Audiovox Sirius SCV1 Backseat TV Audio/Video Tuner (Black) Review

Customer Ratings:
List Price: $299.99
Sale Price: $59.97
Today's Bonus: 80% Off

I love this thing. I can listen to my radio in the front speakers on the van, and my girls can watch tv in the back using the sound from the speakers on the screens or through headphones. Or, if you feel like giving them a theater experience, you can also put it through the vehicle speakers.

The "tv" has its own remote, so you don't have to always change the thing over to change it for them. Plus, it runs off of "RCA" connection cables, so you can split the signal to as many "TVs" as you have available in the vehicle.

My girls love this thing. I used to have to remember to bring DVDs so they could watch on trips, but now, if I forget it is not big deal.

The channels are: Cartoon Network Mobile, Nickelodean Mobile, and Disney Mobile. They run the same programs, and have some commercials, but they run off their own separate schedule from their real TV versions.

My only qualm with this thing is the lack of channels. I would like to see a couple more channels, maybe even a few adult channels (no, not porn, but maybe a movie channel or a few news channels; i.e. Weather Channel would be a plus). This is why I only give it a 4 star rating. Other than that, it is great.

It costs roughly $20 a month for everything that Surius offers for radio and the 3 channels. Not a bad price.

Click Here For Most Helpful Customer Reviews >>

I got my wife a new built in headrest tv/dvd system for her Dodge Durango. Since the price was right, I got the Backseat Tv system for my two Boys (8 and 9) so everyone got an upgrade. Installation is a bit awkward. I later found that buying 3 female to female Y-splitters (available for 0.97 each on amazon) simplified things and got rid of a lot of tangled wires. You also need to either use direct audio input into your car radio, or the fm adapter which you plug directly into your radio antenna socket and plug the antenna directly into the adapter. this only fits a STANDARD radio antenna plug. Speaking for Chrysler, my vehicle has a different antenna plug that didn't fit so you may want to look for an antenna adapter in advance (I dont have one yet, but ran a wire from the adapter plug and wrapper it around the antenna itself to transmit the signal, but I will be looking for an adapter)

We left for a 300 mile trip to Maine for the holidays the next day and called to activate on the way. I got a bit of a runaround from the SiriusXm CSR. She first told me that my ID number wasn't valid. I told her that it was a SCV1 backseat TV system and she asked for my car VIN number. I said again, that this was an aftermarket product and was told that she could activate the radio but not the TV because "backseat TV is only available on factory installed Chrysler vehicles" I told her that I was in fact in a Chrysler vehicle, it was an aftermarker Sirius product, but was installed in a Chrysler vehicle. She put me on hold for about 10 minutes, but came back saying that she could activate the system and waived the activation fee. I am not sure if she was mistaken on not being able to activate the Audiovox product, and that was what the hold was for, or if there is in fact some agreement with Chrysler, but you may want to check it out in advance.

As for the product itself, it works great. This was the quietest trip that I can remember. Once we were in Maine for xmas, and had a house full of all of the boys' cousins, they wanted to show off their ability to watch Nick in the car and they all crammed into the back of the Durango like a drive in movie trip and we didn't hear from any of them for about 4 hours.

So you may have to jump through a few small hoops with the install and dealing with SiriusXM but once you do, this is well worth the small amount of money

Best Deals for Audiovox Sirius SCV1 Backseat TV Audio/Video Tuner (Black)

This product is definitely what I needed. My grandson and I love cartoon network and disney. Hey can really enjoy this with the system I have in. The product came in quickly

Honest reviews on Audiovox Sirius SCV1 Backseat TV Audio/Video Tuner (Black)

The installation was pretty easy and I was able to install the sirius backseat in about an hour. After install I contacted sirius and had the unit activated (7.00$ a month) and within five minutes I was able to scan through the three channels they have ( cartoon network, disney, nick) all channels are crystal clear and my kids have yet to complain.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Audiovox Sirius SCV1 Backseat TV Audio/Video Tuner (Black)

I just installed Sirius Backseat TV a few months ago. I have been wanting to install this system for years, I just couldn't justify the cost of the equipment, about 3 years ago equipment costs were around $700 plus for all the needed equipment. I was looking around a few months ago and noticed the Amazon price of $36 for the SCV1 (WOW) so I ordered the unit and headrest monitor for $77. Install was very easy, if you have done any car audio installs before. I had the SCV1 and the monitor installed in about 2 hours. It works great, activation with Sirius took about 20 minutes.

Yes, I know there are only 3 TV channels, but these are the channels my son watches most of the time at home, so he was thrilled when we surprised him with them in the car :) I know these video channels are not HD quality, but it has the video quality of a video stream from the internet, just no buffering in the middle of the video. I would not try to view these video channels on a monitor larger then 10" I could really see heavy pixelation of the video when I tested the SCV1 on my 19" computer monitor.

I know there are other video products out there, but they need a 3G internet connection for them to work while traveling along the road and they offer more channels and better video quality, but the other reason I chose Sirius backseat TV is our routes of travel to see family and take vacation. We travel along roads in the mountains and cellphone coverage is spotty at best for miles. The only time we lost Sirius service is travelling through the tunnels cut through the mountians.

For the cost, this is our most realilable mobile TV service I could find. I did look at the Direct TV option, but that things antenna is huge and I noticed a LOT of drop outs while traveling along the demo route in town and the cost of equipment is HIGH.

I know Backseat TV has about 3 to 4 year life limit with my son. I know he will out grow these TV channels, but for now it is perfect for us.

I have emailed Sirius to ask them to offer more channels, that's why I can only give this product a 4 out of 5 stars. I know Sirius is not really in the business of TV programming, but they really should look at this product as another point of revenue if they add a larger verity of programming. I could see truck drivers buying this product if Sirius could offer more channels. I know Sirius has limited amount of bandwidth, but since they also have XM's channels they need to look at cutting back the simulcasting of audio channels on both bands and give up some bandwidth for more TV channels. I can only hope Sirius has some future improvement plans in the future for Sirius Backseat TV.