Doing minor changes to my S-Class to play streaming content for my kids

All the cables & adapters stay inside the glovebox, so it's a pretty neat setup.

BHPian androdev recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

The rear suspension struts replacement is still pending - one of the struts that I imported came in a damaged condition so I have applied for a refund and reordered the part. Cross-border stuff is always fraught with such risks. I guess the rear struts replacement will take some time. It's only for preventive maintenance, so the delay is not causing any problem as such but I still hope to wrap it up soon.

The car has been pressed to duty as usual and things are back to normal. Certainly very happy to be driving this car again after some gap during which I was driving other cars - and it made me appreciate why this car is special, especially the air suspension. I confess the car makes you forget the $$$ damage.

During the early years of owning this car, I was using the "rear-seat entertainment" feature a lot to keep my boys entertained. It was a big hit with kids. The cutting-edge feature of cars of this generation was a 6-DVD changer with some tiny screens with so-so screen resolution. However, the short viewing distance, comfortable seats, a capable music system in a quiet cabin and a fridge, etc. makes the whole experience pretty cozy. It was simply fantastic to travel with kids in a home theatre on wheels.

The front screen has a cool feature called "split screen" which allows the passenger to view the video content while it is blocked for the driver for safety reasons (video in motion). Basically, it is like a 2-in-1 screen where the passenger and driver see different content on the same screen. The consequence of this is that as a driver I could only hear the movie audio and never see the visuals - a bit like All India Radio movies/plays for those who are old enough to remember.

As you can imagine, I bought a lot of DVDs back then. I mean really lots. (Side note to young parents: a hidden gem was a DVD set based on this - underwater NatGeo-like stuff but targeting kids - at least that’s how I remember it.) Our house has finally recognised the extinction of DVDs and we disposed of whatever was left of them. Sadly most of them are damaged with scratches and stuff.

My kids are teenagers now and our entertainment tastes have... hmm... diverged (OMG, LOL!) but old habits die hard and we still enjoy watching movies together but not in the car anymore as I am not even sure if DVDs are sold these days.

I decided to see if I can upgrade this dinosaur to support streaming content so we can watch movies together like the good old times. It turned out to be a pretty straightforward procedure. The car has RCA input provision inside the glovebox and I had to buy two adapters to achieve "lightning to HDMI to RCA" for use with iPad/iPhone. All the cables and adapters stay inside the glovebox, so it's a pretty neat setup.

Screen mirrored along with audio:

Rear screens

Two adapters are required to go from lightning to HDMI to RCA (USB-C to HDMI also works):

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