My Headrest Monitors Install

[pangpang77]

Hello all. As part of my attempt to "build" myself a Premium as I was not able to find one with the Black/Bourbon combo, my step 2 after the power rear sunshade was to do a Headrest Monitor install. The factory "Premium" would have come with an overhead monitor. When test driving one (different color), I felt the overhead monitor was a bit close to the rear passengers. The other downside was only one monitor for currently 2 kids I have.

I therefore started to think through what I wanted. Factory headrest monitors were a given. However, because I have the Advanced Tech, I already have a DVD player in the center console. I first did the DVD/Nav Hack and installed the switch in the cupholder (I'll take some pics next time.).

Fundamentally, I wanted as close to the factory setup as possible. So I wanted to keep the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound (which is amazing by the way).

Next, I checked that there were a few companies that offered factory matched headrest DVD/monitors for the M35. Vizualogic, Myron and Davis, Invision Industries, and Savv. Because I have the Bourbon interior, Vizualogic was not an option as they did not offer the color. Myron and Davis have the Bourbon with DVD players built-in, but unfortunately only offer the RF modulation as a sound option, not quite up to snuff for me. Plus, they only offer one input other than the DVD on the front of the screen.

Invision Industries has some nice units, check it out at http://www.invisionindustries.com , but they can only be installed through dealers and similar to M&D only one input and need to use RF modulation for sound.

So I've settled for Savv with monitors only. I then am working with an installer to tap into the video and audio out of the DVD player and pipe that to the screens. I'll let you know if we're successful. The plan is to do it this Saturday.

Anyway, below are some pics. The whole setup comes with factory matched headrests (very close match), remotes, headphones (the screens send the sound to the headphones if desired). It has a control box and will allow me to have one additional input such as the iphone or Wii/PS3, etc.

Savv headrests compared with factory headrest. Notice the covers (great for security).







Contents in the box:


Control box:


Driver's seat with factory headrest:


With Savv headrest monitor:



From the back comparing the two headrests:



With the cover:



From the front (looks factory)



Showing the tilt mechanism (it has a 3-step tilt). THe headrest is actually more upright and more comfortable than the factory. THe most tilted setting is similar to the factory tilt.



Will keep you posted as we install it on Saturday.

[batmobile]

nice!

[pangpang77]

Ok, I finally took my car to the installer today. They're in Union, NJ and their website is http://www.installations-unlimited.com. The main installer Tom was great to work with. He's the lead Tech Engineer for the company that has over 30 installation sites for car dealers.

I printed a bunch of pages from the FSM which he told me helped him out tremendously. Long story short, it worked! He tapped into pin 20 of the factory DVD for video and pins 27 and 28 for audio left and audio right. He installed the controller box under the rear passenger seat and wired everything from there to/through the center console.

I can now use the factory controls to control video into all three screens. With the DVD/Nav hack, I can turn off the front screen once I've set it up for the kids in the back (mostly before I leave my driveway). There is some slight distortion given that the video signal needs to drive three screens now, for which I may take it back to add a video amplifier, but it's not unbearable. We tested the headphones and they worked. He also pulled an RCA cable into the glove compartment so I can hook up an iPhone to input2 on the controller box so that each headrest can play from its own source or the iPhone can play video on both monitors through the headphones while I listen to a CD in the front or my wife can watch a different DVD up front.

I may also add a power inverter with USB charging in the bottom of the center console: http://www.invertersrus.com/powerbrightcw-150.html and have two 3-RCA input jacks to hook into the factory AUX as well as the Savv controller box. This will allow me to charge the iPhone as well as choose which input to go in. But this is all something I may or may not add in the future.

Anyway, here are the pics of the install. Sorry there weren't as many in the beginning as I was not allowed into the shop floor for insurance reasons.































Shop floor with a wicked orange Challenger SRT-8 6.1 there having the "winter" 20-inch factory tires being put in. The lady who owns it spent 6-7K on these black 22s with custom orange stripes painted on the rims!

[pangpang77]

I took back my car to address/add a few things to my setup:

1) As I was getting video distortion on both the factory screen and headrest monitors, I purchased a Pyle Video Amplifier and had it installed

2) I wanted a more seamless integration of playing music/videos through the iPhone/iPod. So I: a. Purchased a Pro-Clip mount specific for the M and iPhone holster, b. Purchased an A/V cable by i.Sound that works with the latest 3.0 firmware for the iPhone, c. Had two RCA jacks installed inside the armrest, where the top one taps into the factory AUX jacks, so I don't need to have wires exposed and hooked up to the back of the armrest, and where the bottom jack taps into A/V input 2 on the headrest monitor control box. This allows me to play the factory DVD on one input into the headrest monitors and the iPhone onto a second input to the headrest monitors, so the two headrests can have two different video sources.

3) I added 3000k yellow fog HIDs which I'll share some pics in a separate thread

Here are some pics:

The RCA jacks, the video amp, the HID Kit, and a 12 Volt jack I decided not to put in and decided to just hard-wire the power from the iPhone.



The Pro-Clip mount and holster, and my wife's old 2G iPhone (which has now become my kids dedicated iPod Touch with no phone service)



The iPhone mounted and my Blackberry Storm (for those with a storm, Arkon makes a great dash mounted holster, had to get it since in NJ it's illegal to use the windshield suction cup).



The Pyle Video Amp added. It was around $20. The installer at Installations-Unlimited.com applied the amp only to the additional signal line he pulled for the rear monitors and left the factory line as is. This solved the video distortion problem on all three screens.



The two RCA jacks installed in the center armrest. The top is tapped into the factory AUX, and the bottom is tapped to AV2 of the Headrest Monitor control box. This allows two video sources for the headrest monitors. (Eventually I'd like to install Flo TV, http://www.flotv.com, Sirius Mobile TV, or an HDTV mobile tuner.)



The great thing about the i.Sound Cable Works iPhone A/V cable purchased here:

http://www.amazon.com/i-Sound-...r=8-1

is that it also works with any other mobile device. Reason being, both the USB power and the A/V cable are plugged into a main iPhone style plug. So I'm able to remove the A/V plug and connect it to my Blackberry Storm, and I can play MP3s in my phone as well as use the iPhone.



iPhone connected to the i.Sound cable (pretty neat blue LED comes on)



You can clearly see two sources, one from the Factory DVD and one from the iPhone:



Another pic showing two sources.



The Pro-Clip in case someone wants to know what it looks like. With this mount, and plus I need the video capability as well, it didn't make sense for me to get one of those integrated kits from Peripheral/PAC as none of those kits do video as of now:



The Arkon mount for the Blackberry Storm in case anyone is interested:





All in all, a pretty clean install like I wanted. Other than the bit of wire near the Pro-Clip mount, everything else is pretty much hidden. I can easy access the iPhone screen with the mount and play music/videos as needed.