There have been television screens in conversion vans for many years now. Most of them had ineffective antennas and were primarily used for viewing tapes and later DVD’s. In recent years, many SUV’s and mini-vans have added drop down or flip up screens for back seat viewing. Most states have laws preventing the screen from being viewed by the driver.

According to this article in USA Today, satellite tv is now affordably available in vehicles. For the cost of an extra receiver you can apparently have satellite tv in the car. Of course you need to have the vehicle wired, but many upscale vehicles will be pre-wired.

This is great for people who travel with kids, spend time in their vehicles waiting for this or that, and for people who tailgate.

Some things never change, however. Technology has to be simple to be used by the masses. Last night I had to go help a friend who has satellite tv. Since he had it installed a year ago, he has been unable to tape/record shows from satellite. I went over assuming that he didn’t have the satellite signal wired through his recording device. Come to fine out it was, he just needed to set the units to the right channel. Simple, but it eluded him. How many VCR’s have we seen flash 12:00 for years? They eventually designed self setting clocks to solve that problem.

Having mobile video monitors also introduces all sorts of new issues. For example, what goes on the screen? Michigan for example has considered a law to make made it illegal to show sexually explicit content on a screen in a motor vehicle.

This article was posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2005 at 2:34 pm