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Journal FortKnox's Journal: Ask the circle: Portable DVD players 15

Journal by FortKnox
I'm soon to be going on a summer vacation to FL (with a quick stop at ATL for my sisters wedding). That means kids in the car for a looong time. I'd like to invest in a portable DVD player to keep them entertained for parts of the trip. My stipulations are pretty simple:
For car use mostly (I don't even know if I'd use it anywhere else). This means car jack is pretty much essential.
Screen size good for kids to watch.
Either a large screen or two screens for both kids (optional, but preferred).

Any suggestions?

Any good sites to do some research on it?
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Ask the circle: Portable DVD players More

Ask the circle: Portable DVD players

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  • are cheaper

    but no i don't have any info on them.
    We though about getting one installed in our van when we bought it. but we realized that we grew up reading, playing games with our folks or cards boardgames on the floor of my dads van (yay pre nanny-state) while on long trips.
    We haven't had any problems keeping 4 kids entertained on long trips at all.
    • "Hey kids! Because you've been so good, we'll celebrate the start of our vacation with a nice big cup of NyQuil! Drink up, then we'll go for ice cream."
      • there's been some serious temptation at times to do that.
        Boy has there been.

        but reading, singing songs and playing slug-bug gets them by.
        they like slug-bug. it's the only time they don't get in trouble for smacking each other.

      • Unless it turns out your kids are like me and have completely reversed reactions to dayquil and nyquil. I take nyquil and I might as well go get another carton of smokes, cause I'm gonna be up all night.
    • I agree -- you can get by without the DVDs. It's nature's way of telling you to stop and get out of the car every 3-4 hours, which is good for you, anyway.

      Magnadoodles are great car fun for even little kids. Books on tape/CD or even the soundtracks from their favorite movies can be great, and engage them just as well without the visual. (Let me know if you're interested in that, 'cause I've got a few I could "lend" you.)

      Even picking up a new, cheap toy every day you're on the road could hold their inter

  • Sorry, I just looked about the house, but I have no idea where mum put it. We got ours a couple years back when we made frequent 10 hour car trips places.

    Ours had what I would consider a large screen compared to some models I've seen in stores. I would estimate about 7 inches, but that's really just a guess. It was probably around $120 on sale. It might have been a Sony come to think of it, mum seems to favor them for some reason.

    She also bought this carrier case for it, that you strap to the b


  • A fellow at work has a Panasonic and swears by it. Sorry, I don't know the model.
    • I got a Panasonic for Christmas and the damned thing won't read brand new DVD's now.

      I'm highly pissed, and going to be talking to Panasonic about a replacement. It wasn't great from the get go, but it got worse very quickly.

      OTOH, my parents have a Sony portable and its great. Spend the extra money and get the battery, or everytime you start the car, the DVD will start over again.

  • I plug my laptop into a power inverter in the minivan. Then, the kids can watch movies through the laptop. Granted, this is NOT ideal, but it's a possibility to consider if you have a laptop, run out of time and need an easy solution. A dedicated DVD player would definitely be a better choice.

    • We did that when we drove from Phoenix to Ft. Collins. It worked out well and if you are bringing a laptop anyway, it really makes sense. I bungied ours to a cooler between the drivers and passenger seats.
       
      The downside was worrying about it when we stopped. But I'd be doing that either way-- as I was bringing it regardless. We have a built in one in our van - so that method is no longer used, but I thought it was good then.
  • Door prize at the company "holiday" party last year, no kids, driving a compact truck, rarely any pasengers, so I decided to convert it to a "ghettopod" (Dual Layer DVD, 8.5GB of audio, for free). So I scrounge up 8.5 GB of music I'd like to have in the truck, burn it to a dvd, and get ready to hit the road. Turns out the bastard doesn't have a shuffle feature, and the audio quality sucked. Donated to sis at that point, I had no use for it.
  • I see a portable one at geeks.com for less than $100 (generic model). If you buy a portable dvd player, make sure to play the movies with it before you go, just in case it has trouble (some work perfectly with every dvd, some have problems with some dvds). My solution (which I haven't tested yet :-D) was to buy a little portable tv (lcd) from geeks for $50 (they don't have any left now) that came with an inverter that I could plug in to power my playstation, with the idea that the kiddo could watch dvds or

  • sorry (Score:2, Interesting)

    by mekkab ( 133181 )
    Reading the responses in this JE is just like trying to get a linux question answered; someone did something similar years ago, but can't remember the details; some one had a friend who did it who thinks it MIGHT have something to do with etc/conf; some one else had a friend who did it for them; and everyone else says "oh don't to THAT. Do this!"

    And you still have no answers.
  • We invested in one for our road trip last summer. It was used in the car, but also int he motel rooms along the way. We brought a GameCube along and so the kids could use the miniDVD player screen for the GC while my wife and I watched something other than Cartoons on the TV. Alternatively, you can bring movies for you and your wife and watch those on the little DVD player while the kids watch soemthing else or sleep.
  • When I drove my brother and his shipmate to Seattle (a 2300 mile road trip), we had a laptop stand mounted to the floor in the front area of the car that was used for either music or DVDs. Whoever was in the backseat could see fine.

    Yes, I kept my eyes on the road.

    The plus side of all of this was the GPS-driven navigation software installed on the laptop, that we could consult at any time we chose.

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