Customer Reviews

Coby TF-DVD8500 8.5-Inch TFT Portable DVD/CD/MP3 Player with Swivel Screen

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The unit is pretty flimsy, mostly composed of lightweight plastic, but this is a boon if you're looking for a featherweight device. On-Off slider switch is clunky at best. The opening latch is not intuitive and requires the attention of a few more brain cells to get this clam to open up. The latch for the external battery pack is similarly designed. With a fully charged battery, I was able to get through Aeon Flux twice (about 3 hours). Screen resolution is only about 410x230 for this 8.5" display, which yields very large pixels. The documentation states a resolution of 1440x234, but I don't believe that for a second. Each pixel is about 3x the area of a pixel found on a typical computer monitor, so edge artifacts are easily discernible. Compare this to the gorgeous 320x240 pixel resolution of a 2.5" Apple Ipod. The slow LCD response time causes choppy motion on fast action sequences and the black levels look dark gray at best. On Aeon Flux, Charlize Theron, lacks her normal, vibrant glow. This unit also does not auto-detect the format of the movie, so you'll need to manually switch from 16:9 to 4:3. This is easily accomplished with the push to two buttons, but that's unless you prefer a more portly Charlize. On particular DVDs, the unit has this habit of skipping and momentarily freezing while it's trying to reacquire the track.

The speakers play just loud enough to drown out the excessively noisy disc drive mechanism. The box includes 2 headphones which plugs into the two headphone jacks located on either side of the unit. However there is only one volume control, so you will need to negotiate with your partner on the appropriate
volume setting ... but honey, 105 decibels give realistic sound levels.

It was surprising to find an included remote control, like that's really necessary. If you're sitting far enough to need the remote, then you won't be able to tell Charlize from Philip Hoffman (you know, the bad dude in MI3). However, about half the DVD functions only can be accessed via the remote, so you're forced use this remote that was clearly designed for the hand of a hobbit.

Bonus: The unit contains audio/video outputs and inputs, so the Coby can be connected to a large TV for DVD playback, to do justice to Charlize. A video output device, like a Playstation 2, can be connected to the Coby to display on the on the 8.5" screen. The output and input jack is surprisingly the same jack - the input/output function is selectable via the AV In/Out switch. Strange that this particular feature is not mentioned anywhere in the manual.

All these shortcomings are forgivable for this sub-120 dollar unit. Hopefully this thing will outlast its 90day warranty (Amazon's website states a 1 year warranty period - I've emailed customer service resolve this inconsistency). 2 stars for performance, 4 stars for value.

Excellent features and nice accessories included. After comparing few portable DVD players in Best Buy and Circuit City, Coby is very good. Picture quality is much better than Insignia and Audiovox. Of course Sony and Samsung had little better picture quality than Coby; it's not worth paying twice the amount that I've paid for Coby. After all it's your portable DVD player, not your primary entertainment system. Audio volume is excellent compared to any other portable DVD player that I've checked. Also works great when connected to the TV. This is my second product from Coby and I'm satisfied with it.
Features - 5 *
Picture - 4 *
Audio - 4 *
Accessories - 5 *

I agree with many of the other reviewers that you can here the disc whirring and it is somewhat annoying. We used it for a long car trip, so the whirring was drowned out by the other background noise and the sound from the movie. The player had a nice accessory package and there was nothing else we needed to buy to use it. We traveled to Florida from Ohio and back. It probably had a good 30 hours worth of use, during which we successfully zombified our four year old daughter, which is exactly what we wanted! The player never skipped and was reliable. For the price I would recommend it.

Never owned a portable before this, but I really like it. It's great for the kids (especially in a traffic jam), and the headrest attaching kit works really well. It'd be nice to have a portable case to carry everything in, since it has so many accessories that come with it. They give you two sets of headphones. Unfortunately, when its mounted to a headrest, you could have trouble reaching with the headphones anyway. All in all though, great value and quality.

Bought this for my son after looking at a few in the stores.
For the price, found this to be better than average.
Much better sound than some of the cheaper ones, good picture.
Swivel screen is very handy.
The sensitivity to playing less than perfect DVD's is very good.

The screen is big.. picture quality is good but there is lot of noise when playing the cd. If the CD has scratches it wont play. I am not happy about this product as the noise irritates me.

I'm sure if you spent twice the money, you would get better picture, sound and remote features, but for the money this unit is just fine. I would love to have a spare battery. We are taking this on a 3 hour non stop flight, and I'm afraid it's not going to make it. A carrying case would be nice too.

I was really pleased with this unit especially since I am not a tech-geek and the only thing I knew I wanted was something user friendly to play PAL and NTSC dvds with good picture quality and good sound that wouldn't break the bank. I read reviews on multiple websites until my eyes crossed and I realized that for just about every unit made, whatever the price range, the complaints are the same. So I took my chances with this one and I am absolutely delighted. The picture is crisp and true (no stretching the actors to fit the screen), the sound is clear, and yes, there is a whirring noise but it really isn't that bad. The build quality is fine (as long as you aren't slamming the thing shut repeatedly or throwing it to the floor) and the menu is easy to navigate. I had to call COBY (1-800-681-2629) to find out why it wouldn't play PAL dvds even though I'd switched the menu setting. It turns out you have to have the cheat code. Here it is-on the remote press

setup
fast forward
rewind
next screen
previous screen

at this point the screen will have a small number in the upper right part of the screen. Use the right arrow on the remote to switch the number until you get the region code you want. Then press setup to exit.

I tried it and it works so I'm a really happy camper. All in all, this is a great little player for the money. I wouldn't hesitate to buy this as a gift or recommend it to a friend.

Received very quickly; had all items needed for travel, i.e., power plug for cigarette lighter, 2 sets of headphones, wires to hook up to TV set which is good b/c you can hook it up to the TV at a hotel, of course it came w/ a battery and charger and the swivel screen turns it completely around and folds flat onto itself so you can place it into the the "satchel" that came with it and hang it from the back of a head rest. Not an extra item to purchase for this unit besides your DVDs and a carrying case. Very glad I chose this player.

I will be spending 4 or 5 days in the hospital for an operation soon so I purchased this unit to catch up on my DVD collection while there...after extensive research of the reviews on Amazon I decided on this unit...I was pleasently pleased when I tried it out...the 8.5" screen has a great picture and the earphones give excellent sound...to my great relief it plays my extensive DVD+R disc collection flawlessly...purchased this unit with the Targus DV301 carrying case...it holds the DVD player and the AC adapter, earphones, and remote control well, but I recommend a separate holder for your DVD's as the Targus is now quite full.