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Many people treat their vehicles as an extension of their own personalities.

They're taking their cars and installing a number of aftermarket accessories in addition to the options and standard equipment that come with a car nowadays.

One of these is the car DVD player and it's an extremely versatile device. Taking a look at the question "Car DVD player mysteries: What is steering wheel control," is worth examining, if only to figure out just what player to purchase.

To start, many vehicles today come straight from the factory with controls on their steering wheels that can handle a variety of functions, including climate control and radio tuner control.

These are mainly convenience devices and can help a person keep his or her eyes on the road rather than glancing over to the dashboard control stack, which is one of the main reasons other than convenience for why they might be on the wheel.

Today's car DVD players - at least the top-end ones - can come with a way to add the ability to control an aftermarket car DVD player with existing steering wheel controls already on just about any car regardless of whether or not the car was wired for controls in the first place.

They do this through the use of simple adapter devices and interface controllers and the dedicated do-it-yourself, who's willing to go online and learn a few things, can pretty much install his or her own player and newly-adapted steering controls relatively simply.

The level of interaction that a person can engage in with a steering wheel control and a car DVD player is impressive. Making use of special wiring harnesses that go between the player and the control adapters is usually how everything's accomplished, and the fact that almost everything is now controlled through use of infrared (IR) makes it all the easier to do.

In effect, whatever controls are already on the steering wheel will be able to be utilized through the pre-existing controllers on the wheel.

For example, if your vehicle features volume, band (AM/FM etc.), station or source controls, and you've got the right kind of harness and adapter for your specific vehicle (and aftermarket manufacturers make devices that can work in just about any vehicle these days), then you should be good to go and able to use your new car DVD player will relative ease.

Almost every car maker has a number of vehicles in their lineups that feature steering wheel controls, so just go online and check the Internet to see what vehicles are offering them as either standard or optional equipment.

So keep in mind; in addition to the whiz-band player you'll have bought you're also going to need an adapter if you hope to control some of your player's features from the steering wheel controls.

A number of well-known aftermarket accessory equipment makers offer adapter devices online. Just go online and enter in the phrase "steering wheel control interface" or something similar and then pick from among a number of such devices, all of which normally run around $75.00 in price. So then; if you're considering going for a car DVD player, don't worry about not being able to use pre-existing steering wheel controls because the chance are good that you'll in fact be able to.

 
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Great Tech Article. I did not know this was available.