Quote Originally Posted by blitz View Post
Ok so it sounds like what I want isnt actually made? thats cool the littly has a portable dvd player so that answers that question. It would double up as the take away work computer as I do a bit of traveling and this lap top although very handy is bigger than I would like.

Does anyone know if they come with a incar mounting bracket?

Cheers Blythe
For the car I use an Acer Aspire One (XP, 1GB RAM and 120GB HDD) and a car mount I found on eBay. Next time I have it set up I will take a pic.

The bracket has a suction mount on the windscreen and foot pad that sits on the dash. For extra cushioning, I taped some foam on the bottom of the clamps that just touch the dash. An in-car charger that plugs in to the cigarette lighter supplies the power.

The laptop also doubles as a diagnostic tool, running EASunlock software should the air suspension have a wobbly, and will also plug in to the Faultmate SV (when I can afford it).

As for the hard drive, I'm not overly concerned as the laptop cost less than $600 and a replacement drive is only around $100 if it breaks. Of course, I will totally void the warranty on the laptop if I replaced it myself.

A bluetooth dongle from eBay (approx $30) and a bluetooth GPS reciever let the OziExplorer s/w tell me where I am/was/going to.

If you want to watch a DVD, there are a few options:

  • get an external USB connected DVD driver, approx $100
  • on another PC, rip the DVD to an ISO file using your favourite ripping software. copy the file to the car PC (wireless LAN, flash drive etc) then playback using VLC. You can also mount the DVD as a virtual CD/DVD drive letter using Daemon Tools
  • on another PC, rip the DVD and convert it to DivX or WMV. Playback on the car PC using VLC or Windows Media Player

If your car stereo has an audio input jack on the front panel, this is the easiest way to get music/movie audio from the PC via the 3.5mm headphone-out jack.

I also have the Linux/SSD version of the Acer Aspire One which would be a good candidate for the car if there was a Linux version of OziExplorer or similar mapping software.

side note: One of the blokes in the 4WD club I'm in puts his laptop on the back seat and has a second mirror to see the screen. As you might guess, he sometimes makes a wrong turn