Panasonic DVD-LV75 Portable DVD Player

by Panasonic

Product Details

Product Manual [2.99mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 7.3 x 1 inches ; 4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 5 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B00004SD9O
• Item model number: DVD-LV75
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #165,567 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

With its sleek, lightweight design and impressive build quality, Panasonic's DVD-L75 portable DVD player belongs in first class. The 7-inch-diagonal LCD screen is capable of displaying a very good picture, and the player attaches to an extremely robust battery pack rated at up to four hours, according to Panasonic. The DVD-LV75 also has built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoding and comes with a miniature remote control.

Without the battery pack, the DVD-LV75 measures a mere 1 inch thick. The rectangular screen lifts open with the slide of a switch, revealing an LCD panel flanked by two tiny speakers. As with all the other portable DVD players we've tested, however, the speakers are fairly inadequate. A good pair of headphones is definitely a worthwhile investment, since portable DVD players don't really lend themselves to an audience of more than one.

The silver top panel contains a somewhat sparse array of control buttons, including the one flaw we found with this player: an awkward, thumb-size navigation tool that pivots left and right, up and down. Fortunately, a cool, mini remote control is also included for easy, alternate access to the onscreen menus and audio and video parameters set-up.

Other top-panel controls enable you to activate the virtual surround sound mode, player menu, DVD menu, and display, which give you on, stop, and pause buttons, plus skip buttons, which double as fast-forward and reverse controls by holding them down. Overall, we found these primary function buttons to be rather unintuitive; when you hold down the skip buttons to go back or forward, it's difficult to stop the DVD on the scene you want. However, Panasonic does provide a nifty, speed-adjustable onscreen scroll icon, similar to a jog shuttle, that makes it very easy to locate a specific scene.

The top panel includes a monitor button that changes the screen aspect ratios from standard 4:3 to 16:9 widescreen or 4:3 letterbox. The DVD-LV75 also enables you to adjust both brightness and color to five different levels. Other players we've tested allow greater control over picture settings, such as sharpness, tint, and color. The DVD-LV75's inability to do so renders a picture that leans from one extreme to the other--from overly bright and red to dull and gray. With brightness and color set between 2 and 3, however, we found the picture to be clear, if a little subdued.

That said, the DVD-LV75 produces a remarkably satisfying picture even in a well lit room. On airplanes, with the lights dimmed, this player will earn bonus points for picture quality.

The model we tested had virtually no dead pixels or manufacturing anomalies. The off-axis viewing angle was good, though not quite as impressive as Sharp's 7-inch model. Flesh tones on the Panasonic were natural, if a little anemic. Grays were convincingly realistic but slightly on the blue side. Overall, we found the picture to be rather one-dimensional, demonstrating a fondness for greens, yellows, and brown, while revealing an inability to reproduce convincing skin tones. In terms of overall picture quality, on a scale of one to five--with the Sharp MovieGoer receiving a five, and Pioneer's 7-inch model getting a 2.5--we're inclined to give Panasonic's DVD-LV75 a four.

The battery pack is smaller than a DVD case and snaps into place with ease. We were able to watch an entire movie and The Eagles' Hell Freezes Over DVD without using the AC/DC adapter. Before it began to wane, a low-battery indicator appeared on the top-panel display. The built-in recharger takes about 4.5 hours to rejuice the lithium-ion battery. Overall, this is the most impressive battery combination we've seen among today's 7-inch portable DVD players. It's smaller, lighter, and more robust than others we've tested.

The diminutive DVD-LV75 is by far the most versatile portable player we've seen. It has built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoders, so you can use it as a stand-alone player with your big-screen home theater system even if you don't own a receiver with built-in 5.1-channel processing. That's very cool. Since the DVD-LV75 also plays music CDs, you can use it as a portable or stand-alone CD player as well.

With its excellent design, flawless LCD panel, above average picture, and built-in digital audio decoders, we can safely declare that this is one of the best DVD players on the market. --Eric Gill

Pros

• Impressive battery life
• Excellent picture quality
• Supercompact, sleek, and lightweight design
• Versatile built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoding

Cons

• Navigation "button" is awkward to use
• Mediocre sound quality from built-in speakers
• Silver inner panels reflect light back onto the LCD screen

Amazon.com Product Description

The Panasonic DVD-LV75 portable DVD player boasts a built-in 7-inch LCD screen with more than 337,000 pixels for incredibly clear images. Additional built-in features include stereo speakers, a battery recharger, and a headphone jack. This player offers S-video and composite outputs as well as an optical digital-audio output and a 24-bit, 96 kHz audio digital-to-analog converter.

The screen allows you to watch movies in the standard 16:9 widescreen format or conventional formats such as letterbox and pan and scan. You can expect up to 3 hours of playback time with the battery pack. Additional features include virtual surround sound, a slim remote, frame advance, chapter preview, auto off, five-speed smooth scan, and title/chapter search with marker function.

The player measures 7.25 by 1 by 5.5 inches and comes with a remote control, rechargeable battery pack, audio/video cables, and an AC adapter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars No regrets., July 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Panasonic DVD-LV75 Portable DVD Player (Electronics)

Bottom line. I went shopping for one of these for about a month before I finally got the LV-75 and as soon as I got it, I had to really see if all the stuff I read on this board had any validity. Here are my results.

1) BATTERY TIME
2 tests. Fully charged overnight each time, brightness set to "0" (goes from -5 to 5), using headphones ONLY:
Test 1 --> 4h:55min + 18 seconds
Test 2 --> 4h:50min + 44 seconds

(each test had about 5 min worth of fast-forwarding, change out disks.etc... Have yet to test the entire time with speakers on and I'm guessing that these results would drop dramatically.)

2) PICTURE QUALITY
(Using about 8 different movies, being viewed from 3 feet away) Sharpness: Over-all, pretty good. Could clearly see pixels but stopped noticing them after about 10 mins. Doesn't match my regular flatscreen but hey, I can't really take a 27' Sony VEGA on a flight so I'm not complaining.
Color reproduction: Trying out all the color settings, I found that I couldn't get truly good skin reproduction without over bleeding the screen. Cooler colors such as blues and greens came out better than my regular TV. I also checked for broken pixels and didn't find one. Overall, the picture is above average to very good.

3) SOUND
Best ever micro speakers I've ever heard were from my Thinkpad. Bass was non-existent but overall sound was great. The LV75 comes very close to that performance. The area where the LV75 blows away my Thinkpad is that it decodes 5.1 DTS and mixes it into my 2 channel headphones. Even though it's two channels, it still sounds awesome compared to regular 5.1 digital surround. (Try watching Gladiator DTS/ES which decodes 6 channels)

4) EQUIPMENT
If you were thinking about getting this player instead of a regular rack player, think again. I use an optical out on my regular DVD and expected to just plug my Toslink into the LV75. I was rejected! You need to buy a Miniplug-to-Toslink cable that is not provided to get the optical feed. If you still want 5.1 digital surround, you need to buy 2 more Miniplug-to-RCA cables (they provide you with one, which alone will give you 2 channel stereo). The S-video works, but I don't really use it so I don't know if it will give you 5.1, but if it does, you won't have to go shopping again.

5) OVERHEATING
The unit does get very hot when you are using it without the battery. (the battery sits on the bottom and insulates the heat from your lap!) With the battery, non-existent. The battery on mine NEVER got warm enough to even notice. I watched half of Almost Famous laying down in bed with the unit sitting on my bare chest and I didn't feel a thing.

6) ACTUAL SIZE
The pictures show you this thin little unit, when folded, will be about an inch thick. This is without the battery. With the battery, it gets about a pound heavier and 1.5" (I know that it isn't much, but considering it was just an inch before, that's a 50% increase).

7) EXTRA BATTERIES
I have yet been able to locate on my manual where shows me how to order extra batteries, I can't really say, but I [found it] on the panasonic website [...]

OVERALL VERDICT
Not regretting my purchase in the slightest. This is one of the coolest things I've bought, ever... and it makes me smile just looking at it.

Last suggestions: Buy the 7 inch instead of the 5. Get a good pair of headphones.

The biggest thing on your mind while watching this unit is TIME--> how much of it you have left. [...] I on last biz trip to NY, I was sitting in a rear exit row with about 3' of leg room in front of me with my LV-75 sitting on my lap... and everytime someone passed me to use the bathroom, all I could feel were the "jealous eyes." I don't have to say that this thing cuts flight times in half.

-----> If you can't afford it, don't buy it because you won't use it often, but if you travel... don't leave home without it.

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for the Kids!, June 3, 2000

By 

Frank (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic DVD-LV75 Portable DVD Player (Electronics)

Took the kids on vacation. Great player to keep the kids occupied on a long flight. When I arrived I connected the DVD-LV75 to the TV where I was staying. With 25 movies in a CD case, it required practically no room at all. Great for the kids! (I only got one complaint on the plane from someone who didn't like the sound --- with more than one viewer, we didn't use headphones) I waited for a 7" display DVD player and figured that while most other players were first generation, the Panasonic DVD-LV75 was the best bet as it is a second generation product and most of the bugs were worked out. I was right! I have had no problems. The battery lasts for at least two movies (4 hours).

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Panasonic DVD-LV75, May 18, 2000

By 

Kurtis Thrasher - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic DVD-LV75 Portable DVD Player (Electronics)

Wow is the key word here! The Panasonic DVD-LV75 is not only the smallest portable DVD player on the market but probably has the most feature offerings as well! I get 3-4 hours play back on a single battery charge, the screen is crystal sharp, sound is awesome, and plays musical CD's as well.

After looking at several other brands ie: Sharp, Aiwa, this unit beats them hands down. The one thing the Panasonic DVD-LV75 has over the others is size!

The only way to truly appreciate this player is to buy one!