Portable DVD Players

[Nagle]

Folks, I remember a thread some months ago about portable DVD players. For those that bought them, are you happy with the purchase? Do you still use it? Brand? etc.... We are considering one in the near future and want some first hand feedback.

Thanks
John

 

[>>^..^<<]

Hi there..

Our portable DVD Player is awesome!

We use it all the time, just the other day it was very handy on a 2 hour train ride from Toronto to London

My daughter watches it on the long car ride to her grandmothers and we don't hear a peep out of her the whole time.

It can also play DVD's on your television - just like a regularr DVD player, it comes with all the wires you need and even has a remote.

Here is a link to ours - it is a Mintek and we bought it at Radio Shack. It has an excellent picture and great sound. We usually use earphones when on a plane/train/car etc..

http://www.mintekdigital.com/dvd1710.htm

>>^..^<<

 

[Nagle]

Thanks for the information. Where did you buy the unit? We will be going to Kingston soon so we will be checking Costco and Future Shop.

Thanks again

John

 

[>>^..^<<]

Hi..

I bought it at Radio Shack- I think it was 599.00 + tax etc..

I ordered an extra battery from Mintek directly so I would always have a spare handy.

The batteries are supposed to last 2 1/2 hours... but we find we can watch 2 full length movies and then a bit more on one battery.

The spare came in handy on a long wait at the airport and delayed flight.

The extra battery was about 80.00USD and they shipped it for free.. it only took a couple of days to arrive I was really impressed with Mintek service.

>>^..^<<

 

[tricia]

I have the same one. My boys love it. We use it in the car all the time for driving to hockey tournaments and on holidays in Ontario. When we fly I bring a little thingy from Radio Shack that lets you plug two sets of headphones into one jack so both my boys can enjoy it. We will be driving to Barrie this weekend (which is a 7 hour trip for us) and the boys have already picked our what DVD's we are bringing. Now if I could just get them to agree on what they want to watch at least once on this trip we will be all set. (one is 6, and the other 2, so there is not a whole lot they both enjoy)

 

[Tiger926]

Costco and Future Shop, both have an excellent Polaroid 7" LCD screen portable DVD player for only $334.00/$339.99 plus tax. Neighbour and cousin just purchased it and it's excellent quality - we are going to purchase the same one. My DH and I are very much into our tech toys and the Mintek ones are too expensive, and in our opinion we just don't see the value in paying that much for a generic electronic product, especially when you can buy Panasonic or Toshiba portable players for that price. It sounds like the other 2 posters have had good luck with their players, but we have other relatives who have purchased Mintek products only to return them very soon after purchase.

Read some customer reviews (online) and go to Future Shop or Best Buy to actually look at video and audio quality and that way you can actually compare prices, picture quality, sound, etc...

Good luck, Tiger

 

[DSNY FN]

You should check out Best buy they have I think 5 different ones to choose from ranging from about 500 and up to 1500 depending on the features and so on you are looing for. They have Samsung Toshiba Panasonic Apex and one other one I can't think of right now.

 

[Nagle]

Thanks for all the replies folks. I am leaning towards the Polaroid one. Costco in Kingston does not stock them yet but the guy there said it should soon. We will probably brave the crowds on boxing day and see if we can get an even better deal.

Thanks again
John

 

[FatCow]

I've tried Costco's Polaroid and didn't like it. I end up buying Toshiba SD-P1200 7" DVD player with TWO headphone outs, video-IN, S-Video out, Composite video out, stereo audio out and S/PDIF digital out too.

I bought two of them from FutureShop for $700 plus taxes (total $805).

I ended up only using one of them and the other one is still in the box.

 

[alohamom]

We bought ours at Best Buy last winter for a 10 hour plane ride we did with our kids. We bought a Panasonic with the most amazing clarity of picture. It also doubles as our home DVD player. The guy who sold it to us told us to buy a "splitter" and use our walkman headphones so both kids can watch at once without disturbing anyone else. When we were on our vacation, we found it was great to take to the more upscale restaurants that we would never have considered taking our 4 & 6 year old kids into before. They are TOTALLY quiet and sit still through a leisurely relaxing meal. People without kids and old folks give you dirty looks! We love ours, it has paid for itself ten times over. We paid approx. 650/canadian but remeber we bought it last year, the prices have seemed to have dropped a bit.

 

[poohbear7]

Hi Fat Cow,

Could you please tell me if $700. was for one or two DVD's?

Thank you

 

[FatCow]

It's for one DVD player. and it's in Canuck Dollars

 

[from Canada]

We are thinking of buying one too. I've been watching the sales. There are 5" or 7" models, it seems. We want to use it in the van. Would a 5" be big enough for everyone to see (even from the back)? Does anyone know the size of the screens on the built in DVD 's in minivans? (The factory installes ones). And, as for headphone splitters, can they be split 3-ways?
TIA
Karen

 

[FatCow]

Factory installed units are usually 7" TFT active matrix LCD with 16:9 ratio.

Be aware that many cheaper portable DVD players are using STN LCD instead of TFT. STN in sub par in contrast to TFT.

Panasonic, Pioneer, Sony, Toshiba, they all use TFT. Polaroid uses lower end TFT. Mintek and the like of them use STN.

The bad thing of using splitter is that you can't control each headphone separately.

The best thing to do is to use splitter, then feed each output to a Boostaroo (can be obtained at any Radio Shack) so each headphone can control their own volume control

Last but not least, do NOT get cheap headphones, they tend to peak at higher frequencies thus forcing the user to crank up the volume in order to hear the dialog. At the same, this will over emphasize the higher frequencies and will result in ear fatigue, or worse, hearing damage.

Rule of thumb, if you spend less than $20 on a headset, you're looking for trouble in the long run.

 

[FatCow]

PS: Boostaroo itself is a 3-way splitter.

http://www.radioshack.com/product.asp?catalog_name=CTLG&product_id=33-1109

 

[Debbie]

Just wanted to add that my DD's and I were driving past Best Buy on Friday night. I let a van pull in front of me and he had the factory installed DVD (I'm making the assumption based on where the screen was). My girls let out a "Look, they're watching Finding Nemo! I was impressed that we could see the thing clearly as the vehicle behind them. It sure allayed any fears of a tiny screen for the back seat.

 

[from Canada]

Thanks for the tips, I have a better idea of what to look for now.
karen

 

[Nagle]

Just wanted to post that I bought a portable DVD player at radio Shack night before last. 7 inch screen (TFT) made by Cyberhome. It was the last one they had. I will still be checking out Future Shop until Christmas though for better buy.

John

 

[damo]

We bought ours at Best Buy. The prices have really come down in the past six months. Ours is the Polaroid BT42 and we've had no problems.

 

[FatCow]

To check the actual quality, get a movie on DVD-R (not regular DVD). If the player can flawlessly play DVD-R from the beginning to the end (especially the ending), then it's a good player.

Do this ocassionally to check the laser-head and error-correction quality.

If you need help in finding test material on DVD-R, let me know. I create torture test DVD-Rs for a couple of major DVD player manufacturers.