Vehicle Reviews | Vehicle News | Vehicle Information

Quick overview:
Pros – Cheaper than most models, supports SD and memory stick duo cards, choice of audio out sources, good video quality, seems sturdy, quite DVD playback, good dvd playback, audio/video input option.

Cons – Poor instructions, memory card slots prevent closing screen while cards are in, limited file/folder name length on memory cards, no playback memory for memory cards, no source memory for video playback (remembering if I used memory cards last), screen does not turn around far enough for me, lights not as bright as Pyle PLRD92, light buttons do not work separately, instructions do not help with menu/setup very well (it’s not terribly hard to figure out if you have time to toy with pressing buttons)

There were I few things about this product that I was unable to determine from any of the extensive research I performed, but I knew that the basic functionalities met what I was looking for. I do like the dvd player and the picture is good. It is easy to install, even though I did have to make a few modifications in order to install it like I wanted. I ultimately decided on this item over the PYLE PLRD92(PYLE PLRD92 9″ Flip Down Monitor and DVD player with Wireless FM Modulator/ IR Transmitter) mainly based off of the price at the time, and though I AM somewhat pleased with the TVIEW product, if I had the choice, I would go with the PYLE for many reasons. It was a good DVD player, which is why it received 4 stars, it’s not a bad product… it’s just not exactly what I wanted… Now on to the info:

INSTALL:
The instructions that came with the unit were horrible, they basically didn’t help at all, but I was able to determine what wire were what from info I found on the net. One of the most helpful places was a forum call Acadiaforum.net.(you will have to join to see it, but here is an installation example [...]) A user there has detailed instructions on installing the PYLE, that were handy in making the TVIEW mount more sturdily to my Acadia. The mounting bracket with the TVIEW is slightly different than the PYLE’s and was a bit more difficult to attach to the roof of the car. In my Acadia, I could easily remove the dome light between the sunroof and moonroof and have a perfect place for installing a DVD player. Since there is about a 2″ space between the head liner of the car and the top of the car (actually a cross beam) I needed a piece of a 2″ x 4″ I had lying around as a spacer. I also had to purchase 4 metal/machine screws and drill 4 holes in the cross bar mentioned above to attach the metal mounting plate. After I did this, I noticed that the wires run out the back of the DVD player, this may not be a big issue for everyone, but I wanted the wires hidden. So, I drilled 2 holes in the metal backing that hides the wires on the dvd player (the opposite side from where the screen snaps in place and lights are seen). I used the rubber grommets on the newly drilled holes to prevent the wires from being cut over time. In my Acadia, there are 2 power wires, one has a constant power (used for turning the lights on when the car is off) and power when the doors open (this one is used to turn on the lights when the doors are opened). I used the later to hook up to the lights on the DVD player so they would work as the normal dome lights would. I used the constant power so that the DVD player could be run while the car was off if necessary. The Acadia has a safety feature that kills the power to this feed after 10 minutes to prevent battery drain, if something is drawing current, so I thought this would be perfect. However, I ran into an issue with the DVD player drawing just enough power while it was off to drain the battery slightly, but not drawing enough power to register on the computer of the Acadia to trigger the battery save feature. This resulted in a dead battery over the weekend. To get around this, I installed a rocker switch from an old dead power supply I had, and it works great for keeping my battery from dying. I have read different ways around this, 1) you can install a resistor to “trick” the computer into thinking there is a larger current being drawn while it’s off or 2) you can ran power directly from the battery (I’ve read this prevents the battery drain for some reason, but can’t remember why).

PERFORMANCE:

Memory Card playback…
This Does work pretty well, the resolution, I think, is 640×323, and it plays MP4s the best, but also supports some AVIs. The picture quality will largely depend on the quality of the MP4 etc, but is quite good for what I expected.

The biggest reason I was looking at this player and the PYLE mentioned earlier was the ability to play videos from a memory card. I had a few SD,…

Read more

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 

Was this review helpful to you? 

|

 Comments (4)