Good value for money in car DVD player (Ripspeed DV720)

Member Name: damsmi2002

Product:	Ripspeed DV720
Date:	15/05/09 (653 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of features, looks good,great price

Disadvantages: Sound quality isnt too good, could be dfficult to fit

My friend has owned the Ripspeed DV720 for around nine months now, and aside from one problem with the unit, it is a very good in car DVD player especially considering the money.

Typically this will be seen in Halfords for around £250 and when you look at it, it really does look like a well thought out stereo. It is black and when the screen is not up it has a blue lit screen which looks nice and is not too obtrusive. The buttons do feel slightly cheap but they have not worn or fell off so they do seem to hold up well. The main attraction to a lot of people would be the flip out 7 inch DVD screen, which can be used to play DVD's and also to show radio information and cd track information too. The screen itself is of a very good quality, usually these type of units feature screens from more well know companies and the clarity certainly gives this impression. It never skips or jumps and it is more than large enough to watch whilst in the car(parked up of course) It can be wired in to work on the move, but obviosly this breaks the law and is just not sensible, so wiring it up to the handbrake ensures it works correctly.

With the fitting of it a previous review stated that it was very easy to fit, this was purely down to luck that the car he was fitting into has a massive hole when you take out the original stereo. With most cars the hole left will be the same size as this unit(called a DIN size) and due to the huge amount of extra wires on the back of this unit, for things such as extra screens and subs, it makes it quite difficult to fit into the majority of cars as you have to find a hiding place for all of these extra wires.

Once in the car it does stick out a little more than a normal stereo, again this is due to the screen though(one point to make would be to make sure there is enough room for the screen to actually flip out otherwise it would be pointless) One downside is that you cannot remove the fascia, so it could attract thieves, they do give you a little cover for it though, which hides the front.

So for £250 you get a DVD player with a 7 inch flip out screen which seems good value for money, but you also have many other features. There is a rear mounted aux in, meaning that by trailing a cable from the back of the unit to the front of the car, your ipod or any MP3 player can be connected. This is a feature that I like as I dont like the look of an aux in coming from the front of the stereo and trailing across the dashboard. If you dont have an MP3 player, you can load all of your music onto either a cd in MP3 format, or even onto a DVD, meaning you can put 4.7 GB of music onto one disc!

Since owning it my friend has had just one problem with the discs not ejecting, it had to be sent away for repair but since has worked fine.

If I had to really fault the unit at all it would be on the sound quality. With only 4x40 watts, the power that the stereo produces is a lot less than the majority of even basic stereos out there, and this is noticable. Until we put new speakers into his car the sound through the standard speakers was quite quiet, and when turned up just distorted, the new speakers are better, but still not great and this is due to the lack of power from the stereo.

After taking everything into account, I think that considering it only costs £250 it represents excellent value for money and could be essential for lorry drivers when on an overnight stop. It does look good and the screen is great, much better than expected for the price. I personally wouldnt buy one as I would put the money towards a stereo of a better quality that doesnt have DVD as I have no use for it, but can see that for somebody looking for this feature, it is definatly something to consider.

Summary: Fir the price I dont think you can complain

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