Hi,

I'm getting a RRS SC with RSE in the States and I a lot of questions on it. Specifically does it come with headphones? Are they wireless?

Does the system come with a remote? Does the system play dvd-r's? Can I switch off one of monitors in the back off while one can just play?

For those that who have the system. do you like it and is it worth it?

Thanks.

The only thing i can comment on without having the car yet is that it does not come with headphones (unless the dealer is really nice and buys you some) and there is no wireless transmitter so you cant have wireless headphones. It does come with a remote, and I beleive you cant just switch off one monitor in the back but I am not positive on that. And my guess would be that it can play dvd-r

jrrssc wrote:

Can I switch off one of monitors in the back off while one can just play?.

I have the factory RSE in my RRS HSE, here are my impressions.

Wireless headphones are not available on the Sport, only the big RR has them. Wired headphones jacks are on the sill of each rear passenger door. Quality headphones are cheap these days, although I felt a bit nickel-and-dimed that LR did not throw them in for "free" at the price they charge for this option... The included remote has a left/right switch and can therefore be used to control either side of the RSES independently by rear pasengers.

You can turn off either monitor (with the provided remote or from the front touchscreen control), or use each one independently to view different sources at the same time, such as AV1 and AV 2 inputs (you can also turn off the monitor and listen to the radio or a CD through the headphone, for example). The RSES includes 2 auxiliary A/V inputs that you can use to plug in a video game console, portable DVD player, camcorder, etc.

While the audio portion of the DVD changer can be heard through the car's speakers as well as through the headphones, audio from AV1 and AV2 input only outputs through the headphones. That kind of sucks.

What REALLY sucks, in North America spec Sports only, is that you cannot view video from the RSES on the front touchscreen monitor, even while parked. It's stupid (thank our lawyers for that) and weird, since all controls for DVD transport, aspect ratio, etc. are available on the front monitor, yet no image is ever displayed. A hacked RSE module from a company named Nav-TV takes care of that limitation and actually allows video playback in front even while moving for the joy of the front passenger - hopefully not the driver - but it is expensive. I bought it and it works as well as advertised.

Other than those few hiccups, image quality on the rear monitors - which are not touchscreen by the way - is outstanding, crisp and very bright (the privacy glass further helps in virtually eliminating reflections, which is a problem with the front monitor). They are at just the right height for rear passengers to enjoy without straining their neck. They dim as ambient light decreases. Not sure about DVD-+R playback (I remember the manual saying something about these formats, I'll check and let you know). Multi-channel audio soundtracks of movies (as well as DTS encoded music CDs or DVD audio discs) really take full advantage of the HK Logic7 system, active sub and all, and the results are awesome. Without RSE, I actually feel sound from the Logic7 system is a bit of a disappointment.

If you have unruly kids in the back seats, you will love the fact that the front touchscreen controls for the RSES always override the rear door and remote's, so you can do things such as turn off monitors, limit the listening volume through the headsets, change the audio/video source, disable the remote entirely, and there is nothing they can do about it.

Finally, you can turn RSES monitors on or off via voice recognition, quite a handy feature since DVD transport and RSE controls are on two separate menus in the front touchscreen monitor, so playing a DVD and turning monitors on or off would require a lot of back-and-forth between menus otherwise.

I have a littlte girl and whenever she becomes exceedingly fussy, I say "Rear Entertainment Play", start a Sesame Street DVD and enjoy the priceless peace and quiet that soon follows... It's like those MasterCard commercials! Without a baby to haul around, I probably would have saved my money. 

Umberto,

Thank you so much for giving a detailed answer to my questions about the RSE. I'm interested in it since it solves the problem of not showing video in the front. Since you've done alot of research on this issue and I'm buying the vehicle in Pasadena, I was wondering if you can recommend a dealer and installer for the NAV-TV around the area. Did you get it installed from Mark for Overfinch?

Are there any issues with the NAV-TV? Limitations? Can the passenger on your right listen to the DVD while you listen to your own music?

Thanks again.

jrrssc wrote:

Can the passenger on your right listen to the DVD while you listen to your own music?

umbertob wrote:

Without RSE, I actually feel sound from the Logic7 system is a bit of a disappointment.

jrrssc wrote:

I was wondering if you can recommend a dealer and installer for the NAV-TV around the area. Did you get it installed from Mark for Overfinch?
Are there any issues with the NAV-TV? Limitations? Can the passenger on your right listen to the DVD while you listen to your own music?

Mark at Overfinch USA was great to deal with, I highly recommend him. If his installer is available, he will actually perform the upgrade at your home or office and swap your RSE module with an upgraded unit, no need to send yours to Nav-TV in advance and wait for it to come back. His price was very reasonable, at least compared to what some other Nav-TV dealers are quoting for the same job, and even compared to some self-installs.

I have had no issues at all with the system, it works as expected. The front monitor video playback is darker and not as sharp as the rear LCD's, but that has nothing to do with the Nav-TV hack. One small drawback is that, to view a video on the front monitor, at least the rear right monitor must be on as well (evidently they share the same video out from the RSE module.) Finally, video playback will be interrupted on the front monitor whenever you engage reverse, supposedly due to an upcoming backup camera interface. Nav-TV should also offer an iPod interface (via touchscreen monitor) soon.

As mentioned in the above reply, the front passenger could listen to any audio or video source other than what is currently playing through the car speakers using the rear headphone jack, which is actually very close to the front passenger's head anyway. The desired input/source can be selected through the Rear Entertainment menu on the front touchscreen.

Finally, I checked the manual, it says that the RSE DVD changer is not compatible with HD DVD, DVD-RAM, DVD-ROM, MP3 or Photo CD.