You don't have to drive a monster SUV or a minivan to get mobile video — you can use the Audiovox D1210 in just about any vehicle with a back seat.

The included mounting bag straps securely to the back of a front seat.

What do you get when you mix four siblings, three rows of seats, two hours on the interstate, and one driver? If you add the Audiovox D1210 video system, the answer is a peaceful, easy trip and a mom that arrives refreshed and ready to take on the theme park. Instead of arriving at the park feeling as if I'd spent the last long one hundred and twenty minutes refereeing at the United Nations, I was ready to tackle the rides rather than my kids for asking "Are we there yet?" every quarter mile.

Over Spring Break, my kids (Austin - 10, Tyler - 10, Sean - 8 and Kathleen - 3) and I planned a "Mom and Me" adventure to a regional theme park. The kids have honestly always been great travelers (read: car-ride sleepers). But as they have gotten older, our frequent 1-3 hour car trips have gotten tenser and harder to tolerate — both from their perspective and mine. A few trips ago, we started borrowing a portable DVD player for the longer trips. That player was an early generation model, bulky and not all that "portable," despite the name. So when I went looking for a portable DVD player for our Spring Break adventure, I had a few requirements:

• it should be easy enough for a ten-year-old to operate without much parental guidance
• it should handle at least two, preferably more, headphones
• it should be truly portable — easy to install in the car, but it should also have speakers, so we can use it at our destination as well as on the way.

I found all these and more in the Audiovox D1210.

The Audiovox D1210 is an "all-in-one" video system that consists of a 12" LCD monitor with a built-in DVD player. It comes with all the accessories you need to use it in your car or at home. The player itself is enclosed in its own custom-fitted mounting bag for use in the car. This in turn fits into a gym-bag-sized storage bag that includes compartments for the detachable speakers, power cord, A/C adaptor, two pairs of cordless headphones, and remote control.

If you're wondering why a device that's intended to reside within arm's reach needs a remote control, you'll appreciate that in our house we call all remote controls "daddy 'motes." I don't think I'm genetically wired to understand why, but having a remote control for every electronic component seems important to my husband and all the males in our family. Hence Austin's delight when he dug a "daddy 'mote" out of the D1210's carrier. "Oh, cool, Mom, here's the remote! Now I can sit back and enjoy the show, too." As if reaching forward a few inches was too much exertion for him! I still don't get it!

Before we left Charlottesville, it took my husband less than five minutes to hang the player on the back of the front passenger seat of our station wagon. (The D1210 comes with the aforementioned mounting bag and four adjustable mounting straps that let you mount it on the back of a single front seat, or in the space between both front seats. But because Kathleen's child seat is strapped in the middle of the back seat, we hung the player off the back of the front passenger seat.) About five minutes into our trip, my son Austin (10 years old) had plugged in the cigarette lighter adapter, loaded in the Cheaper by the Dozen DVD that we'd just purchased, and was adjusting the volume on his three-year-old sister's cordless headphones.

Three happy campers: from left to right, Austin, Kathleen, and Sean show off the D1210.

From the third row, Austin's twin, Tyler, was regretting his choice of seat when Austin discovered the pair of front-panel headphone jacks. He connected Tyler's MP3 player headphones to one of the jacks, passed the other cordless headphones over to Sean, and plugged in his own MP3 player headphones into the other jack. Before the trailer was over, all four kids were "wired for sound." For the next 98 minutes, I was free to listen to whatever I wanted on the car's CD player, which interestingly enough was neither Hilary Duff nor the Wiggles Greatest Hits! Instead, I popped in John Mayer's Heavier Things and settled in for the drive, which was occasionally punctuated by periodic group laughter and solo outbursts from the back seats as the kids enjoyed the movie.

According to the kids, the movie played straight through the potholes on Rt. 64 with not so much as a blip. It ended just short of our destination, but I have to say it was the most enjoyable drive east on Rt. 64 I've had in a long time. And the biggest thrill of the day was definitely the second row seat on the Alpengeist! [The Alpengeist is billed as "the world's tallest, most twisted inverted roller coaster." -Ed.]

But the D1210 does not stop in the car. As I mentioned, there are a pair of plug-in speakers that rival our portable TV's in sound quality, as well as a fold-down, picture-frame-like "leg" that allows the screen to be used for motel-room DVD viewing. Or, with the included cable input jack, you can use the D1210 as that extra television set for the guest room. The picture quality is great, although I recommend full-screen and not letter-box DVDs for the 12" screen.

To watch the D1210 indoors attach the removeable feet, fold out the rear support, and plug it in.

Did I mention that it's incredibly easy to use? In fact, eight-year-old Sean had no problem operating the unit without the instructions, which was a good thing since we discovered we had not brought them with us! When we used the D1210 again on a shorter trip in our SUV, we mounted it between the front seats and even put the remote in three-year-old Kathleen's hands. Now I'm afraid the first words she'll read will be "MAIN MENU" and "PLAY."


So for its ease-of-use, the capability to use 4 sets of headphones, and its ingenious portability, the Audiovox D1210 definitely gets 5 thumbs up from the McPhillips!


Debbie McPhillips is Director of Financial and Operational Analysis for Crutchfield and the proud mother of four wonderful children. Despite 16 years at Crutchfield, and 12 years of marriage to an audiophile, she still does not know a woofer from a tweeter, but she has learned that bass is not just a fish. This is her first review for CrutchfieldAdvisor.com.