The Invision kit comes with everything you need to install the DVD players into your X5; two leather headrests with integrated DVD players, two

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1 Our BMW X5 plays a lot of roles in our life daily driver, tow vehicle, household hauler, etc. but the most important is Mommy Mobile and road trip car. The X5 makes a great long distance cruiser; it comfortably eats up the miles in comfort, with plenty of room for the family and all of the crap that we usually have to haul with us. With a little one in our lives (my daughter Sofia, now 3), having a DVD player in the car makes these long trips a whole helluva lot more bearable. She s actually very well behaved in the car, but for trips over an hour having some sort of entertainment makes things a lot easier for Mom and Dad. We started out with a portable unit from Panasonic that we strapped to the center armrest, but I really wanted something with a more factory and integrated look. With prices falling as BMW dealers cleared out their old inventory, I finally purchased a pair of Invision DVD Headrests that I found on ebay.

2 The Invision kit comes with everything you need to install the DVD players into your X5; two leather headrests with integrated DVD players, two remotes, two pairs of wireless headphones, a controller box (allows for sharing one DVD across both headrests), and all of the wiring. The only negative is that the instruction manual is pretty basic, and does not cover any of the steps need to actually mount the headrests.

3 You have to start by removing the factory headrests. I noticed that on my sport seats, the holes in the headrest bases were too small for the Invision headrests (might be a specific problem on the sport seats). To work around that, I removed the bases themselves from the seats and planned to cover the square openings by reusing just the caps from the headrest bases (see below). I widened the holes on the caps just enough that they would slip over the metal rods, but left the tight enough that they would stay in place to conceal the holes in the seat. I then routed the wires into the seat back.

4 You need to remove the seat backs to best route the wires for the DVD players. You probably could use something to fish the wires through (the kit comes with a tool for this), but I decided to remove the seat back to avoid any snags or problems, and also to make sure the headrests were properly secured as I had removed the plastic bases that normally locks them in. Removing the seat back is easy there are two press-in plastic bolts at the base of the seat back that can be pried out, and then the seat back simply slides down. With the seat back off, I used zip ties to hold the headrests in place (note: this will keep the headrests from moving vertically). I then gathered the wires and ziptied them to the seat frame.

5 I routed the wires down to a gap between the seat frame and the seat back cover on the inboard side of the seat. This would let me mount the control box in the middle of the car between the front seats. I then re-secured the seat backs. I didn t bother to re-use the plastic clips, as black zip ties served the same purpose while being easier to remove/reinstall as needed.

6 With the headrests installed, it was time to find a mounting location for the control box. I chose to mount it in the center console where I could access it if it needed to be serviced for any reason. The cubby box in our X5 seemed like the perfect place, as I could access power directly underneath it. The first step to routing the wires into the center console was to remove the carpeted side panels in the rear of the console. From there, I removed the screws holding the cubby into place and took it out of the car. I test fit the controller box by mounting it to the cubby with double-sided tape and made sure I both had room to route the wires and that the cubby door would close. I then used a couple of small metal screws to make sure the box wouldn t move around if the double sided tape failed for some reason (see finished picture below). I routed the wires through holes in the bottom of the cubby box and plugged everything in. You can tap power and ground off of the rear cigarette lighter plug, although note that this is not switched power so the DVD players will work with the key off. I didn t mind this, so left it as is, but if you want it switched you either need to find another power source or use a relay and tap into a switched wire (like the factory amp) to power off the headrests when the car is shut off.

7 One the cubby is secure in the car, you need to secure and protect the wires running from the seats to the center console. I first moved the seats through their full range to make sure that there was enough slack in the wires. Then I wrapped the wires in some plastic loom and zip tied them in place.

8 And below is the finished product! Overall the Invision kit is a really great product for the money. I would like to have had a better resolution to my headrest base issue, so a trip to the parts counter at the BMW dealer will be in order to see if the sport seats and comfort seats use different bases.