Portable DVD Player Recommendations? 34
snapman asks: "My wife and I are looking to move to another state because of our respective job situations and we forecast a lot of travel (to return home to visit family and friends). We were looking at portable DVD players to help ease the boredom of long flights home, and we were wondering if the road warriors of the Slashdot community have any advice on the best portable DVD player (features, drawbacks, battery life, etc.)?"
Portable DVD player observation (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Portable DVD player observation (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Portable DVD player observation (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Portable DVD player observation (Score:1)
One suggestion I have is check to see if the airports you are flying into and out of have Rental companies that will rent DVD players, extra batteries and DVD movies for a very reasonable price, about $15 one way or $30 round trip with one or two movies. Even if you still buy yours, this is a cheap way to try out different models.
Sony (Score:2)
'Nuff said.
Yes, it's a commercial site, but... (Score:4, Informative)
Also, be sure to check Google [google.com] for more sites.
For my dollar I'd go with a notebook computer instead. The portable DVD players are kind of expensive for their lack of functionality. Small screens and short batery life don't paint a favorable picture for me. Not to mention that when you run out of DVD's you can always play solitare on your notebook.
Plenty of them (Score:2, Insightful)
That said, I don't see the point in the toys, personally, other than a 'ooh, look what I have' factor. As another poster said, you're well on your way to a decent laptop by purchasing a portable DVD player, and you'd be able to do other stuff with it, as well... especially on those long boring flights.
Anothing thing: if you're intending to use these at home as well, I'm not entirely sure of the quality these things would output, if indeed it's quality that you're after. Might be best to get a cheap-ish DVD deck, and a cheap laptop. Best of both worlds, then.
Check at Wal-Mart (Score:3)
Re:Check at Wal-Mart (Score:1, Informative)
Get a notebook (Score:3, Interesting)
If instead you convert your DVD to DIVX format and play it on a notebook computer, you get a bigger brighter screen and a longer lasting battery.
Also, if you get bored of movies, you can play games instead.
Bob.
Read a book.. (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Read a book.. (Score:1)
Re:Read a book.. (Score:1)
You'd be doing yourself an immense favor if you chose not to purchase anything, and simply used books for entertainment. Is even our "Intellectual" community now desiring to turn off their brain by simply having Audio Visual input blasted straight at them?
Back on the topic though, I can't imagine spending money on a portable DVD player. For that matter, I can't imagine collecting any single purpose electronic devices. I'd have to say go the Laptop route. It will always be just as capable of playing DVDs as a dedicated portable, and you'll get all the other more useful features out of it. I don't have any experience with a Mac, but that's what I'd consider first.
Re:Read a book.. (Score:1)
Check this out.... (Score:1)
Although the coverage isn't universal, most airports have kiosks setup to rent players and discs for the duration of your flights. My first flight from Pittsburgh to Seattle would have been unbearable had I not seen the kiosk in the terminal. Unless you're willing to get a nice laptop, I'd check the site out!
Re:Check this out.... (Score:1)
Re:Check this out.... (Score:1)
As far as your plan, just do it at Circuit City and there's no restocking fee! And...they won't even ask why you're returning it!
12" ibook (Score:3, Insightful)
yes, it costs about 2x as much as a mid priced portable dvd player, but you pay for alot of useful other features and a signifigantly higher resale value.
Get a laptop (Score:2)
Unfortunately the Powerbook is not cheap. It does have the advantage of the wide screen LCD (the best screen for watching DVDs - they display larger than any other laptop screen).
If cost is an issue (and usually is these days) I would recommend an iBook with an extra battery and 12.1 inch screen. It's a tough laptop and can take quite a beating - good for travelling. It's not much more expensive than a portable DVD player ($1500 verus $900 CDN) and you get a good laptop out of the deal.
This is what I do (Score:3, Insightful)
In the car, I have a 7" (widescreen - $200.00) LCD that is dash mounted, and I use a Sony Psyc [dealnews.com] headless portable player...these are selling now for $99.00.
I looked at the portables with screens, but a nice one, with a large screen, decent controls and battery life sells for more than $500.00, and in some cases, more than $1000.00. For that kind of money, it's not a hard step to an iBook for around $1200.00, and you get the obvious benefits of an excellent laptop.
Any of these will also play audio...most will also play VCD. If you travel far and wide, you'll want a player that is region free, so you can buy DVD's from various countries. Again, my iBook fills this requirement, but not without some minor tweaking.
Before you spend too much, watch for portable MPEG players coming to an outlet near you.
If you're not using a Mac w/OS X, perhaps.... (Score:2)
Then run DVD Player, and pull down 'file'...'open'...and navigate to the video folder on the hd and grab whichever chapter you want to start with. Things run normally from there. This is Macintosh....you just do it. Nothing cryptic. Note you'll use up disc space quickly this way...that's one reason I have over 300 gb online at home. Make sure to use a version above OS X 10.1.0
vidPod (Score:1)
Why buy when you can rent. (Score:1)
PocketPCs make fun nice video/mp3/ebook devices (Score:1)
It's fun to take it to the YMCA and watch video while riding the bike.
Jeff