Disc Players & Recorders

Most every rear seat video purchase falls into two categories. They are either to complete the overall bling factor for a vehicle in which they will rarely be used by passengers or they are for the very important reason of keeping children occupied and not asking “Are we there yet?” every five minutes.

Honestly, both reasons for buying are practically the same. I rate reliability as the highest factor in buying a rear seat entertainment system, with fit and finish a very close second. Some people say they don’t care what it looks like as long as it works. But, you must consider that your vehicle may not be sitting in a locked garage all of the time and having something that does not draw attention to your vehicle because it looks like it belongs, could be an extremely strong buying point.

DVD is the preferred format for rear-seat entertainment. As of yet there are no Blu-Ray players for the vehicle. Honestly, I see no reason to worry about the HD format in a vehicle until enough discs are available that you would want use the ones you have in your home. Most children don’t care if Barney is in HD or not and otherwise you may not want the more expensive Blu-Ray discs lying around in your vehicle.

There are three types of stand-alone rear seat video systems; headrest mount, flip down, and portable. I don’t like the portable systems because they are potential hazard in an accident and they are just asking to be stolen. You will see that I rate custom headrest systems the highest because they better integrate into the vehicle and look as if they belong. You will also notice that my best buy picks are similar to my top five picks with some differences. There are a lot of brands of monitors for vehicles and I purposely only list the ones that I would use in my car as durability and reliability should be the top concern when buying one of these systems. You can feel comfortable that all the choices I list will not fail you in those areas.

Above all make sure you ask for a driver seat mounted turnoff switch that allows you to take control of the system as there is nothing worse than trying to get the attention of a child in the middle of their favorite Be-Bop dance.