Customer Reviews

InteracTV DVD System Compilation In-Pack

5 star:		(83)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(114)

 

 

I just got this as a Christmas gift for my little boy. When I looked at the product in the store I was amazed that for under $35 it came with over 100 interactive questions and included 3 different shows and cards of Spongebob, Dora and Elmo to start out with. My husband and I did a test run with it to see what we thought of it before I made a decision to buy any extra dvd's to go along with it for Christmas.
The setup took about 15 mins. we had several different codes to try out with our dvd player, but once we got the right code it was simple from there. We tried out the 3 different cards that came with the Interact Tv.
The first card we tried was the Elmos World and it starts out just as if you were watching Sesame Street and then you get a chance to answer questions on the cards- its simple to use! Its a fun interactive way to teach your children. The controller was far off from our dvd player and it worked fine. I did'nt even have it pointed directly at the dvd player and each time I pushed a button on the interact tv controller it worked.
My husband did'nt like the interact tv as much as I did. He likes the Vsmile much better- as do I, but the Interact Tv is a little cheaper and would be great to take to Grandmas house since it has 3 different codes you can store in the interact tv controller for 3 different tvs- smart idea for Fisher Price! The controller is simple to use, just touch the cards on the controller. The questions is simple for children 3 and up.
All in all for $35 I think its worth every penny. A surprise to me when I opened up the package to try it out, I found a nice hard plastic case to hold the dvd and the cards that came with the system. That was a nice extra that came with this product. Its a great way to let your child sit and watch tv without them just sitting there, they actually get to answer questions and learn at the same time. A great product for winter time during snow days or days to Grandmas house.

My almost 3 year old wants so much to play video games with her big brothers but is too little to really manipulate the controllers and buttons to play those games. I saw this system and the Vsmiles system at the store and got this, as it seemed to be more age appropriate. It was worth every penny and knowing how much it's used, I'd seriously pay twice as much if I had to buy it again!

Big highlights-
Familiar characters and shows.
Short game time, many questions but interspersed with snippets of shoes and songs.
Kid friendly controller-big buttons, big handles, sits comfortably in kids lap and stays pointing at the dvd player!
Kid friendly 'pages'- the removable game 'sheets' are durable plastic AND, when removed and replaced with another it does NOT hang the game, the game simply waits for a new sheet and then starts the game that goes with that sheet!
Age appropriate questions and interface- the questions are simple enough for a 2 year old and the control unit matches the screen when it's game time so it's easy for them to decide what bottun to push.
No "enter" keys needed- some kids games require an enter key or some sort of "ok' button be pressed which isn't always obviously to the younger set.
Positive reinforcement- A wrong answer gets the question repeated, or a hint to the right one. No buzzers or other negative feedback. A right answer gets a happy sound and praise.

My daughter will play this game for an hour or more at a time! While a video will keep her busy for 30 minutes or so, it couch potato time, when she's playing this I know she's being challenged and learning and she's talking back and shouting out the answers and not just vegging out!!

This is really cool. It seems Fisher-Price thoroughly researched the ergonomics with preschoolers and designed a great product. The controller has handles on both sides and is well balanced, so when my daughter is answering a question she can always keep one hand on a handle. I don't think she's ever dropped it. We have a few regular DVDs that have games on them, but my nearly-4-yr-old can't play them by herself because my DVD remotes are too complicated. This is the answer I've been looking for.

The games are embedded within an episode of a cartoon, and each disc has 3 episodes. You can't change the outcome of the episode, but there are places along the way where you have to answer a question in order to proceed. Or you can stop and play a game when you get to it. Sometimes my dtr. skips the games - it's her choice. She loves the Sponge Bob episode the best. She's already learned how to repeat a sequence of 3 items by playing the "sting orchestra" game. She likes the Dora episode, too. The Elmo one is ta bit too babyish for her and would be good for a young 3-yr-old.

There are some things to be aware of. The activity pad is a remote that must be "seen" by the DVD player, so your child needs to be pretty much directly in front of the TV/DVD in order for it to work. Sometimes changing games is a bit tricky - the DVD player has to "see" you remove one card and insert the new one. Insert the card in rapidly or it can mistake it for another. Programming the pad is just like programming any universal remote, but there's some trial and error until you find the code that works for your DVD player. I have 2 players. One works perfectly, but the other has some bugs. I tried all codes for my Samsung DVD/VCR combo, but the arrow keys still don't respond properly. Fisher-Price said I could return the unit, but there's no fix for this problem. Of course, I don't intend on parting with the toy. My dtr. can still play the games on it, but sometimes I have to help her move forward when the arrow key is being quirky.

If you've always wished your kids could play the games on DVDs independently, then this toy is for you. Don't expect it to feel like a video game, because there is a delay between the child's response and the program's reaction as the DVD player calls up the right track. There are so many skills that my preschooler can practice via this system. I can't wait to get her the additional Sponge Bob, Dora, and Blue's Clues DVDs. As much as she loves the one Sponge Bob episode that comes with the activity pad, I'm sure that those 3 additional discs would keep her entertained (and learning) every day for many months to come.

This is such a great concept! My 3.5 year old loves watching Dora, Blues Clues, etc and yelling out all the answers to the questions, so I knew that he would love this. We got it home, and I was so excited to find that it works with our Initial brand portable DVD player! We have a couple of long car trips coming up and I know that this will help keep him occupied! I was impressed with how long the included demo DVD was and how many questions are in each episode....definitely enough to keep his attention! The keypad is very kid friendly and my son picked it up right away! I know that he will have lots of fun with this for a long time....I can't wait to get some of the other DVDs that are available!

My daughter got this for her 2nd birthday, and both she and her 5 year old brother love it (fight over it in fact). Even though it's for ages 3 and up, she has no problems playing with it, as long as i put the dvd and the relevant card in.
Some people report having problems getting it to work in their dvd players, but there was an amendment included in ours that said that the programming card is no longer the way to program the machine, all you have to do is keep pushing one of the side buttons until your dvd turns off. It's them programmed, easy!
So far my kids have played for hours just using the sample cards included, hopefully santa will be bringing some additional games for christmas.

We purchased this toy for our 4 year old daughter who loves to interact with Play with Me Sesame, Dora and Blues Clues shows. This toy is like those shows --- but more! It is like an actual show, it just stops to ask the questions and they press a spot on the controller to answer. It is easy for the kids to operate which helps with self esteem and the questions are very educational.

Setting it up was a little frustrating, but after that, it worked great!

A definite thumbs up!!!

This is by far the coolest toy we have purchased for our son to date. He just turned 3 and HE LOVES IT! A great feature for us is that there is a switch in the back where you can program in 3 different DVD players.
The first DVD player we programed, we had to use a couple of codes first, then we realized we could do the quick find instructions and just hold down the arrow key, that made the other 2 very easy.
He feels so proud of himself and we are amazed at how easily he put it all together (the answer is on the bird, so I have to look at this box and push the bird) and boy is he proud when he does it. I would also have paid double as another reviewer has said and would hands down recommend it to anyone. My only problem is they need to make more games, I am tiring of some of the games (not that my son is :) Buy this, you will not be sorry.

INTERACTV
I ran right out and immediately bought the InteracTV after seeing its TV commercial. I couldn't wait to get home and connect it for my 2 1/2 year old. Set up and programming are extremely easy. Find and program your code using the program card, test it using the test card, insert the DVD that comes with the system, select and place you're Activity Card on the controller and you're all set, well almost. My daughter sat down to play the Dora game and got pretty far along when the "star" or "A" (on the test card) simply stopped working, all of the other buttons worked fine, needless to say my daughter was devastated. I assumed we had a faulty system. I took it back to Target the next day and exchanged it, brought it home repeated the steps and guess what same problem. So I called Fisher Price customer service, the technician walked me through the steps several times we even tried a macro because on my TV you need a zero before any single digit number in order to change the channels. Though Fernando my technician was very nice and very helpful he said he would need to call tech support of the maker DVD player was made by to consult with them and would call me back well it's been 4 days and no phone call. I discovered that without a shadow of a doubt the programming is obviously not compatible with my Samsung DVD player, because it works fine with the DVD player in my bedroom. Once you get pass the technical problem, there's the question of weather or not I'm crazy about this product. I love not having any wires! I also love the fact that's its interactive which works wonderfully with Dora being that it's a somewhat interactive TV show. However, I feel that certain parts of each game (I also purchased Celebrate with Barney and Dora Rapido Tico) are simply way to advanced for even most 3 year olds, though my daughter is 2 1/2 she's very smart, she knows all of her colors, recognizes all of the alphabet and numbers 1-20, It would be great if the system would allow you to change the level of difficulty, which would not only enable her to grow with the game but also allow her play an entire game without encountering something way to challenging for her, which as you know can be incredibly discouraging to a small child. I think this is a great concept but my overall experience leaves me feeling somewhat uncertain about this product. This weekend I will also purchase the V-smile so I can compare the two.

UPDATE: After purchasing the V-Smile and Interac TV I would highly recommend the V-Smile over Interac TV. I think V-Smile is a much more educational choice, it's also a product that will grow with your child.

InteracTV was a very good invention. My son is 3 & all he likes to do is watch spongebob, scooby doo and etc. I don't mind him watching those shows but I want him to get some education out of it for the amount of time that he watch it. Now he can watch his favorite characters and learn and interact with them. It's amazing to see how your much your child actually know. I highly recommend this item. The only problem I had was programing the device to different dvd players.

I think it was put on the shelves way to early. There are so many kinks in the system. we got it on Wednesday. After trying for like 30 minutes to get it to work with our dvd player I had to call cs. They went through it with me about 3 times. You are supposed to enter a code and it will have 3 short and 1 long blink. Well the only one that didn't do this was the one that actually worked...sort of. Ok so it comes with dora, sesamestreet, and spongebob on the same disk. in order to switch from one game to the next we couldn't just switch the card on the hand held part.... we had to oped yhe dvd and then reclose and then speed past the set up instructions EVERY TIME. You can't just push the menu button to get it back to the main screen you had to do all that. Then once we actually got it to play one the differect characters talked forever before asking a question. When you pushed the button to answer you have to hold it for a second for it to register on the screen. Also I know it says for ages 3 and over but some of the questions are pretty advanced or hard to actually pick out the answer based on the pictures. I think a 3 year old (ones that KNOW all their shapes, numbers, colors and letters) might get very frustrated and confused with this. Also I think the cards that you insert are a bit to flimsy. We are going to return ours tomorrow. It seems like other people have had a better experience but ours was bad. Our dvd player is less than a year old so that couldn't have been the problem. Good luck with your decidion