Looking at the annual vacation with the kiddies. We’re too cheap to fly so again we’re looking at a 12 hour ride. We already have a tv/vcr combo but I may leave that at home simply because all the movies we’ve purchased in the last few years have been DVDs. The kids have outgrown the Disney flicks for the most part, which are what our VHS library is mainly comprised of. And, quite honestly, the tv/vcr combo is bulky and takes up a lot of space along with the what-seems-archaic now VHS’s.
Daughter’s birthday happens to be right before vacation, so I was looking at portable DVD players. Wondering if anyone out there has one and if they like them. They run the gamut in price and specs, of course. They seem really cool, but I’m concerned about quality. Do they break easily? Do they skip? The main use would be travel, so I’d use the car adapter.
And, is this way too expensive/risky of a gift to give to an 11 year old and a 8 year old IYHO. The 12 hour ride is the longest we take. The rest of the summer we routinely go on 3-4 hour trips.
I recently purchased a Panasonic DVD-LV50 from Amazon for $400. It only has a 5" screen, so you may want to opt for the 7" model (DVD-LV70). I just checked the prices again at Amazon, and the DVD-LV70 is only $490.
The 5" screen is fine up to about 4 feet away, at an angle of , say, 30 degrees. Not sure if the unit were placed between 2 people in the back seat whether both could get a good view of the screen. In a car, I don’t think you will be able to hear the sound through the speakers too well due to road noise, so you will need to get a headphones splitter so both can listen through their own headphones; I’m not sure if there’s a way to route the sound through the car speakers.
I was very satisfied with the purchase. I primarily used it as a stand-alone unit during a 2-week visit to my brother. For some reason, I could not hook it up to his TV - maybe because he has DirecTV?
I did not have any problems with skipping. As far as durability, I think it’s at least as durable as a portable CD player. The audio & video quality (especially video) is very good for its size.
FYI, the car adaptor for this model has a list price at Panasonic of $150. It (the car adaptor) isn’t available at Amazon.
Based on my research, I would stay away from the off-brands (Audiovox, Mintek, Apex, RCA) due to the unit overheating.
How about a compact DVD player that can connect to your TV/VCR? It should be good enough for in-car use, and much cheaper than those with built-in LCD screens.
Personally, I’d rather get a laptop with a DVD-ROM drive than a self-contained portable DVD player. Laptops have larger screens and, of course, you can do a lot more than just play DVDs.
Mockingbird, what do you use as a monitor for your car DVD player?
scr4, I think the problem with the laptop is the battery life. Most laptops only get 2 or so hours running solely on the battery, no? As far as I know there is no ac car adapter for laptops. If there were, that would definitely be the route I’d go because my husband could use a new laptop.
bytheway, thanks for the feedback. I’d hate to pony up $400+ for something that would skip or suddenly stop working.
Try checking out products like these. This is what we have for our long trips, and it works great. We can plug in our laptop to watch movies, or the MP3 player to listen to music throught the car stereo. Good luck, and have a good time.
We bought a 7inch diagonal screen Audiovox for the kids. They are three and two years old. I think it was around $350 on sale.
It seems to be very durable. It hooks up to the TV in their bedroom very easily also. Comes with the remote, the battery, the car adaptor, and all the cables right out of the box.
The children are very careful with it, they seem to be afraid to touch it (good thing). You can also hook the sound up to the cars speakers if you steal the cassette adaptor from your portable CD players car adadptor kit and plug it into the DVD player. The sound and picture in the thing are very good. It will also play the CDs, MP3s, video disks and the MPEG`s.
I connect it to a standard 12" tv in the vehicle. Right now it is in my bedroom, hooked up to a 12 volt inverter so it can be plugged into the wall.
It is a grreat little player. It handles DVD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, and DVD-RW with ease. I have a DVD-R burner and use it to test my discs post burn.
You could mount this in your dash, run the audio and video back to the television, and control the player and thus stop the kids from breaking it or getting frustrated because they don’t understand the controls.
Forget about car adapters and get yourself a power inverter. Plugs into the car’s 12V accessory socket and has has a regular 110V plug for your electronic device. Just make sure you get one that’s rated high enough to power your device. My Panasonic portable DVD player draws 2A so I got an inverter that was rated for 250W for abour $40.
Agreed. That’s what I do to use my laptop in the car. I can also use the inverter for other electronics (e.g. charging my cell phone), and it’ll work with other laptops I might upgrade to.
Pardon my extreme ignorance, but what is the difference between a car adapter and a power inverter? My tv/vcr uses a car adapter. One end plugs into the tv and the other plugs into the lighter. That’s what you described a power inverter to be.
And handy, why in the world would I need jump cables and an air compressor for a portable battery??? (I’m picturing you putting two laptops together, opening up their hoods and jump starting one.)
A “car adapter” takes 12V from the car and outputs a voltage suitable for a specific electronic device. For example, IBM can sell you one that outputs regulated 16V to run their laptop (I think), but it won’t work for other brand laptops.
An inverter takes 12V from the car and converts it to 115V AC just like the wall outlet in your house. It has the standard 2-prong connector like those on your wall and you can plug most household electronic devices into it - laptop, TV, video game, battery charger, etc. They don’t work well with big motors (vacuum cleaners, refrigerators) and they have limited power output, but they’re still useful to have around.
“And handy, why in the world would I need jump cables and an air compressor for a portable battery???”
Its not for it, it’s on it. You carry it around & plug in stuff to it, some models have an air compressor you can use to pump up rafts & all have jump cables. Most have a power inverter too. You can recharge it in your car. There are some on ebay if you search for ‘portable battery’. Or at harborfreight.com made by Century.
And another difference between a car adapter and a power inverter is the price. You can get a power adapter like the one I linked to before for about $40 or so. As you’ve seen, laptop car adapters seem to run closer to $100. So a power inverter is cheaper, and can be used with more types of devices. Basically any sort of small electronic device can be plugged in and run.
WRT the adaptor/inverter, the one above didn’t come with the adaptor so I looked it up on amazon or bestbuy and was shocked at the price ($129!!!).
I took the DVD player into my local Radio Shack and they hooked me up with an adaptor that works perfectly for our unit. It may have been this one for $5, but it could have been a somewhat different version, I just cannot recal after 13 months or so. Either way, it was well under $20 and much smaller and easier to move than an inverter.
You can also get headphones with splitters for your kids, which you’ll want since these things can be loud.
Ditched the idea of getting a portable DVD player now just because it is price prohibitive at this point. Instead we’ll use our old tv/vcr combo this year. I went on e-bay and got 20 family friendly VHS movies for $30, which is what I was going to have to pay for Block Buster rentals, since we’ve been buying all our movies in DVD format. I love e-bay.
Anyway, since I’ve pretty much opted to bring the bulky tv/vcr combo, I might as well bring along the Nintendo 64 (I know, I know, my electronics are embarrassingly archaic) if it’s possible. From what I understand here, I’ll need a power inverter. I could use the car adapter for my tv/vcr and then plug the Nintendo into the power inverter (we have 2 sockets in our van) but I’d prefer to plug them both in at the same place. Do they make inverters where you can plug TWO devices in at once, which will give me enough voltage? Or should I just go visit my local Radio Shack dude?