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| Image Quality | 7/10  |
|---|---|
| Sound Quality | 2/10 |
| Battery Life | 5/10 |
| Value for Money | 6/10 |
| Reviewer Rating | 5/10 |
| Overall Rating | 8.3/10  |
Full review by
Sweepthecat
expert review 
on 14th Sep 2006
User Rating : 5
Respect :
0
Good Points: Low cost for what it offers, flexible outputs and inputs (if you need that). Base unit is neat and effective. Potentially a very good and cheap system if the base unit and cabling are semi-permanently installed.
Bad Points: Poor quality integrated speakers, rat's nest cabling, useless case. Tedious to put in and remove from the car.
General comments: The Goodmans GCE 5007 is a product designed for in-car use, and comprises a DVD base unit and two 7 inch slave screens. Intended purpose is the silencing of complaining back seat passengers, by having the screens attached to the back of the front seat headrests. Because the buyer is usually an adult, and the beneficiaries are children, the buyer of the unit will probably never normally see it in operation, but suffers unduly ("are we there yet?") if it cannot be set up, or if it doesn't work properly.
The DVD base is lightweight, looks smart with its blue LED illumination, and works well in terms of basic functionality and ability to cope with the car environment. For example it doesn't seem to mistrack over the bumps in the road, loading is easy, and the controls all seem to work properly. An extensive supply of leads comes with the unit, a rather cheap remote controller, plus an (initially) compact case, and straps to secure the screens to headrests. The manual is reasonably clear. Picture quality is adequate for its intended function, although the clarity of the screens leaves something to be asked for if I was watching this myself, even though the screens have colour, brightness and contrast adjustments.
The first task you have is to unbox the unit and connect it. Very quickly I found that the compact carrying case was an exercise in unfolding origami made of polypropylene webbing and yards and yards of Velcro straps. I've no idea how to get the thing back together, so the clever carry case can be summed up as useless. So useless, that in fact I've thrown the thing out.
Next task is to set it up. The array of cabling is vast, enabling connection to all manner of other audio and video kit. Which shows that somebody at Goodmans (or Alba plc) has completely missed the point. I want this for in the car. A mains to 12V adaptor means I can use it in the house which is OK for testing and setup, but why do they think I'll want S-video out, Scart connectivity, or all the other options? All I want is easy set-up for an in car DVD player, and this is the primary bugbear of the system. Although the screens have (nominally) a single mini-Din plug to connect them, half way along the cables running back to the base unit from each screen you need to connect RCA plugs for power, left channel audio, right channel audio, and video to trailing sockets on the other half of the lead running to the base unit. Then this complicated mesh of cables and bulky connections (including some obscure unused connectors on the power line) is connected to the same set of sockets on the player. The in car power connector doesn't exactly exude quality, either. So, although the screens connect to their dedicated leads with a single plug, to connect the screens to the player you have to connect 14 different plugs and sockets, with a variety of split or combined leads, which makes for an evil tangle of cables and connections. If they'd used the same plugs on the player unit as the screens this whole job could have been done with one splitter cable and three plugs.
Let's assume that you've got it wired up. Now you only need to get the screens over the headrests. No problem, you think - it's got Velcro straps, and it'll be a cinch. That should be the case (although a word to the wise - throw away the "holsters" that the screens come in and mount them "bare" using the integral straps), but even there Goodmans designers don't seem to have seen a real car - the Velcro straps look to be made large enough for elephant's headrests, leaving a big wad of unused Velcro hanging about to irritate the front seat passengers. A simple user solution might be to trim the straps and glue down the loose ends of the webbing.
Although the unit does recover to the previously watched point on a "power off - power on" situation, this doesn't happen when the DVD is grinding through all those crummy trailers and irritating piracy warnings. Be warned not to start the player until you're sure you are under way!
Sound is the second real problem. The speakers integral with the screens are wholly unsuitable for in car use - lacking in volume and offering poor sound quality, so that when on the move the integrated speakers are completely and utterly useless. Although the screens do have headphone sockets, if you've got young children you'll find that they don't have ears that always fit the supplied "bud" earphones, and they won't necessarily tolerate full headphones (that you'll be paying extra for anyway). I also think it disappointing that they didn't think about connecting to the car hi-fi, for example in the manner of the low power FM transmitters used for Ipods. As it comes, there's no ready way of patching the sound from the base unit into the car's hi fi unless you want to start splicing cables behind the dashboard, which on a removable unit isn't ideal.
At £150-200 (£200 in Tesco at the moment) this isn't a bad solution, but the irritation of leads and the poor speakers mean that I hesitate to recommend it. If I were buying again I would go for two individual integrated players that will run off batteries, so that the kids could watch different films (again with headphones, admittedly), and there'd be no cable issues. If you have the time, space, and inclination to put the base unit and the cabling in to the car on a semi-permanent basis this might overcome the cabling issues, and you might then patch the sound into the car system, but whether you'd really want to go to those lengths only you can say. The unit comes with an extension to the IR sensor, so potentially it could be tucked away somewhere in the boot, out of sight, and you'd only need to remove the screens when leaving the car. This would give you a near permanent set-up for £200 or less, and overcome most of the problems I've identified.
Finally, in my scoring I've had to give a mark for battery life, and I gave it an average one, but note that this unit is entirely powered by the car's power - there is no internal battery. In many cars that means it won't work with the ignition off.
Sweepthecat's review and ratings | 1158 words | 1 comment added.
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