A video iPod is pretty much standard road warrior equipment these days. With the selection of in-flight movies ranging in viewability from "Not Interested" to "I Can't Believe a Studio Green-lit This Mess", having your own stash of entertainment makes a long, boring, cross-country flight at least tolerable.
Spending several hours in an airplane seat is uncomfortable enough, but spending several hours in an airplane seat, hunched over a small iPod screen can get downright agonizing. (But is still less painful than watching the latest Robin Williams movie.) Watching while reclining helps, until your arms give out. The ideal viewing position would be to lie back and watch on an overhead screen. And since the airlines don't have them, you'll need to bring your own.
Myvu makes a "portable big-screen" packed into what looks like the glasses LaVar Burton wore on "Star Trek: The Next Generation". Thin and lightweight, the myvu projects video images onto a virtual screen that floats in front of you. (It's about the same as watching a large TV from about six feet away.)
Built-in ear buds deliver the sound and a small "remote" on the cord lets you adjust volume and contrast while watching.
It's an experience that takes a few minutes to get used to - the thin profile of the "glasses" let's you see above, below and through the viewer - so you can still see movement in the world around you while watching. It's like having things move around behind your TV in the living room. And of course, moving your head shakes the "screen" as well. Wearing them while walking around (for "on-the-go lifestyles" as they say on the myvu website), is a surreal experience, but one that you do get used to surprisingly fast. Although I don't recommended that if you get motion sickness easily. But for travel or for watching while lying in bed next to someone who is sleeping? I would say trade your small screen for the virtual big screen.
$199.95 Solo edition
$299.95 Fully Loaded Edition with 8-hour battery pack, travel case and AC and car power adapters.
www.myvu.com