Headrest Monitors
 

fancied doing this for a while, some very cheap kit around on ebay which will do the job, so with that in mind i went down to my local supplier to take a look (well, buy if possible) these headrests come in 3 shades Black, beige and grey, and while im happy with the tech, specially the 9" detachable touchscreen version, the "grey" colour is a few shades darker than my platinum interior.

choices are

a) Get someone to dye it (or do it myself) to the required colour (but the facia of the actual monitor will still be darker

b) go slightly different and do it in this style

Attachment 2986

the actual style im considering for this is one of these

Attachment 2987

its growing on me,

Just tried out one of these units, very good quality picture, responsive touchscreen, AVI, DivX among others and built in dvd

theres an attachment available which does the job of holding it to the headrest poles, and they unclip quickly and can be used elsewhere, wiring can still be mostly hidden, not quite as good as going down the centre of the poles but should be unoticable on the A8

what do you think , traditional or new style?

If you do not already have a rear entertainment pack, how much additional work is there to link in the power source?

I like the ones inside the headrest, but some are a bit of a pain if the people in the front tilt the headrest too far forwards.

I saw some that sat on a bracket from Audi, but as they were removeable they looked like a bit of an afterthought with a black casng and silver slide-in DVD monitors. I think they list it on the Q5 as an option if I remember rightly.

Power is simple, bring down through the seat and in to the centre console, take the power from the back of the cigar lighter.

change of plan, didnt buy the big ones, realised that they would be more difficult to cover and that the main user is a 13 month old baby who probably wont care if barney is shown in 7" or 9" so, today picked up 2 x 7" screens, they are a lot closer to the same size as the original a8 headrests and the "leather" part comes of.

I hope to change the outer part and replace it with the leather from my originals, not sure if this will work yet but if it does - it at least garantees the same colour.

the plan was/is to take the power leads out the bottom of the seat neatly up in to the centre console and grab 12V from the back of the cigar lighter.

had a quick check with my fingers earlier and a look inside from the rear cigar socket plate, its pretty tight at the sides, elsawin shows some kind of floor covering position rods holding it in place

damm these things are well built

have to explore it tommorow with a few tools and a torch

you pop off the 'wood' cover then there's a couple of torx screws to take the panel out.

You can also get decent access to the cables by popping out the tray above. Just remember that the lighter is permanent live, so you could short it, or potentially run the battery down if you forget to turn the screens off.

yes with the tray out and the wood plate off i can unscrew the lighter and quite easily get to the power theres a spade and a connector to unlug the lighter so i can do it safely

its more getting the wires in from the side in to the console so it cant be seen (much) i was thinking of,

looks like the black is positive so need to check that out to be sure.

its not permanant live though, when testing the units at the vendors this afternoon i had to put the key in the ignition to get it to work, taking the key out leaves power for about 5 minutes, suprised me i thought it was always live

Interesting.. maybe it's just the front one that is then :)

The carpet splits under the seats, so you could maybe run it up into the console that way.

my front one has never worked since ive had it. another thing to add to the list

will give it a try tomorow, be easier with the right tools and putting the seat forward - elsa says "Unclip floor covering rods from centre console", and shows four rods running from back to front, looks like it sticks the console to the carpet, hopefully should be able to get through without dismantalling the console.

these monitors will work "as is" they have a dvd integrated plus a sd card and a usb, so just need a hybrid tv linked up and a media player and im happy.

Well fitted them, didnt get a lot of time today so have fitted them in with wires coming out of seat, havent done the power yet, but tried them via the cigar lighter adapter.

cant say im over awed, not sure if its the colour shade not being right thats p**ssing me of or not. so will give them a test for a week or two, if i cant live with them they will go back on ebay and il have to rethink it.

now the hybrid tuner is in, im turning attention back to the headrest monitors, ive had them in a good few weeks and they were invaluable on the 13 hour trips to france and back, kept the baby quiet all the way there though i had barney and freinds in my ear instead. all in all im quite happy with them functionally.

on the way back i massacred a set of headphones and installed them in the babys car seat so now i cant hear it.

first thing is the colour, despite her indoors claiming that it wasnt noticable, it is very noticable, the headrests are much darker than my light grey, so ordered a light grey dye and tried it out today on one of the flaps, and the color match looks very good, so there is some hope. tommorow i will take the headrests covers of and dye them and see how they look in situ.

Psyche , the cigar lighter in the rear does cut of after a few minutes with the MMI, but there is a 3rd wire on the back of the socket that i presume does this. i have wired it up to the other 2 and so its always live. so have to remember to turn them off. i was also right about the polarity it is switched, the blue wire is positive rather than the red.

only thing i would say in retrospect (and i still want to do this) is the audi headrests have very long legs that clip in to position and are held there with a clip. these headrests legs are quite short so a couple of leghts of 14mm tubing is required with a cut in the place where the end position is. this stops them coming out or moving. (this may be different on cars with elec headrests (i havent) but i think its the same but you would need to leave some slack cable to allow movement. dont get me wrong they dont move much but it would be better.

So wiring plan is to stick the outs from the headrests in to aux 1 and aux 2 of the tuner, meaning i can watch either at the front and make it easier to control the systems with the remote. the out from the tuner which also got put in today will then feed both headrests so they can watch tv , seperate independant dvds, sd cards and usb's etc.

do you have any pictures of this ? Im very intrested and would like to see how you have come about doing this +++

its been ****ing down ever since i took the covers of to dye them, but i have managed to dye them now (though i ran out of dye for the second coat on one)
and have just put them back in.

still not finished but will post some before and after later today

Cool Look forward to seeing them +++

This is the before, headrests in grey, my interior is platinum grey, as far as im concerned very noticable difference, the camera isnt showing the difference to well the first shot looks nearer than it is and the 2nd a bit too much the other way

Attachment 3297

Attachment 3298


After a bit of light grey dye, they look much better (they are within a centimetre of being the same width as the audi originals, but for some reason of camera angles look a bit over sized in these shots)

Attachment 3299

im much happier with them now. they are not as elegant as the oem look headrests that i saw at the a8parts open day, but they are very functionable able to each take their own SD card, USB stick and DVD /VCD variations and on the plus side cost £149 instead of £1200, they also have a zip cover (not yet dyed) to hide them complely

if i didnt leave the car on the street each night i may have opted for the slightly different version for £250, bit more functionality , bigger screen.

Wow im so impressed with that ! i would be more than happy to pay you double that to do mine if you fancy it +++

So was there any cutting involved then or is that an illusion ? they look very close to oem
is it these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2X-7-LCD-C...#ht_6257wt_932
?

no its not those its these

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2X-7-Car-H...item2c6205b6ec


no cutting required, comes as shown in the pics. the "leather " surround comes off anyway, as does the screen at the front, if you have a black interior theres really nothing to do,

Oh i see now they are actually a pair of head rests, my mistake i thought they were just screens and that you had installed them onto you headrests,

so do they fit well ? and can you still adjust the electric head rest up and down ?
and with the FM transmitter i guess that the car radio picks up the signal and is able to play the sound through the bose, can you use the screens in tandum ?

i quite like the 9" ones too they look tidy http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-9-Car-...ht_9083wt_1084
did you run the power and video cables inside the seat itself ?
and did you run the wires under the carpet too the boot ?

so do they fit well ? and can you still adjust the electric head rest up and down ?
they fit well, but i dont have elec headrest, i think that you will defo need some 18mm pole to extend the headrest poles down to the bar, im going to do it when i find some poles as well, but you will defo need them or the elec headrest wont work.

and with the FM transmitter i guess that the car radio picks up the signal and is able to play the sound through the bose,
yes it seemed to work ok, i havent used it and i guess when traveling you may need to change channels a few times.as below though if you connect to aux sockets you get better sound through the bose. also i got some IR headphones. or you can connect normal headphones to the headphone jack on the front of the unit

can you use the screens in tandum ?
you can , each headset has a video and audio in and out, so you could connect them together, I have opted to take the outs to the AUX1 and 2 of the tuner, and use the ins for connecting to the tuner out which will give me TV in the back
i quite like the 9" ones too they look tidy http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2-x-9-Car-...ht_9083wt_1084

i had a look at the 9" ones, and they are quite a big bigger than the oem hrests, i thought too big, didnt look quite right, these are within a few millimetres of the oem

did you run the power and video cables inside the seat itself ?
yes the cables are already set in the poles so go easily through the chair.

and did you run the wires under the carpet too the boot ?

i havent yet thats the next thing on the list, i bought them over to the console and tucked them in , but they will go under the carpet under the back seat and in to the boot

Ah i see, so they will work but i will have to make some minor alterations to get them to work,

i thought the electric up and down headrests are standard ?

no they will work, its just a matter of where you plug them in, if you dont want tv in, then they work as soon as you power them up, no need for any connections other than power (which at the moment i have plumbed in to the rear cigar socket inside the console , but all the cables are there and fitted if you want to use them. if not just hide them inside the seat back.

i used some tie wraps in the seat (not tied to anything but it keeps the wires in place, you would need to leave some slack for the elec hreats to move

leccy h/rests are probably standard on a W12, but not on mine, shouldnt be a problem, you will see the bar that i presume is the elec up down bit, when you take the seat back off, as long as you fashion some 18mm loles to extend the 10mm ones it should clip in and work

will let you know when ive found some and the exact measurements , but the measurements should be about the same as the oem ones give or take a cm

Now that is a cool and reasonably priced mod IMHO.

Some questions:

1. Is there any reason why this wouldn't work in a D2?
2. If you only want to use for games, DVDs and SD card, is the only connection you need to a power source?
3. The ones that Guy identified included wireless headphones that look like a pretty good idea. What are the pros and cons of each system?
4. I gather that the headrest covers are not leather. How good/tacky are they?

Thanks - Jim

1 - No
2 - Yes
3 - Wireless headphones - Mean isolated from main stereo. FM transmitter means everyone listens. If you go with headphones, then both headrest systems are completely seperate from the rest of the car.
4 - No sure :)

1. No they should work in any car.
2. Yes, Just the power is required, or you can connect the ins and outs to each other and i believe you can play against each other in 2 player games, i havent tried it though
3. I was lucky that one of the ebay sellers was near me in leeds so was able to go down there and take all the different types out of the box and see it in the car.

the 9" ones definetly look too big for my liking, those 7" one guy found look to have the same functionality, though seems quite wide on padding at the sides, i would measure the width of the oems ansee how it stacks up against these.

4. they are not leather, black is definetly the best colour, the "leather" grain is a little larger than my oem leather interior, but doesnt notice now ive dyed them the same colour, certainly not tacky, just not as elegant as the oem monitors (but you dont get the functionality with the oems)

If the dye had not looked right my next option would have been to take the oem covers of and replace these headrests with the oem. i did a quick test to see if they would fit, and they would if you cut of some excess padding at each side, so worse case i knew i would have to cut the foam out and place the original covers over.

The wireless headphones are £12 each and the foldup quite nicely, and as psyche says everyone else doesnt have to hear it or you can use ipod headphones in the headphone jack at the front of the unit.

i have an old set of headphones that i cut up and fitted to the child seat (as she wont wear the earphones yet, i use that so i cant hear barney repeated over and over.

i have to say though all the inputs are there , if you have a tuner why not pump tv in the back headrests

i drove from leeds to warrington yesterday across the M62, had tv on all the way (not watching obviosly, i put the nav map on, but could hear it, so i would know if there was a loss of signal) and i reckon it worked perfectly about 95% of the journey, didnt like the above 1000ft much , but i was very impressed.

so how do i code the Tv to work on the move ? whats the coding for it and where do i do it,
also i was going to say do you have a guide of how to take the back off the seats, and also i have quad zone climate control so how do i get into there for power ? i noticed you just have a panel with the cig lighter socket ?

would love to install this instead and leave the head rests well alone http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CR1502-15-...ht_7961wt_1028

but how hard would that be to install do you think ? how do you run the cables in the roof lining ect ?

would have to pay some one to fit it i think

I fitted a roof mounted monitor to a vehicle years ago, not too difficult but you do have to remove a lot of the interior trim to route the wiring. Also make sure you have enough headroom as these monitors can be 2"-3" deep

well i was thinking with the size it could be mounted between the front seats if you know what i mean ?

TV on the move is easy, you need vagcom and a code generator to get the coding, all available easily, but i think if you use the tv out to the rear headrests you dont ned to code for tv in motion. (unless you want it at the front as well)

for the power you can still get in there just a bit more fiddly but im going to move mine anyway, im going to take the power leads in to the rear with the av leads, and use the small fuse box on the left hand side, if you use the right fuse on here the power will go off with the MMi instead of the constant live you get from the back of the cigar lighter, which means after you take the key out of the ignition power to the MMi will remain for 5 minutes only then shut down, just incase someone leaves them on and runs the battery down.

each headrest has its own fuse already built in, so shouldnt be a problem, i ran my old freeview tuner from here for a year without problems

the seat backs are quite easy, i looked on elsa and then found mine was different of course, there is a top part and a bottom, top of first with between 4 and 6 "poppers" you need a long flat blade screw driver to make it easy, just put the blade in the right place and twist , once you know where they are its quite easy. and it goes back easily.

i would think a lot easier than putting in a roof monitor and all the trim that that entails.

ive seen one other option - its a monitor on an arm that fits neatly on to the centre console, has the same sort of functionalty as the headrests. lot of bmw's have this type as oem. personally i would prefer this to a roof monitor

That sounds good i will have a look for one of those and see what they look like instead of the roof mounted one,

do you have etka handy ?

this the sort of thing, i think there quite a few on amazon

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8-5-Center...item1e68c9ebb6

i quite like that i think that would look quite good actually

i saw a piccy of one in an a8 a few days ago, cant remember where , will take a look

Getting behind the climate controls is easy..

Pop off the wood surround, then there's two torx screws. The whole panel pivots out from the top then drops down.

Not an awful lot of space in there :)

Hi All,
Has anyone tried this with electric headrests?

Ray