Overview
When you’re in the market to buy a portable DVD player, there are a few things that you should keep in mind when you start your research. Like anything, it’s important that you understand what and how you are going to use the portable DVD player to know exactly what you want. Examples of using the player would be in the car to keep you children entertained on vacation, showing off a slideshow of a vacation or watching a movie on an airplane.
Ease of Use
I like a portable cheap dvds player to have buttons for the basic things like play, pause, stop, next, and previous. On some players you need to go to the menu and then use these different basic functions. The quicker you get to your movie, the better.
LCD Screen Size
If you are using the player to entertain your children while driving on your vacation (this is actually the best use of a portable DVD player) or you travel a lot and want to watch your own movie on the airplane you can get by with the 7″ screen. Of course a bigger screen is nice but the distance between the back of your seat to the children is not much more than three or four feet or on the airplane only a couple of feet. The bigger the screen, the more you’re going to pay generally but this isn’t always the case See the last paragraph on refurbished players.
Options
Tight budget, loaded with cash? What kind of money do you want to spend on options? The more you get in a DVD player, the more you’re going to pay. If you are using the examples like entertaining your children and watching movies on the airplane you can get by with the basics. If you want to use the DVD player to show your friends your last vacation you will want to have an S-video out or at least a composite video out so that you have the option to show on a TV.
Battery
One other thing about portable DVD players is the battery. I won’t go into the battery types in this article but rather the question of built-in vs. changeable battery pack. Built-in is OK but make sure the manufacturer will replace the battery (They will and should charge you) when the battery life is used up. Any battery out there will only be able to be recharged so many times. The advantage to a built -in battery is that you have one unit and not two pieces to keep track of especially when traveling. The great thing about removable batteries is that you can have more than one handy so you have an extended playing time. You can be charging one while using the other.
Summary
There are a lot of portable DVD players so just ask yourself what you really need. This type of product is pretty mature so the components that are used to manufacture the players will be very similar in quality. Watch out for quality when it comes to the assembly of the player. You can’t really tell because you would not have been there during the actual manufacturing process but take a close look at the DVD player in the store. Compare with other DVD players with the same specifications. Does it feel cheap or does it feel well put together? Do the buttons or switches feel cheap or do they have a sold feel?
