Installing Rear-Seat Monitors in Our Cayenne

This is the first car we’ve had with monitors for the rear seats. My husband had suggested adding them to our previous cars, too, saying, “Why not put monitors in the back for the kids?” But I was stubbornly opposed, insisting that:

No way—we shouldn’t spoil the kids like that. They’ll start thinking it’s normal to watch TV in the car!

So we never installed them.

But the kids are getting older, and on long family road trips, they often have nothing to do in the car. Before long, they’d start complaining that they were “hungry” or “my back hurts,” or they’d get into arguments with each other. Keeping everyone happy while driving was quite a challenge, so this time we decided to have a rear-seat monitor installed in our Cayenne.

The monitors, of course, let the kids watch TV in the back. But my husband had something else in mind:

The kids hardly ever watch regular TV these days—they’re always watching YouTube. What I really want is to connect an Amazon Fire TV Stick so they can watch YouTube.
So I asked the dealer to make sure we could connect an HDMI cable. Then we could also connect an iPhone and mirror its screen. It could come in handy for all sorts of things.

His top priority, then, was simply making sure we had an HDMI connection.

With an Amazon Prime membership, you can use your Fire TV Stick to stream movies and shows from Prime Video, as well as watch YouTube. The stick is small and easy to take along, so you can also use it on trips—for example, by plugging it into the HDMI port on a hotel TV to watch Prime Video. My husband keeps a Fire TV Stick in his suitcase just for travel.

By the way, when I had our third baby recently, hospital visits were completely suspended because of COVID-19, and the midwives were happy to look after the baby whenever I needed. The hospital had even told me ahead of time, “There won’t be much to do while you’re here, so you may find yourself with plenty of free time!”

So I brought along a Fire TV Stick. As it turned out, I really was bored during my stay, and I managed to watch seven or eight movies on Prime Video. I was so glad I’d packed it!

That’s a bit of a detour, but my husband’s main request was to make it possible to connect a Fire TV Stick to the Cayenne via HDMI. The dealer was able to install the necessary equipment as an option.

How to Use the Rear-Seat Monitors

Here’s how to watch Prime Video or YouTube in the car:

1. Connect the HDMI cable (the dealer ran a cable to the center console).
Power comes from a USB-C port in the center console—all the USB ports in the Cayenne are USB-C. For Wi-Fi, we use the 3 GB per month included with Porsche Connect. If we ever use up that data allowance, we’ll tether to a smartphone.

2. Press and hold the “NAVI” button (the system is set up to show regular TV first).

3. Press and hold the “NAVI” button again (this switches the display to HDMI input).

4. To hear the audio, press “SOURCE” and select the appropriate FM frequency (the system is set up to play the audio through the car speakers when you select the radio. The sound doesn’t come directly from the monitors. My husband thinks this may be because the digital signals from terrestrial TV and HDMI are converted to analog for display on the monitors.)

5. Use the Fire TV Stick remote to navigate (our kids operate it from the back seats).

That’s all it takes to let the kids watch YouTube and other content in the rear seats.

The kids absolutely love it. On a recent short drive, they even said, “Aw, I want to stay in the car longer!” The Cayenne has plenty of room in the back, so they can sit a good distance from the monitors, and they don’t seem to get carsick. Plus, while the kids watch YouTube in the back, the adults can use the front display for navigation and other information.

If the sound gets too loud, you can set it to play mainly through the rear speakers, keeping things relatively quiet up front. That way, the adults can enjoy a conversation of their own.

Honestly, if it makes the ride this comfortable, I wish we’d installed rear-seat monitors in our old Panamera, too… (laughs)