Customer Reviews

Coby TFDVD-7700 7-Inch Side-Loading Portable DVD Player

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this item online. It is really a neat piece of equipment. It has all the accessories and it worked great.... for about one day. Then it quit.

Searching my owners manual; I found no customer service number, only an email adress. Also it had instructions to return the item with a $6 money order and wait 8-12 weeks for a new one.

Of course I returned it to the store and bought a different product from a more established manufacturer. Coby should stick to making telephones if they refuse to spend the money on customer service.

I think anoter company sells the same item, and reviews of that item have indicated very sketchy quality as well.

A GREAT IDEA POORLY EXECUTED!

I bought this for my husband for Christmas. We take long weekend trips skiing, so I thought this would be perfect. After reading many reviews on many models I decided to take a chance and buy an un-reviewed model based on price and package completeness. I don't like having to run around to find all the necessary bits and pieces, and so far I have not had to.

First the good:
- It's tiny! It's about the size of a hard covered novel, so taking it with you is a non-issue.
- It's cheap ($330 + free shipping) for the quality as compared with other brands (i.e. Sony). All the Audiovox reviews seem to indicate that they're crap.
- The box comes with everything you'll need. There is a carrying case, a case for accessories, a case for mounting on the back of a seat, 2 headphones, a 2-to-1 headphone adapter, a car power adapter, a cassette sound adapter, a video cable, remote control, etc.
- Picture quality is good. It's easy to see from multiple angles (i.e. you don't have to sit right in front of the unit, so sharing works well).
- Battery life. They spec it at 3 hours, at first we got 4-5, but now (after some use) it's down to ~3 hours (for this reason I came back to edit my review). We're thinking of buying an additional battery (they are available) for long trips, but haven't decided yet.
- Tablet form - no fold up. It's great not to have a piece of electronics heating up your lap as you ride. And, with the mounting case/tablet design you can change movies without removing the unit from the case.

Now, the not so good (but still OK):
- It does not fit in the seat mounting case with the battery on. This is only a problem if you want to mount to a seat where external power is not available (i.e. older planes, and buses). In a car (and newer planes) you can power it from the cigarette lighter, which is accessible with the mounting case on.
- There is motor noise when playing DVDs. You don't hear it while the movie has sound, but when you get to a silent bit you'll hear it. This is obviously eliminated when using the headphones, and the motor noise is only apparent when you are in a quite environment (i.e. hotel room or home). But that said, when in a hotel or home you would probably use the A/V cable to hook it up to the TV, so you'd be so far away from the unit you wouldn't hear it. All that said it's probably a mute point, but I thought I'd mention it as it surprized me at first.

All in all, after reading many reviews which scared me to bits I did very well with a unit that had not been peer reviewed previously. Also, buying from J&R is great, because it's an actual store with actual people in the event that there is a problem. I have not had any problems with this unit, but I've bought from J&R before and they have never given me a problem.

First unit work three times, then refused to turn on. Replacement unit is working very well, I was hopeful that Coby had worked out the kinks. Sure enough, today the new player refused to go on just like the first one. I would not waste your time buying this product; it probably needs to be recalled.

I purchased the same product at my local Fry's store, before a business trip to Europe. It was branded as Digix model SDV17; but is exactly the same product as the Coby. I got an incredible deal on sale $249 (new, not reconditioned).

I did a lot of research before buying, and I must say I am very happy with the unit.

PRO:
- Very cool design - even has a little kickstand to place on at table

- Solid build quality. Much better than expected. Only the Sony had better tactile quality.

- Battery attaches to the bottom of the tablet, and does not increase the thickness of the unit. Cleaver design, the batter attaches with one thumb screw.

- Disk does not skip when the unit is bumped

- All accessories included

- Cheap enough to be considered disposable if anything goes wrong

- Extra batteries are reasonably priced at $70

CON:

- Not all functions required the remote (like fast forward). This seems to be a common problem with all these little players. Seems very strange industry decision considering must people will only used these as portable units.

- Picture is not high resolution, although I see absolute not differences with any of the 7 inch players. Even the Sony has the same resolution. To get a significantly better picture you need to move up something like the Toshiba 8.9 inch SD-P2600k, which DOES have a great picture - at twice the price and larger footprint.

- Several times I have loaded a disk and sub-titles are already turned ON and you need the remote to turn this OFF.

This unit has been a great travel companion! Worked from day 1, reads all my burnt DVDs including DVDRW with no issues!

Bought a spare battery for the extra long flights and all is working well!

My children received the Coby for Christmas and it was wonderful and worked great through 3 movies and the power would not come on. We sent it back and got another one and it only worked through one movie and the power did not come on. I would not recommend this product based on others having the same problems.

Worked through about three movies, and then failed! Very strange. It would appear to be a power reset issue of some sort, as if it can't work out to use battery power or the adapter connection. When the power key is pressed, the front LED dims for about a second, as if it is trying, then simply sits there. If the battery pack is connected it's LED will switch on for that interval.

Still searching for some reset mechanism. If anyone has some info, please post, as this is a very nice unit with great build quality otherwise. Other interesting things:

-Rotating the usint on it's y axis can cause the spinning disk to brush against the internals if you do this too quickly.

-There's a little holographic sticker over one of the screw holes that says "NO WARRANTY IF TEARED UP". Funny! I hope this isn't the reset button.

I, too, had my initial reservations prior to purchasing a new product from an unfamiliar manufacturer. But I was plesantly surprised with the performance of the DVD player. (Though it's a totally identical product, I bought it in Asia under the brand name Next Base.)

The picture quality is very good, it comes with practically everything & it's quite affortable as well. However my unit didn't come with headphones/headphone splitter, cassette audio adapter & a headrest mounting pouch (maybe product sold in US more complete). These items would've made it even better!

The only drawback I found was that the built-in speakers are not very powerful. (I guess for the size, it's understandeable.) But since portability is my main concern, I'm quite satisfied with the sound level & quality when using headphones. Likewise, I've also found that investing in quality external speakers make it great to watch with friends. (I use Altec Lansing portable headphones & mini external speakers.)

I've had this player since last November & have not encountered any of the problems earlier mentioned. Why don't you give this a try, you might be pleasantly surprised as well.

I had the same issue as lots of people in here - Unit played 4 good movies and then suddenly one morning it refused to Turn ON - just displays a red Light and does not power up . tried everything...nothing worked.... i would not buy this unit for free even----now i know why sony is sony and all these small coby's are trash..

I bought this unit for its great set of features and accessories, but the tablet design is what really sold me on it (very easy to hang in the car). Used it for 3 movies, then half-way into the 4th it died. Unit will not turn on no matter which power source is used. There were no troubleshooting steps for this scenerio in the book. The disc would not eject so I had to use the "paperclip method" to open the unit. I was hoping to find some magical "reset" method on the web, but only found a lot of other people with this same problem. Returning unit to my retailer.