Want to buy a DVD player for Minivan - any suggestions?

[Fies4]

We are leaving for WDW in 30 days and my DH and I want to buy a DVD player for our minivan as a surprise for the kids. We have a Chevy Venture Van so one of the kids seat is right behind the drivers seat and the other one is right in the middle of the two front seats. Any suggestions on a good portable DVD unit to buy? We've seen the ones that hook to the back of the front seats but I'm concerned that my dd (who sits in the middle and not right behind either one of the front seats) won't be able to see the screen well. Do they have screen that can be positioned toward her? I would really like some advice on this. Thanks in advance!

Nicole

 

[pbharris4]

You can get any portable DVD player (I'd get a 7" screen or higher) and then go to Wal Mart and get a case for it. Phillips makes a good one. My last one was ok, but the Phillips one is MUCH, MUCH better!! It was like $16.99. You can strap it over BOTH of the front seats and it sits in the middle. They should both be able to see it without a problem and the Phillips one keeps it pretty steady. If you want a DVD player with a screen that swivels Polaroid make a decent one. I got 1 DVD player at Wal Mart 2.5 yrs ago (7" Mintek..not one problem with it and it's still going strong!). I paid $270 for that. I just bought my older DD one (with the swivel screen) for $120 and it's a 8" at Circuit City. It's REALLy great for those long car trips of over an hour. My DD was 13 months when we drove from VA to FL the first time and not one whimper out of her. Went again when she was 25 months..again..no problem. What a lifesaver!

 

[pbharris4]

The Phillips brand is stronger and durable than most others. I had a Case Logic case and the straps broke, plus it swung around a lot. Wal Mart is the only place I saw the Phillips case and it's not offered online. Be careful when looking for the cases because most of them are for strictly using on the back of one seat. You'll need one with the straps to go between 2 seats. Also, when traveling on the way down there..when we spend the night..the DVD comes in the hotel with us. We also take the power cord (never ever used the battery) and when someone wants to watch a DVD and the TV is being used..they can watch it on the portable.

 

[Harvestmooner]

We just drove down from NH in January and we have a Chrysler mini van. We put the third row seat in the middle(where the 2nd row seat would be) so that our 2 kids would have more room and then they were right behind the front seats-so they could each see the dvd player screen on the seat in front of them . It worked great for us.

 

[mjh8955]

We just bought a Zenith dvd player for our old 96 Odyssey mini-van. We found the best deal from Best Buy online, they were throwing in a $60 case/straps for free (it can hang between the front seats) along with car adapter, splitter, two headphones and a couple of other things. The case unzips to form a tray and the dvd can adjust a little to the left or the right for glare, etc. I think we paid about $140. Works great.

 

[Fies4]

I really appreciate the responses!
I checked in the van this morning and I don't think it's possible in the Venture to put the third seat up where the secon seats go - but I'm going to having my Dh check into it anyhow.
I'm also going to do a little research online this weekend to see what kind of deals we can get on DVD players for the van.
If anyone else have any advice I'd love to hear it, keep em coming.
Thanks again - and thanks in advance to anyone else.

29 more days till we leave!

 

[bord1niowa]

We have a portable DVD BUT, we find that if we bring in the bigger (13" or 19" TV) and bring along their X-box so the kids can play games, it gives them even greater choices on the long car ride (23 hours each way for us) and everyone in the back can watch movies too, with good sound. I can even listen to the movies while driving, so I get to enjoy them too. All you need is a 400 watt or so invertor for the vehicle. Works great for us. The portable ones don't have very good sound. But I think you can set it up to play out of the car stereo too. Of course we're driving a bigger van so space is not a problem, might be tough in a car...lol

 

[Sandcass]

we find that if we bring in the bigger (13" or 19" TV) and bring along their X-box so the kids can play games, it gives them even greater choices on the long car ride

This is what we did too, we drove 14 hours from Chicago to Virginia. We took the middle seats out of the van, had the kids in the back and the tv kinda wedged inbetween DH & me. It was fantastic. There was all that room for their stuff. Of course they were big enough to be pretty self suffecient. I don't need to be able to reach them while we're driving. I don't think I would have done this with toddlers or little ones.

 

[ImaFunMom]

We also have a Phillips (I think it's 9 inches, but it may be 8). Anyway, DS used it on our trip last week (10+ hrs. of driving one-way) and it was a huge hit. We bought a canvas case w/ Velcro so it fits on the back of the passenger seat and stays put. It worked great - the quality of the movie (color, etc.) was excellent!

 

[Molly K]

We used one that a friend of mine had when we went to NC (From MO). DH did not want to buy one and then DS not do well with it. It was one from one wal-mart I am thinking in it was this one ----- http://www.walmart.com/catalog/prod...7&type=19&dept=3944&path=0:3944:133276:133247

Any how DH and I both loved the fact that the thing had dual monitors. Then we put one of the back of each seat and when we took turns driving we crawled in the back of the van with DS and watched a movie with him. The fact you can only have one monitor at a time was nice too.
Hope it helps! I know we are getting one for oursleve before we leave too!

 

[Thekidsmom]

We bought a Duraband model last year at wal-mart, it came with a charger, batter pack, case, ac plug and everything. But unfortunatly they discontinued it and came out with the one below. Instead of a battery and charger they have a video game thing. But, just wanted to let you know the brand of portable dvd player has been great for us. And we alays use it when we go to grandmas house, no dvd player there, it is very easy to take in and out of the car and plug into the wall. Hope this helps.




http://www.walmart.com/catalog/prod...66&dept=3944&path=0:3944:133276:133247:163986

 

[Fies4]

All of your replies are helping me so much! Thank you. Keep them coming.

This is funny but a we have a good friend who is the general manager at a local Chevy car lot. My DH called him this morning and was talking to him and he said that they had a 2006 Chevy Uplander on the lot and he could give us a really great deal on it (we've been kind of talking about trading our van in for the last couple months). And it has a built in DVD player in it. We went up to the lot to take a look and ended up bringing the Uplander home for the weekend to see if we want to buy it.
The payment per month is going to be a bit more so we're just trying to make a decision. We took the kids "out on the town" tonight and they loved the DVD player in the back (althought that can't be the reason we decide to buy it). My DH wasn't impressed with the fact that when the kids are watching a DVD we can't listen to the radio or a CD up front - but besides that he loves the Uplander. From a 2000 Chevy Venture to a 2006 Chevy Uplander is a very nice upgrade!

But, still keep the suggestions coming because we may decide not to go with the uplander and if that's the case we're going to go ahead and buy a portable DVD player for the kids.

28 more days until we leave for WDW!!

 

[clm3]

My DH wasn't impressed with the fact that when the kids are watching a DVD we can't listen to the radio or a CD up front -

Check with the dealer cause there should be a way to switch it. It should come with 2 wireless headphones (you'd have to buy any extra). My van has a switch that I can either have it on the radio (FM 89.1) or headphones. My kids listen to the headphones and I have my radio.
It'S HEAVEN !!

Good Luck with your decision !!

 

[poohraedopey]

If you ca afford the payments etc I'd go ahead and make the upgrade. I did it last sumemr before I took a long trip alone with my kids. Ours vehicles were an '01 Kia Sephia (hubbys car was paid off) and a an '02 Santa FE (with fairly low payments ). I decided before I made a trip to cape cod alone (and numerous other trips we had planned) that I wanted 100% peace of mind. So we went in and got a brand new Ford Escape. Yes it added a payment but it was totally worth it I have not regretted it since and I know I have a perfectly reliable vehicle for this summers vaca's and our upcoming trip to Disney. We didn't really think about it at all I came home form work one morning looked at hubby and siad we are going to buy a new car today... and that was that we took delivery at 4 that day. It worked really well for us. However we don't ahve a built in DVD so this year the kids are getting those for B'days..... They are at an age where they don't like watching the same thing....