Customer Reviews

LG DP781 8-Inch Portable DVD Player

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This dvd player has a very nice picture!

I bought this after returning an audiovox unit I was very unhappy with.
The second time around I was very cautious and read dozens of reviews before purchasing this machine. although it costs a bit more ($15 or so), it has double the resolution of other players in the price range!

If you are looking for a cheap unit for your toddler, you might opt to save the few extra $ (and in that case, I'd opt for the coby over audiovox...much more solid), but if you care about picture quality, isn't it worth a little more?

The build quality is very good, it has a swivel screen like many high end units, and my teen is most impressed with the touch pad (controls).

The only con I can think of is that it does not have some of the bells and whistles of some of the new units (e.g., an ipod doc).

If versatility is more important, consider some other units (like the phillips), but if your primary use is watching movies, or viewing video, this is hard to beat.

This DVD player has the best LDC unit on a portable device and quality components to go with it. Black levels are very good and the de-interlace is incredibly good. There are no signs of any kind of jagged edges period. Color balance is also excellent. USB port is a nice to have. Has one AV input. At this price level it is an incredible bargain specially when compared to other units I've paid as much as $450.00. Grab one, you will be very happy.

Ok, this is my second review of this player; I wrote one WEEKS ago that seems to have just disappeared. A month ago, I bought this unit to take to work with me, a reprieve from office maddness. I do not leave home without it! It is a great unit, but let's start with the biggest complaint some have about it, volume. What I have found is that the volume quality is dependent upon the movie you are watching. I watched Ocean's 12 and found the volume to be too low, except for when music was playing. I would actually have to turn it down then. I watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith and had no problem whatsoever with the volume. Also, I have watched several other DVDs including one I watched in a barber shop where there were 2 televisions going; I had no problem with the volume. One feature that attracted me to this unit is the USB port. My MP3 player plugs directly into it; all the folders appear on the screen and there is NO problem with the volume at all. Of course there is not big Bose sound, but the volume is good. I think the issue with the volume may just be some glitch in whatever technology LG used on this product because music comes through loud and clear. At the store, its volume certainly did not win any prizes matched against other bigger name brands, but theirs did not match LG's picture quality. One can always (at a very low cost) use accessories to improve the sound if need be; you can't do that for the picture quality. The picture quality is absolutely unmatched by anything else out there. It is simply smooth and gorgeous. I hear that LG provides the display technology for the monitors and tvs of the larger companies. I spent a lot of time researching and made TWO trips to Bestbuy in ONE night, multiple DVDs in hand to test, before I later decided to go with this one. The touch sensor is great if it is important to you. It gets a lot of fingerprints on it though because of the high gloss finish of the console. Yet it is this finish that makes the unit look a lot more classy in person than it does in the pictures. On another site there was a complaint about the awkwardness of the battery, once again, I do not have a problem with it at all. I find that it balances the unit very well. I have not had to hold it on my lap, however. Also, with a couple of searches, I was able to find a very easy process of making the unit region free. With the included accessories all I needed was a carrying case, which I got for free when I bought the unit. If you are looking for a very good PDVDP with the highest resolution available, and you do not want to spend a lot of money, I say this is the one for you! If you are worried about the sound quality, go into a store with your own movies and music and test it out for yourself.

While I certainly concur with other reviews that this unit has a great picture, I cannot get over the fact that no reviews I read mentioned the poor volume. You cannot hear this player. When I was in the room alone, with the volume at its highest point, I could hear it fine. With other people in the room -- occasional chatter, movement, etc -- I couldn't hear it, could not turn it up to the point that I could hear what was being said. The worst moment came when we went on a trip and none of our kids could hear a thing, not a thing, in any of the headphones we own or even without headphones. They could hear nothing in the car on the highway and absolute silence while on the plane. We tried different DVDs, then I called LG, as I thought we received a unit with a problem. Surprisingly I was told that this particular unit is not very loud. That's it. I was stunned and of course we returned it. What good is a great picture if you cannot hear it? If you are planning to use this unit anywhere that may have background noise, beware, you will have a very hard time hearing it.

We used this LG DP781 8-Inch Portable DVD Player on the plane and even with a good headset, could barely hear the sound. How frustrating is it to have to press the head set tightly against your ears and still not catch the dialogue. Visuals are fine but without the audio that it should deliver, there's no point in having the machine.

I bought this DVD player with the intention of keeping my daughter and myself entertained on the 4 1/2 hour flight from Nashville to Oakland. Unfortunately, the experience of not having enough sound with earphones was true for me, too. My daughter said she had no problem hearing it in the car,though. Next time I'll try bringing headphones instead of earbuds and see how that works. I also plug it into some old computer speakers if I use it in the kitchen. Otherwise, I'm happy with the player.

An excellent product. Screen res is very high compared to anything else I looked at including Sony and Panasonic. Price and quality were better than anything else offered especially considering the the screen resolution. battery life was 4-5 hours. This product also can be made region free using the LG5000zip file from the Internet. Controls very good along with USB stick capability for JPG viewing etc. Volume fine when using headphones. A little on the low side when using the speakers in a noisy environment. Just picked up a miniature MP3 speaker amp set for $20 which worked very well with it. 180 deg swivel screen a real plus LG DP781 8" Portable DVD Player

After stewing over 100's of reviews, I decided picture quality was my top priority. I also needed a player that would play my TV series DVD's in the proper format, not squished! After testing numerous players at stores, (take your own DVD's, don't rely on the test disks), I purchased this one.

The picture is very sharp, although with some TV shows, it is a bit dark. (M*A*S*H) Movies seem to play much better. It is a very quiet unit, takes a reasonable time to get to the show, and the functions are easy to figure out. The sound is terrible, however, which is the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars.

If you need to use this without headphones or external powered speakers, don't buy it. From what I have seen here in other reviews, most portable players seem to have bad sound. My old unit, Initial brand, was very good but tended to skip and freeze a lot. Anyway, since I use this at my office, plugged into my computer speakers, it works great. If you get headphones, test them first. One of mine has a volume control and still won't get loud enough.

I never use the battery, so I can't comment on it, but it is designed rather oddly, sticks out the back when connected.

The touch controls are fun, I hope the less mechanical parts, the better!

It does have brightness and color controls, and lots of other features that seem to be for hooking it up to a TV. The USB connection works good, although it is slow on large picture files. I say slow, being used to split second computers, but it probably took 2 or 3 seconds to load some huge files.

To sum up, I have definitely NOT regretted buying this model. Like I said, the picture is great, better than a lot of TV's. If picture quality is important to you, don't buy anything with less than 800 x 400 pixels.

Enjoy curling up under the covers on these snowy New Mexico evenings and watching my Netflix movies -- clear picture, good sound -- and great for people who don't like to have TVs in their bedroom!!!!

I bought this at Christmas, and took it on my first trip in February. It would only sometimes play a DVD, and other times spin up, appear to try to play it, and then shut itself off. No idea why. It wasn't the disc, as these were very new DVDs with no scratches, and eventually it would play them. It would just take 5-10 minutes and 20 or so tries sometimes.

On my second trip (right now), it would only play the sound, but we'd get no picture. I couldn't get any of the touch controls to light up at all. We never got it working. When we got to our destination, I had web access, so I decided to try searching for help on it. I thought plugging it in might help in case it was a weak battery problem, but it didn't. And after it tried a couple of times, it died completely. Now I can't get it to do anything at all (no power light, no spin up sounds, just nothing), so I guess I'm going to have to call for service.

When it did work, the picture was excellent, but the sound was only OK. As others have reported, the speakers are tinny, and the volume even on full with the headphones is marginal.

All in all, I'm extremely disappointed in this unit. I imagine this will be the last LG product I ever buy.

EDIT: I called LG tech support, and they want me to pay $45 in labor to fix it (they give only 90 days warranty). It's less than 6 months old. As far as I'm concerned, that's extremely poor service. If they can't stand by their own products for longer than 90 days, their products aren't worth my consideration. I think I'll put my money towards a different brand. They have definitely lost my business. If I could, I would reduce my rating to a zero.