headrest monitors
11-19-2004, 06:28 PM
#1
Racer
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Fresno CA
Age: 43
Posts: 351
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
headrest monitors
I have a question on a headrest monitor. What is the remote use for on a headrest monitor. Is it for changing channels if you have a tv tuner? Im not sure what it is. Can someone tell me. Its driving me crazy. 
And if it is, then can both headrest monitors watch a different channel at the same time? Or do they have to be watching the same thing? Im trying to figure out what I want to get for my entertainment system. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thankz!
And if it is, then can both headrest monitors watch a different channel at the same time? Or do they have to be watching the same thing? Im trying to figure out what I want to get for my entertainment system. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thankz!
11-19-2004, 09:16 PM
#2
Go Giants
To my knowledge, a headrest monitor is simply a monitor (screen) that is mounted into the back of gutted headrest (I also hear that the TSX's headrests are too small for a monitor and would need to be replaced with a different headrest). From there depending on your setup, you can feed any type of video signal to the monitor you want (DVD, TV, Navigation).
11-20-2004, 08:24 AM
#3
Team Nighthawk Member
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Bayville NJ & Bronx NY
Age: 37
Posts: 726
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
the headrest is a little small but you can still put monitor the size of 5.6 or 5.8 if you dont want to change the headrest.. but the monitors can watch anything you set it up to..
11-20-2004, 11:08 AM
#4
Jewdacris!!
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Gaithersburg, MD
Age: 43
Posts: 1,090
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Someone somewhere on this board said something abotu using a Honda Accord headrest because they are similar but the size is a little bigger. Also, someone used dodge caravan headrests because they were wide.
If the leather is the same they make pre wired kits for the MDX, you could buy one of those and install it into your TSX
If the leather is the same they make pre wired kits for the MDX, you could buy one of those and install it into your TSX
11-20-2004, 01:56 PM
#7
VP Electricity
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Portland OR US
Age: 58
Posts: 4,617
Likes: 0
Received 8 Likes
on
1 Post
I think the original question was, what is the remote for? For many HR monitors, it's for nothing... they often have buttons that don't work 'cept for color and on/off.
Some have buttons that will control a DVD player from the same source, but not many.
I consulted for a company that tried to pull the HR monitor remote, since it did nothing... too many complaints!
DId you see the photos? The Dodge HR monitor photos looked fine, but you can get Accord HR that are wide enough that match too... if you think it matters...
Some have buttons that will control a DVD player from the same source, but not many.
I consulted for a company that tried to pull the HR monitor remote, since it did nothing... too many complaints!
DId you see the photos? The Dodge HR monitor photos looked fine, but you can get Accord HR that are wide enough that match too... if you think it matters...
Trending Topics
11-22-2004, 02:16 PM
#8
VP Electricity
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Portland OR US
Age: 58
Posts: 4,617
Likes: 0
Received 8 Likes
on
1 Post
Knew I had this somewhere...
LCD article...
I want the highest resolution I can get, right? Well, if all other things were equal - but they aren’t. Shopping for a PC monitor and for mobile video are very different things.
But I thought high resolution was good! It is – especially on a computer with a high-end graphics card . But let’s take a look at what resolution does for you.
A VHS VCR (until recently, the most common type of mobile source unit) can send out images with 240 lines of horizontal resolution. Broadcast TV in the US tops out at 330 lines. While a DVD player can theoretically hit 1024 lines of output, most mobile players top out at 480. A Sony PS One (the most common in-car game system) starts at 224 horizontal lines, and can reach 480 with certain games. (The PS2 can hit 1024, depending on the game and settings). Since all car video products are using good old composite video (you know, the yellow RCA jack?), they can’t take advantage of the highest resolution settings on DVD.
High resolution is critical for one thing – in-dash navigation displays with “moving maps”. For anything else, it’s farther down the priority list, with the source units not pushing the envelope on resolution. You can have a monitor with 1160 lines of rez, but if your source unit is only peaking out at 224, you get no visual benefit from all those extra lines. Mobile video monitors are just starting to surpass 234 horizontal lines, and what many people think is the best-looking overhead monitor on the market has only 480 lines. There are other specs that end up making a greater impact in a car, specs that don’t affect your desktop monitor choices at all.
What’s more important? Well, brightness, for one, is more crucial in a car. All that outdoor ambient light can ruin your view. Contrast is important, too, but many say the most critical is viewing angle – how far to the side you can look at a panel without it “graying out” on you. Finally, response speed and temperature ratings go together. Finally, some non-LCD facts (stereo audio? Good input power and noise filtering? Good user interface? Solid bracketry?) are good to check on...
What’s a good brightness number? You need brightness (or “luminance”) of at least 300 cd/m2 (or “nits”) in order to have decent viewing with an overhead monitor, and you will need more than that in lower locations (like the dash or a headrest). There’s an overhead monitor out there (I won’t say which one), which is a cool size and great resolution, but only has brightness performance of 160 nits. Needless to say, it looks OK in the showroom, but awful in the car – or next to a competitor with 480 lines of resolution and a brightness rating of 420!
What’s a good viewing angle rating? The best you can get, basically – 100 degrees horizontal or better. Many video suppliers feel the need to put in swivels to allow the LCD panel to pivot, due to their poor viewing angle performance. Unfortunately, the swivels are one more thing to break and rattle, and can be a weak point in the mechanics of your system. And when the monitor is being watched by two passengers, one on each side, what are they supposed to do – thumb wrestle over the monitor’s position? There is no substitute for viewing angle.
Why do I care about response speed and temp ratings? All LCD’s get slower in performance when they get cold, so you want as high a response time at ambient temperature, and as great a temperature rang as you can get. It’s kind of like an amplifier that doesn’t shut off when it gets cold, but sounds awful – you wouldn’t want an audio system that sounded terrible every morning, so why have a monitor that looks blurry every morning? Times below 100 ms are essential. You want a temp rating of 0 to 60 Celsius. Unfortunately, these are often estimates, so look at response speed too (if you can)
LCD article...
I want the highest resolution I can get, right? Well, if all other things were equal - but they aren’t. Shopping for a PC monitor and for mobile video are very different things.
But I thought high resolution was good! It is – especially on a computer with a high-end graphics card . But let’s take a look at what resolution does for you.
A VHS VCR (until recently, the most common type of mobile source unit) can send out images with 240 lines of horizontal resolution. Broadcast TV in the US tops out at 330 lines. While a DVD player can theoretically hit 1024 lines of output, most mobile players top out at 480. A Sony PS One (the most common in-car game system) starts at 224 horizontal lines, and can reach 480 with certain games. (The PS2 can hit 1024, depending on the game and settings). Since all car video products are using good old composite video (you know, the yellow RCA jack?), they can’t take advantage of the highest resolution settings on DVD.
High resolution is critical for one thing – in-dash navigation displays with “moving maps”. For anything else, it’s farther down the priority list, with the source units not pushing the envelope on resolution. You can have a monitor with 1160 lines of rez, but if your source unit is only peaking out at 224, you get no visual benefit from all those extra lines. Mobile video monitors are just starting to surpass 234 horizontal lines, and what many people think is the best-looking overhead monitor on the market has only 480 lines. There are other specs that end up making a greater impact in a car, specs that don’t affect your desktop monitor choices at all.
What’s more important? Well, brightness, for one, is more crucial in a car. All that outdoor ambient light can ruin your view. Contrast is important, too, but many say the most critical is viewing angle – how far to the side you can look at a panel without it “graying out” on you. Finally, response speed and temperature ratings go together. Finally, some non-LCD facts (stereo audio? Good input power and noise filtering? Good user interface? Solid bracketry?) are good to check on...
What’s a good brightness number? You need brightness (or “luminance”) of at least 300 cd/m2 (or “nits”) in order to have decent viewing with an overhead monitor, and you will need more than that in lower locations (like the dash or a headrest). There’s an overhead monitor out there (I won’t say which one), which is a cool size and great resolution, but only has brightness performance of 160 nits. Needless to say, it looks OK in the showroom, but awful in the car – or next to a competitor with 480 lines of resolution and a brightness rating of 420!
What’s a good viewing angle rating? The best you can get, basically – 100 degrees horizontal or better. Many video suppliers feel the need to put in swivels to allow the LCD panel to pivot, due to their poor viewing angle performance. Unfortunately, the swivels are one more thing to break and rattle, and can be a weak point in the mechanics of your system. And when the monitor is being watched by two passengers, one on each side, what are they supposed to do – thumb wrestle over the monitor’s position? There is no substitute for viewing angle.
Why do I care about response speed and temp ratings? All LCD’s get slower in performance when they get cold, so you want as high a response time at ambient temperature, and as great a temperature rang as you can get. It’s kind of like an amplifier that doesn’t shut off when it gets cold, but sounds awful – you wouldn’t want an audio system that sounded terrible every morning, so why have a monitor that looks blurry every morning? Times below 100 ms are essential. You want a temp rating of 0 to 60 Celsius. Unfortunately, these are often estimates, so look at response speed too (if you can)
11-22-2004, 06:24 PM
#9
Racer
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Fresno CA
Age: 43
Posts: 351
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
So let me get this straight. If im sitting in the back seat and wanting to the news or some program on regular tv, I cant use the hr monitors to change the channels correct? 
If yes, then that means that im gonna have to use the remote that came with the tv tuner to change the channels? So if that the passenger is watching jeopardy in the front, I cant watch the news in the back then. Im gonna have to watch the same thing correct? Thankz elduderino. You always have good replies for my questions. You the man.
If yes, then that means that im gonna have to use the remote that came with the tv tuner to change the channels? So if that the passenger is watching jeopardy in the front, I cant watch the news in the back then. Im gonna have to watch the same thing correct? Thankz elduderino. You always have good replies for my questions. You the man.
11-22-2004, 07:17 PM
#10
VP Electricity
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Portland OR US
Age: 58
Posts: 4,617
Likes: 0
Received 8 Likes
on
1 Post
HR monitors AS A CATEGORY do not neccesarily have the ability to relay control signals to the source unit. Hell, as a category, they don't even need to have TV tuners (which have shitty reception in moving cars, btw). Also, if you want to be able to watch two different channels, you need to have TWO different TV tuners (just like a PiP TV does: )
And yes, having a non-integrated, multi-remote system sucks ass from a user perspective. (I deal with this all the time, btw, in product development).
Some HR suppliers specifically allow such a thing from their HR monitors. Usually an external box that they make or supply is also needed... Accele, Clarion, and Blaupunkt are some examples of companies that make systems like that. Vizualogic does too, but apparently you can only get their HR monitors already in Headrests, and that's like $1500. Blaupunkt is at Fry's, and usually cheap, and they have a 5.8" HR screen that's good. Check out the IVSC 3302 or 5502 - I think they'll give you what you want.
Which, by the way, is called integrated source unit control and multi-zone operation with unified remote (or something like that).
Rosen makes some overhead systems that totally give you that kind of ability... but not HR-only systems. You could have a Rosen 10.2 wide screen overhead DVD monitor, and two HR monitors, and switch independently between the two zones - DVD, TV Tuner, Outboard game, or inboard Game.
And yes, having a non-integrated, multi-remote system sucks ass from a user perspective. (I deal with this all the time, btw, in product development).
Some HR suppliers specifically allow such a thing from their HR monitors. Usually an external box that they make or supply is also needed... Accele, Clarion, and Blaupunkt are some examples of companies that make systems like that. Vizualogic does too, but apparently you can only get their HR monitors already in Headrests, and that's like $1500. Blaupunkt is at Fry's, and usually cheap, and they have a 5.8" HR screen that's good. Check out the IVSC 3302 or 5502 - I think they'll give you what you want.
Which, by the way, is called integrated source unit control and multi-zone operation with unified remote (or something like that).
Rosen makes some overhead systems that totally give you that kind of ability... but not HR-only systems. You could have a Rosen 10.2 wide screen overhead DVD monitor, and two HR monitors, and switch independently between the two zones - DVD, TV Tuner, Outboard game, or inboard Game.
11-22-2004, 07:24 PM
#11
Rep'n Taxbrain.com
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: N. Cali-forn-i-a
Age: 44
Posts: 7,075
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes
on
3 Posts
Well...it really depends on how you have everything wired up.
You can have all monitors hooked up to the same source. Or you can have each monitor wired individually to each source.
Think of it as just as you would when you were wiring up a home theater system in your house.
If you have:
2 monitors
1 Satelite receiver
1 DVD player
You can wire it so that both TVs always watch the same thing.
Or if you run seperate output sets from the receiver to each monitor
and also from the DVD player to the each monitor.
This would allow you to watch two different things on each monitor if you wanted.
It all depends on how you have it wired up. Wiring it so you can watch two different things on each monitor will take more wiring and you have to make sure each component can operate independently. It can usually be done though as long as all of the electronics can operate alone from one another.
Hope this makes sense.....
You can have all monitors hooked up to the same source. Or you can have each monitor wired individually to each source.
Think of it as just as you would when you were wiring up a home theater system in your house.
If you have:
2 monitors
1 Satelite receiver
1 DVD player
You can wire it so that both TVs always watch the same thing.
Or if you run seperate output sets from the receiver to each monitor
and also from the DVD player to the each monitor.
This would allow you to watch two different things on each monitor if you wanted.
It all depends on how you have it wired up. Wiring it so you can watch two different things on each monitor will take more wiring and you have to make sure each component can operate independently. It can usually be done though as long as all of the electronics can operate alone from one another.
Hope this makes sense.....
11-22-2004, 08:44 PM
#12
Team Nighthawk Member
iTrader: (1)
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Bayville NJ & Bronx NY
Age: 37
Posts: 726
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Originally Posted by elduderino
Blaupunkt is at Fry's, and usually cheap, and they have a 5.8" HR screen that's good. Check out the IVSC 3302 or 5502 - I think they'll give you what you want.
11-22-2004, 08:47 PM
#13
VP Electricity
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Portland OR US
Age: 58
Posts: 4,617
Likes: 0
Received 8 Likes
on
1 Post
Originally Posted by Tsx536
Well...it really depends on how you have everything wired up.
You can have all monitors hooked up to the same source. Or you can have each monitor wired individually to each source.
Think of it as just as you would when you were wiring up a home theater system in your house.
If you have:
2 monitors
1 Satelite receiver
1 DVD player
You can wire it so that both TVs always watch the same thing.
Or if you run seperate output sets from the receiver to each monitor
and also from the DVD player to the each monitor.
This would allow you to watch two different things on each monitor if you wanted.
It all depends on how you have it wired up. Wiring it so you can watch two different things on each monitor will take more wiring and you have to make sure each component can operate independently. It can usually be done though as long as all of the electronics can operate alone from one another.
Hope this makes sense.....
You can have all monitors hooked up to the same source. Or you can have each monitor wired individually to each source.
Think of it as just as you would when you were wiring up a home theater system in your house.
If you have:
2 monitors
1 Satelite receiver
1 DVD player
You can wire it so that both TVs always watch the same thing.
Or if you run seperate output sets from the receiver to each monitor
and also from the DVD player to the each monitor.
This would allow you to watch two different things on each monitor if you wanted.
It all depends on how you have it wired up. Wiring it so you can watch two different things on each monitor will take more wiring and you have to make sure each component can operate independently. It can usually be done though as long as all of the electronics can operate alone from one another.
Hope this makes sense.....
I have each of them connected to a PS2 and to a DVD player (for instance).
Now I can switch each monitor independently so I can watch either source on either monitor (IF the monitors have 2 inputs, which many do).
But what happens when you press the button on the remote to change video input? BOTH change at the same time.
Typically you have to press the input button on the front panel, becuase the remotes control both monitors at the same time and so it's really hard to get only one to work (you can reach the remote until it's almost touching the IR pickup, which is the same as pressing the front panel button IMO). So going back to the original question (What's the remote for?) it's pertinent.
BTW you still need the Audio switched for you, if these headrest monitors only switch video (most only do video, no audio), which is something else the outboard box is supposed to do for you...
11-23-2004, 10:49 AM
#14
Racer
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Fresno CA
Age: 43
Posts: 351
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ok. Cool. Thankz guys for all of your inputs and help. I really understand it now. And BTW, im going to be hooking all the sources to the avelectronic switcher. And it has, i believe 4 inputs, so im gonna hook up an dvd player, ps2, tv tuner, and leave the other for a laptop or another source. It has 4 outputs also, so one is for the nav unit already, and i will use two of it for the headrest. The other one is going to be optional. I dont really no what or where i can put another monitor if i decided to use it. Do you guys think putting it on the sunvisor will be any good? Any good ideas. Thankz.
Do you guys think putting it on the sunvisor will be any good? Any good ideas. Thankz.
11-23-2004, 11:56 AM
#15
Rep'n Taxbrain.com
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: N. Cali-forn-i-a
Age: 44
Posts: 7,075
Likes: 0
Received 3 Likes
on
3 Posts
Well...This has been discussed before. Are you talking about the passenger side visor?
There are some things to consider:
1) Illegal in CA to have video viewable from the driver. So even if you put it on the passenger side, don't turn in on while your alone in the car. If you get pulled then he could try to nail you on it.
2) At night visor screens are very noticeable. I was driving behind a someone with one a month or 2 ago and boy does it light up the freeway. It's going to bring extra attention to your car especially at night. Think about whether this bothers you or not.
I don't really think you'll need another monitor though. That's a little bit of overkill IMO. If you have the navi 8" screen and the 2 in the headrest then you'll be perfectly fine. You'll have more screens than most people have in their living room! Cool..!!
There are some things to consider:
1) Illegal in CA to have video viewable from the driver. So even if you put it on the passenger side, don't turn in on while your alone in the car. If you get pulled then he could try to nail you on it.
2) At night visor screens are very noticeable. I was driving behind a someone with one a month or 2 ago and boy does it light up the freeway. It's going to bring extra attention to your car especially at night. Think about whether this bothers you or not.
I don't really think you'll need another monitor though. That's a little bit of overkill IMO. If you have the navi 8" screen and the 2 in the headrest then you'll be perfectly fine. You'll have more screens than most people have in their living room! Cool..!!
11-23-2004, 01:02 PM
#16
Racer
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Fresno CA
Age: 43
Posts: 351
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Cool. Thankz. I might just put it in the trunk then. i just like to use every output that i can. Its going in the trunk just for show then. I can watch it when were at the park or something. Thankz again for your input again.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
AcuraKidd
Non-Automotive & Motorcycle Sales
0
09-25-2015 11:18 PM
