Sirius' retail SCV1 Backseat TV System now on sale

While many of you have likely forgotten all about the retail SCV1 backseat TV tuner that Sirius announced way back in August of last year (and promised for Q4 2007), those hooked from the word go will be elated to know that they can finally get their hands on one. As of right now, Sirius partners are finally stocking (and shipping) the SCV1 Backseat TV System. The pain? $299.99 for the unit itself and $6.99 per month for TV service. In other words, an absolute bargain to maintain sanity on that upcoming 18 hour road trip.

[Via Orbitcast]

[James @ Mar 6th 2008 9:08PM]

MOM! This 5 minute car ride to school is so boring.

I want TV NOOOW!

Wow, I can't wait to have kids. (even though the 7 dollar service IS cheap).

[Flashpoint @ Mar 6th 2008 10:37PM]

If the satellite media providers offered XM/Navtraffic along with backseat TV (in equipped models) for around $19.99 a month, I'm certain that they'd make some pretty good sales.

My girlfriend got a 2008 Chrysler 300c and it came with this as a bonus but, the stupid thing is, you can't just watch any channel you want to watch that you'd be used to from owning cable tv. This stuff is all family friendly, mostly sports and not what you'd really want to have.
I was hoping for movie channels like HBO and Cinemax but again, its family friendly stuff.

[Craig Robinson @ Mar 7th 2008 10:47AM]

Flashpoint:

I read somewhere that the intitial roll out will be family friendly with more options to come down the road. So hopefully we can watch HBO one day!

[Cola @ Mar 7th 2008 11:24AM]

Flashpoint:

they obviously wouldn't be able to hit that price point if they had HBO or any of the premium channels. Plus HBO is a stickler about their content and I wouldn't think they would be the first to jump into this. Also, as I've noted below, I'm not sure you'd want to watch HBO on this unless you'd be willing to have lots of blur/ghosting.

Other technologies will fill the gap but its probably a good 2-3 years away for a aftermarket/oem solution

[John @ Mar 6th 2008 9:15PM]

I'm left thinking: why didn't I think of this?

[Matt Smith @ Mar 6th 2008 9:26PM]

Do they still only have 3 or so channels? Or have they increased the number of channels?

[Cola @ Mar 7th 2008 11:15AM]

They are limited to 3 channels due to bandwidth. They are using the excess capacity they have on the satellite radio bandwidth to cram 3 channels of video. Maximum they could aim for would be another extra channel unless they they buy more spectrum which is highly unlikely.
They are trying to get ESPN into that last channel but the cost is too high for the content plus live game coverage would not be possible due to blackout restrictions that are hard to enforce and anyway the quality of the video is just not good to watch live action (even watching Disney channel you get ghosting)

[Matt Smith @ Mar 7th 2008 11:32AM]

Doesn't seem worth paying anything extra for that... even with kids... might as well just pop a DVD in (IMO).

[dudeInAmerica @ Mar 6th 2008 9:30PM]

This is actually a really good idea.

No satelite dish or fuzzy tv signal.

[Superduperm @ Mar 6th 2008 9:41PM]

I wonder how many DVDs on top of the Portable DVD player it would take to equal the cost of this. By my calculations, about 16 cheaper DVDs and an average priced player. I would go for the DVDs.

[Les @ Mar 6th 2008 9:47PM]

I heard it has an A/V input. Probably RCA

[Les @ Mar 6th 2008 9:46PM]

Wow, Is that a decent price????

I didn't know companies had a concept of that these days

Hope it actually has channels though

[bradrel @ Mar 6th 2008 9:52PM]

http://www.sirius.com/backseattv

[Ralph @ Mar 7th 2008 9:35AM]

Thanks for an actual direct link; something Engadget has lately been omitting.

I predict a lot of people without kids calling this a horrible & stupid idea, and people with kids thinking this will be a nice thing to have for road trips.

[BigD145 @ Mar 6th 2008 10:08PM]

Ugh. Pretty stupid. Does this mean parents can't even be bothered to converse with their children in a car? Home? Nope, TV there. School? Someone else's problem. Sports? Someone else's problem. Why not just lay them out on the driveway and run them over? Less money spent and less hassle for 18+ years.

[Insert Name Here @ Mar 6th 2008 10:27PM]

Wow....did mommy not hug you enough?

[Kip Granson @ Mar 6th 2008 10:31PM]

That price is if you already have a Sirius subscription, not the basic fee. If you don't have a subscription, You have to pay for both a Sirius subscription and the TV subscription, so $19.94 total per month (http://www.sirius.com/backseattv/faq#geninfo) and it's 3 channels.

[Morgan @ Mar 6th 2008 11:34PM]

It's only for Chrysler vehicles too. They had to choose the worst of the three big American car companies.

[bjrcboy @ Mar 7th 2008 12:55AM]

Your an idiot, its only pre installed in chrysler vehicles but you can install it into any car of your choice if you buy the kit.

[Morgan @ Mar 7th 2008 1:04AM]

@bjrcboy:

You may want to do some self-exploration before calling someone names. For one thing, I was being sarcastic, which was obviously lost on you. Also, your choice of words points to your obvious lack of intelligence: "Your an idiot" is not only grammatically incorrect, it's absolutely incomprehensible as a phrase in the English language. Better luck next time, chief.

[craig#2 @ Mar 7th 2008 6:45AM]

@Morgan:

Incomprehensible? maybe, but you get the gist. Your sarcasm could use some fine tuning, IMHO. And self-exploration? Thats curious.

Anyway, this thing can come preinstalled in select dodge and jeep vehicles as well.

[Kris @ Mar 7th 2008 9:32AM]

You guys are flaming, if you know what I mean. This is Engadget, not myspace

[Jaymez @ Mar 7th 2008 2:20PM]

DO. NOT. WANT.

What a sorry comment on our society when we need to have some form of TV with us no matter where we go. We get TV in our phones, on the Internet, now it's coming from the factory in our cars.

I can guaran-fucking-tee my kids will not make use of this system. I love Sirius radio. Sirius TV, however, can bite the big one.