1) Pyle DVD Headrest Set (7 inch TFT Monitors, model no: PL71PHB)
Our Rating:

Pyle PL71PHB Headrest Pair with Built-In 7-Inch TFT-LCD Monitors (Black)

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$114.30

The Pyle PL71PHB headrest comes with a 7 inch screen, a sleek black leather look, and excellent picture quality. With a 1400 x243 resolution, the unit is able to show widescreen movies with no black borders on the screen. The snazzy wireless headsets keep the noise levels coming from the back down while you drive.

Altogether, a great entry level headrest that gives a surprising level of quality for the price. Why pay more when these are this good? The only downside is that the color may not match all vehicle interiors, but if you have a darker shade of material on the vehicle seats then it matches up well. Recommended.

2) Power Acoustik DVD Headrest Set (8.8 inch Active Matrix TFT Monitors, model no: HDVD-9BG)
Our Rating:

Power Acoustik HDVD-9BK 8.8-Inch Pre-Loaded Universal Headrest Monitors with Twin DVD Combo and Headphones (Black)

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$507.00

Canadian company Power Acoustik are well known for their inexpensive yet powerful subwoofers, and this headrest DVD set shows that they provide value for money in the back-seat-entertainment market too. These units can play DVD’s, MP4’s, DivX movies – just about anything you care to throw at it in fact. The USB and SD card readers are the preferred way of watching these formats, and thankfully the HDVD-9xx series can stream from these too – and all on an almost 9-inch screen. Add to this impressive media support great sound quality and the ability for each headrest to play separate video and audio (no more arguing in the back seat) and you have a winning product.

While the price point may be higher than the Pyle, it pales in significance when compared to other OEM headrests from Baton and Rosen ($1200 anyone?), making these a bit of a bargain for the feature set.

Overall, the Power Acoustik line represents some of the most flexible multimedia car headrests around. If only the instructions were a bit clearer this would be perfect, but once properly installed they are pretty hard to beat.

The HDVD-73BG from Power Acoustik seems like a nice it should be ideal for anyone’s car ride home. Featuring a wide feature set, including built in FM transmitter and a compact 7 inch screen, initially when taken out of the box it seems as though this is a quality product. It’s well made and feels very solid, and the color and texture of the product seems very professional, as you would expect from a Power Acoustik product. Our friends at Sparco gave us a loan of the beige model to try out, but it also comes in two shades of gray, as well as black for you cool cats out there.

Initial impressions are very favourable, with the unit displaying great picture quality with no obvious ghosting around the edges of the screen. The array of inputs and outputs on the unit really is quite impressing, with USB and SD cards accepted so the kids or whoever will be able play anything on their stick.

Media Formats

As far as video formats go, this unit appears to play just about anything you can throw at it, including PAL and NTSC DVD formats, DIVX and VCDs too for extra measure. It had a little bit of trouble with some high quality DivX’s I threw at it however, with a little bit of stuttering every couple of seconds. Now this could have been just down to the encoding used on the media file – I didn’t have any other divx videos to test on it before I had to give it back.

Installation was completed in 10 minutes; the headrest arms adjust quite easily once you get the hang of it but the useless one single page of instructions did not provide much use towards working it out. Thankfully I am MALE so I don’t read instructions anyway so I got there in the end, after realizing that I had to change the pole diameter.

The radio transmitter built in is ok, but it crackles a bit, probably due to interference with the car radio.

Picture Quality

OK, onto picture quality – it’s great. The 640 x 236 resolution screen is crystal clear and presented my movie of choice (The Incredibles) in vibrant color. Sound is also pretty good for one of these models.

Now the bad. When playing a DVD there seems to be some sort of rubbing noise within the casing – this can get quite distracting. Our friends at Sparco report that they have had to send a few back for scratching DVD’s, so perhaps I received one of the models that were affected. Regardless, this rubbing noise can be annoying, and if there are other reports of the unit damaging DVD’s then it is hard to recommend this model.

Power Acoustik Hdvd-73Bg 7 Universal Headrest Widescreen Video Monitor With Dvd (Beige)

List Price: $255.26

Sale Price: $92.98

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Another generic unbranded DVD headrest player, except this time the price is far more appealing. For whatever reason, the company behind these OEM players have updated the firmware in these headrests allowing more video formats to be displayed than the previous model. A number of improvements and a cheaper price point make these models more viable than ever before.

Installation is just the same as with the other unbranded DVD players we have tested, with the same Chinese instructions vaguely directing you on how to assemble the headrest and install it. The arms of the player can be adjusted easily enough, and you should be able to get a professional to install it for you or you could put it in yourself. It’s not that difficult to set up, in fact most of the time will be spent making sure that the cables are hidden away neatly in the seats.

So what do you get in this package? The answer is: “Quite a lot” – there are 2 DVD headrests, 2 game controllers, 2 remotes, and 2 sets of wireless headphones.
DVD headrest screen quality

Quality

The screens are pretty clear, with bright vivid images on the 7” screen. The screens are manufactured by Sharp, so there can be no doubts as to the quality of the displays. Since the last time I looked at these generic DVD players, it seems as though some resourceful individuals have managed to crack open the casing to discover that there are a lot of Sony hardware inside these headrests. While it is not clear on how much Sony hardware there is inside these units, there can be no doubt that they perform great for the price. They are very quiet even when playing a DVD, which is great since it really bugs me to have a constant whirr right behind my head while the kids are watching something! The viewing angle is good enough, with the image staying solid at a reasonable viewing angle.

The headphones are the weakest part of this package, with slightly tinny sound and not enough kick for action movies. However, they are perfectly functional for the price.

The game system is really just a collection of old arcade games, but it makes for an interesting diversion for a few hours, and adds in that extra little buffer of time for the kids to spend on long journeys before they get bored. The gamepads are lightweight and they can easily be stored under the seat.

One thing that I like is the zip cover on the headrest DVD players; this allows you to cover the screens so that the units look just like normal headrests while you are leaving the vehicle parked. This is a great feature, and more companies should take note of this kind of design.

Overall, when you consider the number of features you are getting for the price, and consider the impressive picture quality, these players would be ideal for someone on a tight budget, but who really needs something to keep the back seat passengers occupied. They may not excel or be the best in any one area, but as a combined package they really make good entry level DVD headrests for the family.

Headrest 7″ LCD Car Monitors with Region Free DVD player USB SD Inc. Wireless Headhones and 32 Bit Games (Gray, Pair)

List Price: $399.95

Sale Price: $189.99

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Headrest 7″ LCD Car Monitors with Region Free DVD player USB SD Inc. Wireless Headhones and 32 Bit Games (Black, Pair)

List Price: $749.99

Sale Price: $160.00

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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Why the Roadview RHM headrest is a great budget DVD headrest for your children.

Sometimes, you can be quite surprised by a product. When I borrowed this player for review, I wasn’t expecting too much. I’ll be honest, I have never heard of Roadview before and I expected this product to be cheap and nasty – it turns out that nothing could be further from the truth.

Taking the RHM 70 out of the box, the unit is definitely solid and well constructed, with a very robust feel. The DVD casing does not crack or squeak when you apply pressure on it, so the whole unit is very well put together. Inside the box you also get the mandatory instruction manual and remote. By pushing in the headrest arms they can be moved about, making it easy to get the right width suitable for your vehicle.

Picture Quality

Once set up and turned on I was treated to a great quality picture – The Incredibles again being my defacto test standard video. The picture was bright with good color, and it did not have any of the fading or flashlighting that sometimes occurs in the cheaper scale of headrest DVD players. The resolution is an impressive 480 x234 pixels, which is more than enough for a small screen. Another great plus is the built in speakers. They produce just enough loudness to be heard on a noisy drive along the freeway; perhaps they are a little soft on the ears with not much of a bass kick out of them, but if you are getting this product for your kids (or maybe friends that have never wanted to grow up) then they will not notice anyway.

The Roadview has a USB input and a SD card slot as well which is handy to have. It plays the usual range of formats, including DivX video. I was surprised to find that the Roadview played the avi files that other headrest players had struggled with. As an addendum, the unit also supports wireless headphones through the use of its iR outputs, so it seems as though there is nothing that the engineers behind this unit haven’t thought of. One additional feature that I have not seen a lot of before is the clever zip cover. This lets you hide away your expensive screen when you are away from the vehicle. A lot more companies should include this feature as standard – very nice and useful!

Overall

While it may be cheap, the Roadview RHM 7.0G comes across well in almost every area. If I had to pick out one downside or negative on this unit, it would be that the remote does not seem to work correctly while sitting in the front seat of the car. Considering that it is unlikely that one would need to change the channel of movie while driving anyway, this does not offset the positives of this great player.

Concept Roadview RHM-7.0G 7-Inch Headrest Monitor with DVD Player (Gray)

List Price: $299.00

Sale Price: $167.49

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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You may have seen unbranded headrest dvd player models in auto shops across the nation, they are unbranded but our friends at Sparco recommended them since they have been selling like hotcakes in their store recently. A quick look at Ebay shows that there are scores of these items going for good prices. We borrowed a set for the day to find out what they are like.

It’s possible that other manufacturers use this product to base their models on; opening the box gives no clear indication of any model or company. It is almost as if no one wants you to find out what these items are or who they are made by.

One thing is clear however – they are from China. You can tell this by the hilarious instructions that come with the product, which are written in vague broken English. Aside from the instructions the package also comes with dual channel headphones, game controllers, and remote controls for each unit.

Installation

Installation was simple enough despite the poorly written instructions, with the headrest arms being easily adjusted; they could be fitted into just about any make of car seat. The wires were not ran under the seat since I had to give it back later that day but that would just be a tidy-up operation.

The built in games, although branded as 32-bit, are nothing like modern games – think 1980’s or 1990’s videogames and you would be imagining the games on this system. A little novelty for the kids that may keep them silent for an additional hour or two, perhaps.

The picture quality on the model was surprisingly good, which was unexpected from an unbranded player. The manual claims that it runs Divx and other formats, and these run ok but the system struggled with more modern formats such as H.264. I ran a few different DVD’s on the system and they worked perfectly.The sound quality is also pretty good, with clear reproduction with enough bass to represent the action scenes properly.

Overall, this is a decent enough system, and for the price you cannot really have any complaints. If you are looking for a headrest DVD system that is good enough then these unbranded players are more than adequate. At the end of the day are your kids going to need fancy extras? Probably not, and you could do a lot worse than invest in a set of these if money is tight.

Pair of TAN Headrest 7-Inch LCD Car Monitors with Region Free DVD player USB SD Inc- Wireless Headhones and 32 Bit Games

List Price: $399.00

Sale Price: $192.99

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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The HDVD-9 definitely screams quality and features

This Power Acoustik bundle is for those of you who deserve more from your in-car entertainment system. Arriving in a beefy box, this packages not only contains two headrests complete with widescreens and remote controls for each unit, but it also comes with wireless headphone to supplement you or your kids audio-visual experience.

These models have to go one better than almost every other model on the market. They say “no” to having 7 inch TFT screens, and “yes!” to 8.4 inch hi-res displays instead. One thing that is immediately apparent from firing the units up is that the resolution on these items is far superior than the majority of other models. Checking the box and manual, I was surprised at just how hi-res they actually are – an impressive 1440 x 234 resolution makes up the screen, and you can really see the difference the number of pixels make. The picture is large and crisp.

The arms adjust much in the same way as other models, and it was a cinch to set them up and install them. Of course, depending on your model of car, the installation may be more or less difficult. Some models, such as BMW’s, are known to be a right pain in the backside to install a headrest DVD in, while other models can be very simple. Hey – you were going to get a professional to install it anyway , right? One thing that must be mentioned is that the warranty on these and similar items will be longer if you get them professionally fitted, sometimes by up to a year. These particular models demand that the power cables are ran through the headrest holes down the back of the seat – they then plug into a standard 12v plug. They are very easy to install if you plan to do it yourself, and if you run into problems you can always call the Power Acoustic technical support line. My contacts at Sparco say the support from PA is very good and helpful.

Features

Anyway, enough with the warranty advice, I’m sure you want more details about this multimedia car headrest player, right? If the screen was not already impressive enough, it is also a touch screen so that back seat viewers can manipulate the interface without the need for the remote control. One downside that seem to be present in other models is that the remote control tends to not register whenever you try to change the channels from the front seats, but I guess they are not designed to do this, but is a minor annoyance nonetheless.

Additional features that really push this model to being a great products are the little extras that might initially go unnoticed. There are video inputs on each of the screens so you can plug your Wii or game system into them if you want to, something that will keep your kids amused at least for another couple of hours. The headrest play has a built in FM transmitter so you can broadcast the sound to your car stereo, and unlike other models the sound is very clear with very little interference.

Overall, a great product, and one that should not be overlooked if you are looking for a quality DVD headrest for passengers in the back seat.

Power Acoustik HDVD-9GR 8.8-Inch Pre-Loaded Universal Headrest Monitors with Twin DVD Combo and Headphones (Gray)

List Price: $1,999.99

Sale Price: $507.00

Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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