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(More customer reviews)We bought the Alpine PKG-RSE2 DVD player for our 1997 Chevy Astro AWD, specifically for a family road trip from Wisconsin to Florida in February 2009.
Before buying the player we did a lot of research online and in stores. At one point we actually purchased a different model (not from Alpine) at a local store. I'd commented to the salesperson while we were purchasing it that I was concerned the screen was too small and the picture wasn't incredibly good (but the price was about $100 less than the Alpine). His actual response: "Well, what do you expect? It's not an Alpine." Ugh.
That night, after purchasing the lesser model I kept thinking over what the salesguy said. In the morning I decided it was ridiculous to get such a low-end model just to save a relatively small amount of money. We returned the DVD player that day, and bought a new Alpine online from one of the sellers through Amazon. The seller we bought it from was selling it new for $499 (January 09). I see the price from current sellers has shot up again (June 09) but I suspect if you shop around/wait a bit you can find a similar price.INSTALLATION
The instructions that come with the player aren't very clear which made installation fairly frustrating. My husband is extremely handy with cars and electronics, and it still took him about 6 hours to install the player, so keep that in mind if you're installing it yourself. It's likely you can find a local electronic store or car shop to install it for you if you don't want to tackle it on your own.PICTURE & SOUND
Once my husband installed it he and I hopped in the back seats and put in a movie. The picture is excellent and the screen is huge. The sound - through the car speakers and/or through the wireless headphones is terrific.
It came with one set of wireless headphones. We purchased 3 extra sets of headphones, so all 4 of our kids had a set. They range in age from 6-11, and none had problems handling the headphones, keeping them on their heads or manipulating the volume control. The only time the headphones didn't work well was when I tried one from the front seat. Apparently you need to be facing the front of the player (meaning, sitting in any of the back seats) for them to work well. I bought the 3 extra sets of headphones on another website as I couldn't find them currently for sale on Amazon. If you buy headphones make sure they work with the player. As far as I can tell, the only ones that work with the PKG-RSE2 are the headphones called Alpine SHS-N103.
You can easily view the picture from the middle bucket seats and the back bench seat. We were concerned the kids wouldn't be able to see the picture from the far back because well, they're kids and kind of short, but it turned out they could view movies with no problems.
We set up the DVD player so the sound comes through on FM station 88.1, and set that station as one of the defaults in the van. We've heard no static at all when using the radio as speakers for a movie. You can have sound coming through the speakers or through the headphones, or through both the speakers and headphones at the same time. You can also have the headphones on and have the radio playing other stations.SCREEN
A button on the player pop-unlocks the screen. Once it's unlocked you can pull it down for viewing. I'd advise anyone with this player to make sure the screen is closed before anyone in the back gets out...we've had a couple kids conk their heads on the screen when exiting the van. The screen appears to be well-made and strong, and the few head-conks it's gotten haven't affected it. (Sorry about your heads, kids!)
The screen can be pulled down to about a 95- or 100-degree angle for viewing. It can't be pivoted to the left or right, but this has caused no issues. We've had no complaints of kids not being able to see the screen, even in bright sunlight.CONTROLS
DVDs load in a slot that faces the back of the van. There is a fairly large On/Off button and Eject button on either side of the slot, a dome light switch, and an Open button that when pressed, unlocks the screen so you can pull it down. Once you figure out where each of these buttons is you can press them from the front with little problem, so you can handle most of the major controls without needing the kids' help. There's also a Menu/Select button underneath the DVD slot. This one works fine but you can really only use it if you're sitting in a seat facing the player.
There are dome lights on either side of the player. They are fairly bright. We don't use them, however, as the van has a lot of other overhead lights. If you 'lose' some lights when installing the player the ones on the player should suit you well.
The DVD player also comes with a remote which works pretty well from the front seats -- you just have to point it towards the player. We rarely use this but when we have it works fine.
The awesome button is the 'Mommy Button' (I've also read this called the 'Mum Button') on the other side of the DVD player -- the side facing the front of the vehicle. The Mommy Button is a Play/Pause button there which is great when you want to stop the movie and get the kids' attention. There's also an FM button facing the front seats that allows you to toggle whether the movie sound comes through the speakers or not. If you're ever driving and FM radio stations are suddenly coming through staticky, chances are you need to press the FM button. If you're trying to hear a movie through your speakers, you're sure you have the right radio station on (and you're sure the player is hooked up correctly) chances are you need to press the FM button.
When we turn off the van, whatever video is playing stops. As soon as the ignition is turned back on the movie starts up again exactly where it left off. My husband said there is way to wire the DVD player so movies can keep playing off the car battery when the car isn't on, but he didn't hook it up that way -- personally I'm glad about that because I could see us accidentally draining the battery if we were able to watch movies when the van wasn't running.OBSTRUCTION IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR
The screen is 10.2"...amazingly big for a vehicle. Because of this we were expecting to be mostly using our side mirrors when DVDs were playing. The DVD player is mounted high, and it turned out that the driver can easily see out of the rear view mirror with little problem. There is some obstruction -- when the screen is down it blocks 1/3-1/2 of the center of the rear view mirror, but it hasn't caused any real difficulties seeing.
One of the pieces of mounting hardware -- the only piece we didn't use -- would have made the DVD player sit lower. Not using this extra piece may not be optional when you install the DVD player, so more of your rear view may be blocked. If you're not already, become friends with your side mirrors.SKIPPING
The kids watched numerous videos down and back from Florida, and have watched many since. Of all the movies, of all the literal bumps in the roads we've driven on, we've had maybe 4 or 5 times where a movie has 'skipped' for a second. I say 'skip', although the movie doesn't actually skip. What happens is the screen goes blue for a moment, then the picture and sound come back on in the same spot it left off. I don't think one 'skip' has occurred from driving conditions...I'm not sure if it's because there was a scratch on the DVD, if the player loses the signal for a second occasionally or what. Frankly, we're not worried about it. Occurrences haven't increased over time, and it probably happens once out of every 6 or so hours of viewing. It hasn't bothered the kids because they know the show will be back on in a few seconds.WORTH THE MONEY?
The DVD player was an absolute godsend for our road trip, which included at least 50 hours of driving in an one-and-a-half week time frame. I don't think we heard one "Are we there yet?" during the trip. The great kid movies kept the kids in really good moods, and also helped by giving them 'breaks' from one another during the drive. Sometimes we'd tell them all to use the headphones so we could listen to the radio, and all we'd hear out of them for an hour and a half is occasional laughs during a movie. Amazing! The kids remarked at 'how fast' we got down to (and back from) Florida.
If you're going to go through the expense and trouble of having a third-party DVD player installed, it seems to make sense to get one that's going to work well and make everyone happy. If it's in your budget, the Alpine PKG-RSE2 is a great player to get.
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