In-Car Entertainment: Watching DVDs and More In the Car
If you were at home, you would have more entertainment options to keep everyone busy. But you're in the car. Is it possible to have the same entertainment options in the family automobile? Well, yes, you can. What you want is in-car and rear-seat entertainment for the car.
DVD in the Car
You can replace your old in-dash AM-FM radio console with a new console player to play just about any disc format and even MP3s. An extreme example is the TRC AV-XDS400 from The Right Connection (TRC) that even includes a TV Tuner and a remote control. Another example of an all-in-one package is the Sony DVD Dream System that includes the DVD player, 7-inch monitor and headphones. Or you could go with the Pioneer RSE-SYS700DVH Overhead Mobile DVD System with DVD player, XM satellite radio-ready receiver unit, 6.5 inch display and headphones. The Panasonic CQ-VAD9300U DVD player system has a foldout 7-inch in-dash display, TV Tuner and Sirius satellite-ready radio. Panasonic recently received the highest ranking for in-car DVD systems in a 2004 JD Power study of rear-seat entertainment in new automobiles.
Television in the Car
All-in-one system packages will definitely include a display monitor of some sort. The displays are typically flat screen LCD displays that can be as small as 5 inches or as large as 14 inches. The Right Connection (TRC) (www.trc12volt.com) has a sampling of flip-down displays that install on the car's ceiling and headrest displays that install on the back of the seat headrests.
In-dash displays are also available for in-car DVD player consoles. In-dash displays are nice to have, but according to a recent NBC News report, there are 37 states in the U.S. that have laws against watching TV while driving. For instance, California recently enacted a law that prohibits driving and watching TV at the same time. This doesn't apply to displaying GPS map information on the screen. The kids in the back seat can watch TV, but the driver should watch the road instead of watching TV on the in-dash display. Why in the world people need to be explicitly told not to watch TV while driving is beyond us, but that's the way our society works. Don't use a hair dryer when you bathe, don't spit into the wind and don't watch TV when driving.
Nowadays, it's mostly SUVs and larger vehicles that have in-car DVD entertainment systems. However, the VDC Research Company says new configurations, particularly headrest displays and other rear-seat entertainment options, combined with screen technology improvements, should become available to make it easier to install mobile video systems in regular passenger cars.
PC in the Car?
Now you can even put a computer in your car. An in-car mini-PC that can be just as powerful as your desktop computer. For instance, the TRC MIS P4100.4 has a Pentium 4 CPU, 80 gigabyte hard drive, Windows XP, built-in Ethernet connection (in case you have a network in your car?), three USB connections, one FireWire connection and a DVD drive. Another is the XENARC MP-SC1 Mini P3 Aluminum Car PC that is available in Celeron or Pentium 3 versions. The specialization with these computers is that they have special power supplies that work with your car's DC electrical system. Why would you want a computer in your car?
Imagine synchronizing your music and video files between your car's PC and your home's PC system. Then imagine using a Wi-Fi connection if you are near a Wi-Fi hotspot to connect to the Internet from your car. You can do this if you add a wireless 802.11b or 802.11g adapter to the in-car mini-PC. Or you may even want to get a wireless broadband Internet subscription for the car, perhaps via satellite? More realistically, a GPS map system would be a really useful addition.
If you get an in-car mini-PC system, you'll also want to get jukebox menu software so you easily access the music and video on the PC instead of using the standard windows interface. Go check out the XENARC/TRC Digital Dash Software that you can use with the XENARC and TRC in-car PCs or check out the free Auto-Play InCar Multimedia playback software (autoplay.magnetikonline.com).
Telematics and the Connected Car
Okay, you can have more entertainment in the car. Is there anything else? Well, the next step is to add telematics services. Automotive telematics means the blending of computers and telecommunications to enhance motor vehicles and to provide online service convenience while out driving on the road. As you'd may expect, Microsoft wants in on the telematics game and has its Microsoft Windows Automotive .NET Connected Car Initiative is already working with NexTech to provide an operational system using voice commands in South Korea. Telematics services include emergency and roadside assistance, stolen vehicle tracking, remote door unlocking, driving directions, remote automobile diagnostics, online concierge, hands-free calling, as well as email and Web browsing. You should expect to pay a monthly fee if you want automotive telematics services like these in the car. However, you don't have to wait for Microsoft to take over the auto industry. OnStar is already available in the United States. OnStar provides these automotive telematics services through the pressing of some simple buttons and voice commands.
MP3 Music in the Car
OK, most rational people don't need a full-blown computer in their cars. And maybe you are not even ready for DVD or television, but you probably have a lot of MP3 music files downloaded from iTunes or MusicMatch or copies of your valuable CDs. The easiest way to playback MP3 music in your car is to burn them to a CD and get a player that can play discs in that format back. This is a fairly common feature these days: try any search engine or simply walk into any automotive supply store and ask for a CD player that can play MP3 and WMA files on CD-R and CD-RW discs.
What if you don't want install a new CD player in the car right now? Another simple option is to use an FM transmitter to transmit music from your portable MP3 player to your car's radio. You simply plug the audio out from your MP3 player into the transmitter, tune your car's radio to the transmitter's frequency and you'll hear whatever is playing on the portable MP3 player. For the iPod, Griffin Technology has the iTrip FM transmitter, while Monster Cable Products has the iCarPlay wireless FM transmitter. Belkin also has the Belkin TuneCast Mobile FM Transmitter for any portable player device. Our only caution here is that you'll need to fund a relatively empty part of the FM spectrum to use these devices, which can be a problem in large markets. You also may need to retune occasionally on cross-country trips.
If you have a cassette player in the car, an even simpler option is to use a cassette adapter to connect your portable MP3 player to the cassette player. Look for the Sony CPA-9C Car Cassette Adapter, the Monster iCarPlay Cassette Adapter, the XtremeMac Xwire Gold iPod Cassette Adapter or the Belkin Mobile Cassette Adapter.
Total Entertainment
Whether you just want to play your MP3 music in your car or whether you want to watch widescreen digital satellite movies in 7.1 surround sound, automobile entertainment is now big business. If you can imagine it, it is probably available. Now the endless hours driving across the fruited plain don't have to be so monotonous anymore. At least not for the passengers.
Digg This!
del.icio.us
Technorati
Reddit