Customer Reviews

Panasonic DVD-LX97 9" Portable DVD Player

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

 

 

We bought this specifically because it has a long battery life. We bought this (for our 2 year old) to take on an overseas (10 hour) flight home for Christmas. While the description says the battery lasts 10 hours, reading the manual you will see that it lasts 10 hours when the LCD screen is on (-5) (lowest), 7-8 hours on (0), and 5 hours on (+5) (brightest). We found that the 0 setting was plenty light for the plane rides, and we had no issues with battery length. We watched a total of 4 movies on the plane, and had no issue with the battery. We had the volume up (as our son is not fond of headphones)and we could hear clearly over all the noise on the plane. People were even asking us to turn the volume down! It was wonderful to keep us and our little one occupied on such a long flight! On the plane ride home, my husband and I watched a movie together with the headphones, thanks to the dual headphone jacks.

I LOVE that this DVD player comes with AC adapter, and we used this to watch a movie at the airport while waiting for our connection. We also used it to re-charge the battery to full while waiting for our connection. The power is dual voltage which makes it a plus if you are traveling or living overseas. You can play a movie right out of the box using the AC adapter.

The thing I like most is that no matter what angle you look at the screen, you can still see the picture clearly. Also the screen pivots, making for easy viewing at any angle. We used the cables to plug it into a TV and the picture/sound was great here as well. We also used it in the car, and the car adapter meant that we did not have to fuss with the battery. The screen is bright and big, and picture is clear and sharp.

I was hesitant to buy this product, because we have had a lot of trouble with our Panasonic DVD camcorder. This was the DVD player with the longest battery life I could find, and it is well worth the price. This product has gotten a lot of use in the last month, and no problems. I would recommend this to anyone! It is a great player and has exceeded my expectations. I am so happy with this purchase!

I basically bought this unit for the long battery life, and no complains there, it kept my kids happy on 10 hour flights with near constant use - I had to reduce brightness to 0 which still produces a good image (it goes from -5 to 5).

The size and form factor of the unit seems near perfect to me. The swivel screen works really well, in crammed spaces (like an airplane seat) you can adjust it to pretty much any angle, and it even folds flat over the player so you can mount it on the back of a car seat easily - and it also comes with mounting gear and a car power cable.

I also like that the AC adapter is global, so with just a plug converter (cheap at radio shack) it can be used in any country - I charged it in Europe with no problems.

The big problem with the unit is the advertised MPEG4 compatibility. If you're expecting to just dump your MPEG4 files to a DVD and play them on this unit, forget it. Apparently it can only play MPEG4 files recorded by other panasonic DVD recorders and camcorders, and nothing else. Information on such files is available but scarse, basically they're ASF format MP4s with the obscure G.726 audio codec, and I'm sure there are bitrate restrictions as well. I have yet to find the secret sauce to create such things and I'm not new to this.

The FM transmitter seems like a good feature but I haven't used it yet so I can't comment. The screen itself is good but not great, even though the player outputs progressive scan through external connectivity, it doesn't look like the built-in screen is progressive.

A minor annoyance: There's nothing to tell you when the battery is fully charged. It would be nice if the "charging" light changed colors when charging is completed.

I bought mine on May 2006.Last month I got an error H03 ,menas it can't read.
Call the CS and they told me to bring to nearest Service Station.
Need to pay 95 for the labor and still warranty for the parts.
I'm going to get it this weekend.
The product is good especially the battery, just make sure to buy extende warranty if buying Panasonic DVD product.
Cause it's the common problem with Panasonic for H03 error.

We bought one over a month ago and we obviously made the right choice! The FM transmitter is a great add-on, picture is excellent and battery life is fantastic! Overall, it is well worth the price.

We bought this player for occasional travel purposes and were VERY disappointed when after 20 hours use we got an F893 Error Code and the unit was inoperable. As I said it was used for occasional travel, by 2 adults only, and unfortunately the 12 month warranty had expired by 1 month when this occurred. We were never offered an extended warranty (bought the unit from Electronics Expo on Amazon), but probably would have purchased if we had been offered one since we made a decision to buy what we thought was an upscale player at this price range. Now I have to drive over 100 miles to the nearest service center, pay a $35. service fee for them just to look at it and analyze what further costs I will incur to repair. Panasonic customer service basically was useless and would not even identify the nature of the error code for us. This will be the last Panasonic equipment of any type that we buy. It's back to Sony for me.

Works really well. Picture/sound and general use is excellent. Battery lasts about 6-8 hours. Can't think of anything bad right now.