Amazon.com: Roku Express+ | HD Streaming Media Player, Includes HDMI and Composite Cable : Electronics

I can’t say enough about this little Roku. I had a particular installation I wanted it for and it has performed like a champ now on several road trips and trips around town.

I have a large SUV with a screen in the back for the kids. Problem is, the screen only accepts composite inputs. I researched all kinds of ways to get composite AV out of an iPhone or an AppleTV and finally came across this Roku unit. For the price it was a no brainer. The next day I was hooking it up and mounting it to the center console. I have it wired so it comes on automatically when the car starts, and it gets data from my AT&T mobile hotspot with unlimited data. At no point have my kids had any trouble watching anything they want, but I try to encourage them to mainly use the DirecTV channel since DirecTV doesn’t count against our data on our plan. We installed the Movies Anywhere channel as well so we have access to our full purchased video library on iTunes. There is even a channel that lets them stream photos and videos from our home server if they want to watch Christmas and baby videos. On the little screen in the truck, the video quality of the composite input is barely noticeable as less than HD.

Being able to watch live TV while driving across the country to visit the grandparents is about the coolest thing ever. Having Disney Junior live and on tap 24/7 for my 2 year old has been a godsend for those trips around town where you are going to be in the car for an hour and she’s not happy about being dragged along.

Listen, I’m all for looking out the windows and thinking and using your imagination and all of that kind of thing. I don’t let them watch every time we are in the car, we only have it on when it’s going to be a longer trip and this Roku is PERFECT for that. I’m sure it’s great for home use as well, but I just wanted to explain how I’m using it. It is super small so it fits discretely in a small space like a vehicle. The build quality is solid and feels very well put together. It comes with everything you would need to use it. It even comes with an HDMI cable so it can be used with HDMI enabled screens as well as composite. It connects to my hotspot automatically every time without any input. There are about a million channels you can download for it. The DirecTV channel even remembers what you were watching last time and keeps it on that channel for you, so all the kids have to do is launch DirecTV and it’s on Disney channel. I love it.

I can’t wait to use it this fall to stream ESPN to a big screen while tailgating. Who needs a satellite dish?