Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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119 of 122 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice for widescreen films, but NOT for old movies, TV, etc., October 6, 2007
This is a relatively nice unit, but whether or not you should buy it depends on what you watch. It is solidly built, easy to use, plenty loud, and the picture is bright and clear. However, I tested it extensively with various commercial dvd movies and discovered the following: 1) widescreen movies in 16:9 aspect ratio (most modern movies) look great as that is the size ratio of the lcd display. 2) ultra-widescreen movies look fine also, though one gets the expected horizontal black bars across the bottom and top of the screen as the pictures adjust to fit the width of the lcd display. 3) old movies and most TV series are a serious problem. One would expect that the player would auto-sense the older 4:3 aspect ratio and display the pictures to fill the height of the display and put vertical black bars on both sides. But, no, every dvd I tried was stretched to fit the 16:9 lcd display width, with the result that all people look like they're 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide (exceptionally funny and ironic on fitness dvd's actually). Really gross distortion and, to me, absolutely unwatchable. Yes, one can go in and manually alter the aspect ratio to 4:3 in the Setup menu (make sure the lid is up or that there is no disc in the player, or one is locked out of this feature), but this setting has no effect on how old movies and TV shows are shown on the lcd display - all are distorted as they are stretched width-wise as I describe above. Perhaps this setting affects the video output that could be fed to a full-size TV set, but I didn't check on that because I bought this unit to view only as a portable. I've spent a couple of hours scouring the web for solutions to this problem with no luck. Needless to say, as a fan of TV and pre-1960 films, I'll be returning this player. Too bad, as it seems very nice otherwise. If you only watch newer movies, I would recommend that you go ahead and purchase it. Good picture, more solidly built than most, and inexpensive.
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46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Works well, rugged and battery life is good, March 4, 2008
I bought this from a walk in store the day before a long car trip with our daughter. I picked this unit over a Panasonic that was twice as expensive since the Panasonic's screen though bigger, had a much worse picture! (lots of jaggies on the Panasonic). This Philips screen is nice and clear.
The unit appears to be well constructed and even survived 2 falls from the rear seat of our PT Cruiser to the floor during a couple of hard stops. Though it fell and clunked hard (there was a DVD movie in it but the unit was turned off) the player worked flawlessly over the next 4 days.
I like that it has a volume knob and not just up/dn pushbuttons - this is much easier to adjust the volume on. Volume levels using the built in speaker are loud, but not likely loud enough in the environment of a driving car. Headphone volume is plenty loud if need be.
Over the 4 days we played store bought movies, but also some DVD's I burned onto -R discs (a video of a play my daughter was in). There was no skipping or cutouts during any of the videos, even in our bumpy PT Cruiser.
Battery life was better than 2 hours when we used it in the hotel room. In the car you can use the lighter adapter to power the unit which has the added benefit of giving you a brighter screen (the screen brightness is turned down a bit on battery power to save energy).
Overall I am quite impressed with this unit and glad I picked it over the Panasonic L80.
In regards to the other user stating the way the DVD is held damages the discs, I found no such problem or concern. The method of attachment is similar to all the portable DVD players I've had in the past, and laptop CD/DVD drives. You 'snap' the DVD onto the spindle but I saw no damage being done.
The only improvement I would like to see in this unit is that the laser pickup assembly should move to the innermost parked position when the DVD is stopped (when you press the stop button twice). Otherwise it can be near the outer edge of the DVD when you're going to remove it and be in the way of your fingers. What I do is turn the player off, then on long enough to hear the pickup assembly move towards the hub, then power it off and remove the DVD.
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Portable Region Free DVD player, November 12, 2007
Does what it is supposed to do, but speaker sound is not quite loud enough for me to hear it well while using an elliptical trainer. I am sure it would suffice for a car or plane with headphones, but that is a pain while exercising. Region free function is great and the controls, even without using a remote, are easy to use. I'd buy it again.
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