Customer Reviews

Initial IDM-750DX 7-Inch Portable DVD Player with DiVX

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have both the 10" and the 7" players.

It plays everything that it says in the spec. For divx, it shows subtitle too if you have the correct file names. It is very compact. The construction is very good. I like the style too. The fastward goes up to 16 times, which I like. The images are nice considering the price and size. I haven't tested the battery life with this 7" player. The one in the 10" player lasts more than 3 hours. The speakers are pretty loud in a quiet room.

I gave 4 stars instead of 5 for the following 2 reasons.

The fastward controls are only on the remote. But all other portable DVD players have this problem. I lost the control for 10", unfortunately. Oh, the power brick of the power supply can be weak. I broke one; it doesn't charge any more, so I have to buy a replacement from RadioShack, which is only 1500 mA instead of 2.1 A. It is hard to find a 9V 2.1A power supply. The car power adapter allows you to use the player in the car, but according to the manual, it DOESN'T charge the battery.

Addition on December 27, 2005

I want to change the my previous review from 4 stars to 5 stars.

I found out that I could do the fast forward/rewind from the previous/next button on the unit. Just press the button and HOLD it. It will fast forward/rewind 2x. Press it again and HOLD it for 4x, then 8x, 16x, and 32x.

Because of that, I bought another 7" unit when it was on sale on Target website. So now I have a 10" and 2 7" unit. My family watches a lot of divx. So this portable DVD player has the best value = (quality & functionalities) / price !!!

I loved this DVD player the first four months...it plays everything, even files that make my Phillips Dvx player choke. The picture is very good, the sound from the speakers is tinny but adequate considering what it is. The picture when using the line out to a tv is extremely good.

Mine quit recognizing any disc in that fourth month, for no apparent reason. Since it was after 90 days, I couldnt get it fixed for free, but Initial customer service offered to either fix it for a fee or to sell me a new one with a 1 year warranty for slightly more. I took the new one, and so far so good. The fact that I put more money into getting a new one shows how much I liked this unit. Worth buying, but you might consider the product replacement plan as it costs less than the route I went. Normally I'm against those plans, but this is an exception...

A terrific little DVD player. Much preferred over the Philips DVP642, even if more costly, for three reasons: 1) plays certain XviD frames-per-second or resolution sizes that the Philips cannot; 2) does a better job of projecting very dark colors and picture appears more vivid (on conventional TV); 3) easier to tote around, ideal for in-car or vacation use. The aluminum casing is very solid and has not scratched to date, the remote is intuitive to use, and the replacement power brick from Radio Shack (for one left in a hotel room) works just fine.

This is our first portable DVD player. We chose this particular one because it was the only portable we could find that also plays DivX.

We would've given it 5 stars except for a couple of small things:
There are lines visible when the actors move. However, these aren't real stark so they are easily ignored and the sound is just a wee bit "tinny". But like I said, this is our first portable player and I don't know if they are all usually like that or not and we weren't exactly expecting surround sound quality from it.

We did some testing with various kinds of files and here are our results :

PLAYED:

PAL XviD with custom matrice
NTSC XviD
PAL XviD with AC3 audio
PAL DivX 3 LM
NTSC DivX 5 with AC3 audio
PAL SVCD
PAL DivX 5
DivX 4
DivX 3 with Srt subs
mpg

DID NOT PLAY:

PAL DVD (said "No Disc")
OGM (said "Unknown Disc" - not surprised because our stand alone DivX players can't play this either)
OGG (file showed up in the menu but would not play - not surprised because our stand alone DivX players can't play this either)

We have not tested audio CDs or MP3s because we'll still be using our car stereo for that but we might get around to testing these soon just to see what it does. :)

I bought this player for a a long flight. It played my Xvid downloads flawlessly (ie Dr. Who, CFH). The battery lasted almost 4 hours. Also, Initial does not say it, but their external battery works with this player. If you have a flight longer than 4 hours, get an external battery. The player worked great with my Sony Noise Reduction Headhones. When I'm not flying, the player is connected to my big screen TV so I can watch Call for Help w/ Leo & Amber. Remote works great for this. Since it's a low res video, the component connection works well. Initial sells an S-video cable also. Because of the connection limitations, it's not a good choice for watching HD on the big screen. I called Initial to try and get spare batteries, They were very easy to contact, but were out of stock on the batteries. It's good to know the company can be reached if you have questions. Overall, I'm extremely happy with this Initial player.

I love this thing. It plays everything I've thrown at it... XviD, DivX, DVD-RW, raw MPEG files on a DVD+R, VCD...

The only things that bother me:
-When playing anything burned on a CD-R, the drive makes a high-pitched whine that is annoying and makes it impossible to watch.
-The power supply doesn't support 220 volts. How can anyone make anything portable these days that isn't multi-voltage? I mean, I bought it to use on the PLANE.
-It would be nice if I could turn the unit OFF/STANDBY from the remote.

I've had this DVD player for about 5 weeks and so far I am happy with it. The video is great and battery life is satisfactory. The only improvement I would make is to beef up the audio, if possible.

This is my 3rd Initial portable player. The very first one, a 4", did not hold up all that well: after just a year's infrequent use (vacations) it would go for long periods of time without being able to recognize DVDs. I gave it away to my graduate student who seems to have a bit better luck with it than I did. My second one, a 7", held up much better over years. My biggest gripe with it was the bad design of a battery attachment mechanism: 1 of the little plastic tabs tabs broke off and the rest bent out of shape to various degrees. It also has a cumbersome, two-piece power supply. The IDM-750DX seems to be much better designed, including the light, one-piece power supply. The main reason I bought it, however, was for the ability to play DIVX disks as I intended to dump 8-10 of them on each DVD to reduce carry-on. I was greatly disappointed when I discovered that my DL discs, that played perfectly on my Philips player, would not mount on IDM-750DX. A quick trip to videohelp.com confirmed that it indeed does not support DL, which increases the number of disks two-fold. I was disappointed, but, then again, for the price, it is a bargain portable DIVX player. If it holds up with time, I will get over my DL blues.

Ive had this player for almost a year now, and came back to find one for a friend. It had worked great since ive had it. I download a lot of TV shows and movies online, and this thing plays Divx/Xvid files with no problem. The picture quality is great and the battery life is good. I recommend this thing for anyone who downloads videos online.

This is a great Divx player. I bought it in May this year and using a lot at Health Club when I am on a treadmill. It plays all movies with different format and special Divx. I am not really a technical person and can not explain deep details, but from user side it is friendly. I love it and recommended to buy. Will never regret. Thanks Initial for your product.