Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's great, when it works., May 6, 2008
With a 14-hour car ride with my two kids (6 & 2 1/2) ahead of me, I needed a portable DVD player that would get us all through it with some semblance of sanity. I reviewed all of the products that were available and agonized over the fact that it seemed like a coin toss whether or not the unit a person bought would be defective or not. It didn't matter how much one spent, half of the reviews were, "this is junk!" and the other half were "this is great!" If spending more money was a guarantee that the portable DVD player was going to work, I'd have done so. But it didn't seem to matter. So, it was with great trepidation that I purchased this unit. I figured that I could eat the loss if it the coin toss came up "crap."
Everything worked great during the two pre-trip tryouts. Sharp picture, ample sound quality, no skipping on the player, the kids were happy. But two hours of use during the trip the picture on one of the units all but died. Maxing out the brightness didn't help. The sound came through fine so the kids were able to watch the same screen without having to jack up the volume. My son was even able to plug in his video game to it. Fortunately, the one remaining screen lasted the rest of the trip and the return trip as well. No problems with the player itself.
I bought the service/replacement plan just in case something went wrong. I have to recommend the same to any future buyers. Hopefully, I'll either get the unit repaired or replaced. I'll try to edit this with an update if/when that happens. Today is 5/6/08.
5 stars for when the unit worked. 1 star for the unit breaking so soon. Unless you need one of these right away (like me), try and wait for next year's models.
Update 7/7/08: If took some searching, but I discovered that the unit was still under warranty. I contacted the customer service department for the manufacturer, left a message, and was then contacted the next day. I explained the problem and was told to ship the busted monitor to the manufacturer. Three weeks later a new monitor was shipped to me. The replacement monitor is working fine.
|
|
|
43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Saved our sanity on a 10 hour car ride, December 12, 2007
We were very happy with this product. This two screen DVD player was easy to set up and use. We used it nearly continuously while driving for 4 days. We bought two sets of earphones and plugged those into each screen so the driver does not have to listen to the movie while driving. It also functions as a CD player by plugging headphones directly into the player. Just note that each screen has an input button (Screen 1, Screen 2) and if the wrong one is pushed the screen will not show an image. But simply press the correct input button and the image will play on the screen.
|
|
|
36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
One year and going strong, April 30, 2008
I have now had this product for over a year and feel qualified to write a detailed review.
First some pros/cons-
Pros-
1. Dual Monitors.
2. Stand alone player
3. Extremely low price, compared to dealer installed player.
4. Easily transferable to another car, or hotel room when on trips
5. Capability of playing a video game on one screen and movie on another.
Cons-
1. No back up battery, if the car turns off/on the movie turns off and starts from the beginning.
2. On mine, the remote worked fine but not all buttons on the player worked.
A little more detail-
Dual monitors are great if you have more then one kid. They do not have to crank their neck at all to see the screen; it is strapped to the head rest right in front of them. If you have young kids that sit reversed in their car seat you can have one screen facing them and one screen for the older child. The stand alone player is key, yes it causes an extra cable, but it is needed so you can control the DVD player. It is hard to work through the menu of DVDs if you have to reach behind your head and try to feel for the buttons. You can set the separate player right next to you and easily press the buttons with this model. This player is around $170 delivered. In my Honda Odyssey, it was $3000 for a built in DVD player. DVD players will most likely not last more then a few years, I could by about 18 portable players for the price of the built in one. Even if it broke after a year, it would still be well worth it. When we go on trips and stay in the hotel, I just disconnect it from the car, use the A/C adapter, and the kids watch their movies in the rooms if they have too.
My biggest gripe with it is that it does not have a battery in it. For example, say you are getting the kids ready in the car and you turn on the player because you will be awhile packing or need to change a last minute diaper on one of the kids. The player will run with out the engine of the car running, but when you get in the start the car (at least in my Odyssey) there is a split second when no power is sent to the player, that split second is enough to restart the player from the beginning. If your kid cares, you then need to try to find the point the movie left off at. Kind of a pain. Something happens if you are running errands and leave one parent in the car with the kids, if you turn the engine off, it continues to run but once you start the car back up, it resets.
We do not use it every time we are in the car, only if we are in the car for more then 30 minutes or so. We have had many hours of usage and it and would definitely by it again.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Saving...
