So, we opted not to get one. We'll probably get a portable one when we take our first road trip.
My H is like this with our GPS.
Have you survived without it thus far?
I'm not trying to be snarky, but I really find them unnecessary (the DVD players--the back-up cameras are nice, but I would probably still opt not to get them). I can understand when you have a long car ride (think 3+ hours), but I would just bring our portable with us then. But I know I'm old fashioned. I'd rather talk, listen to music, have them play car games or color. I think kids need to learn how to deal with boredom, and that means not always turning on the TV.
http://lb2f.lilypie.com/50jBm6.png
http://lb4f.lilypie.com/MzTAm6.png
I am with you, and we often take long car trips with the kids. We don't plan on ever getting one and haven't ever felt a need for one.
DS 3.12.08
DD 7.11.09
DD 8.01.13
I bought my '06 Durango in '07 with a built in DVD player and it's been great. It came with two headsets that our middle child (4?) at the time broke right away by snapping the plastic headpiece. I didn't notice a huge difference in price between the used cars with or without DVD players.
As with anything else, you set the limits with your kids. There are times I let them watch something on a 10 minute drive, and there are times we've gone long distances without it.
I like it. It is just more attractive than the portable, strapped in version. We do put it on for short and long car trips. I don't "fight" with the kids if we don't play it.
This will definitely earn me the bad mom award, but the only thing I don't like about the built in system is that I can't figure out how to listen to my own music on the radio. With the portable DVD player, I could turn down the volume in the back and put my stuff on in the front. The built in system uses the cars audio to play the movie soundtrack.
I use it on short and long trips. We use it as a punishment and reward system for behaving at the store, walking nicely in the parking lot, fighting, etc.
We have a build in DVD player and it was definitely worth the money.
That being said, I think you could get away with each child using an iPad or something for entertainment and then it's portable and also cheaper. However, as others have pointed out, there's the "messing with it" factor that is tough to control.
Forget built-in DVD players -- tablets (like the iPad) are the next big thing for car technology. I'd rather buy an iPad and get an in-car headrest mount.
We have a portable DVD player that works just fine when we have to take 5+ hour trips. I can't even imagine the whining I'd hear if DS thought there was always TV in the car.
We didn't have a built-in DVD player in our other car and I hated fooling with the portable one.
Our new minivan has both a back-up camera and a built-in DVD player and they are two of my most favorite features. So worth it. I'm a parking moron, and I always put the car into reverse after I pull into the garage, just to make the camera turn on. That way I can see whether or not I pulled up far enough to close the garage door!
I keep all the DVDs in my console and I can pop movies in quickly and efficiently. The girls love the DVD player and my carpool riders beg me to put movies in for them!
We don't have it and don't "miss" having TV access in the car. The only time we've used the portable DVD player was on a 12 hour drive, we routinely do 2-3 hour drives without it. We're going to be buying a new or new-to-us car in the next six months and have decided to specifically try to buy without DVD, partly because our 2 year old won't be forward facing for a long time yet and I'd hate to have the DVD player on with her unable to watch. I figure that if they each have a portable DVD player they can watch whatever they want and the rear facing child(ren) aren't left out (we plan on more kids in the future).