The Stormz Prius

Thanks to all the info from various members (especially F8L and USBseawolf) when I was doing the research phase, to help me decide what to do to our 2008 Prius.

Here's what I went with (will do pics once total install is finished).

After alot of thought/research into costs and needs etc, I kept the carputer idea for a future install (would be the best, but would involve more costs in equipment, and replacing the stock 12v battery), and also kicked out the Coastal mod to use the MFD (especially as it's NTSC and I want to deal in PAL, which is better quality).

I was going to buy the $450 2-din dvd/gps/dvb-t etc unit from Chinavasion, as it has the same ARM processor as the iPhone (so would be more reliable than the typical unit, which I've had in the Mitsubishi Delica), but a local store was having a 30% off sale on head units, so grabbed this Pioneer for $430 :

AVH-P3350BT Pioneer - DVD Player & Screens - Car Entertainment

Cost $150 for install. It's a great unit, except it's limited to .divx files (sometimes in an .avi container, but it's very picky). So after alot of playing around with various converters, I installed the inferior quality (but at least it works) divx converter. Now I have tons of divx files on a little usb stick which is permanently stuck in (one 16GB stick for video, and another 16GB stick for mp3, as the Pioneer has a folder limitation... too many files and it won't see that many).

For the next stage, I couldn't decide between a roof-mount monitor (couldn't get any info on what size the Prius roof could handle) or a couple of head-rest monitors. So I got both. Mainly because I went direct to the manufacturers/wholesalers at Alibaba and did tonnes of research and price/spec comparisons before deciding on one company.

I was originally going to just get the monitors (no dvd or games etc), but for the small price difference ($10), I went with the dvd/games.

SJ-219HD-A: 9inch Car Headrest DVD with Game system products, buy SJ-219HD-A: 9inch Car Headrest DVD with Game system products from alibaba.com

I got the 800x480 res in the screens above, not the crap 480x234 res listed there. Just cost a bit extra. $90 each, with IR and leather zip-up covers added.


New design 13.3"Car roof mounted Monitor DVD(SJ-1388D) products, buy New design 13.3"Car roof mounted Monitor DVD(SJ-1388D) products from alibaba.com

$125.

One thing I was wanting, was 16:9 (widescreen), as the main reason for these screens are video's for the kids (and the big kids). With 16:10, you get black bars at the top and bottom. 16:10 is great for computer use, but not so good for widescreen video.

When doing the research, there were tonnes of screen resolutions available. I wanted the best res I could get. This page was invaluable in decoding them:

Graphic display resolutions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So both the rooftop monitor (1366x768 / 16:9) and the headrests (800x480 / 5:3) are Widescreen. 1440x900 is great (alot of 15" screens with them), but is 16:10.

I got a video amplifier from Sonice for $8 (insane).

I also have a wireless reversing camera to install (no need to have cables from front to back... just two units to power up).

I'm organising an install of these new items in the new year, and will take pics of everything once it's finished.

Questions:
- Anyone have any info on how easy it is to install the headrest monitors? Is it easy to take the cables through the seat, or is there crap in the way?
- I`m hoping I don't have to upgrade the 12v battery to keep everything happy... the stock battery is rated for up to 100 amps. If so, tell me now

 

If anyone can tell me how many amps the Stock Prius normally draws for it's gear (MFD etc), and what they think these other bits (2-din head unit, roof monitor, head rest monitors, reversing camera and video amplifier) would add up to in amps, I`d appreciate it.

If it looks like being too much for the stock battery, I`ll get the Optima one.