skrontz

According to MBUSA.com, Splitview is now available as a $700 option. It supposedly includes a wireless remote and headphones for the front passenger. A demo from LA International Auto Show can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a58YU9GXCog

Personally, I don't see any value of yet another TV screen in our lives, but could be useful for some folks. I wonder whether it can be installed on older 2010 W221 models; sounds like it's a simple firmware upgrade and installation of the special "grid" on the screen.

Oh yeah, also looks like it's not yet legal in some states (the full list is under "Disclaimer" on the feature description page on MBUSA.com).

CL55_Serge

that is very cool from every angle (pun intended) :-)

I'd like to understand how that actually works, they mentioned something about refractive screen...

skrontz

I believe, the firmware splits the pixel columns into two alternating parts (one for the driver, next for for the passenger, and so on) and shows both images at the same time (half the usual horizontal resolution, though). A special filter (sort of a fine grid) applied to the screen shows odd pixel columns when looking at an angle from the left (driver's side) and even columns from the right (passenger). As a result, two different images are displayed at the same time on the same screen. The likely downside is that the rear passengers would either see a black screen or the weird overlap of the two images when looking at the screen directly.

CL55_Serge

makes sense, so you half the resolution (which may not be important or they doubled the pixel density to accommodate) and the refractive filter directs the pixels to left and right. Very cool.

skrontz

I doubt they doubled the resolution as it would make the screen much more expensive (not to mention the need to carry two different models). I suspect they're banking on the limitations of the human eye and video quality imperfections ;-)

xxGenericSNxx

From this article it talks about side by side pixel placement with a "mask" type thing: http://gizmodo.com/5107328/mercedes-...ay-this-summer

But like another poster mentioned, will back seat passengers be able to see the screen or would it be distorted? (assuming you only have one image on the screen) Also wonder if the passenger has the ability to use a headphone jack.

silberrosa

Back seat passengers would see whatever their front seat counterpart would see. The back right seeing the passenger view and the back left seeing the driver view - all assuming a lefthand drive car. The typical operating mode would likely be with the passenger using the supplied wireless headphones so the driver could listen to music etc. There is also a headphone jack on the passenger side for wired headphones. The resolution of the S/CL class screens are apparently high enough so that even when the resolution is halved, there is no discernable difference in screen quality on either side. For $700, why not?

Diesel Benz

This sounds odd to me. I would consider a typical use case being the one where the driver follows the navigation screen and the front passenger is watching DVD video. Why would the left rear passenger want to watch navigation when the other rear passenger would see the video?

I assume we are talking about the split view at the front and two rear entertainment screens for the rear passengers.

skrontz

We were discussing what the rear passengers would see on the front screen when looking at it from the respective sides, regardless of whether Rear Entertainment system was installed or not. Obviously, the rear screens would be independent from the front one.

Diesel Benz

Sorry, yes I noticed this was discussed at some point. But I'm puzzled with this case too , the rear passengers cannot really see the centre screen at the front unless they watch closer to the centre of the rear seat. The angle would be more straight than that from the front seat. Have you, or anyone else really tested how it works from the rear seat? What about a person sitting at the centre of the rear seat (assuming a 3 person rear seat and the split view active)?

skrontz

Both myself and my better half agree that there's no place for a TV in the car. Sightseeing is much more mentally healthy and fun. Hence, my car would have the Rear Seat package but no Entertainment package ;-)

Hopefully, someone else would chime in.