By 

Daniel G. Lebryk (Chicago) –

  

  

For the family looking to put a DVD player in the back of the minivan, or in children’s hands, there are less expensive alternatives that are probably a bit more rugged. Look to brands like Coby, Toshiba, Audiovox, Philips, and the lower end Panasonic players.

For the person looking for unparalleled portable picture quality, this is the awesome, outstanding player. It will work just great in the minivan, in fact the fold flat feature with the right hanging on the headrest case is a fantastic combo. But in their hands, on their laps, kids will likely destroy this player’s hinge.

The reason for this recommendation, Sony’s hinge is a bit fragile compared to all the other players. There is a single pivot point on this player, little hands getting frustrated twisting the screen will likely turn the screen the wrong direction or push too hard and break the hinge. All the other players have dual hinge points that are much harder to break. An older person – teenager, adult – will have a lot less trouble and will likely never break this hinge.

The great about this player:
The dimensions are about the same size as netbooks, in fact a netbook carrying case is the perfect case for this player. Set this down next to an Acer Aspire One, its hard to tell the difference. The Sony is thicker, the Aspire One is wider. They are about the same weight.
The screen, oh the sumptuous, gorgeous, screen. I have owned three other portable players starting about 10 years ago for my first (three Panasonics). I have never seen a better screen on a portable player than this one. Those extra lines of resolution, almost double the vertical lines, pays off huge. DVD’s are crisp and sharp, detail is amazing. Watching side by side with any other player; this player is like the difference between standard def television and high def. No, this is not a high def screen, it simply packs in more pixels and more resolution to show off what a DVD has inherently.
Almost all players give you, color and brightness controls. The Sony goes way farther, backlight brightness, contrast, and hue. I can actually come close to calibrating this monitor.
Viewing angle is pretty incredible. Left to right of the screen, well near 170 degrees with absolutely no compromise in picture quality. Vertical viewing angle is a lot narrower (but infinitely wider than most LCD’s I’ve seen) maybe 45 degrees off axis. It is very easy to adjust the screen for perfect viewing.
The speakers are very clear. For normal listening in a quiet room, the volume goes up to 20, 4 is perfectly loud. This is no home theater, its an inexpensive portable player, so high fedlity is not expected. Considering those constraints the player sounds really good.
It plays everything. DVD’s with full face labels. DVD-R, DVD+R. And most importantly, DVD+R DL, or dual layer. Portable players have a lot of difficulty with dual layer DVD’s. Commercial discs play perfectly. CD’s, yes. MP3 and JPG discs, yes. DiVX, NO. That is about the only format it doesn’t play.
Disc load time – very quick. Much quicker than my Panasonic players. On par with my standard full size DVD players.
The remote control is very nice for portable size. There are two IR sensors for the remote – on the screen and on the main body. I was able to pretty much point the remote anywhere near the machine and it worked.
A bonus – this player will accept video input. That’s hugely rare in this business. So you could potentially feed an iPod or iPhone into this. In addition to the proper cable out for your iPod; you will need three female / female RCA adapters (I don’t believe anyone sells an iPod video / audio out cable that is mini connectors on both ends). This is the type of connector, (Female to Female 3-RCA Coupler). The other option, you could use a 3.5mm male jack on both ends cable, and use the player as iPod speakers. That would work very nicely for audio only (Cables To Go – 21062 – 6ft 3.5mm M/M Stereo Audio Cable (Black)).
There are: Two 3.5mm headphone jacks. Video and Audio line out jacks. 9.5V DC input. Power on slide switch. Hold switch so the power doesn’t turn on or off accidently.

The Mediocre:
The video controls are touch sensitive surfaces just below the screen (in the photograph, the band is just below the Sony logo on the screen), and there is a four direction toggle / nub with a press in to accept, for navigating menus. They are touch sensitive surfaces, not capacitance (thank goodness). That means you can touch the button with a fingernail, a press does not require a damp fingertip.
The screen hinge design. Already mentioned, but this hinge just begs to be broken. The screen hinges all the way back so that the player lays almost flat, with…

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We love this DVD player. It meets our needs perfectly. We are able to use the DVD player to allow the kids to watch movies in the car (using a carrying case that can be mounted between the two front headrests so that the kids don’t have to hold the DVD player). We’ve also used it at a cabin where there was no TV and plan to use it “on the road” on future vacations. The quality of both the screen and the sound are superb. I love that the screen can rotate around. Overall, we are very pleased and happy with this purchase!

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 Comments (3)

By 

Johnny F. Ochoa “chuy” (san antonio texas usa) –

  

the player is just the right size and the price is the same. the performance of this unit is great. you looking for a good size dvd player
at a good price? look no more! this is the player you looking for. i own
five dvd players and this is the best!

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