Okay so I'm a rookie when it comes to what makes a car DVD player good or not. I am talking about the player only not a screen.

When I am comparing 2 different models, is there anything that would make me believe that one will have a better quality picture than the other.

I have seen cheep ISO mount players for $99.00 and expensive ones for $500.00. These are just for the player. What makes one cost more than the other besides name? My guess is that the more expensive one is due to it's brand name and higher quality parts which may make it last longer. But will it have a better quality picture? I know it may also have more features like Dolbly digital and DTS decoding, but I'm not worried about those things. I am only worried about picture quality and video noise elimination.

Also, when I see that one has a 24 bit digital to analog converter and one has a 32 bit, what exactly does that mean?

I am just curious and want to know if paying the extra money will really get me anything. Please help.

 

Higher D/A converter is better for quality. The number basically represents the resolution the data is converted.

I would only worry about dolby digitial if you were running a 5.1 setup. Other than that, I wouldnt worry about it.

With respect to brand name, yes you are gonna pay a little more for them.
Since this will be used for your car, make sure the unit has good shock absorbing qualities among some sort of read buffer. This is pretty much the extent of what I know.

Hope it helps.

 

Thanks that is helpful.

When you say better quality is that video or audio quality?

Here are my choices:

Keep the Boss DVD 3700 (paid $99.00)which I am actually having some issues with so I will need to send it in to get repaired if I keep it.

or buy one of the 2 below and return the BOSS.

Alpine 5210 about $400.00

Pioneer SDV-P7 about $350.00

My biggest concern is paying a lot more and not getting anything beneficial from it. Any thoughts? GF

 

You gotta remember there are only so many companies that build transports and pickups. I can tell you that the majority of cheaper players are built by the same people. Get the cheaper player if you don't mind the cosmetics of the unit. I've installed plenty of cheaper units in vehicles without any problems in my past employement.

 

I understand they are all made in only a few places. but I have already had problems with the cheaper player and wonder if it is cause it is a cheaper player or did I just get a bad one? Do the more expensive ones have better parts and converters?

 

Take this with a grain of salt. Most $99 units are a waste of money, cheap parts and poor build quality = problems with the unit. 99% of the cars out there with video systems a dvd player in the $200 to $250 range will work fine. As a tip get one with last scene memory so you don't loose your spot in the movie when you stop to get gas.

 

Renami,

A huge part of me agrees with you. I need a unit that will play DVD -R format, is less than 6.5 inches deep and will mount as an ISO mount.

Any ideas?

 

if it were up to me, i'd get the cheaper one.
Even if it were to last 1 year, you can buy 5 of them before you can buy 1 expensive unit.

I've had the FD5tv unit from mp3playerstore.com for almost a year and really no problems. It crashes sometimes but only when playing mpeg rips off a DVD-R, most mpeg's work fine though. And it does have last-scene memory as well as a TV-Tuner so you can watch TV in your car

All that for $139 (might be cheaper now)

 

6.5"? Where are you trying to mount it?

 

I have a cheaper DVD player in my car (installed under my passenger seat) and I have no issues with it. It never skips though its only velcro'd to the carpet and not bolted down. Other than it not playing early in the morn (when its 32 degrees or cooler), its all good. I paid $100 or so. http://www.blackmoremobile.com/products/BDP-330.cfm That's mine.

Just Curious... where do you plan on putting yours screen(s).