Rear Entertainment System Woe's

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Josh Armour

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Does anyone actually make sense of how to control the rear entertainment system? I have 2 children that don't know how to work the remote but want me to start a dvd every time we drive somewhere. Older dvd's have all the previews that play then the progress stops on a 'menu' screen waiting for someone to navigate the focus to 'play movie' and click ok. Often my kids need to 'mirror' the display to the controlling unit. I can't quite see either of the screens, without contorting my body in painful ways, what they are complaining about not working from the front seat.

I have the platinum max version of the expedition, not sure what applies to the other versions but what I can tell is this.

  1. You need to have the Ford Play app installed on Android to try to control it from the front seat.
  2. You need to have the rear entertainment system set to access point mode, instead of client mode, for the ford pass app to work. Note) this should, logically, work when the rear entertainment systems are in client mode and connected to the built-in wifi access point that is in the sync system up front (from ATT) but it doesn't. It seems that you have to put them into Access Point mode, then have your phones connect to them as though they have internet which they dont.
  3. You need to pair the rear entertainment system as a bluetooth device to the front stereo in order to hear what is playing on the rear speakers. NOTE) this doesn't work if you have Android Auto or Car Play connected - as the bluetooth profile force plays what is streaming from the phone over Android Auto or Car Play in that scenario.
  4. You should be able to 'multicast' from the ford app to a mobile device in front to see what is playing on either screen. However, I've never been able to make this work, even when I'm directly connected to the access point in the actual rear entertainment system. PS) as I've said earlier, this should work when both the phones and the rear entertainment system are connected to the built-in wifi hotspost that you can subscribe to in with ATT in the car (sync system).
  5. When you don't have Android Auto connected, but your phone is connected to Sync via Bluetooth, it appears that you can load the Ford Play app in the Apps section and get some controls that should work with the rear entertainment system, however I have not been able to get this to work.
Does anyone know who can provide advanced tech support for this system? I think that the company that OEM's these devices is Invision. Not sure if they'll talk to me about it.
http://www.invisiondirect.com/ You can download a manual in the Ford Play app on Android in an overflow menu.

Is there an OTA for these Android Headrests?

Has anyone just rooted them? Should we work on that?

Why can't these work together (phone and rear entertainment system) while connected to the hotspot in the car?

Why doesn't the Ford Play App work when you have your Android Phone connected to Android Auto? Bluetooth supports multiple active connections simultaneously, you can do this in 'phone' and select another bluetooth device.

Finally: once I get answers to all these questions, I'll make a good video on youtube helping other users out. So help me get answers :)
 
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rcompart

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Right now, Ford’s FES is a joke. There are a couple threads regarding the various complaints and some “remedies” for a few of the issues people are having but others will take some serious work to overcome.
 

edizzle

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The BIGGEST issue it faces is using bluetooth to connect to audio system. This is a tragic mistake!!!!!!!! once connected, it works fine, but it is a process for most normal consumers to get it connected. having it hardwired would be so incredible. i cant believe they didnt do this. otherwise, i think the system actually works very well. i have used it extensively over the last month and it is a REAL PLEASURE having sling player built in. we watched TV all the way to our basketball tournament in Gatlinburg. while in gatlinburg i took 6 13 yr old girls to an escape room attraction. for the hour they were there, i sat in the 2nd row reclining captains chairs and ate a 5 guys burger while watching 48hours on CBS.

We drove an hour to Rabun Gap Nacoochee School for my daughters track. my mom, niece and her baby in tow. it was a bit colder than we expected so i told all the girls to go down to the track and i would stay with the baby since they are visiting and dont get to see a lot of my daughters athletic endeavors. all was well for a bit. he started to get a little fussy and was probably tired of my routine!! LOL, its been a while. so i put on disney jr and he was all good until the girls got back.

we watched a few recorded episodes of Gold Rush on the way to Atlanta a few weeks ago.

We have had 1 month and 20 days and have put 5,000 miles on it.

i curbed the shit out of the front passenger rim in Gatlinburg, ill post pics later. also on the way home on a back road, a pickup truck crossed the double yellow and hit our driver side mirror with his. it cracked the clear signal lens and barely marred the the surfaces above and below the lens. if we can purchase the lens the marks will probably buff out, if not...........DOH
 

MonkeyBrains

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I’ve heard the entertainment system is terrible... Had the rear seat entertainment screens in my ‘08 Expedition and that system was terrible too as it was a pain to control and one of the headrest seats in our Expy would lose signal regularly due to a bad cable or connection. It was “repaired” twice, but never fully fixed. Only redeeming factor about it was that I didn’t pay for it as I was adamant that I didn’t want it so the dealer finally discounted another $1995 off the price of the vehicle. So I passed up buying it on my new ‘18 MAX.

I know my post isn’t really helpful in any way here. But I will offer this piece of advice to those wanting entertainment features for their kids. Skip the rear seat entertainment option. For less money you can buy a couple iPads or other tablets (assuming you don’t already have any) and pre-load a bunch of movies, games, books, whatever. And they’re not confined to the car. There are options to mount or hang the tablets for easy viewing.

I really don’t know why Ford, or other car makers, don’t integrate Android-enabled screens for the rear seat entertainment and make them intuitive / easy to control. With the WiFi connectivity on the new cars, it could be as simple as a parent getting on their computer or phone the night before a road trip and pre-loading whatever movies/apps they want to take with them. Instead, they’ve integrated a crappy third-party semi-generic add-on which probably costs them < $200 and they charge $2000 for it. At least with the latest system, there is some ability to stream video from a phone or tablet, so it’s a start in the right direction.
 
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Josh Armour

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I'm thinking that the Lincoln Version is the same as the Ford, with a couple minor exceptions.

 

aggiegrad05

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