Dear Aunt TUAW: How do I use my Apple TV in the car?

TV in the car? Gimme a break. The little squeezers should be looking out the window and seeing what' out there. There's a little thing called imagination that's being killed using TV as a pacifier. We even played with toys that didn't require electricity of any kind.

When I was a kid (you're welcome to walk on my lawn, btw) we took many long road trips and played lots of games based on what we saw out the window of the car.

License plates: list the states. Types of cars. Hold breath when passing cemeteries. Imitate sound of animals you see. Make faces at people in other cars to get a reaction.

I always take my iPhone loaded with TV and DVD rips when I'm travelling, along with a composite cable and variety of adaptors to cope with cheap hotel TVs. Being in Europe, a SCART adaptor is essential, luckily these are very cheap. Also, a USB extension cable is useful, if there isn't a socket near enough to the TV (there usually is) and a composite extension cable can be useful too, if you want to be able to keep the iPhone in your hands while still being a reasonable distance from the TV!

The TV out is a really great 'hidden' feature of the iPhone and iPod Touch, I'm surprised Apple don't advertise it more.

I am actually doing research on this for a 9 hour trip in May with a two year old. I've decided the first purchase will be a DVD player with Aux connections that's removable so it can go from car to car. Before my son was born, we just used a Macbook and hooked up the sound through the AUX. Also used a netbook too, which worked well because it weighed less.

I do have aTV with aTV Flash, so I may try out that option since the trip is all interstate, so it will not be too bumpy. Also, the heat will be an option to consider.

I also have an old 30GB Zune that I use to hold movies, so it'll essentially be the same as using an iPod (have a 60GB iPod for songs only).

I would like a bigger screen than 7-8 inches and thought about hooking up a 15 inch TV with the converter, but with no way to mount it, it'll be too much of a hassle.

Keep in mind there's also the capacity question: If you're going on a long road trip, the Apple TV will have almost three times the capacity of the largest iPod touch, which maxes out at 64GB.

A 160GB iPod classic would be the best equivalent in this case, and you actually get a bit more available storage than the Apple TV, as the OS takes up less space on the iPod. Granted it's still hard-drive based, but that's not going to be a serious concern unless you're taking a serious off-road trip -- unlike the Apple TV, the hard drive in the iPod classic is designed to handle a few bumps along the way.

I built a dock into the car center console so the ipod touch can be controlled by the person in the front passenger seat. Video is led to dual headrest built in monitors and the audio trough infrared headphones.
My kids get to watch 1 movie on long trips and then they have to think of a game to to for themselves. Mostly after 1 movie it;s time to stop for a while and do some outdoor activities anyway.

before i also thought that building in an appletv was the way to go due to wireless synching while the car would be on the driveway but the hassle of being able to power up and down the apple tv from a distance when you want to sync put me off.

We take our iPod with us every time we travel. Before we leave, we load it up with ripped DVDs and connect it to the video system wherever we go with the iPod Universal Remote and Dock with its s-video or composite out connectors.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB125G/C?fnode=MTY1NDA0OQ&mco=MTQ5NzQ2NDY

We use an iPod Touch hooked up to a dual screen dvd player set. Much easier than swapping discs mid-trip and we can control it from the front seat while the kids are in the back row of the minivan. Just make sure your dvd player has an aux in port. You can take the same setup inside to hookup to the tv when you arrive. Just make sure you have a usb power adapter for the car and the wall to charge the ipod.

If the kids are young, the iPad or giving them an iPod Touch doesnt work too well since you cant lock the screen when video is playing on the device (using an aux out cable you can). So little fingers will keep stopping the movie.

BTW: An Apple TV can output composite NTSC.

An iPad would allow several back seaters to look at the same video on the trip. Then it could be plugged into the TV at the final destination.

This seems a lot simpler than an iPhone or iPodTouch, if you don't already have them.

The post says it for a trip this summer, so their is plenty of time to buy either iPad version.

Jeez! The car is for driving, not watching TV!