Utemad replied:

I might be wrong but I think the only units that do voice prompts already gave screens. Unless your DVD screen is bigger then it might not warrant connecting it to it.

Topcat (WA) replied:

Hi S&N,as far as I know I think you will find that unless the screen has capability for VGA input you'll not be able to connect a GPS navigation system to your DVD player. Most of the players do not have this facility but there are some on the market that do. A screen with VGA input is like the monitor on your computer or laptop. I could be wrong as I've been looking for a screen for my GPS nav system & the DVD players are at reasonable prices where to purchase a screen with VGA capability is costs a lot more. Cheers.

Groove replied:

I dont know of any unit that will plug directly into your screen. However alot of laptops have a composite video out port. Composite video is the type your screen accepts.

Composite video will not look as good from a laptop because it is not as high a resolution as a VGA screen. However with this in mind the voice promts will work fine and programs like Destinator 3 (which I use) allow you to zoom in to see the details in the maps. Also Destinator 3 displays large arrows on screen to indicate when a turn is approaching .

You can get a vga screen of ebay (from electronicar in hong kong) for $340 Australian. These have a built in touch screen.

Laptops suitable for this task can be purchased quite reasonably second hand as you do not have to gave a very powerful machine to do this. I run mine a a pentium 3 733MHZ. I have seen similar machines for about $600. Still not cheap but A latop in the car is a versatile thing.

I use it for navigation, storing digital pics, games, dvd etc
Cheers

Member Eric replied:

I have a VDO unit and have plugged it into my in-dash screen. It a great unit for finding streets but usless in the bush . Once your off the main hwy , it wont have any information for you. So this is why I run a Megellan colour GPS with a SD card with discover maps . Also I have connected this to my lap top and im experementing with ozi explorer software. It's optional to buy the screen when purchasing a VDO unit , the screen they come with is to small anyway. The voice only unit , in my opinion is pretty usless because it much easier to navigate around a strange area when you split the screen to view the access to streets and freeways . There are other street nav units on the market , but not as good as VDO . Another good option is to purchase a PDA , this is great to use as a diary for work and stores all your contacts ect. You then purchase the nav man sleeve which turns it into a GPS with street info and voice . You can also run ozi exlorer on it with maps , Glenn is the best person to talk to about that since he runs a similar set up.

PDA with Nav Man sleeve will set you bach from $1000 to $1600 depending on choise of PDA . VDO unit will set you back around $3000 pluss your Minitor and then you still need to purchase a GPS for bush tracks