Aftermarket RSE

[bam01]

Dealer told me today that RSE is unavailable for the rest of the year. Considering all the negative feedback on the factory RSE perhaps I'll order without and get an aftermarket RSE. Does anyone have any experience with aftermarket systems? Voxx has a two screen option that looks promising, built in apps and DVD player. I won't be able to control it from the head unit but it has an app that can be used from the phone.

 

[ljn21]

If our Yukon hadn’t come with the RSE, we would just buy 2 iPads. Way cheaper, more functionality, portable, etc. the RSE is so over priced for what you get. We have it and our kids never use it, they prefer their iPads so they can play games, etc. plus watch TV/Movies and they can use them in the third row.

 

[bam01]

If our Yukon hadn’t come with the RSE, we would just buy 2 iPads. Way cheaper, more functionality, portable, etc. the RSE is so over priced for what you get. We have it and our kids never use it, they prefer their iPads so they can play games, etc. plus watch TV/Movies and they can use them in the third row.

Long term, I think you're right. I have 4 kiddos all under 4 and the issue with using an ipad right now is that they cannot control the devices entirely on their own just yet. I was hoping to find something I could still control up-front for them. I used to think the overhead DVD units were out-dated and useless but in this stage of life the simplicity of them is hard to replace. 1st world problems...

 

[sengaek]

Dealer told me today that RSE is unavailable for the rest of the year. Considering all the negative feedback on the factory RSE perhaps I'll order without and get an aftermarket RSE. Does anyone have any experience with aftermarket systems? Voxx has a two screen option that looks promising, built in apps and DVD player. I won't be able to control it from the head unit but it has an app that can be used from the phone.

Did you fig this out? I want to do something like this for my limo service...Clients can watch news while traveling 60+ miles

 

[bam01]

I have the Voxx system installed. The first week didn't go well, each time we played a video the system would shut down after about 30 seconds. I took it back to the installer as they needed to swap the two screens (they originally put the master with the DVD player on the passenger side). They attempted to troubleshoot my issue but it operated perfectly for them (go figure). Since then it as worked great for me but I've only used it a few times since. I think it will take some more time before I can give a good review of it. Other than my issue with it powering off, all other functionality seems to be working good. I can mirror the screens with an app on my phone and fully control them from the front seat. Its not perfect by any means, but does work. You can't give the two screens a name so you have to remember the ip address of each to know which one you are controlling from the app, and to switch between them you have to close the app and re-open it, which is a little annoying. They are still running Android 8 which as long as they work I guess is fine, but I worry if apps will stop working on them some day. It appears I can install any app from the Google Play store, including games, maps, and of course the standard streaming apps. They seem to be quick responding. You can mirror the slave to the master so that they both display the same content, and they have built in FM transmitters so the audio can be heard through the car speakers. This can be a little staticky but perhaps I need to try a different frequency. For kids in car seats, I wish the were mounted a little higher behind the headrests, the middle of the screen sits where the head-rest and top of the seat meet, making it too easy for a kid in a car seat to kick. I wish they were higher like the factory screens which are directly behind the headrests. Also, you have to power them on by pressing a power button on the screen, you cannot power them on from the app.

They are expensive, I paid $1900 installed. The only reason I decided to give them a try was that I wanted to be able to control them from the front seat. If you don't need that functionality, I would simply mount a i-pad or tablet to the headrest which think you could do for about half the cost.

Other benefits are that I have fully functional pads with touch screens, no remotes, and no wires. With a factory setup using an external device I wouldn't have been able to control them from the front seat, so I am still hopeful that long term I will like them.

I'll report more later after I use them a little more.

 

[123ablack]

I have the Voxx system installed. The first week didn't go well, each time we played a video the system would shut down after about 30 seconds. I took it back to the installer as they needed to swap the two screens (they originally put the master with the DVD player on the passenger side). They attempted to troubleshoot my issue but it operated perfectly for them (go figure). Since then it as worked great for me but I've only used it a few times since. I think it will take some more time before I can give a good review of it. Other than my issue with it powering off, all other functionality seems to be working good. I can mirror the screens with an app on my phone and fully control them from the front seat. Its not perfect by any means, but does work. You can't give the two screens a name so you have to remember the ip address of each to know which one you are controlling from the app, and to switch between them you have to close the app and re-open it, which is a little annoying. They are still running Android 8 which as long as they work I guess is fine, but I worry if apps will stop working on them some day. It appears I can install any app from the Google Play store, including games, maps, and of course the standard streaming apps. They seem to be quick responding. You can mirror the slave to the master so that they both display the same content, and they have built in FM transmitters so the audio can be heard through the car speakers. This can be a little staticky but perhaps I need to try a different frequency. For kids in car seats, I wish the were mounted a little higher behind the headrests, the middle of the screen sits where the head-rest and top of the seat meet, making it too easy for a kid in a car seat to kick. I wish they were higher like the factory screens which are directly behind the headrests. Also, you have to power them on by pressing a power button on the screen, you cannot power them on from the app.

They are expensive, I paid $1900 installed. The only reason I decided to give them a try was that I wanted to be able to control them from the front seat. If you don't need that functionality, I would simply mount a i-pad or tablet to the headrest which think you could do for about half the cost.

Other benefits are that I have fully functional pads with touch screens, no remotes, and no wires. With a factory setup using an external device I wouldn't have been able to control them from the front seat, so I am still hopeful that long term I will like them.

I'll report more later after I use them a little more.

Thanks for your detailed report. now that GM has officially scrapped the RSE option on the Yukon/Tahoe/Suburban for the rest of the model year, i really need a system (dual screens attached to the seats or drop-down displays) that somehow connects to the front screen/head unit and can be fully controlled from there (i would also love to be able to watch the same video on the front screen at least when in park). any thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Keg0brew]

Long term, I think you're right. I have 4 kiddos all under 4 and the issue with using an ipad right now is that they cannot control the devices entirely on their own just yet. I was hoping to find something I could still control up-front for them. I used to think the overhead DVD units were out-dated and useless but in this stage of life the simplicity of them is hard to replace. 1st world problems...

When my kids were too young to navigate a device, we ended up just putting an iPad between the driver and passenger seat facing rearward and using that 99% of the time. (I have 3 kids so it was easy for all 3 to see in second row captains chairs and middle third row seat). We could change it as needed and they had a Bluetooth speaker for the audio closer to them so I don’t have to hear. And, the oldest one could use it to play games or watch stuff in the back when the younger two slept.

We had a RSE at the time, but we never used it in town for short drives, it just played DVD’s, my kids hated headphones, and using an iPad to stream was just as easy and the kids liked the broader variety of content. Bonus upside was that in our next vehicle I didn’t have to pop for another RSE and only two additional iPads.