Replacement Headrest Monitors with DVD Players for Mazda CX-9

A

AllyJack

Member
Just picked up my 08 Touring this weekend and I already love it. I borrowed my neighbor's portable headrest unit for the trip and now my kids are addicted. Now im shopping...

I have to give it up to whoever decided to just put everything in the headrest and send you the whole package as I have found with these products...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/ (commissions earned)

Does anyone have experience with these? They seem a little too easy and affordable.
 
AllyJack
The headrest DVD players you are looking at are the exact same ones I bought a week ago and installed. They come from a company called ONFAIR.COM and each headrest has a DVD player in it which will give you the capability to play seperate DVD's or one DVD on both headrests. If you go directly to the webiste, there is a $20 off coupon, plus you can get the ones that come with wireless controllers and wired controllers.

The set I bought, the 7" ones, came to $284 delivered and work great through the wireless headphones, the car speakers or the speakers on the headrest.

The other thing I found great about the company is they responded back the same day with any questions I had. Lastly, the 7" model does not dwarf the headrest area like some of the 9" ones. There is about a 10" gap for the headrest to fit in and these are about 11"...still looks great and the black leather matched fairly well.
 
Trey...

Thanks for the feedback. Do you have any pictures? I was a little concerned that the headrests are smaller than the stock ones an might look a little odd.

Also, I am not good with wiring. Where did you run the power to and how did you hook it up?

Thanks for the help.
 
I will try to get some photos up later today.

The dvd headrests are wider than the stock ones, but not as tall. If you measure the stock headrests, they hardly seem wide enough to fit a 7" screen in there with speakers, so I think that is why these are 11" wide.

As far as hook up, I was going to run a wire to the fuse box so when I shut the car off, the players go off. However it is time consuming and a little more difficult then the route I took . What I did and it only took me about 15 minutes, is to remove the back panel of the center console(the part where the air controls are for the rear seats). When you do this you have access to the wiring for the cigarette lighter and auxillary hook up. The cigarette lighter has a black cable and a yellow/black cable. I hooked up the power of each headrest to the appropriate cable of the cigarette lighter.

The DVD headrests have 2 sets of cables coming from the poles of the headrest. One set will hook to the other dvd player so you can watch the same DVD on both headrests. The other set has a cable attachement with a red cable and black cable coming out of a fuse box . This is what will power each DVD player. Hook the black cable to the black cable of the cigarette lighter. Hook the red cable to the black/yellow cable of the cigarette lighter. Now you have power!! When you shut the car off, you will have to push the power buttons on the DVD players to shut them off. I have not found this a problem since I am back there anyhow to get the kids out. Plus my son is old enough where he knows to shut it off.

Sorry about not including photos, I will soon. To tap into the power, radio shack has some attachments where they crimp into the wire.....very easy.
 
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I would recommend not tapping that power outlet. Too much draw, and that's one of the two that was causing Air Bag warning light problems if used with certain devices.

There is a fuse block you can tap behind (in front of) the glove compartment. I'd run a wire from that to the same location Trey talked about, since you can feed it through the center console. Then make the connection there. The panels on that side come off very easily, too.
The ground can be made in the back of the console where you make the hookups. .

I'd also put a fuse holder right off of the fuse block connection, preferably one that takes the same type of fuses as the car. (blade).

Don't forget to record your radio presets and disconnect the battery.
 
I agree that is the best way to do the hook up and the original way I was going to do it, however, I have not had any problems YET nor any airbag warning light coming on. If you do decide to do it that way, you will have to buy extra hook up wire as the ones attached to the headrest units are not nearly long enough to run to the fuse box.
 
As I said, I'd run a single larger wire from the fuse block to the rear of the console, and hook both to that.

If you short something, or even over draw it, you can cause untold problems with the various systems. Everything from the Air Bags to Power Windows, to Traction Control.
 
Since the fuse box is easy to get to, and there are vacant spots for more fuses, do you think there would be a problem using a fuse and a fuse tap to run the wire? I had trouble figuring out how to attach the run wire with no room to see what I was doing.
 
That fuse tap is perfect and makes it look so easy. Guess I will switch up my connection to avoid the air bag light possibility. Lastly, there power cables from the dvd headrest unit is 22 gauge...do you think that is sufficient for the wire coming out of the power tap
 
This may not seem involved to you, but as someone who knows nothing about this kind of stuff (i.e. fuse taps, which spot to put it in, etc.) should I do it myself or get it professionally done. Im pretty handy, just not a lot of expereince with wiring. I guess its more a matter of just making sure I have all of the right parts before I start and plan it all out.

Also, if you run it straight to the fuse box, will it come on/off with the ignition? Is there are way to wire in some kind of switch to turn it on/off when I want. My kids are young and wont be able to do it themselves yet.

Will tapping a new fuse void any warranties? Mine is CPO and I dont want to mess with that.
 
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It's actually pretty easy using a tap. Power On/Off depends on what open fuse location you use. A 12v test light will tell you that. I'd hook it up to a location that is switched with the key, so it stays on when you turn the car to Accessory, but shuts off when you turn the car all the way off.

Running the wire will be easy. Just route it behind the panels of the center console to the back end.

I'd use a good crimper and bullet connector and crimp the two DVD leads into the one power lead, or even better, use quick connect bullets so you can disconnect them. Something like this: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2104095
Then you can disconnect them and the wire will still fit through the post.
 
I knew nothing on how to connect this stuff either, but did some research on the internet and it is not that hard. I did not learn about fuse taps until today and without a doubt that would be the easiest way to run a wire from the fuse box. Radio shack will have all your connectors, but you will need to go to an auto parts store to get the fuse tap. Many people have hooked up their DVD players by taping into the cigarette lighter, but as SportOwner said, it may cause problems witht he airbag warning light. It is a simple fix!

The access to the fuse box is in the glove compartment and from there a wire can easily be routed to the back of the seats under the side molding by the door.

You will probably pay a shop close to $300 to install these things or you could do it yourself for about $20.
 
The primary reason not to tap into something else is to avoid overloading that circuit. Cars are fused based on what is loading that circuit. Plugging something into the outlet is fine because it occupies that outlet. If you hardwire it then you have those accessories on and are still able to plug something else into the outlet, overloading it.

When I ran my trailer lights, I attached my power primary to one of the bus bolts on the fuse box under the hood, and fused it right there before running it to the back of the car.

Always create a new fused circuit for add-ons.
 
What if I I'd something as simple as running the two power cords together and putting them into a plug that I could put in and out of the power outlet in the console. Spoke with a friend that I could make my own plug with a part from radio shack for about $5. He said that he has done this before (not w/ montiors though) and it has worked well.

This would give me the ability to plug it in or take it out whenever I want to control the power. Only question would be if I woul still be running too much power through that outlet.

Any thoughts?
 
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