Must-Have for long car trips with a child

We got this as a Christmas present for our 5-year-old daughter. We finally tested it out this past weekend on an 11-hour trip to Colorado. I think it saved my sanity.

It sets up very easily on the back of a front seat of a truck (we have a Dodge Ram). I had it out of the package for the first time, hooked up in the car and playing within about 10 minutes. I like stuff that you can 'instinctively' use, so I was immediately happy with it. It is secured to the back of the seat with one nylon strap that goes around the headrest of the seat in front, and two nylon straps that go from the D-rings at the bottom back of the bag to the bottom supports of the seat in front. You can also install it between the two front seats, if you have more than one child watching it. There are clear diagrams showing how to do this. All straps have latches or S-rings, and stow inside the carrying bag (which has a handle for easy carrying).

While I was retrieving the straps to tie it into the car, I was pleasantly surprised to find two folding headsets, a remote (with battery), and an adapter you can put into the cigarette lighter or "power point" of your truck!! It also has a rechargable Ni-MH battery, although I think I will not be using it as much as the adapter for the cigarette lighter. The battery worked great, but it is long and bulky and attaches about where the hinge for the screen is, so it prevented the screen from going as straight up and down as it should have been for comfortable viewing.

The DVD player is in a seperate part of the included carrying bag (which is black and sturdy), and it has a small clear plastic sleeve in one corner to steady the DVD when in use in a car. The DVD player is also steadied by a nylon cord that adjusts to fit easily (push and slide), and that cord goes just in front of the hinge for the screen. So the player is supported all the way across the middle, and in the bottom right hand corner. It is pretty stable.

We had an easier time with getting the screen in place for easy viewing when we removed the battery pack and plugged in the car adapter (there is a slot in the bag for easy plug-in access). Without the battery pack, the DVD player will open 180 degrees. There is also a stiff rectangle on the bottom of the bag that lays flat until you need it, and then folds out into a triangle that you adjust with velcro. This triangle helps push the bag away from the seat back, to help situate the DVD player to your liking.

The screen is an 8" LCD monitor, with speakers built into the corners of the top and bottom halves of the player. It is in color, and the picture comes in sharp and clear. It is easy to operate, as my 5-year-old non-electro-savvy daughter was operating it herself within minutes. There are "wide", "previous", "next", and "play" buttons, as well as 4 arrow buttons around an "OK" button for use with the "menu" button. So you don't have to have the remote to get all the use out of your DVD. The DVD is inserted under a pop-up lid (you have to slide a release button in front to open the lid). You control the volume with a turn dial on the side of the unit, as well as the brightness. The on/off switch is on the side of the unit, and it is pretty small and not easy to use. Other than that, it is easy to use.

We didn't mess with the hue/saturation/contrast/brightness, but you can make adjustments to any or all of those if you like. You can also select audio and/or subtitle languages (English, French, Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese). There are 8 levels of parental preference (password protected with a default one that always works in case you forget yours), from 1 (safe for kids) to 8 (adult). If you have a DVD containing multiple angles for viewing, you can also select the angle you wish to watch.

This player plays DVDs, audio CDs, MP3 discs, and JPEG. You can connect the player to a TV or monitor also, but you need an audio/video cable.

We just wanted a simple-to-use DVD player that wasn't complicated to set up, and this did the job. It was easy to manipulate the controls from the passenger seat up front (it was on the back of the driver's seat), the plastic corner support does not get in the way of the pop-up lid for changing DVDs, and everything stows easily in the bag, which zips on three sides for both the player compartment and the straps/headphones/adapters compartment. The whole unit in its carrying bag with all of the 'extras' measures about 8.5" x 6" x 7", so it's pretty compact.