Customer Reviews

Sony DVP-FX950 9-Inch Portable DVD Player

5 star:		(115)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

This is a well-designed player which has loads of good points. Best of all is the picture quality, which is nearly perfectly smooth. The other 5 players I compared it to in the store were grainy. With headphones plugged in and the brightness on minimum, the playing time is 7.5 hours, as Sony advertises. Without phones and with the brightness on max, playing time is 5.25 hours. Charging time is 6 hours, though the first time only took 2 hours, which is normal for batteries. It has lots of volume, and with a good set of headphones the sound quality is quite nice. The screen swivels 180 degrees and then folds flat against the base. The field of view is 180 degrees. You can connect it to your TV. It plays picture CDs, music CDs, and mp3 and jpeg files. If you stop it while playing and turn the power off, when you turn it back on it resumes playing where you stopped it. You can plug it into a wall outlet or a cigarette lighter outlet and use it without the battery in. You can adjust the brightness, hue, contrast and color while it is playing.

There's only one thing I don't like about it- no mute button.

This is one of those rare items that you can buy without even checking out the competition and know that you are getting the best that is available.

I love to go camping on the weekends, but my truck camper is limited on power for operating the TV and DVD player, so rather than invest in an expensive power system or listen to the generator, I decided a portable DVD with good battery life would solve the problem. So, I shopped and after reading reviews and viewing the advertised battery life, I ordered the unit. I am very pleased with it. This past weekend I watched two complete movies, and some special features, approximately 5 hours and had battery to spare. The weather was lousy, so I needed the entertainment. The sound was great, especially with my headphones. The picture is terrific and I really love the easy touch screen controls. I am unsure if I will use the swivel screen, but it will make it versatile, if needed. I had a cheap portable with a battery life of about an hour and a half, if you are lucky, but the quality difference is amazing. A great buy and I felt spending the extra 20 bucks or so to get the extended battery life would be worth it, and the battery, even though powerful adds little or no bulk.

I use this Sony DVPFX950 9-Inch Portable DVD Player on my treadmill by rotating the screen 180 degrees, placing the unit on the treadmill's angled bookshelf, then tilt the screen for good viewing. I leave the player open and on the bookshelf (but covered with a light cloth to keep dust off), so just powering up resumes the movie from the point at which I last stopped it. When I'm done with the treadmill, I just press the player's front panel "Stop" button, power the player off, and toss the cloth over the unit.

Rotating the screen 180 degrees puts the player's screen hinge at the "bottom" or "downhill" side of the bookshelf, which means the player's weight is concentrated at the bottom of the shelf and therefore the player isn't going to accidentally tip over the top edge of the bookshelf.

The player seems to be unaffected by the very little vibration created by the treadmill - no pixelation or pauses or skipping in the video or audio.

The mechanical/physical controls at the bottom edge of the screen are not back-lit or illuminated in any way, so they are a bit difficult to see in dim lighting.

Overall, this player works great. I've not noticed any problems with it.

UPDATE: The replacement machine I received has now completely croaked after only four months- and out of warranty. It made a grinding noise and just froze completely. And again, I hadn't even taken it anywhere yet. I am VERY disappointed in the Sony brand and having the same problem in two machines is no accident. DO NOT BUY THIS at any price. Here's my old review... Great picture. Only problem is that it was noisy when running the DVD. Guess that was a predictor of what was to come. All of a sudden it was on the DVD menu and wouldn't accept any commands- stuck. Tried turning off, turning on, etc. but it just stopped. We hadn't even had it a month, had treated it gently, and we hadn't even carried it anywhere. I had read extensive reviews before choosing this one, and I noticed that some Cnet reviews said the same thing. So I chose to purchase from Amazon, in case of a return. Which was a good thing, since it has been returned. If you still want to buy after reading this, know that it is a bit noisy and the button for fast forward/rewind is a bit touchy and hard to work. I noticed a greater lag time between inserting the DVD and playing. Maybe I just got a bad egg, but I have seen other reviews that say the same thing. Beware!

I have used several car DVD players with low sound, fuzzy pictures and won't play some of my home-made DVD's. I went looking for a better picture, ability to play more formats and bigger sound, remote control, swivel display and USB port for jpeg pics. --- This Sony, machine won HANDS DOWN! --- Especially when I found it also had control buttons on the front of the display/monitor under the monitor that swivel with the monitor. That has been a real plus. It's as though Sony intentionally made this machine to order just for me. And the price was very reasonable too! My 4 year old granddaughter can adjust the volume herself from her car seat without asking for the remote. And if she falls asleep during the drive, we simply turn off the machine with the remote while driving. Now if you're still not impressed ----- check this out ----- when she wakes up and we turn the machine back on, it automatically pics up with the show just where it left off. I couldn't be happier with my choice. Jim in Oklahoma.

Picture is GREAT! I imagined a tiny dull picture, NEVER HAPPENED. No eye strain, clean edges, vibrant.
There is a built-in speaker (this is not clear in the product description) however, do get a nice headset or earphones (if you do not, already, have one) for quality sound control.
The touch controls on the unit smooth, very smooth. The screen ROTATES one way only and the user is CAUTIONED about this MANY times, so CAREFUL!!!
The only drawback, thus-far, it the remote; it is so big and bulky for a small portable unit; a size more like 2.5"x4"x1/2" is a better design than the appox. 2"x6"x1" remote unit that comes with this release (maybe it is better for larger fingers/hands?).

The screen on this thing is awesome. It's bright, smooth, nice contrast, great viewing angle, easy for several to people to view from different angles. The battery life is also quite good, even with the brightness turned up and using the built-in speakers. The speakers sound pretty good considering their size. The drive itself is fairly quiet.

My main complaint is with the touch controls. Since they're not push buttons, they have no tactile feedback and are a little hard to operate, especially in dim light (you can't "feel" your way through the individual buttons). The 4-way control is a bit too small, better-suited for kids' fingers. The worst is the options button to the right of that control, it's easily pressed by mistake when using the 4-way, bringing up the options menu. One tip, if you see "hold on" it means you have the "hold" feature enabled (a switch next to the power switch) - it's not asking you to wait.

This is my first portable DVD player and it is great. I'm not going to repeat all the praises and there are many. I did find 2 things that surprised me.

1. When I attached my camera card in the USB port via a card reader, I was unable to view the JPEG pictures in name/date-time sequence. The player can only play them in the physical order that they are on the camera card and this makes them look very random. Since my camera and both of my computers can view the pictures in correct sequence, I guess I thought the player would also. Not so. But, even though I feel that this should not be like this, I don't feel this will give me any problems. I always have a computer nearby where I can view pictures in sequence.

2. I have an old Sony DVD player that plays CD's with JPEG and MP3's. I have tried to put a DVD with pictures and it just will not play them. I tried this on this player, and to my surprise, it played the DVD with JPEG pictures. This was a nice surprise to me.

This looks like a great player even with the small boo-boo.

i'm lovin it

Well, I guess I should really say, "we're lovin it". We bought this for flying with 2 young children, 3 and 4. We flew last year without one and copied the idea from others.

It is well made and has one of the longest battery lifes available. Certainly good for 2 or 3 movies before reaching your destination and recharging. The picture is very good and the functionality is simple and well thought out. As others have pointed out it is nice to just close the screen in a hurry if something comes up (lunch etc) then when you open it, it starts playing where you left off. The double headphone jacks are nice - no need for a seperate splitter. We did invest in over-the-ear headphones for our kids. THey keep a little noise out and are more comfortable and easy to keep on for kids than earbuds. I got those at walmart and they fold flat for storage. I was looking around for something to keep all this in and found an old 'soft' zipper lunch bag/cooler that was the perfect size. It is cushioned so it helps protect the player in your bag. There is also just enough room in it for the 2 pair headphones and your dvds - if you take them out of the hard cases and put them in paper sleeves.

Happy Shopping!

Very nice dvd player. The picture and sound quality are very good. This portable dvd player was just in time and what we needed for a 5 hour plane trip with our 3yr old son. I saw a couple other parents with the same product while on our trip and would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a good, but affordable player.