what should I look for as far as a monitor for my vehicle. I've seen some on Ebay that are 7 inch for under $100. Of course these are cheaper brands, but what do I look at to see if they match up well as far as features and other specs?

Mathius

 

i can tell you not to go with legacy they are crap

 

i've been looking into these for quite some time and like most things you get what you pay for. i have yet to find a decent priced alternative so i haven't purchased mine yet. alot has to depend on the options as well as the pixel rating and whatnot. tv's are becoming so popular now that prices are droping considerably. another reason why i'm not in a hurry. audiovox has been a leading brand in the "cheaper" market so you might look into those. i've worked with a few icon setups which were nice but pricey. i really like the premier pioneer monitors but i refuse to pay 5-600 for a 7" monitor. i will line the walls of my home with tv's before i pay that much for something that costs them nothing to build.

if you are handy with electronics there are kits out there to build your own for under $50 which isn't to bad.

good luck.

 

There are very few companies that actually make TFT LCD screens. Sanyo makes the majority of them. I think the difference is in the electronics that control them.

I have a Nesa 7" 16:9 screen that I bought through dealer accomodation for around $300. You can probably get them for less than that on ebay now. I'm almost done installing it into the IROC, but when I used it briefly 2 years ago, I was impressed at the color depth. It seemed to look as good as the stuff I've seen from Alpine, Kenwood and Pioneer.

I've got a couple buddies with the sub-$100 screens in their cars. Honestly, I really think you can't go wrong for the money, but they definately don't compare to the higher quality stuff.

 

I have been looking for a screen for my car for a while and now I finally have one. I found one on ebay. I was looking at the legacy 7 inch monitors that were on ebay and was going to get one but I decided to wait. I am glad I did. I found on ebay and pioneer avd-w8000 stand alone 8 inch monitor and I got it for just a little over $200. When this screen came out it retailed for about $1100. Only thing is that it was just the screen and I didn't know that it needed a separate hideaway unit to run the screen. I tried a few stereo shops that deal in pioneer and they couldn't get the hideaway unit. There are a few other hideaway units that are available but are only for the motorized monitors. Even pioneer doesn't sell this part separately. They do, however, sell all the parts to make the hideaway unit. They have the electronics, the case, the insulation, the wires, and the screws but they don't sell it put together. It will cost over $400 for these parts but I just recently got the brain off of ebay for $56. I got lucky with my screen. I am still waiting for the brain to arrive to see it work but from what I have heard, it is an awesome screen. Personally, I would wait and buy a good screen and not a cheap one. Sometimes you can get the good screen cheap just like I did. This is just my story about how I got my screen. Here is a pic of the screen that I will add to my car.