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Sony DVP NS718HB
by ste87
This player was built to breath new life into your DVD collection on your HD TV. This is achieved by increasing the perceived quality. The player looks very stylish and obviously would look good with any other Sony products.
This player was purchased for my lounge to match my other Sony products. It fits right in, the controls ... immediately felt familiar as the remote control and on-board controls are more or less the same as other Sony products. The unit like most Sony products is reliable and of high quality. The menus and features are well thought out and easily executable. The players size and shape is such that it can be stacked on top of other equipment, and other equipment can be stacked on it also. This unit will fit on any mid sized table, or join your existing equipment by stacking. Ease of use is a big part of why this player is so good. Many tasks are performed so easily that you do them mindlessly, such as menu navigation, which turns from being a fiddly affair with non-responsive remote control buttons on lesser players to a quick easy task which is smooth and effortless with this this player.
The playback is fast, smooth and great quality although not the as good a quality Blu ray. This is well worth doing still though as the difference is defiantly noticeable on larger TVs. The player is pretty basic in that It doesn't have a million features, but it makes up for it in picture quality. The unit is quiet and does not distract from the movie you are watching.
The player supports many formats including DVD-RW/-R /-R, JPEG, MP3, AAC, WMA, CD, CD-R/RW, Super VCD discs which is quite an inclusive list. This player connects via HDMI to your TV and is very easy to set up.
This is for anyone who wants a no nonsense player who cares about video quality rather than features. But at the same time its worth mentioning that most Blu ray players do this stuff and more anyway.
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Sony DVP FX930
by Crista
We have bought two Sony DVP FX930. We have returned the first one because the shop delivered us the US model (with an SD card) and we wanted (and ordered) the one with USB. We are about to return the second one. This one has an USB, but we have discovered that you can't use the battery in the car (with the head-rest mounting), and you ... should never stop the engine (not even accidentally) without stopping the player first! We expected that the player would use in parallel its own battery and the connection to the car's battery, but this is not the case. The battery is being attached to the bottom of the player, but the mounting in the car is done directly on the player. So when you stop the car, the DVD goes back to Menu and you have to start watching from the beginning or loose time tracking where you were (providing the child can indicate this correctly, if she stops crying). Apart from this, the image quality is good, the player is easy to use and the installation is a breeze. The manual says you should not use the usb while in the car. So despite being a Sony faithful user, we will go for a brand that has more experience in doing portable DVD players for cars.
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Sony DVPFX730L
by DavyMichelle
I had been thinking about buying this as a replacement portable DVD player for a while, when I happened upon a review on Dooyoo which gave it just three stars. I was a bit put-off initially, but then when I read the review, it turned out that most of the criticisms were that this has a small screen and is only suitable for one person to ... watch at a time. So first things first, what is this DVD player for?
Well, this is a portable DVD player that's intended for personal use. It can be taken on holidays, it can be used in a hospital, it can be used on a train, plane or in the back of the car. It's not meant for use at home, unless you're intending on having a little something in the kitchen perhaps to keep you company while you cook. This portable DVD player has a 7" screen, so obviously it is intended for viewing up close by a solitary person, rather than shared in a group or watched from a distance. That's something to consider when buying a portable DVD player in general, as even the largest screens are still only up to around 10".
What really appealed to me about this player above the competition was that it boasted a five hour battery life. If you compare that to most other 7" screen portable DVD players in this price range, you're getting around 2hrs more battery life than the competition has to offer. If you go down a price range, to the £50 - £90 players, you'll only be getting around 2hrs battery life. That'll be fine for some, but not for others. I had a Wharfedale portable DVD player previously with a battery that died after only around 6m of use, so that was a contributing factor in hoping for a better quality battery in my new player.
The other reasons for my choosing this player were that it comes with a remote control (handy for fine tuning any menu options), the blue casing is pretty stylish (there are a few other colours available too), there is a USB port included, and of course the Sony brand name is a trusted one. So for these reasons, and the longer than average battery life, this is the player that I recently bought.
When I got my new player, I was pleased to find that it was extremely easy to use. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I only needed to charge it up for five hours, to get my five hours of battery life, so I was able to test the battery pretty soon after purchase. Sure enough, I had five hours out of this - a full film followed by several in-car cartoon DVD sessions for the grandson too. I think the battery warning symbol could do with flashing up a little sooner than it did (about two minutes before the player died!), but I definitely got a full five hours play out of this from one charge. Obviously, as with all batteries, I charged it right up and then ran it right down for the first use to maximise it's life.
The picture quality is noticeably clearer than my old Wharfedale DVD player allowed, and I can only really say that it's like watching a miniature TV screen. All the details are there, they're just scaled down to size! The sound quality is much better than my previous player had to offer, and I like that the volume covers a very reasonable range (from mute to 20). At full volume, you could easily hear the player in a noisy car without headphones. Though if you wanted to use headphones, you're spoilt with the choice of not one, but two headphone sockets! Great if you've got two kids sharing one of these in the back of a car or sitting on a train.
I'm especially pleased with how easy this is to operate. On my old player, there were certain functions that I could only access by using the remote control, as the player contained limited buttons. This player, however, is different. It has an arrow pad and a menu button actually on the player, so you can access and navigate your way around most of the functions without needing the remote at all. The buttons are all reasonably sized and effective at first click too.
The other plus points to this player are that it comes complete with a mains plug (for charging the battery or running off the mains), a set of leads for hooking the DVD player up to a large TV (good for caravan holidays!) and an in-car cigarette socket charger, which has a nice long stretchy cord on it so the player could be used in the back seats and charged in the front. You just have to tuck the wire around the passenger seat to make sure it doesn't affect the driver.
Finally, this player has managed every format I've tried so far. It will play computer downloaded media, it will load photos etc via the USB port, and it will play all manner of DVDs, CDs and VCDs too. It's basically a region-free player, whereas a lot of the cheaper players can only managed region 2 DVDs and shop-bought CDs. The only downside worth mentioning is that you can hear the disc spinning when this player is in use. But that said, it is considerably quieter than the spinning I had to listen to when using my last player! I think you'll find this with any player you buy to be honest.
This is a slightly more expensive player than a lot of the portable DVD players which have 7" screens, but it really is worth the extra money. This player is a reasonable weight and size, a very attractive colour, and obviously an excellent quality piece of technology. It's easy to use, it comes with all the accessories you need, and it'll cope with just about anything you could possibly want a portable DVD player to cope with. Five stars from me, I really recommend this and will happily buy similar products from Sony in the future if they're going to be like this!
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