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TV Placement

With the advent of DVD players and changers and TV tuners into the realm of car entertainment it has become an issue as to where to place the TV screen from which passengers can watch. The most common locations have become the back of the front seat headrests, the center area of the dashboard, and the visors.

Headrests
Vizualogic, a manufacturer that supplies video products for the car, has come out with a headrest monitor set called PerfectMatch®. There is no need for one to cut into the headrest in order to fit in a monitor. Instead, the PerfectMatch is a headrest that has already been equipped with a 7-inch wide screen monitor. And it is designed to take the place of the factory headrest. No cutting is necessary.
The company reports that the fabric on the headrest matches the OEM fabric or leather and the tubular chrome posts of the headrest serves as the channel through which the wires are routed. The TV includes a single distribution box which handles two screens. There is no need to include a Y cable in the installation. The box includes two video inputs and four video outputs and one slave output for each video input that allows you to connect more screens. The box also has a video amplification built in. In addition, the monitor has an infrared repeater built in which allows the user to control any DVD through the screen. One remote control commands all screen functions as well as a Vizualogic DVD player.
Savv, another manufacturer of car video products, also offers a headrest monitor set. The headrest is finished in OEM style leather, vinyl, or fabric. A high-density, high-impact polyethylene casing houses an adjustable tilt mechanism for optimum viewing angles and a hollow chrome-moly post serves as the channel through which the data cable is routed.

To install the Vizualogic product:

Remove the factory headrest
Insert a rigid wire “fishing tool” into the top of the headrest post and guide it out the lower inside corner of the seat back.
Hook the end of the headrest cable to the top of the “fishing tool” and pull cables through the seat.
Insert the headrest into the post guide tubes in the seat.
Route the headrest cables under the seat to the location of the audio-video controller. Secure the wires and make certain that there is enough slack so that the seat can travel on its tracks.
Place the audio-video module in a well protected area under the seat.
Connect 12 volt harness to 12V+ and 12V ground.
Use an A/V RCA cable to connect the DVD output to the input side of the controller box.
Connect the monitor cables to the output side of the A/V controller box.
Select the monitor that will serve as the master output to the FM modulator. If you select monitor 1 to be the master, connect the FM modulator with Y cables to slave 1 output. If you select monitor 2, connect to slave 2 output.
Pull radio and disconnect the antenna wire from the radio and connect the car radio antenna cable to the FM modulator. Connect the male FM modulator cable to the back of the radio. You may need an antenna adapter for some General Motors vehicles.
Using the RCA cable supplied with the headphone transmitter, connect the output audio slave 1 and slave 2 to the input of the RF headphone transmitter box.
Connect power to the transmitter.
Use supplied black wire with 1/8-inch phono jacks to connect the video source unit (DVD player, TV tuner, etc.) and A/V controller box.