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General => Car audio => Topic started by: BaxGTI on 28 December 2007, 16:05

Title: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: BaxGTI on 28 December 2007, 16:05
Hey fellas,
Had my Mk2 8v about 9 months now so I finally want to stop arsing around and get some stuff done to it... And considering that most weekends I do a 500+ round trip to base and back, normally with a full car of people, I thought I'd start with sound/multimedia.

The way I see it, I've got 3 options:
Cheap - Buy a head-unit with a built in small screen
Medium - Get a stand-alone screen and play stuff through that
Expensive - Buy a flip out screen

Due to being on a budget (thanks to insurance and forces pay :/) I'd rather go for the cheap option, but is this worthwhile?

Was looking at this 1:
(http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/images/shop/large/fli/b_dvd9.jpg)
http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/audio-dvd9-p-6260.html

So, what do you think? Worth getting that, or spending an extra £100 or so getting a standalone screen. Also, how easy is fitting one where the ash tray is (Above my eclairs packet :D)?
(http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1541/28122007065oe1.th.jpg) (http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/1541/28122007065oe1.jpg)

Thanks in advance :)
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: Chris 'N' Jen on 28 December 2007, 16:51
imo small screens are a waste. If you/your passengers plan to watch dvd's on the road etc it would be better to go for the biggest screen you can afford.
only down side to that is when your mates are watching stuff youll get distracted. :smiley:

cant say about fitting. sorry
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: BaxGTI on 28 December 2007, 17:08
Well, the M40 and M1 are basically car parks on a fri afternoon anyway :P

Just had a look at halfrauds and they have a ripspeed in-dash player for £150
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_270431_langId_-1_CarSelectorCatalogId__CarSelectorGroupId__varient__categoryId_79855_crumb_31265_parentcategoryrn_79855

Only thing is, I'm guessing that thanks to the price the quality will be pants...so still undecided as what to do. But as said, this will always be a budget project, I'd rather not pay £400 or so for a decent headunit when my car is only worth marginly more than that :P
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: Chris 'N' Jen on 28 December 2007, 17:18
see where your coming from.

Like you say, its pay your money and take your chances with the cheeper stuff.

on the plus side if you do get a more expensive one you could transplant it into your next car. save buying a new one then.  :smiley:
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: Godzilla on 28 December 2007, 18:10
see where your coming from.

Like you say, its pay your money and take your chances with the cheeper stuff.

on the plus side if you do get a more expensive one you could transplant it into your next car. save buying a new one then.  :smiley:

Agreed  :smiley:
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: Heyho on 28 December 2007, 18:17
If you want a small screen DVD headunit, this CANNOT be beaten at this price:

http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/jvc-kdavx11-p-5779.html

I've seen them go 2nd hand on ebay for about that money!  I've heard that they have awsome SQ as well!
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: Dec on 28 December 2007, 18:23
My mate had a 3.5" screen for a day and he loved it. Only thing was he threw it under the seat and the screen broke. IMO 7" flip outs are the way!
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: BSCR on 28 December 2007, 18:54
My mate had a 3.5" screen for a day and he loved it. Only thing was he threw it under the seat and the screen broke. IMO 7" flip outs are the way!

I agree on the 7inch flip out - iv got plans for one of them at some point, i dont quite see the point in those lil screens - soz
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: monzablue16v on 28 December 2007, 19:12
Ripspeed one is alright for the money and better than a tiny screen :)
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: Mikester on 29 December 2007, 00:34
Ripspeed one is alright for the money and better than a tiny screen :)

My mate had the ripspeed slide out one, he crashed as he was watchin it.

Later in the year he got the ripspeed touch screen pop out. And its ok for watching dvds, but if you want music and radio, forget it, its useless and u will end up hummin the tunes, rather than playing them!

Thats an honest post, if you want good qulaity get a small screen headunit, pioneer or something, which you can attach more bigger screens too. You have to pay for qulaity, and ripspeed isnt.
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: BaxGTI on 29 December 2007, 13:03
If that's the case then, would I possibly be better off keeping my current head unit (for music) and mounting a standalone screen somewhere..or buying the flip screen and putting it elsewhere (I'm sure I've seen a tutorial on turning the fag lighter slot into a DIN..)
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: Mikester on 29 December 2007, 17:14
yeah, you could fit a din anywhere that is wide enough with the right screws and fasteners, it wouldnt be to hard, all im saying is, those flip out head unnits, ESPEICALLY ripspeed are awful for anything other than dvds, and they dont do dvds to well either :P

I would advise either 2 headunits (bit of an over kill) OR a good qulaity small screen headunit, and plug another screen into them, head rest screens? LCD on the passenger dash? up to you
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: BaxGTI on 29 December 2007, 17:47
Again, it's all about the money... I know you get what you pay for, but I'd rather settle somewhere down the lower end of the spectrum and still have the money in the bank to kill my liver on regular occasions :P
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: Mikester on 30 December 2007, 16:14
indeed, i agree, its just down to the fact that the smaller end of the scale is the flip out screens, that dont really make good cd players of radios, i just dont have a screen and dvd in mine at all. Have a dvd player at home, and my car is for the driving, keepin my eyes on the road and push the limits. Not watch porn in a layby watchin the real cars go by :P :P :P

I always laigh at all the 106's with the dvds on in the layby as all that phat cars roll past.
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: Ruji on 30 December 2007, 23:51
The ripspeed units in essense are built on a pioneer platform....theyr good units, they offer equal as much quality sound for music and radio as wel as dvds. you can obviously adjust sound eq settings to cater for either media. there are several outputs and inputs at the rear so getting everything into the din slot in one piece can b a bit tempramental but u have the ability to add further screens elsewhere from the av out and also video in for things like rear view car cameras.

also on the new touch screen models, one has the ipod interface built into the unit ready to go if that any interest.

also has a seperate sub out on a mono connection and also has front and rear pre-outs in addition to that option.

so its not realy a bad unit at all..........HOWEVER,

the only exemption i can realy say is....there is no removable panel or face for security and so once its in..its in! so unless you got a fancy alarm or park in a safe place overnite....ur attracting unwanted attention.

the new ripspeed units try to be nice by solvingthis issue wiv a "cover".....but this doesnt realy help much...it'l stil then stik out a mile!

so ther ya have it...choice is urs!?
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: Mikester on 30 December 2007, 23:58
Yes, the unit it self as far as sound goes is good, BUT, fuctionality, the actual user interface, on the screen, and buttons, is so useless, you will end up pulling over to make a small adjustment.
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: BaxGTI on 31 December 2007, 15:28
A removable faceplate isn't really a concern to be honest, it spends 90% of it's time parked in a military base :P

We'll see how spending goes tonight, if it's not too bad I might invest in a decent-ish flipout instead..
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: ben44 on 31 December 2007, 17:33
just a warning for you, i got a £60 fine from the police for driving with my monitor up and it wasnt even playing anything!!!!
Title: Re: Are small screens worth while?
Post by: Uruk Hai on 02 January 2008, 21:14
Complete thread hijack I know  :rolleyes:  but what offence did the police say you had commited ?