The annual 1500 mile pilgrimage to South Italy is almost upon us, which i’d normally do during the night in 2 legs, however i’ve been over-ruled this year so it’s day time driving.

I’d like to set up in the back of the car 2 of those LED screen things to keep the kids entertained and to avoid the “are we nearly there yet” monotony. Any recommendations? Ideally DVD and USB compatible for all the hooky downloads.

cheers

Would a tablet or two not be a better proposition? Almost certainly cheaper and has the added advantage of being usable outside of the car too.

The kids have some Kindles that they already use, but they are on their way out, fine for internet and download, but useless for storing (tiny hard drive) and no external memory.

Do they have SD slots?

(The Kindles, not the kids)

nope, they are first gen so no SD slots. I think the new ones do, but then i think to play all the moody stuff (and not) you have to crack the firmware which i have zero idea about.

We have a couple of systems. No particular brand recommendations but a couple of things to look for:

– make sure they have a battery. One of our systems has no battery so it restarts every time you turn the ignition. Thus I now have to start the engine then get out and start the DVD. Total pain. (May not apply if used for older kids)

– SD/USB card input is useful. Way easier to carry than a stack of DVDs. Make sure it can play DivX/XviD etc if you are obtaining your backups from the internetz.

– video in/out is useful. Allows one to act as player for both screens. Also means you can hook them up to TVs in hotels etc which can be handy.

– check how they mount on the headrest. Some of the straps are very annoying.

Tablets are an option but DVD players are pretty cheap these days. We got a two-screen system for less than the price of one Hudl.

We have these http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9123988.htm though we paid less than that for them.

They allow both screens to play the same or different things. You can plug a USB stick into one of them to watch from that.

Interestingly they don’t say it on the site but they must have batteries built in as we discovered that they play for at least 2-3 hours unplugged

– make sure they have a battery. One of our systems has no battery so it restarts every time you turn the ignition. Thus I now have to start the engine then get out and start the DVD. Total pain. (May not apply if used for older kids)

This is a most useful piece of advice. Having had an older system with no battery, then replacing with a newer device with battery this is a massive benefit.

Get them some headphones as well. Nothing worse than hours of listening to Frozen projected from behind by tinny speakers whilst you wish you had ‘your’ music on.

cheers Graham, all the things i was thinking off!

NextBase do a dual 9″ version for about £180

there’s a Tivoli thing that also does Freeview, but not sure on quality of either.. they all seem to get reviews that suggest they break quite easily.

Nothing worse than hours of listening to Frozen projected from behind by tinny speakers whilst you wish you had ‘your’ music on.

The in-laws had our two in the car at the weekend. I explained the whole “restart on ignition” thing, but my FiL didn’t understand me.

As a consequence he spent two straight hours listening to the opening jingle on the Menu screen of Ben and Holly. 😆

I’m quite surprised he didn’t hurl it onto the M1 after the first half hour.

+1 for get them tablets, way more versatile, less cables traipsing all over the inside of the motor.

We did the screen thing a few years back, and it kind of worked… but in the long term tablets FTW

less cables traipsing all over the inside of the motor.

That depends on the battery life of the tablet I guess.
Also tablets aren’t quite as useful if you already have a big stack of kid’s DVDs.

(I picked up a bunch at Aldi the other day for £1.50 each. Hardly worth the hassle of hitting the torrents at that price)

Tablets give them sore necks eventually IME – they tend to sit with their head slumped. Screens on the headrest are better ergonomically. We do screens and tablets…

OP, not sure where in the country you are but I’ve got a twin screen DVD setup that straps to the headrests you can have for £40 if you want to collect it from North Yorkshire 😉

You can always mount a tablet or phone to the seatback with some ingenuity:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOihpfX5jig[/video]

Skookum. 😉

so any recommendations then? 8)

i was thinking if i could come up with a good DIY job, looking for some screens from someone like DX and then adding a player type thing – way beyond me…

Here you go.

The previous owners of the family bus put power sockets / USB ports in the back, so the tablets can be refreshed from there.

Headphones are a big plus.

Never had any complaints re: sore necks from our troops – i think they are zoned out though….

re: dvd – we put all of our films onto a NAS, these just get copied onto the SD card as needed

wombat, cheers for the offer, but i’m darn south! I thought these things were everywhere but they’re not actually that common!

Another vote for headphones!

I’d also say avoid dual screen setups – they’ll have to agree on what to watch, no doubt a useful lesson to learn in life but not necessarily one they need to learn when you’ve got another 15 hours driving ahead. Get two tablets and preload with games + films.

I thought these things were everywhere but they’re not actually that common!

I think tablets have pretty much killed that market!

I’d also say avoid dual screen setups – they’ll have to agree on what to watch

Nah the decent ones, as per the Argos link from nemesis, allow them both to watch the same thing or two different things.

Nah the decent ones, as per the Argos link from nemesis, allow them both to watch the same thing or two different things.

Ah, fair enough – they’ve moved on since I last had one, then.

right i’m hitting pay on this package

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Voyager-inch-Portable-Player-Mount/dp/B00H4P52DO/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1438091689&sr=8-7&keywords=portable+dvd+player+for+car

Sui – Member

wombat, cheers for the offer, but i’m darn south! I thought these things were everywhere but they’re not actually that common!

Halfords or Currys is your best bet here if you are after them quickly. Expect to pay £80 – £150 depending on features and screen size.

We’ve got the own brand Currys ones which were under £100. Don’t think they have a usb slot, but can play individually or linked. Internal batteries etc. The kids love picking their DVDs from the massive stack that they have in the cupboard and putting them into a CD wallet for the journey. This was they also have DVDs for use in the player of whatever accommodation we are on the way to.

I bought a couple of tesco hudls with tesco vouchers.
a blue one and a red one with some over the head headphones.
couple of 32gb SD cards and you are sorted.

Might do something like that in the future as the resolution on our current DVD screens is really pretty crappy.

What’s the (actual) battery life like on the Hudls when playing movies?
And I assume you can get in-car chargers for them?

Maybe late to this but I got the nextbase ones from halfords that can be dual or individual and they were in an offer with wireless headphones for 169. I cannot fault them, made the journey to sw france soooo much easier! Luckily our car has 12v plug in the boot so I can still run satnav etc from the front one. I would highly recommend them.

couple of 32gb SD cards and you are sorted.

And endless hours ripping DVDs 🙂