Customer Reviews

Sony DVP-FX730 7-Inch Portable DVD Player, Black

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

My husband and I have several long road trips coming up, and purchased this player to keep me and our daughter contented on the long drives. We looked at a bunch of different units, and finally settled on this one. We are not disappointed.

Its excellent, especially in the price range its in! The picture is awesome and the sound is phenomenal for being so small and inexpensive. The battery has a good life, and its just a nice bonus that in addition to the AC adapter, it also comes with a car adapter. The construction is solid and the controls are well laid out and easy to use.

We're very happy with the purchase and would definitely recommend this little player to anyone looking for something quality at a decent price.

This modestly priced unit is built well and performs fine, but be cautioned, that though it can play DVD's with Dolby Digital or PCM soundtracks, it cannot play DTS soundtracks, which is a significant loss, because there are certain(relatively few) DVD's in my collection that offer only a DTS soundtrack, and these will play as silent movies on this player. The instruction book doesn't warn about this, so I must tell you.

This is a fairly good DVD player, but I am surprised that screen resolution of these devices, in general, is not better. We bought an 8-inch LG model about two years ago with better resolution. The LG still works perfectly, by the way, in spite of very hard use by two pre-school children. (LG models seem to no longer be available, unfortunately.)

This 7" Sony model has quite good sound quality, with good volume. The on/off switch is a little clumsy to use, but no big deal. And the "hold" button next to it can be accidentally switch on. Screen resolution may be better than average, but still not very good. Otherwise, this Sony DVD player seems to be quite high quality. We have had it about two months. At one point, it wouldn't play disks properly, but cleaning the lens fixed the problem.

Several people complain about the way the screen format defaults. I disagree. I think the device works just as it should. This Sony player's screen has "widescreen" proportions (16 x 9), like a modern HDTV. Therefore, when you are playing a typical widescreen DVD, there is no issue: The image fills the screen, and everything is in proportion. The issue is what to do when playing a DVD with "full screen" proportions (4 x 3), typical of an older movie or pre-HD TV show. This player keeps the image in proportion and leaves black bars at the sides. That is what I prefer. Some people prefer other options, usually stretching the full screen image out horizontally to fill the screen. I don't like the resulting distorted image but, if you do, you might want to skip this player. I believe that you can set the screen to that choice, but you will have to do it every time you insert a DVD, as it defaults to black bars.

Length:: 2:54 Mins

It's a nice DVD player. I took my DVD player with me on a long road trip and I was able to play movies for days by just simply recharging it when necessary. It will last 5 hours on a single charge. It's very light and easy to use. It also plays burned DVD's for those of you who have DVD backups. It's very simplistic and there's not much to say. It works and I like it a lot. I'm not sure whether or not it will play any other region besides 1 since I don't have any of those discs to try. All I have is region 1.

Hopefully, the video upload will help you in making a smart purchase. If you have any questions, leave a comment here and I will respond.

Ease of use: 5 out of 5 stars
Image quality: 4 out of 5 stars (only because it's not HD)
Portability: 5 stars (especially since it came with both a car and home charger)
Sound Quality: 4 out of 5 stars (great for a portable dvd player with small speakers. It's loud enough and has enough bass to enjoy the movie but I suppose it could be better)

Overall, I rate this product 5 stars. No hassles since I bought it from Amazon and you know how convenient that is.

-Justin

The only thing you have to be aware of is that every movie opens up in widescreen mode. You have to change the mode back to full screen everytime. Otherwise, great picture and Sony quality

I was a bit overwhelmed by such a large selection of portable dvd players out there, but I went with the brand i trusted most (Sony) and I dont regret my decision at all. This product is easy enough for my 4 yr old son to use, it is light weight, sleek and it has a 5 hr battery life! picture is great too. 7" screen is definitely enough in my opinion. not worth spending extra $50 or even hundreds for an 8" or a 9".

I bought this DVD player for the backseat passengers to watch movies on weekend trips. Over a 3 1/2 month period, the Sony DVD player was used on about six or seven trips, for two or three hours each...less than 20 hours of total use. At that point, it began "freezing up" during the opening menu or after about the first five minutes of the movie. At that point, it was 100 days old, and the 90 day labor warranty had expired.

Sony has offered to replace it with a refurbished player for $33, after I pay $12 shipping and insurance to return it to Sony. So, for $45, I will get a refurbished replacement unit that comes with...you guessed it...a 90 day warranty.

Over the past decade, Sony's once great reputation for high quality products has been going down hill. I will replace this DVD player with either a better one from Panasonic...a company that still makes great products...or I'll buy a "Brand X" player that is cheap and just throw it away when it stops playing.

When the Sony was working, the picture was nice, the sound through headphones was okay, and the sound through its tiny speakers was thin and annoying to hear. The Sony player is NOT better than the cheaper units sold by other companies...customers pay extra for the Sony "name"...a name that no longer means high quality products.

The battery life is about three hours, not the advertised five hours...enough to watch one long movie, or two short movies.

Overall, I have been very happy with this DVD player. I bought it for my daughter (turning 2) to bring on trips in the car, airplane, etc. Compared to the Phillips 7" player, it's a huge improvement - both in battery life and overall design. For the extra $10 (or so), it's well worth it. The only complaint would be one other reivewers have voiced - that there is no way to default to full-screen mode, so if you don't want black bars on some DVDs, you have to go through the options menu. Overall, though, it's great - having the remote is nice (you can lock down the controls so little hands can't accidentally create issues and just use the remote), the quality is solid, the battery life is great, it comes with a car power adapter, and although the screen is small - for a kid's first DVD player, I think it's a very good choice. If an adult were using this...I think I would spend the extra $$ and go for a larger screen.

I bought this for my 20 month old daughter on our long flight from Maine to Texas. It worked great. I like the hold button feature on the side so when she pushes the buttons on the top, nothing happens. The only button it doesn't hold is the open button and she found that out. So I'd suggest a locking mechanism on that as well. The picture is great and the sound quality was great and could handle the loud noise of the plane. We've been using it on long car rides to make it more sain for mom and dad since my daughter doesn't like to ride and pitches quite a fit. Our home entertainment dvd/receiver/vhs player has been having difficulties, so we've hooked up the cables to the portable dvd player and all has been great until we can fix the "big" one.

I bought this a week ago to replace a DVD Player that died. It was on sale at a local store for $89. Took it home, charged it up and tested it out. Initially, it worked great. A couple things bugged me - the inconvenient power button on the side, the so-so resolution. But the price was right and it was compact and the battery life was decent. So, a week later it is freezing up on every disc I play. New, old, it doesn't matter. I tried watching an hour-long TV show on it and it froze up 4 times. Twice I had to restart from the beginning and shut the unit down. It did this on several discs, so I know it is not the disc. I am fed up with it and returning it. Maybe I got a bum unit, but I am taking it back and looking at others. My recommendation is to buy it locally and see for yourself. I love amazon, but if you end up with a dud it is easier to take it back to the store and get full credit. I'm bummed, I really wanted this to work and now I am back to square one and figuring out a player.