A Simple Little Number. (Sony DVP PQ1)

Member Name: wendybull

Product:	Sony DVP PQ1
Date:	19/01/07 (234 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use, space saving

Disadvantages: No longer available as a new item

There is nothing nicer in my opinion than settling into bed, after a nice relaxing bath, and watching a film before drifting off into seamless sleep. For this to be an option you will obviously need a DVD player in your bedroom, bearing in mind the rubbish they put on TV these days.

I was delighted when we came across the Sony PQ1 on a pallet of goods brought from eBay.

THE DESIGN

Instead of being the usual boring brick shape that DVD players come in, this is intended to use the minimal amount of surface area and it certainly manages to do that with the round, almost “toilet” shaped design. The lid opens with a light press on the top and you can insert the DVD of choice. The function buttons are housed along the top rear of the player and that is all you get in terms of design.

To be honest this is all I need in terms of a DVD player for my bedroom. It comes with a remote control which is a must for me, but I really don’t need an all singing, all dancing piece of equipment for my purposes. In fact the simplistic design of this machine is a huge positive point in my opinion.

There is no digital screen on the player and this helps to keep the size down. All functions are processed via the buttons on top or by the remote control and the results of these will present themselves on the TV screen for you to see. This is a great idea, because to be honest I very rarely look at the screen on the DVD player in the lounge, as I always use the TV facility so it makes sense to get rid of the player screen entirely.

HOW DOES IT PERFORM?

I have nothing but praise for this DVD player. The picture quality is absolutely fine and does not produce a pixel-covered picture. We only have a smallish TV in the bedroom so this may change if the film was being broadcast on a larger TV but for us we have no hesitation in recommending this for the bedroom or a second TV, like in the kitchen or even for a caravan.

It can play multi region DVD’s and music CD’s as well as rewritable discs you have created yourself which is a real bonus for us because it means I can let my daughter watch TV in my room (her favourite Dora or Pippin programmes recorded on to DVD from the TV) while my son is watching TV in the lounge.

The remote control is another simple design, which is great. It lets you do the basic motions such as play, stop, pause etc as well as other helpful features such as moving forward scene by scene and so on. In fact it is so easy to use that my three-year-old daughter knows how to play, pause and use the select buttons for accessing menus and starting films.

SETTING IT UP

This is actually very easy too and I managed to do it a few times following a transfer from room to room. It simply needs to be connected to the TV via a scart lead and connection and that is really all there is to it. One plug to the wall and one to the TV, how much easier could it get?

OVERALL

In case you didn’t realise I am very satisfied with this player and cannot really fault it for what it is. You get excellent picture quality; ease of use and ease of setting up as well as the space saving feature it gives you based on the unusual design.

I believe the PQ1 has been superseded by an improved PQ2 version which retails at £35.00 but the PQ1 can still be picked up on eBay and possibly Amazon market place for around the £10 mark which can’t be bad.

I can positively recommend this portable DVD player if you can get hold of one for your second room or caravan.

Summary: RECOMMENDED IF YOU CAN GET HOLD OF ONE.

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