344 of 350 people found the following review helpful:
Exceptional DVD player for the $$$
Before even starting reading this commentary go back and look at the features of this DVD player... Ok did you find it? Yes, it plays DVD+R/RW. If you have ever recorded a DVD only to find your portable would not play it, yup, instant buyer's remorse. This is a HUGE benefit for a DVD player under $100
Beyond recorded +R/RW DVDs, the most important aspects...
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
I like it but I have a problem
This is my second portable DVD player (the first was a used older unit that I bought at an auction site). As campers it's something that we like having around so my wife gave it to me for Christmas. With the 12v cable (that comes with the unit) I can easily use it off of my RV battery when we have not electrical hookups (as well as run it off the lighter plug in the...
This review is from: Coby Electronics TF-DVD7107 7-Inch Portable DVD Player (Electronics)
Before even starting reading this commentary go back and look at the features of this DVD player... Ok did you find it? Yes, it plays DVD+R/RW. If you have ever recorded a DVD only to find your portable would not play it, yup, instant buyer's remorse. This is a HUGE benefit for a DVD player under $100
Beyond recorded +R/RW DVDs, the most important aspects of this basic DVD player are that #1 It has a clear screen, #2 the speakers are good and clear for private play (if you need them louder you are probably disturbing the people around you), #3 it has very good battery life, #4 the controls are easy to use, and #5 it comes with all the accessories you need: DC car adaptor, headphones, and a remote.
If you just want a good, solid DVD player for airplane travel, car trips, or to keep your son or daughter busy in times of need, this is it! If you intend to view movies with someone else, you may want to go with a 10" screen and dual headphones.
I paid around $80 including tax and the CA (ultra liberal state mandated) battery recycling charge for the Coby, and the quality, reliability, and durability have far surpassed the cost! I've experienced the frozen screen syndrome now and then with recorded DVDs, it has skipped once or twice, but I do not know of a portable DVD player that has NEVER done that on occasion, especially with recorded DVD capabilites.
My final word on the Coby, pay the under $100 price and buy a 1 or 2 year replacement plan for $10 for peace of mind. If you are real picky about sound, want the screen to rotate, and care about all the other details... go ahead and spend $200. As for me, it is hard to pay attention to those minor details while sitting in a noisy airport. Spend the $80-$90, save the rest to improve your home system (or get a game system) and buy this one for travel and other away from home use.
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This review is from: Coby Electronics TF-DVD7107 7-Inch Portable DVD Player (Electronics)
This player has several advantages: 1. This player plays both -R and +R; 2. It is an excellent player for the price; 3. It has a good sharp screen; 4. The color is good; 5. The outputs are very good so that you can easily connect it to playback on a TV, it even includes digital sound and two headphone jacks; 6. It has a wide viewing angle; 7. It comes with a DC car adapter, a remote, TV connection cable and a pair of headphones; 8. It has great international capabilities (see below); 9. The price is really low.
The player works well for children on a long journey. With the two headphone jacks (thoughtfully, one on each side) and a pretty wide viewing angle, two can share the machine.
Where the TF-DVD7107 really scores is with its low price but also with its international capabilities (this doesn't get mentioned in the product description and is not discussed much by other reviewers, so I'll concentrate on these capabilities). First, the power supply is universal 100-240 volts, so you just need a plug converter to make it work in other countries (you won't need a voltage converter). It also has a DC charger so it can be used with the power supply onboard many airlines and in cars. Second, the video output can be changed via a setup menu from NTSC to PAL so that it can have video output to TVs in hotels in e.g. Europe or Australia. Lastly, the player can easily be made multi region-free (see below).
For international travel, this is a good machine at a great price.
I converted it to region-free(to allow it to play DVDs from around the world)from region 1, USA and Canada, by the following procedure (I used the remote):
turn on the unit. Edited addition: Both Steve York and I Okwuje have pointed out that you need to have a DVD in the machine. End of addition.
1. Press SETUP.
2. Press FF ( >> ), FB ( << ), Next( >>1 ), Previous key (1<< )(these buttons are on the right side of the remote)
3. Region code shows up (not too clearly but you can see 1 or your other region number in the top right corner)
4. Change the code to 255 using right Arrow (this is the button just to the right of the Enter button) (It will go through all the single digit regions and then after 6 it goes to 255). 255 plays all regions.
5. Press SETUP to finish and exit from the setup.
Since the buttons on the remote can be less than precise, you may need to try this a couple of times to work.
So you can have a very good region-free portable DVD player that can easily move between the NTSC and 110 volt operation of USA/Canada and the PAL and 240 volt operation of much of the rest of the world, playing DVDs from anywhere. I have a number of DVDs from region 2 that are PAL, and they play normally, straight away.
Drawbacks? Well, I am not sure how robust the player is. The remote is pretty cheap and the headphones are not the best. The speakers are just about OK (it is a small machine) but the sound is much better with a set of decent headphones. Being portable, may subject the player to more knocks than a regular DVD player and so robustness may be an issue. It has worked fine for me so far.
Update Jan 2007 -- We sent the player to our daughter in the Peace Corps in a village in Africa in June 06. Although it has been subjected to harsh treatment, it has worked well for her.
Update May 2009 --- videohelp (a great site for finding hacks to make DVD players region free) now indicates that the hardware may have changed and that this should now work to make the player region free:
Open the DVD tray
On the remote, press Menu
Type 8888 (you will just see asterics in the top left corner)
Press Display
You will see the region code
Press 0 for code free
Press Setup
Done!
Our daughter has now finished her time in Africa and has left the DVD player with another Peace Corps volunteer. Still working when she left! Though she may have been very lucky considering some reviewers sad experiences with this DVD player.
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62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
The most powerful dvd player, June 13, 2006
A Kid's Review
This review is from: Coby Electronics TF-DVD7107 7-Inch Portable DVD Player (Electronics)
i had a mintek portable dvd player and after one week the thing stop playing dvd's.so for my birthday i got this nice slim dvd player.this is great(i love it).the good thing about it is that it plays dvd's and has A/V input.i love this because i can hook my ps2 and other things with it.i love playing games on road trips and i hooked an antenna to it so i can watch tv.this is a great coby dvd player.And the battery is built in.you can slide it out and you can slide it in.this is great.....and for the price.
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This review is from: Coby Electronics TF-DVD7107 7-Inch Portable DVD Player (Electronics)
We purchased this dvd player for an 1800 mile road trip with a four- and eight- yr old. It held up to the usual bumps and drops without skipping or breaking. Easy to use and volume not as low as some reviews I'v read. Highly recommend.
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This review is from: Coby Electronics TF-DVD7107 7-Inch Portable DVD Player (Electronics)
This worked out great. We bought it for our 3 1/2 year old to watch movies during our long drive from PA to NC. He wore the headphones & we didn't hear the movies he was watching. It kept him occupied the whole time he stayed awake.
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This review is from: Coby Electronics TF-DVD7107 7-Inch Portable DVD Player (Electronics)
This is my second portable DVD player (the first was a used older unit that I bought at an auction site). As campers it's something that we like having around so my wife gave it to me for Christmas. With the 12v cable (that comes with the unit) I can easily use it off of my RV battery when we have not electrical hookups (as well as run it off the lighter plug in the car)
I used it for the first time a couple weeks ago and I was really impressed. It plays several disks that my previous unit wouldn't play, was easy to operate and has a good picture.
I went to use it again today and all of the control buttons on the unit are acting up. Some don't work at all, and the others all put it in fast forward mode. What is strange about this is that all control buttons on the remote work properly. In the owners manual, it says that if the unit malfunctions to unplug it for 30 minutes and restart and the unit will reset, this one doesn't.
I have just emailed COBY tech support and await any additional instructions they may have. If they have none, I will be returning it. I am impressed enough with how it operated originally, and with the reviews here, that I hope to exchange it for another of the same model. I trust that this is just a quirk with my particular unit since others don't seem to be having any problems of this sort. I will post back actions that are taken and how they work out.
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This review is from: Coby Electronics TF-DVD7107 7-Inch Portable DVD Player (Electronics)
I purchased this DVD player as a gift for a friend of mine, and from what I hear they absolutely love it. They are able to play their movies, music CDs, as well as their MP3 CDs. They say the screen is very clear, and the battery life lasts longer than they thought it would.
If you're looking for a great portable DVD player, I believe this is the one.
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This review is from: Coby Electronics TF-DVD7107 7-Inch Portable DVD Player (Electronics)
I bought this player to occupy my 19 month old daughter on a long haul flight from Los Angeles to Europe. Once she saw her beloved Elmo playing she quickly calmed down and sat for a couple of hours.
The picture quality is excellent allowing people either side of her to see it. We didn't bother take the remote as we could do everything we wanted from the buttons. The 2 earphone sockets is also a great idea.
It's packed with features but I didn't care too much about those. It just had to work and it performed beautifully. I saw a Low Battery warning after nearly 4 hours, which was expected.
Great product and well worth the money.
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This review is from: Coby Electronics TF-DVD7107 7-Inch Portable DVD Player (Electronics)
I bought two of these for a family trip to Hawaii - 9 hours in the air. I was very happy with them, as were the other users.
Pros: It will display CD jpeg pictures and also will play "home made" dvds. The supplied av cord will play dvd's on any hotel tv with RCA jacks. The battery life is about 3 hours. The picture quality is very good and it does not skip with the usual air plane turbulance. It has audio jacks on both sides - nice for shared viewing. Small, light and thin for easy carry on.
Con's: the supplied head phones are adequate but noise cancelling head phones (or nc ear buds, like my kids have) improve the airplane experience a lot. I tried to buy spare batteries from Colby. They were "out of stock" and they quoted a price of $62 plus tax and shipping!!!!!!!
I did not experience the problem with the battery latch that others have reported.
If you can get this for $80-90, it is a good bargain.
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This review is from: Coby Electronics TF-DVD7107 7-Inch Portable DVD Player (Electronics)
We received this player as a gift this past Christmas. It lasted 1 month with what I consider light use. We turned it on one day and the picture went. Now the nightmare begins.
[...]
SO, now we are dealing with Coby.....First of all we had to send an $18 money order as well as pay for the shipping to send the defective product back, which stupidly we did. I still can't believe we did that!!! We were told to make sure our address was on the item "since we never know where to send them." Very odd statement don't you think?
Then when we called after 8 weeks (6-8 weeks it could take), they couldn't find our package... "didn't you insure it?".... "can't go just go look for it, these packages are sent to another location". Excuse Excuse Excuse. SOOOOOO....After 5 or so more phone calls and faxing them proof of money order, the shipping and the warranty, we waited another 2 weeks to finally get the replacement
...Which by the way has poor picture quality and we already had to turn up the brightness to the max, so I guess we are back in the fight some more. Gee, do you think they will need us to pay another $18 for the next replacement??
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