Hi All,

I am new to this Forum, so pardon anything that is not in line with the etiquette of this site.

I have a 2010 RX350, I am trying to figure out how to wire in a rear seat entertainment (the ones that replace the factory headrests. I have a friend who just got his with them installed and it seems like they are wired through the center console.

My question is: is it worth getting them in the headrests (or any suggestions of an alternative), and how do you remove the center console to get power to them?

Thank you for any feedback you can provide.

 

the center console comes apart very easily. If you look for some posts about the Nav Override installations you will see how the front half comes apart. At some point you will have to figure out how to get them through the seats to get to the head rests.

 

The better option IMO is just to get a portable media like ipad with earphones/headphones. Cheaper option too.

 

I don't know how technical you are, but I would pick up a couple of nice tablets and drive the media to them from a laptop with a Bluray drive. The tablets can have their own apps and games. They can be be used in and out of the car. This would be a much more powerful and flexible setup. I have all of these items just sitting around my house ... you may also. If you want the system to look more permanent, you can buy tablet mounts that fasten to the headrests/seat backs.

 

I put a pair of video monitors and wireless headphones in my Daughters Toyota. And I put in a Sirius back Seat TV receiver.

http://www.siriusxm.com/backseattv

She didnt have Sirius already. So she got radio upfront. The kids in the back get Disney, Nickledeon or Cartoon Network.

No need to change discs. Just change the channel upfront.

It also has a Aux input if you want to hook up a portabel DVD player.

 

we skipped the DVDs in our new 2012 RX and bought $25 bracket that holds an to the headrest neatly... no wires, 10 hours of battery... we use ipads in the back which was half the cost of impeded dvd players

 

Saw a new gizmo coming out at CES that lets you stream to 2 monitors from your iPhone/ipad.

 

we went with iPads and a mount from TouCoul: http://toucoul.com/products/coulvue-for-ipad-2

Works great for movies on iPad and also the mount allows "extending" capabilities to either have one extend sideways for two kids to share or extend toward the child so he/she can play apps and other stuff on the iPad.

Good luck on whatever you choose! We decided the expense of RES wasn't worth it when compared to other items that could get use in scenarios other than back seat video (e.g. iPad).

 

HI All,

Thank you for the replies. I do have a couple of iPad's that my kid have taken over and are more their "angry birds" machines rather than what i originally thought of using them for.

I do like the idea of the rear seat entertainment, but for the price that the dealership wants, i say "no way".

My background is car stereo installation and auto customization...so I have done some really wicked stuff on cars in the past (including entering my own 89 Honda CRX in the the houston auto show competition).

With that said...I have come up with an interesting idea:
I purchased the Power Acoustik HDVD-9 system from Amazon (~$550) and I have over the weekend taken the DVD player out of it and removed the headrest. The problem is that the color does not match as well as I would like.

So I am reaching out to my old contacts and looking at either dying or re doing the headrest in the correct leather color to match, then simply putting them back on the headread body and viola - color matched, Awesome quality and large size DVD players for the RX350!

The DVD player is super easy to remove, just not obvious if you have ever done car stereo instaltion on LCD panes before.

So I will post pictures of this process on this thread to show other RX350 owners who may want to attempt this too!

 

Hi Riz069

You mentioned the color of the headrest did not exactly match the leather in your RX, what color is your interior? I am looking at the same setup from Amazon.

 

There was a detailed DIY installation posted here about the headrest DVD. I tried to search for it but got lazy afterwards.

 

Well, here it is.

 

Hi GraniteRX,

The interior color on mine is Grey. The ones I got were from Amazon (~$550) they were a slightly darker shade of grey then the Lexus ones from the dealership (by Invision), but the dealership wants $2995 for them (and there is no missing decimal in that number!). I am attaching a picture showing the difference in color, its probably acceptable, but it would have bugged me to keep seeing the different shades of grey on the seats.

I cant seem to attach picture, but I will try to send it to you.

Good luck

 

make the picture smaller most likely.

 

Riz069-
Was the Invision system for the RX at the dealer similiar headrest monitors or attachments to the headrests?