Entertainment systems vault into vehicles, and the options aren't far behind what is available in homes.
By MARTY CLEAR
Published March 26, 2004
You don't have to be especially old to remember a time when the only music in most cars came from AM radios or eight-track tape players.
These days, cars don't have radios; they have entertainment systems. Even fairly modest cars have systems that rely on computers, satellites and DVDs. Technology that wasn't available even for home systems a few years ago is now common in cars.
Video is becoming more popular, and it's even commonplace in larger vehicles such as SUVs and RVs.
"Rear seat entertainment, which is just a fancy name for video in the back of the car, that's the biggest boom right now," said Krik Mouradian, the owner of Divine Sounds in Tampa. "And front-seat video is becoming more popular. Monitors are anywhere from 5 inches to 16 inches, and the systems cost anywhere from about 600 bucks up to as much as you want to spend."
Most car video systems are designed for DVDs, and they're often used for video games. But satellite TV systems for cars were introduced last year, and promise to become less expensive and more common within the next couple of years, experts say.
The forerunner for car satellite TV has been a product called KVH TracVision. At the heart of the system is a collection of tiny satellite dishes arranged in a compact dome that's mounted on the roof of a vehicle.
"It works fantastically," said Eric McCaskey, the mobile manager for the Sound Advice store on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa. "All those little dishes pull in the strongest signal, and then they stay locked into that signal as you drive. If you go under a lot of trees or under an overpass, it might blink out for a second; but other than that, the quality's excellent."
TracVision will cost you about $3,500, plus $200 to $300 for installation, and of course the monthly satellite TV bill. McCaskey said it's mostly RV owners who have been installing the systems thus far. But still, it's so popular that it's hard for Sound Advice to keep TracVision in stock.
Satellite radio is a little more established and much more popular - and much, much less expensive. It's even a factory option on many GM cars this year. McCaskey said these systems are also getting better all the time.
Until recently, people who wanted satellite radio had to first have a radio that was equipped to handle Sirius or XM, the two most common types of satellite systems, and then buy and install a separate tuner.
But Alpine has just introduced an all-in-one unit that sells for less than $500, including installation and a special antenna. Users also have to pay a monthly subscription fee of about $10 to $13, but they get about 100 stations of commercial-free music, sports, comedy and talk.
Another new concept that promises to be extremely popular is a hard drive for cars. Combined "Y-Fi" (wireless hi-fi) system, the hard drives allow users to download text or programming on home computers and then have it automatically transmitted to the car in the garage. Any text that's downloaded will be read back, albeit in one of those annoying computer voices.
For people with more mundane tastes and budgets, Ronald Fonseca, the owner of Fonseca Car Audio Labs in Tampa, said in-dash CD changers are a new hot item. They usually handle about six CDs, and they're a whole lot more convenient than trunk-mounted CD changers.
Other recent developments that don't require a large initial investment, Fonseca said, are CDRWs (which accommodate re-recordable CDs) and MP3 players.
One trend that Fonseca has noticed is that auto manufacturers are generally installing higher-quality audio and video equipment. Until recently, factory-installed car systems were merely adequate. These days the car companies use some of the best brands available.
As a result, not as many people are finding it necessary to upgrade their car sound systems, Fonseca said.
But for people who do want to upgrade or customize their car audio and video systems, Fonseca and other experts advise car owners to use professional installers. Often, when people install or modify their own car systems, they fail to tighten wires, or they use inadequate equipment. The result can be costly repairs.
"That's the biggest part of our business, repairing burned-out amplifiers," Fonseca said. "Usually, it's because they tried to install something themselves. So people can either come to us to install their systems, or they can come to us later to repair them."
