An affordable Laptop VS. Portable DVD Player?

[simplygreen]

My son has Aspergers and we are really having a hard time traveling, he hates the sound of the tires on the interstate. So we were thinking of getting a portable DVD player which are around $100. But I have seen some Laptops for $400 to $500 and thought we might get more long term use out of it.  we could use in the laptop in the car and we are planning on homeschooling with time4learing. We do already have a desktop computer though.  I'm just not sure I want to spend an extra $400 at the moment, but we have a 6 hour car trip coming up and we have to have something in place.  What do you think would be a better purchase?  Thanks

[Knittin' in the Shade]

If you go with the laptop, you'll also need to get something like this car adapater so you don't run the battery down halfway through the trip.  We use a laptop inthe car on really long trips (like the 16 hour drive to Florida we did a few years ago!!), and it's nice for the boys to be able to watch a movie or play games.

[maptome]

What about a netbook for around $200?  I don't believe they come with DVD players, generally, but it seems like you would get more use out of it than a dvd player.

[greenmom4]

Could you do an ipod w/ videos, books on tape and music for the car?  Or a nook or something?  If it were me, I don't think we'd get our money's worth out of portable dvd player and I think a laptop might be too cumbersome in the car plus it would be pricy.

[Imakcerka]

If it's mainly for movies I would go with a DVD player.  While the cheaper laptops are more affordable they don't all have the ability to play dvd's.  Also they generally only have 2 gb of memory and that's honestly not very useful for watching or streaming movies.  Very choppy.  I had an acer with 2gb and could not switch it up to 4gb so I was stuck.  I had to keep a lot of stuff that I actually needed on an external.  Though they last quite awhile.  

[rcr]

We have an amazon kindle fire and watch movies on it. That is another option.