What to look for in your Car DVD Player

Viewing time per charge

There's nothing worse than running out of charge, just as your movie is getting interesting. Make sure whichever in-car player you opt for has a healthy lifespan, a rechargeable battery, and preferably includes a charger.

Another thing that's worth thinking about is how easy it is to get a spare battery for the player your're thinking about. You can usually find these online, or by contacting the manufacturer directly.

Is it compatible with your headrest monitors?

If you've got some swanky headrest DVD monitors then you're going to want to have a player that's compatible with this. Unfortunately this isn't usually included in the spec. It's worth checking in-store or online to make sure that the plugs will fit, and if you'll need anything extra.

Shock protection!

The problem with DVD systems is that they're a little on the delicate side. The slightest bump, pothole or sleeping policeman and the kids will be complaining that the DVD just skipped back to the start. So it's important to check that the player has some form of ESP (Electronic Shock Protection) to keep things running smoothly.

What do you want to play?

While most of us will be content to play regular DVDs, there's a lot more types of content you might want to play when you're out on the move. Thankfully, most systems today are capable of playing DVDs, CDs, recordable DVDs and JPEGs (should you really want to look at pics). But it's worth checking up on what formats your new player supports.

Is it DivX compatible?

If you haven't heard of DivX before, it's a highly popular movie compression format. And if you're going to be downloading movies from the web then chances are they'll be in this format. If this is something you're going to be doing, check your player can handle DivX. If it can, you won't need to burn the video to DVD prior to watching it. You can just copy the file to DVD (which is a lot faster!)