First of all - it is too loud on a plane to hear the DVD player when it is on very low volume - so don't plan on that. For both my kids - I just told them the options were to put on the headphones OR to just watch and not listen (I made it seem as if the volume only worked thru the headphones not without them). This worked fine - even with my VERY PICKY dd, no problems at all. And, even the picture of the video keeps them distracted - so no biggie if he won't wear them.