This rear-seat entertainment system can provide your children — and you — with an alternative to, “Are we there yet?”

By Bill Howard

Mom and Dad used to think seeing mile after mile of scenery was educational; kids thought otherwise. For families, rear-seat entertainment smoothes the ride and eliminates the question, “Are we there yet?”

“Families with younger children actively seek technologies that can entertain and engage the passengers,” says Ben Bajarin, an analyst with the Creative Strategies consulting group in Campbell, Calif. “We have been seeing young families go beyond in-car DVD players by bringing laptop computers along so kids can play PC learning games, Sony’s PSP and Nintendo DS systems for long road travel and iPods for personal entertainment.”

With the popularity of the Apple iPod Video portable music player, you’ve got another source of entertainment. And with a few accessories or the help of an automotive electronics store, you can connect an iPod to your rear entertainment system so it can be enjoyed by everyone in the back seat. Here’s how.

The simplest solution is to buy a video adapter cable for about $50. These include the Monster Cable Monster® iTV® Link ($50) or the XtremeMac IPV-CAV-00 Roadshow Car Audio Cable for iPod Video ($50).

One end connects to the bottom of your iPod Video. The other has the three standard yellow, white and red connectors, commonly called RCA plugs, that plug into virtually every in-car entertainment system, providing video (yellow) and stereo audio (white for left, red for right). XtremeMac’s cable also includes a power plug so you can charge your iPod through the car’s accessory socket.

If you’re plugging into a portable DVD player, you need a slightly different cable that has what’s called a 3.5mm mini-jack at the DVD player end. It looks like a headphone plug.

The Digital Life Outfitters DLO TransDock ($100) is a docking cradle for just about any audio or video iPod that plugs into the accessory socket on the car. For video, you’ll need to add a cable with a minijack at one end and RCA plugs at the other.

If this sounds confusing, bring the TransDock to any electronics store and explain what you need; they can sell you the cable.

For iPod music, TransDock transmits the music to an unused frequency on your car radio. Plus, it has a universal serial bus (USB) jack on the side. USB is the connector common on computers and laptops. Here it provides the charging power used by many cell phones.

Before or After?

If your rear entertainment system came with the car, odds are those video input connectors are at the back of the center console or on the pillar between the front and rear doors. Just plug in your iPod and put it someplace safe where it won’t get stepped on and where it’s convenient to change to a different video program. The seatback pocket is ideal.

If you had the DVD player installed after you got the car, the video input connectors are likely part of the unit mounted in the roof. Stringing cables is unsightly and may annoy drivers every time they look through the rearview mirror.

You can make a quick and temporary fix by affixing the cable to the door pillar with heavy tape. Plug the cable into the player and run it snugly along the headliner to the pillar; stick tape at the very top of the pillar so the cable drops down as little as possible; and run the cable downward, making sure to stay out of the way of the shoulder harness.

The real solution is to go back to the installer and have the cable hidden underneath the roof liner and the plastic covering for the door pillar. Doing this takes about an hour and costs about $50. Rather than use the expensive iPod specialty cable, use a standard RCA cable at both ends, which can cost as little as $10. Then get a $5 adapter (RCA female jacks on both sides) so you can connect the iPod adapter cable.

With that, you’re ready to roll. You can download hundreds of movies from online, some that you buy, and others that you can rent for a day, week or month before they expire. The Internet has thousands of short videos that are free.

You can also record TV shows to your PC, then transfer them to your iPod video. Keep in mind that iPod videos are optimized for a small screen. They don’t blow up well on, say, a 60-inch widescreen TV, but on a 7- to 9-inch display in your car, the quality is great.

Just remind the kids to take a break every now and then to enjoy — just for a bit — the scenery rolling by.

Bio: Bill Howard is an experienced automotive writer and the editor of TechnoRide.com, the car technology site produced by Ziff-Davis. Previously, he was PC Magazine’s executive editor. Howard is also vice president of the International Motor Press Association.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and not necessarily those of Progressive Casualty Insurance Company or its affiliates.