 ""Disposable" should be in the description....." | 2009-11-17 |
| - Reviewed By User: AX8OD23NDIJFI |
Bought this DVD Player back in March 2009. It really worked great on keeping my son occupied during daily commutes/long rides (bought the car mount with it). Every once in a while we would only get sound and no picture but if you turned it on and off a couple times the picture would appear...Now we're in November and there is no picture at all.
To spend $150 on a disposable product seems a bit expensive. Next time I'm going with cheap no-name brand. |
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| "Didn't last any longer than the cheap ones" | 2009-11-12 |
| - Reviewed By User: A3HWHGZX5KBWJV |
| I purchased a cheap portable DVD player two years ago to fall asleep to. It lasted about a year...reliably. So, last year my husband bought me this Sony, which cost twice what the cheap player cost. Picture and sound were nice, but, eight months out, the reliability was going. Eleven months out, I'm hoping it will last until Christmas, when I get another cheap one. |
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 "OK, but NOT great" | 2009-10-25 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1DEB0IOB427XI |
| The picture quality on this unit is superior, the BIGGEST drawback is that it can't decipher the aspect ratio correctly. When displaying a 16:9 disk SET to 16:9 it displays the video in a LITTLE square centered on the screen. Changing the settings does still not render the aspect ratio correctly, I think in part because you have to completely STOP the disk to change settings. Very disappointing on this point. Battery life is around 3-3.5 hours, nowhere near 6. Even though I like the unit, I would dig deeper into the aspect ratios before buying another Sony Player. |
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 "So versatile" | 2009-10-16 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1SJ8UBTQL7SMJ |
When I found these refurbed for less than $100, I took a flyer on two figuring that even if they wouldn't do exactly what I wanted, I'm still buying Sonys for the price of Polaroids.
But they do EXACTLY what I wanted.
They have an in-out toggle switch which allows them to act as either a DVD player or a monitor. So by adding a couple of male-male miniplug cables, I can run a DVD on one that plays on both, with independent volume control for headphones on each. Fantastic. Having figured out a way to attach them to the seats in my Odyssey, I can now put a DVD in each and my girls can watch different things or the same things with a flip of the switch.
Adding power ports under the seats and running the cables under the carpet, I have a $250 aftermarket entertainment setup that's more flexible than the factory RES costing several times as much.
Oh yeah, and the picture's great too, the design is smart and rugged, yadda yadda yadda.
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 "Its Good but..." | 2009-10-06 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2E8BKGNXA9GPK |
| I really miss a mute button. The one I bought 2 years ago also didn't have a mute button. What's with that? I had a Mintek from 5 years ago with a mute button and its hard to beat. I gave the Mintek a bad review then later found out I wasn't following the instructions but I couldn't correct the review. This Sony also only turns if I'm on the left but not when I need it from the right. It's okay as these things go but if I had known there was no mute button I would have chosen something else. |
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| "Its worked great for presentations" | 2009-09-18 |
| - Reviewed By declutter69 |
We've been using this as a video or audio source for presentations (showing short videos) and short live events (rallies). It's worked very well. I'll start with negative aspects, then positive ones.
Negatives: The battery has lasted only a year before its lifespan has decreased drastically. This is not a problem for us, because we always have mains power available.
The screen is hard to see in sunlight. It looks OK in the shade, so we have to bring something to shade the unit outdoors. It would be fantastic if this device had an outdoor-sunlight mode.
There is no fast-forward for audio, at least not on the controls on the console. If I were using this unit for audio that required cueing up music, this wouldn't work.
Positives: Very good sound, superior to many portable audio devices. It has a full, rich bass. The on-screen volume control works better than an analog dial because it's less likely to be jostled accidentally.
Decent video with lots of contrast. I've seen better (like the video out from a Mac), but for short presentations, it doesn't matter.
It doesn't use a combined "camcorder" style A/V plug. It has one output for video, and one for audio (the headphone out). This makes it a LOT easier to interconnect this device with external amplifiers and projectors, because these two devices are often in completely different locations, in opposite directions from the player. Also, if a cable breaks, it's a lot easier to make a quick fix when the audio and video are on separate plugs, and the plugs are totally generic, as they are with this unit. This feature is a must-have for our purposes.
It has a digital audio out, which would potentially be an awesome feature, if our equipment had digital audio in or an external DAC. One problem we suffer is impedance mismatch - our projector causes our amp to hum. If we had a digital-to-audio device that interconnected via the optical output, we'd be able to separate the video electronics from the amp, and have totally clean sound. For our purposes, this isn't necessary, but, in more critical projection situations, this is a useful feature.
The controls are simple, and right beneath the screen. There's enough space between them so you aren't likely to press the wrong button. You can put tape over the controls you don't want to touch, and labels over the ones you want to see more clearly. If you're into putting tape on your device, this allows it.
The software is okay. It took a while to learn how to get the system back to "start", and how to cue a DVD or CD, but, once you know, it's predictable. The pause and play are responsive and nearly instantaneous for both DVD and CD. The "screen saver" visual is pleasant (it's an abstract blue image, not a big Sony logo). For presentations, these features put this unit ahead of others.
The unit seems to be sturdy. We've hauled it around to many locations, and it still hasn't broken.
Overall, it's not perfect, but I still give it 5 stars. |
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