Customer Reviews

Audiovox D1730 7-Inch Ultra Slim Portable DVD Player

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased this unit primarily on spec and price. The 7" display is bright, and DVDs play well. Unit is attractive and slim - easily carried, and just fits between the front arm rests on many cars so kids can see in the back - better than a fix-ed in car unit since you can also take it with on the plane/hotel/etc. Battery lasts for rated 3 hours - but is somewhat bulky.

However after 4 months of ownership, I have noted 2 major problems.

i) Unit can overheat when playing back DVDs - causing frame to freeze.

ii) Screen hinge mechanism seems weak. One hinge already failed on my player, and the other is already cracking. We'll see how good the AudioVox warranty repair is.

Overall, I'd look at the Panasonic or Pioneer models next time for a few $$ more, the hinges look more robust. Bigger than 7" model may not fit in the car as well.

I recently bought this DVD player for my wife to use on long trips in the car that we frequently make. We've had it for about 2 months now with no problems at all. When you use it, it does seem to get pretty warm on the bottom of it and the back of the screen gets warm too, but I have yet to run into an overheating problem.

Control is somewhat limited from the unit directly and requires the remote for full control. You can however adjust brightness, color, and zoom mode to make the movies full screen by stretching them or keeping the proper aspect ratio and leaving some black next to the picture. You also have the chapter skip buttons, but not fast-forward and rewind buttons. You can also play, pause, and stop, along with the up/down/left/right/enter buttons needed for DVD players.

Pros: Fairly small package with a decent sized screen. Plays widescreen DVDs full screen, Comes with wall adapter, auto adapter, and battery. Nice bright picture even on sunny days. Comes with nice full function remote control that is a good size (not too big or small). Nice price for a 7" screen. Decent battery life (can watch a 2 hour movie easily with it). Comes with RCA jacks for video and audio connections. Can use as DVD player and hook up to TV or can also use on output from something like a camcorder and display it on the 7" screen. Speakers sound really good when in a house or somewhere with minimal background noise.

Cons: Bottom of unit and back of screen get pretty warm when playing movies. Battery clips onto back of unit making it a bit more bulky. Wall adapter doubles as battery charger, so you can't watch movies in the house while charging the battery. Limited menu controls from unit without remote control. NO FAST FORWARD & REWIND BUTTONS (largest downfall to me). Speakers can be slightly soft with other background noise (like in a car). No battery low indicator, screen just goes black, but sounds keeps going when battery gets too low.

I would recommend a tape adapter or RF modulator to play the sound on your car speakers if you plan on using this much in a car...

We've owned this DVD player for about a year now and are very happy with it. We use it in the car on road trips, have taken it on an oversees plane trip and use it in our home. We've had no problems with it whatsoever. It does get pretty warm after it's been running for a while, but so far this has not affected its performance. The sound is sometimes not loud enough when using it in the car, but we solved this by bying a cassette adapter so the sound gets routed over the car stereo. I liked that this DVD player already came with the DC adapter cable for the car. We bought an extra battery for a 10-hour plane trip, which turned out to be unecessary, as they had DC hookups between the seats (on American Airlines) and we could have just powered it from that! Overall, we are very satisfied with this product and the low price. It does a great job of keeping the kids entertained on trips, and while at home we just plug it right into the TV.

We bought two of these for our 5 & 8 year old sons. They are a life saver for travel. They have a great picture and good battery life. They include everything you need, even the DC adaptor for the car, which costs up to $... extra with other models. The only downside is the hinge design is not made to withstand any more than very careful use. Our 8 year old managed to break one of the hinges on his without really getting rough with it. It still works fine and we have glued it. Just be careful if younger kids are going to be using it. Of course, for the low price, you can just get another one if it gets really torn up. We bought two of these for less than one of some similar models we looked at.

I've been playing with the DVD player for 24 hours now. I watched 4 DVDs on it, and I have no complaints. For its size and its price, I really can't complain.

Its strong points are: bright picture, great remote (can do pretty much everything but volume and power on the remote), pretty design, and ease of use.

Its weak points are: the device gets pretty warm after an hour or so, speakers are not that loud, and the resolution is not that great, and no FF or REW on the unit (this fuction is only on the remote).

This unit is very nice for travel with lots of ways to view your dvd - battery which has lasted me 4 plus hours at one time, regular plug in adapter and car adapter. The picture is good for a portable. The sound is poor through the built-in speakers but good enough in a quiet setting. Great sound with headphones (not included), my own are Bose. Limited controls on unit - no FF or RW - that's no good, but you better not lose your remote or you will be frustrated. Unit's dvd cover is flimsy and the slightest move may disturb DVD play or cause it to operate noisily.

Biggest problem - unit stopped working at just about a year of use. I used it for trips, in the house, at the hairdresser, anywhere.
I didn't even bother to try to repair it.

Fortunately, I got it at COSTCO and their customer service is outstanding. At one year of ownership I took it to their returns and they game me a full refund by store credit. I had no receipt and no owners manual. They took it back with no hassle at all. I will definitely strongly consider whatever COSTCO is selling in DVD players because of this benefit.

I wouldn't get another AUDIOVOX DVD

I bought this item over a less expensive "off-brand" thinking it would have better performance in the car. It worked great at home and my kids had a blast snuggling up and watching their favorite DVDs. In the car it was less than desirable. Two seperate units (which I've returned) had the exact same problem: the power jack connection at the unit is loose and the power flashes on & off if the unit is moved even the slightest. A big problem in a moving vehicle, especially with the coiled power cord.

I received this as a gift 4 months ago. The first time I used it, it worked great. Good quality, portable, all the things other people mentioned.

All the other 3 times have been failures of some sort:
1) After 1 hour usage, the screen went white. I tried adjusting contrast & brightness but got no change. The video still went out to a TV monitor but that didn't help on a 4 hour plane ride. After 2 days of rest (I checked it every day), the video suddenly worked again on the monitor.

2) On the plane ride back, the video remained intact; However, the DVD periodically stuttered/skipped frames.

3) On a recent car trip, the player lasted less than 30 minutes. The screen froze up. You could see the screen but the the player wasn't playing out. It was frozen on the last screen. The only way to stop the player was to turn it off. The stop/pause button didn't do a thing.

The player was never dropped. When I called about the issue, I was told that because I didn't have a receipt, I would have to pay a hefty sum to get it fixed. I now have a large paper weight that only worked successfully once.

This is an okay player, especially at this lower price. Just be aware that our battery lasted only 1.5 years before it would not hold a charge and over time, the unit makes a grinding noise. A replacement battery costs about $75.00+ from Audiovox and to have the unit cleaned/repaired would cost about $95.00. At that point, it's cheaper to just buy a new unit.

We have had this unit for less than 2 years. After a few months use the screen went black.....you had audio but no video. I had to box it up and send it to NY, after several weeks we were sent a refurbished unit, but they did not return the cigerett adapter. I called them and got no where except to be told that i could order another one from them for $35
I have had this "refurbished" unit for a few months and it is now doing the same thing as the first one. All in all we have used this unit only on trips. Total hours ever used since purchasing the first one would not exceed 10 movies on the two combined.
I would NOT recommend buying this unit, thier support is lousy and it is very unreliable even if you can get it to work. Freezing up is another story in itself......