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Recommend a portable DVD player please!

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Recommend a portable DVD player please!

Old 06-13-06, 03:32 AM
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Recommend a portable DVD player please!

Here are the two qualities I'm looking for:

- 9-10 inch screen
- last playback memory (so when you turn it back on, it remembers where you left off - I hate having to navigate back to where I left off)

and not so essential but nice:

- separate subtitle button on unit, so I don't have to navigate through different menus. I watch a lot of foreign films.

I've got the Samsung DVD L300 right now, it's nice, but even discontinued, it's 2x the price of other 10 inch models and it doesn't have the separate subtitle button. Even worse, you have to press two different buttons just to get to the main menu.

Any other recommendations?
Old 06-17-06, 01:41 PM
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Buy a cheap laptop.

That is what I did...well my laptop was $800.00. But still better the most small LCD DVD players.
Old 06-18-06, 11:12 PM
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Toshiba makes the best portables, imho. They have solid build construction, good image (running a close second to Philips), and the best all-around functionality and features. They're one of the only brands that has outputs and inputs standard, so you can use it as a display for digital photos or a video game system or output it as a player to another monitor. Also good are Panasonic and Philips. Panasonic's have the longest lasting batteries (real time 4 hours instead 2.5 like most others), but they're more expensive and the pictures tend to be a little darker than Toshiba or Philips. Philips is also well-built and boasts the best image quality among peers, but they lack some basic features that are standard on Panasonic and Toshiba models (including a resume function, which you said is essential for you). Sony is also okay, but they don't provide enough console buttons so you have to use the remote a lot which is annoying, imo. Stay away from Polaroid. They have a high breakdown rate and terrible customer service. Minitek, Audiovox, Coby and all of those second-rate brands you kind of get what you pay for. Initial is decent if you're shopping on a budget (say $150 or less).
Old 06-19-06, 12:37 PM
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Originally Posted by joliom
Minitek, Audiovox, Coby and all of those second-rate brands you kind of get what you pay for. Initial is decent if you're shopping on a budget (say $150 or less).
I got a 10" Mintek from Costco 2 1/2 years ago. I use it 4-5 times per week on average, and have never had a problem with it. It doesn't have a button on the player for subtitles, but it does have a subtitle button on the remote.

I paid $300 for it, and it came with a carrying case, 2 sets of headphones, AV cables, regular plug and cigarette lighter plug, and remote.
Old 06-19-06, 07:36 PM
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Costco has a deal right now for an 8" Toshiba SD-KP19 that comes bundled with a carrying case (the kind that doubles as a car mount), two pair of headphones, and the car adapter kit for $168. That's a pretty solid deal. I demo'ed the player and it was pretty decent. I'll probably pick it up for airline travel since the seats in coach are now so cramped that I can't use my laptop anymore if the person in front of me reclines their chair.

Keep in mind portable DVD players - even the best ones - don't tend to hold up well in the long term. A decent laptop is still a much better investment, with far greater heed paid to hardware and software R&D. Portables aren't exactly their top priority, so they tend to get half-assed in the design department. If you really have some money to burn, Sony makes a super-small Vaio laptop that's about the same size as a large portable (I think it's a 12.5" screen). Of course it runs about $2200, so you wouldn't expect it to be in the same class as a portable...
Old 07-20-06, 11:52 PM
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I'm looking for yet another portable. I saw the Mintek 10" as described above for $200 and the Toshiba 8" that's $170. I'm tempted to get the better one for the extra $30.



My first was a Pioneer that worked for a few years, then it needed a board replaced and the place said $700 to do it. Assholes.

So I bought a Polaroid that worked for about one year-got a replacement from them for $40. Worked one day. Got another replacement that lasted one year. This one still works great but the connection for charging is really bad and you have to get the cord just right to charge and that's not easy to do.

So I'm going to just keep it at work for slow times and get a better one for the car.


I see people touting laptops but don't they look like crap in the car? I know mine does.

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