This any good for £99 guys - saw it in my local halfords at that price yesterday....?

Ripspeed DVD733B DVD/CD/MP3 Player from Halfords Price £149.99 New

Tempted to put it in my Fabia vRS......if it has video in then surely it would be possible to hook up a freeview box? I know it plays DVD video and has USB/Line-in....

Cheers,

Dan

The widely held view seems to be that Halford's own brand "ripspeed" stereos are cheaply made and of poor quality - although I have never owned one myself. Could be worth a punt, and I assume there'd be little hassle getting a refund from Halfords if it didn't turn out to meet your needs - but I'd be looking for something from a known brand like Pioneer myself.

For freeview - at standstill this for £30 would probably do Home of Mirror TVs, gadgets, electronic items, televisions and fitness equipment but a freeview box that's likely to work at motorway speeds will cost quite a bit more In-Car DVB-T Receiver > Maplin) Dual Antenna DVB-T In Car Digital Freeview TV Tuner £199.00 - in-car-stuff.com - Car Alarms & Security, Car Audio, In Car DVD, In Car TV, Speakers, Subwoofers, UK and Ireland delivery

Edited 4 October, 200817 yr by anewman

I've heard the same about the ripspeed stuff..... But saying that i must say i do like that actual unit as i think it has some good looks and doesn't look too chavvy...... And as said at £99 not too much of a risk if all turns out to be as bad as thought as you'd still get most of your money back from selling it on.

Cheers

Dave.

freeview doesn't work very well, been there and done that.

you'd need special aerials(i have them in my car) that have multiple aerials for both sides and possibly the back/front to stop signal shadows and then really you want a twin tuner reciever so that it backs up the signal to try and stop juttering but it still won't work properly. even the most expensive proper car ones aren't perfect and cost hundreds. simply put don't bother but playing dvd's etc is well worth it

There's a few different refurbed ones here All Brands from Garmin, Ripspeed at Ripspeed  

Some people at AV forum's have tried it:

Does anyone own an in-car On Digital freeview box? - AVForums.com

They seem to think the way forward is to add a 150 Watt In Car Power Inverter, a mains freeview box and an aerial with a separate booster.

Think i'm going to have a whirl and try to hook one up to my Witson unit.

Does anyone know of a point in the rear of the car where i can hook up to switchable 12volts? So i can hard wire the 150 Watt Power Inverter.

Thanks...

Does anyone know of a point in the rear of the car where i can hook up to switchable 12volts? So i can hard wire the 150 Watt Power Inverter.

Thanks...

There should be a wire at the back of the ignition switch that is a switched live. However, if you're going to be powering an inverter you need to supply the power by means of a relay. The relay will connect to the battery positive (have a fuse between here and the relay, closer to where you get the positive from the better - fuse requirement depends on the device used), and to the positive on your inverter. The coil switched connectors will consist of a ground connection (to the metal bodywork of the car) and a wire from the ignition switched live. Make sure to use appropriate gauge wire for the voltages used and to insulate your connections properly. Use either insulated butt crimp connectors or put heatshrink tubing on and then solder the wires together well, move the heatshrink over the wire and heat it with a lighter to shrink and insulate the connection. It can be a good idea to layer up heatshrink, especially with the positive wires. Once you've shrunk one bit a bit of the same size should slide over and shrink again. All you have to remember is to put it on the wire before soldering it together

Here's an explanation of how relays work Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT), Single Pole Single Throw (SPST) Automotive Relays You can pick up relays and fuse holders in Maplins for just a couple of quid.

If in doubt seek the help of a qualified automotive electrician is my advice - and I'm NOT one of those unfortunately. Remember these things can cause fire if done incorrectly.

Edited 5 November, 200817 yr by anewman

You can get freeview boxes that use an external transformer to 12V input at the box, although not strictly for cars, could mean you dont need to use an inverter. The inverter might possibly cause interferance to any signal you want to receive or send to the HU so have a ground loop isolator ready for the audio signal. A freeview box on its own will only draw a max of 10-20W so if you have to use an inverter you could use one of those small cigarette lighter ones....

There should be a wire at the back of the ignition switch that is a switched live. However, if you're going to be powering an inverter you need to supply the power by means of a relay. The relay will connect to the battery positive (have a fuse between here and the relay, closer to where you get the positive from the better - fuse requirement depends on the device used), and to the positive on your inverter. The coil switched connectors will consist of a ground connection (to the metal bodywork of the car) and a wire from the ignition switched live. Make sure to use appropriate gauge wire for the voltages used and to insulate your connections properly. Use either insulated butt crimp connectors or put heatshrink tubing on and then solder the wires together well, move the heatshrink over the wire and heat it with a lighter to shrink and insulate the connection. It can be a good idea to layer up heatshrink, especially with the positive wires. Once you've shrunk one bit a bit of the same size should slide over and shrink again. All you have to remember is to put it on the wire before soldering it together

Here's an explanation of how relays work Single Pole Double Throw (SPDT), Single Pole Single Throw (SPST) Automotive Relays You can pick up relays and fuse holders in Maplins for just a couple of quid.

If in doubt seek the help of a qualified automotive electrician is my advice - and I'm NOT one of those unfortunately. Remember these things can cause fire if done incorrectly.

Thanks for the info.

You can get freeview boxes that use an external transformer to 12V input at the box, although not strictly for cars, could mean you dont need to use an inverter. The inverter might possibly cause interferance to any signal you want to receive or send to the HU so have a ground loop isolator ready for the audio signal. A freeview box on its own will only draw a max of 10-20W so if you have to use an inverter you could use one of those small cigarette lighter ones....

On AV Forums the only bloke thats got freeview to work corectly used an inverter so i thought i'd give it a try. It's not that much more expensive. They also use an aerial booster.

Makes so much more sense to just use a 12v freeview box.

Doing it the other way means converting 12v to 240v and then probably back to 12v inside the freeview box.

It will work just as well with a 12v powered one.

You could probably get away with just powering it straight from the switched live without a relay but best to use a relay anyway... don't want to burn out any car wiring!

Makes so much more sense to just use a 12v freeview box.

Doing it the other way means converting 12v to 240v and then probably back to 12v inside the freeview box.

It will work just as well with a 12v powered one.

You could probably get away with just powering it straight from the switched live without a relay but best to use a relay anyway... don't want to burn out any car wiring!

Mmmm, just wondering how much juice it will use too come to think of it? W=VI or something like that. Might try the 12v one first, just that the other forum reckoned they are sh!te but the 24v one worked.