I have not used the Epods so I cannot comment on the quality of the screen in the sun, however to help with your project:
1. Visit http://www.mp3car.com , http://www.mp3.com , http://www.webring.com (search for car mp3) and http://www.mp3car.com - these sites have project after project and are a fantastic source of information on building a custom, PC based A/V system for your car.
2. Consider using 5-6" TFT NTSC screens (about $120 including power supply and wiring harness) as they are easy to connect, accept a standard NTSC signal (or PAL), use very little power and are designed with the car in mind.
3. Try to place whatever "accessories" that you get on the pc in the trunk - this will help keep the car un-cluttered and the PC in the trunk has more spare CPU cycles than your "remote" - be it Epods, or whatever.
4. Utilize a custom remote program to control your machine - check winamp.com or buy the IRman to do it - this will allow you to place soft buttons wherever you want on the screen and then you should not have to look at the screen to preform most functions - allowing you to watch the road.
5. You will get better quality if you hard wire your PC into your sound system - use the CD contols, line input or a EQ/AMP switch - the FM signal is severly limited via sample rates and interference.
6. Build your own PC dc power supply - this will be more efficient than a dc to ac conversion just to have you PC power supply again convert from AC to DC power. This is also a more reliable system and can incorporate a shutdown sequence based on key position.
7. Look into MAME for video game emulation on the PC - you can emulate an Arcade Console, PC, NES, Game Boy, N64, etc,,, and use most any control you want to run it - ie - you can have 1000's of games on the PC that can be run and played in the car.
If you find that the Epods is not going to work for you I have an Intermec Norand Tablet PC that I will trade for it - it is a Industrial Strength, P-120, 32MB Ram, 1+GB Hard Drive, Win95 w/Pen Services, Modem, Sound Card, two Batteries and Charger with PCMCIA disk to make your own boot disk - if you need it - and current ghost image on CD.
