Customer Reviews

Panasonic DVD-LS80 8.5-Inch Portable DVD Player

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Bottom line up front: This DVD player is ideal - it is light, great battery life, evolved smart design, and looks great. It has a faux black leatherlike coating on the screen backing and the black matte finish to the player which looks cool and doesn't distract from the movie. The hinge that rotates the player from tablet-like flat to most any angle is strong and well hinged - looks like it would survive a fall. The picture is perfect without any adjustments; however, there is a button that adjusts for daylight and moonlight viewing as well as a a button to adjust brightness and color manually. The main menu allows several video adjustments (I used full digital noise reduction and full depth enhancer). Also, I enable bass boost, dialogue enhancer and sound enhancer and use Headphones Enhanced from the speaker/headphone menu. The buttons at the bottom of the player are easy to use and clearly marked for playback and the center button to the right of the dvd door allows up down and side to side menu navigation. I like a small button just above play that lets you advance the movie frame by frame with each push of the button and then hit play to resume. The picture is tight and not pixelated to my eyes. The colors are very warm, I prefer to tone them back a few notches. I noticed that this model seems to have better viewing angles. Before when watching say in the kitchen on the older DVD-LX97 I noticed that the angle had to be just right or I couldn't see the picture - not an issue anymore - great! It supports DIVX, which I plan to use extensively. I don't care about some new bells and whistles such as usb flash drive support or memory card readers - those aren't the purpose - playing DVDs right away is and this does the trick. No remote is not an issue with me, never use them for portable devices anyway. My wife really likes these Panasonic players, this is our second one, your family will too. Mine gets used every night on my bedstand to watch movies as I fall asleep so I don't have to fall asleep to Roseanne reruns on nick at night. A gadget guys best friend.

Just returned from a two-week trip to London and Paris: this unit was a winner. Both kids were able to watch movies at the same time which reduced the wear and tear on Mom and Dad. No issues with 250V/50Hz power. It's small, light and has excellent battery life. Don't waste your time on the ultra-cheap units: buy this one and be happy.

I had done a lot of comparison shopping before purchasing this product and was very pleased with the item.

The long battery life is SO worth the price over the cheap models with the shorter battery life. The player's screen can be tilted and angle adjusted and the picture quality is great! Using the settings you can even adjust the size of the image on the screen, depending on whether you like the picture widescreen, full screen, or other. The sound quality is great. I was concerned since the volume seems to be a concern on some models, including the sony, however we used this on a loud airplane ride with no problems. It has 2 headphone connections which is nice. If you need to hook up more headphones, I purchased a splitter at Radio Shack, and it worked great with this DVD player, allowing my 3 children to listen using headphones with no complaints! We also used the provided cables to hook it up to a tv and it worked wonderfully and the picture was still fantastic. Also, it does NOT have a remote, which was actually my preference. I did not want a tiny remote with such a small portable device. I would have been afraid to loose it, and then be stuck with a machine I could not use.

So I bought this portable DVD for my dad for his birthday. I chose this one because it had the longest battery life of any other option on the market at the time, and had the best array of features and support (plus it looks really nice).

We received the device, and my dad let's it charge overnight, as instructed. He tests it out the next day by watching a video, running on battery charge only. It lasts 3 hours. He does the same test the following day. Lasts even less time.

We call customer support. Here's the story they tell:

In order to achieve a 6 hour battery life you have to use headphones, not the external speakers and run the display at -5 brightness. Just the clarify, -5 brightness is BLACK. There is no picture at this brightness. So essentially, you're listening to the sound track. This is a glorified CD player at this point, and even then, the battery life is crummy.

We then write a letter to the chairman, only to get a letter back from a director of marketing telling us exactly the same thing.

This product, likely a great DVD player, has been ruined by Panasonics Marketing department. The fact that the DVD player explicitly says 6 hour battery life on the package, multiple times, and no where indicates the need to drop the display to -5 brightness (except in the manual) and yet doesn't even come close to that level of performance is terrible.

I've been a huge supporter of Panasonic products. Saying they're the underdog and under rated. Well now, I'm changing my tune.

You know, it's ok to be wrong. Admit the package and marketing of this product are wrong, and don't tell me the customer, who supports your job and business and technology and brand, that I'm wrong, or that I have to use the product in such a way that it doesn't even make logical sense.

So for those of you thinking to buy this, keep looking. It's not what it says it is.

It's good. Good part is we can play both PAL & NTSC DVDs and can be connected to any TV as I have taken it to India with few DVDs for in flight entertainment for my kids with 2 headphone jacks but they could also see the local movies in PAL format. It was very handy, can be connected to any TV to watch it in bigger screen if needed where we don't have other DVD player available.

i usually read the bad reviews first since the good reviews might be written by employees of the product but i should have listened to the one star review. the screen image is NOT sharp, all the edges are indeed pixilated, and overly contrasty. and since this is about viewing a movie i have to give it low marks. also if you view at a moderate angle you lose the image. there is no remote, and if you tilt the screen you cant get at some of the controls. the tag says it has the divx codec so that is a plus, but i havent tried it yet. i usually use a small sony vaio computer about the same size as this panasonic dvd player to view my handheld movies and the screen on that is very sharp so my expectations might be too high but shame on panasonic, i have many of their usually high quality products and i expected better.

We purchased this unit for airplane travel for my 4-year-old son. I chose this unit because the screen pivots forward which allows the unit to sit on the small table in front of you without having to be close to the forward edge. It also has the added benefit of being out of the way when the person in the seat in front of you decides to recline the seat.
The picture is clear and crisp, and there was plenty of volume for two headsets. The 6-hour rated battery was able to power the unit thru two full length feature movies.
I wish my parents had one of these when I was a child...

A worthwhile purchase. I bought this player initially for a flight from Los Angeles to Denver. It worked quite well for the trip. Picture quality is adequate not great but for the price is very good. I only paid $175 and for two to three times the money you can get a much better picture quality but for the budget minded or for children or maybe documentaries (I watch a lot of these) this is a very good value. If you are not a videophile or are willing to sit 3 feet away or more it is an excellent player. I am getting about 3 and 1/2 hours on a charge, although that was the first charge and I have not tested the full length of the battery playback time since that first time running it until it was dead. For the money I would say it is an excellent value and I have encountered no malfunction issues at all. It has two headphone outputs which allows two viewers to use the player at once in a somewhat private manner. The internal speakers are pretty bad although I don't really feel many people using this player will use it without headphones. It also comes with a home and car charger so you can use it in the back seat of a car indefinately while it is plugged in. I got what I expected and it serves it's purpose quite well and I am a happy and satisfied costumer. I have had this player for about six weeks now and no signs of any problems.

Bought this a few months ago to replace a less expessive model. This Panasonic is worth the price. It is amazing, and with the 'tilt' screen, you get a 3D effect that is almost like you have your own little Elf movie theatre. Namely, that it looks just like a real movie theatre for little tiny people. The screen looks amazing, crisp and wide. Put it next to your Hotel Room bed (or home) and it blows the others away. The tilt screen makes this unit get the extra star.

The best part aside from the tilt/angle screen is the fact that you also have just enough black 'dead space' around your movie screen, plus the fact that the rest of the mold is black too. This gives the screen a real cool-factor look about it especially when it is dark in the room (when the room is dark, the movie is in 3D mid-air (very cool)). This unit has been dropped twice with no probs, DVDs have been shoved in (in the dark) as well as the obligatory "I don't care" treatment, and it still works perfectly. Extremely well built as the price dictates it should be. I've read the 1-star reviews, and they are ridiculous.

For the business traveler, get this. A nice pair of headphones plugged in with this unit next to a table with the lights out in bed is simply amazing compared to other cheaper units.

A few last things that are very nice is the screen dimmer. On some nights you may not want to see a full blown bright a** screen. Well then, just use the absolutely perfectly placed controls to dim-it-down a few notches. This is great. The other thing that I like is being able to use this thing in the dark. After a few uses, the memory-factor is easy, and you'll be using Top-Menu, Home, Dimmer, Back, Enter and Navigation in no time at all.

Re: Battery life and the few comments made about it. Get over it guys. Battery life is part of the 21st century quagmire. EVERY TECH TOY sucks in battery life, and we all know it. For the guy who wrote that this thing only gets 3 hours of battery life, I have to say, "Isn't that perfect?" 3 hours is longer than any movie (for you or your kid). And most people just plug these things in anyway. If you are on a plane, you shouldn't be watching stuff for longer than 3+ hours anyhow (obviously, the unit gets a LOT more Bat-Life if you use headphones plus some screen-dim which is a moot point nevertheless). Panasonic did a GREAT job addressing Bat-Life on this unit, which, obviously is geared towards the high-end market where people want a very cool portable DVD unit instead of these cheap break-in-a-month [terrible-button-placement] devices. Yes, the developers of this unit definitely brought theirs home and actually used it just to get it right, And that can be proven by the memory-factor, and the button placement.

I'm here right now writing this review only for the fact that I'm getting another one. Enough said.

An awesome Man-Toy, Travel Toy, Mom+Kid Toy, Car-Toy not to mention the included cables to pipe through a Hotel TV make this unit worth every penny. The tilt screen is the clincher.

Positive features:

Large screen, clearly visible from a broad range of angles. I can't comment on picture quality compared to other portable DVD players, as I haven't compared them carefully, but the colours displayed on this LCD are as good as those on a good quality CRT picture tube.
Feels solidly built. Although screen is hinged so that bottom may tilt out or so that screen may lay flat (LCD side up) against the machine, the hinge looks very solid. Basic on/off/play controls still accessible with screen laid flat over top of machine.
Two headphone jacks, so two people at once can listen to playback over headphones, such as two passengers in back seat of an automobile. Most DVD player cases permit suspending the unit centered between two automobile seats for viewing by two people. The wide viewing angle of this unit's LCD screen will permit both viewers a perfectly clear picture.
Output jacks for two headphones, video out, audio out (stereo).
LCD screen may be shut off, conserving battery power if player is connected to a television or computer serving as monitor. According to the manual, this extends battery life to several hours.
According to the manual, audio output is compatible with surround sound systems.
Resume function: only one button need be pressed to turn on player and resume playing where one left off the last time the machine was powered down.
Freeze, frame-by-frame, multiple speeds of fast and slow-motion playback available, including fast playback in reverse. Settings permit setting playback speed to slower or more rapid playback, with audio remaining audible, according to the manual. Slow-motion/ff playback quality is impeccable. Fast-forward playback in lowest speed includes playback of audio, but audio playback is choppy and marginally intelligible.
All special features and menus of this machine are available from the console; this unit does not include a remote, as none is needed. No risk of losing functionality due to a lost or broken remote. Menus are simple and intuitive to use.
Plays VCDs and DVD-Rs just fine.
Rechargeable battery is good for longer playback time than most other machines on the market.
Multiple parameters of picture quality may be adjusted.

Negative features:

Selecting track number to play on VCDs is a bit of a pain: two levels of menu have to be gone through and the track number selected by repeated presses on a navigation key. Only a minor inconvenience, however.
Although I can't verify whether or not this is true, instruction manual states that battery is good for 300 rechargings. This seems low given the quality of currently available rechargeable battery technology. Some extended warranties provide for replacement of batteries which have dropped in performance, so consider purchasing such a warranty if buying this unit (I'm presuming that the same would apply to any other such brands of portable DVD player).
Even on maximum setting, audio volume seems weak both on speakers and on headphones. It's difficult to imagine that audio could be clearly heard while operating this unit in a motor vehicle or any other noisy environment. Maybe some small in-line amplifier could be connected to headphones to correct this, though I'm not sure if such contraptions exist. Audio volume is fine when this unit is connected to a television set.
The lid which closes over the DVD seems thin and flimsy, unlike the remainder of the unit.

All in all, this seems like a smartly designed, feature-packed and high-quality unit. I'm very pleased with my purchase, as I have been with other instruments made by Panasonic.