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Tricked out and plugged in

Video screens have become almost standard equipment in family SUVs and minivans. Parents say the onboard entertainment makes long trips bearable.

By CHASE SQUIRES
Published February 22, 2005

[Times photo: Bill Serne]

Luke Adams, 5, left, and Jack Adams, 7, of St. Petersburg watch one of the three video screens in their family's Cadillac SUV. "This has made the trips a lot better, for them and for me," says dad Rob Adams.

The blue glow of a video screen illuminates the rear window of an SUV on the evening commute across the Howard Frankland bridge.

A gaggle of children in a TV commercial order the salesman to drive around while they "test drive" a minivan's DVD player in the back seat.

A carmaker releases a list of the most popular DVDs to watch on road trips.

And just like that, it seems video-to-go is the rule instead of the exception.

Get used to it.

Gone are the days when only professional football players could afford to squeeze a home theater system in the car. Video screens, for DVDs or navigation, are available factory installed this year in 381 new car models, and screenmakers expect $935-million in combined factory and aftermarket sales this year, up nearly 20 percent from 2004, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.

"I feel sorry for the eighth-grader who doesn't have a TV in the car. He's probably an outcast," joked Chris Bradley at Blvd. Customs in Pinellas Park.

Bradley's family started their auto customizing company 10 years ago with window tinting, stereos and custom wheels. Five years ago, the client list for video screens was mostly limited to professional athletes, he said.

Then, the explosion.

"In the past two, maybe three, years, it's become the status quo," Bradley said. "It added a whole new client base for us: women. They're the ones doing all the driving. They bring the kids in here, they check out all this equipment. Now, you find the soccer mom right next to a football player next to a doctor. And even if it's a little bit out of their range, they spend what they need to."

This year, business continues to accelerate, he said. The shop averages more than one custom video installation per day. Electronics marketer Best Buy advertises an overhead car DVD player on sale for $399, without installation, and Bradley said his custom jobs, which include secure mounting plates and tucking all wiring out of view, start at about $1,500.

At the high end, prices can reach $25,000.

St. Petersburg mom Leah Adams, one of Bradley's regulars, is a believer. Her family started with a portable TV/VCR combination she plugged into her Suburban's power jack. With the next SUV, she went for a ceiling-mounted flip-down DVD player. This year, with two boys and a husband who takes the crew on regular four-hour road trips, there are two screens in the back seat of her Cadillac SUV and another in the front passenger seat sun visor.

The visor screen is also rigged for television reception.

"I have two boys (ages 5 and 7), and they each want to do different things. They can play their video games, they have their own DVD players, their own headsets," she said.

Her husband, Rob, remembered his childhood road trips. There wasn't much to do in the back of the family station wagon.

"We had a deck of cards and a flashlight," he said. "This has made the trips a lot better, for them and for me. Now they just ask, "How long is the trip? Is it one movie or two?' And they're quiet the whole way. It's as much for me as it is for them."

As the driver, he entertains himself with satellite radio while everyone else is plugged into their own programming.

Leah Adams said her family isn't alone.

"It's becoming standard to have more extras in your car. It's become an extension of our home," she said. "It seems like when you pull into the car pool lane at school, almost every large SUV or minivan has one. It's become more of a convenience for the mothers not to have to deal with fighting, screaming kids. We enjoy our own music or quiet."

She said her family leaves the screens off on short trips, taking advantage of the time to talk with one another, a sentiment echoed by parents in the pickup line at Hillsborough's Charlie Walker Middle School. There were plenty of video-outfitted vehicles on a recent afternoon, but the screens were dark.

One mother, Lori McGrath, said her family considered equipping her minivan but decided against it.

"We spend too much time trying to get them off the TV to put one in the car," she said. "It's too much."

Among the minivans and SUVs in the line, she was in the minority. Even principal Marc Hutek has a DVD player in his SUV, parked in front of the school.

Ruth Peters, a Clearwater child psychologist, said there's nothing wrong with plugging the kids into the DVD player, but parents should strive for balance. Families need to communicate, too, and sometimes that drive to or from school is the only chance for children and parents to talk.

Peters, an authority on parenting who makes regular appearances on NBC's Today show, said she understands possible objections to the DVD players, but she also raised two children and understands the perspectives of harried parents and bored children.

"I've kind of waffled back and forth. When my own kids were young, we kind of made our own (entertainment center) with a television set we'd plug into the cigarette lighter for long trips," she said. "With families of two or three kids where it's the only way to keep it down to a dull roar on long trips, it's a good idea.

"What I have a problem with is people who just plug in their kids on the way to the school or the store every day," she said. "There's a time and a place for everything."

Family communication isn't the only worry. There's also concern that drivers - some seem to have difficulty talking on a cell phone or working the radio knobs and driving at the same time - now have another distraction. Florida law forbids video screens to be visible from the driver's seat while the car is in gear, but Bradley admitted it's not hard for motorists to disable internal electronic safeguards. And the penalty, should you get caught, is a mere $30 fine.

A driver in Alaska last year was charged with second-degree murder after he was involved in a fatal crash and police found a dashboard DVD player in his car. He was acquitted.

Matt Sundeen, a researcher with the National Conference of State Legislatures, said states are challenged by developments in the electronics industry. Old laws don't fit new technology, he said.

In 2001, the hot issue was drivers with cell phones. Last year, states ended up investigating the problem of drivers watching pornographic videos, he said.

"Anything that you can do in your home or in your office, you can do in your car, too," he said. "The last one or two years, we've seen a real broadening issue of driver distraction. The technology is just growing exponentially. Legislators are struggling to keep up with that."

Megan Pollock, communications manager for the Consumer Electronics Association, said back seat DVD setups can make driving safer.

"We've actually found it's great for parents because you have quiet children in the back seat," she said. "They're not talking or arguing. We see a lot of positive reasons for having them."

Pollock said she's seeing a growing move to video downloads through pay-for-play satellite radio networks, and Bradley noted that DirecTV has started offering a car-top satellite receiver that uses tracking technology and tiny motors to stay tuned to the orbiting satellites.

Motorists could get up to 200 channels, including pay-per-view and NFL football packages, beamed right to the car, he said.

Still to come: "They've got these thin keyboards, wireless networking, and everything you could do on your home computer or in the office, you do in the car: e-mail, Internet, Windows, everything," he said. "That's the next big thing."

-- Chase Squires can be reached at 727 893-8739 or squires@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 21, 2005, 16:31:02]