Television for A Child

I bought this television for my son who is nearly three. He is special needs and cannot be as active other children his age. We wanted something for him in his room. I do not want him to watch TV during nap time or bedtime.

I really like the look of the television. It has a little muffler on the side and a spoiler on the back like Lightning McQueen does in the movie. The remote looks like a key fob with an alarm on it. The buttons would be small for a child to operate but we keep it out of reach anyway.

Features on the television are an added bonus. When you have the television in DVD mode with no DVD playing or you push stop, a screen saver comes on. It is eyeballs that bounce around the screen with a white background. It makes the television really look like Lightning McQueen. This doubles as a night light. The channel up/down feature when in DVD mode allows you to scroll down the menu. The volume brings up an image of Lightning McQueen ahead of the volume bars which is a nice touch for the kids.

There are AV hookups in the front (red yellow and white)and the back and plenty for video games. There is a headphone jack in the front as well if your child needs to watch quietly.

For a young child this TV must be kept up high enough to be out of reach. The flip up panel above the mouth (the DVD tray) makes it look like a mustache when flipped up to see the controls. My 14 month old wanted to play with it. Needless to say it was moved up a shelf.

We leave the television in DVD function because we don't let our son watch regular television. When we turn it on it stays in DVD mode which is nice for us but if you expect it to return to TV mode it may be frustrating. Also if it is still in DVD mode and you have a disc in it will start auto play and getting it to stop can take several seconds and is frustrating if you need it to eject what it has inside.

The picture is clear as is the sound. It is a very nice quality for 159 dollars.

The biggest downside I see is the growing out of it factor. The car is not going to be as childish as say having a mickey mouse television in a 14 year old boys room. At some point the child may outgrow the look of the television before the television wears out.

AFTER OWNING THE TELEVISION FOR MORE THAN A YEAR

After we owned the TV for a year or so it just stopped working. We had a friend look it over. There was nothing actually wrong with the television other than it had maybe gotten too hot? Having it unplugged for a couple days waiting for the repair allowed it to reset itself.

The lid that covers the controls was eventually broken off by our younger autistic son who could not resist it. This definately needs a child safe/proof option for parents who don't want their kids touching these. I would have loved a lock out feature for the controls.

Now at nearly the two year mark that the DVD player is starting to tire..its clear the TV will outlast the DVD player. The DVD player has to be opened with a pair of pliers occasionally though the DVD itself itsn't lodged or moved out of the tray. The autoplay feature will try over an over again to load this DVD and it can't and the open function on the remote and the DVD player do not work.