Can you use a portable DVD player on plane??

TwingleMum

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 12, 2002
Messages
6,774
We are going to buy a portable DVD player and I was wondering if I could use it to entertain the kids on the plane.
 
We always take ours. Make sure your battery is fully charged. You can start using it when they make the announcement that it's okay to use electronical devices. Bring headphones too so your not bothering others around you.
 
We are planning on bringing our laptop on the plane for the same purpose. We were able to get some type of connector thing at radio shack so we can plug in multiple headphones.
 
on our last trip my son used my laptop to watch a movie and it was a lifesaver. as said by a previous poster they do make an announcement as to when t is ok to use it. anything that can soothe a hype up teen going to disney and anything that can soothe the nerves of a nervous flying dad who is also hyped up about the disney trip is very welcome.
 
We always use ours on the plane. I second the comment, bring headphones. I find it very irritating when someone near you is watching a movie and not using headphones. On our last flight, the guy in front of us was watching Troy, very loudly, and neither my daughter nor I were very happy to have to listen to it for 2 hours.
 
If someone near you is watching a movie without a headphone, push that little button with the picture of the Flight Attendant on it and ask them to have it turned down. (or you can just walk back to where the FAs are.) I have done this and have no qualms about doing it. (The same rule applies if someone attempts to do their naiils LOL!)
 
I agree with the others...DVD players and laptops are great for movie watching, but headphones are a necessity. My husband and I are frequent flyers, and our cheapie Wal-Mart DVD player has literally thousands of air miles on it. I would never even consider using it without headphones. We have one of those adapters so we can plug in both headphones, and they work great. In all of our trips, we've run into a lot of strange behavior, but thankfully people watching DVDs without headphones hasn't been something we've seen (yet).
Barb
 
Yes, we just used ours for shows we have copied to DVD. We have dual earphones and it made the trip go so much faster.
 
And how long does the battery last for the small dvd players. I have a laptop but it only lasts about one hour. Our two year old is used to jet blue and needs to watch a movie now.

Thanks
 
...and its battery lasts about 2.5 hours. Since we are from WA state, we bought a second battery so the DVD player would last on flights across the country. This DVD player has been a life saver on many flights and car trips. It works great waiting at the gate, driving to the airport, waiting for our bags. We also have a contraption that spans the two front seats of our van, so the DVD player doesn't need to be held and is safely strapped in.

The $500 we spent (DVD player and extra battery) has been worth it. I know they are much cheaper now. I am very surprised this one has survived so long. It has been dropped, stepped on, left out in the car in freezing weather etc. We love it.
 
By an adapter that connects to the power port on the airplane seat.

Thats what we have done. DVD players are worth their weight in gold when traveling. I will never leave home without it. Always carry a headset. I just got some noise canceling and they are GREAT!!..

My only problem is when traveling alone the person sitting next to me always wants to watch. I dont mind sharing with my wife or son sharing, but strangers, dont really want to.

Mine will be on the plane Saturday.

Jeff
 
Patpat15 said:
And how long does the battery last for the small dvd players. I have a laptop but it only lasts about one hour. Our two year old is used to jet blue and needs to watch a movie now.

Thanks
We have an inexpensive Audiovox brand portable DVD player. Ours came from Target. It was less than $160. Battery life is about 2.5 hours. Since we fly from Chicago to Orlando and viewing time on the plane doesn't start until you get clearance to use electronic devices once you're in the air, I check the run time of the movie I plan to watch on the plane in advance. If necessary, I get an early start watching the beginning of a movie while waiting in the departure lounge. It was really annoying the first time I used the DVD player and ended up with about 15 minutes of movie left to watch when I had to shut things down as we approached MCO. DW thought I was crazy when I had to finish watching the movie prior to going out for lunch once we were in our room. It would have been really annoying if I'd had to wait to get in the room :).

We travel with a DVD-equipped laptop computer as well as the DVD player. Battery life for the DVD player is much better than for the laptop (which is a few years old at this point).

Ralph
 
Nebsky said:
By an adapter that connects to the power port on the airplane seat.

Jeff

Not to sound ignorant, but where is the power port on the seat and which airlines have these? I only noticed plugs for music or movie if the plane has it.

thanks
 
Most airlines have power ports in their planes for laptop.
They are usually under the seat betweens the two seats.

Most AA planes have them. Usually all of first class has them and something like 50% of coach does. Some 757's acquired during the TWA purchase do not have them at all.

Jeff
 
thanks! We are flying Spirit so I'm betting they won't have them but at least now I know where to look.
 
Nebsky said:
By an adapter that connects to the power port on the airplane seat.

Thats what we have done. DVD players are worth their weight in gold when traveling. I will never leave home without it. Always carry a headset. I just got some noise canceling and they are GREAT!!..

My only problem is when traveling alone the person sitting next to me always wants to watch. I dont mind sharing with my wife or son sharing, but strangers, dont really want to.

Mine will be on the plane Saturday.

Jeff
Where can I buy the adapter and noise reducer? Thanks
 
Actually very few seats have power ports. On some carriers even in FC there are no power ports. Don't count on having one.

If you have an IBM laptop you can buy a second battery that slides in where your CDROM goes, although that negates watching a DVD. If you've got the harddrive space, copy the movie from the DVD to the hard drive, because it takes a lot less juice to run an application off a hard drive then mechanically spin a CD or DVD.

Anne
 












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