I’m looking to buy a portable dvd player for my son.
But I’m thinking maybe it makes more sense to go for a video playback devise that can store video files avi, mpeg, mp4, ect… (and all other types of files for that matter) and transfer them back and forth to a pc with a usb connection. So far, we’ve only seen devices like this with very small screens. My son wants a minimum of 7 inch screen.
I’m thinking that this is better than a portable dvd player for the following reasons.
Less mantainence problems. A dvd drive is a big moving part that breaks all the time. And most of the portable dvd’s available seem to come with a 90 warrenty. That’s not much.
Less compatibility problems. DVD’s are zoned. Also, sometimes the tiniest scratch will render the dvd not readable on a particular dvd drive. Also, If you have a pc that can read your dvd’s ripping them to a video file format is no big problem.
Better battery life. Doesn’t it take much less juice to read memory stored on a usb drive compared to a dvd?
So I’m just wondering if I should wait a bit before I buy something since we are on the verge a shift away from portable dvd’s towards usb devices and that very soon lots of great products will be available that can store and play video file formats like avi, mpeg, and mp4?
Not sure about this, but remember that most portable video players use hard drives – also moving parts – and not solid-state flash memory. If you’re that worried about breakage, have you considered an extended warranty?
Yes, DVDs are zoned and vulnerable to scratches… but does that actually matter to you personally? If, for example, you never watch foreign DVDs and you take good care of your discs, neither issue should be much of a problem.
On the other hand, if you get a portable video player, you’re going to have to rip and transfer from DVDs every single time. That can be a real hassle if you’re not used to it. I like being able to play DVDs directly myself, but it’s up to you.
It varies from model to model, so make sure you check stats and reviews before you buy.
There are already a ton of portable video players out there. Many can play multiple formats. There are also a lot of portable DVD players out there. It seems like they’ve both coexisted for a while… why do you think we’re on the verge of a shift?
I’ve had a portable DVD player for 5 years, purchased specifically for travel but it ended up getting used daily for a year and frequently lent out to friends with children for long highway trips. Santa put a video iPod into my stocking last weekend so I know a little about that, too.
As long as you don’t drop it, the DVD player’ll last. The case on mine came back scratched and dented after friends/kids borrowed it (I don’t want to know, I don’t want to know…) yet it still plays flawlessly. Besides, any force that’d break a DVD player would probably damage video player, too.
I’ve only played one region’s disks in my DVD player so I can’t answer that. My portable reads disks that many home players could not. I didn’t realize how scratched so many of my disks were until I played them on friends’ home players. I think portable players are based on laptop drives so they’re made to fairly tight tolerances.
I can get about 2.5 hours or so from the internal battery on the DVD player, almost 2 full-length movies (unless they’re Titanic and Kong). To extend that time, external batteries are available as are lighter-plug power adapters.
Moving onto the USB-based systems. Battery life on the iPod: 15 hours for MP3’s, 2.5 hours for movies. I included audio and video statistics to show that decoding the video requires lots more power than MP3’s/audio. (DVD’s are encoded in a compressed format which need a fair amount of computing power, unlike CD audio.) The most battery life I’ve seen on any USB-based player is 4 hours.
DVD players are more convenient. Ripping a DVD for the video player currently takes about as long as the movie’s play time. Even if it took half the time that’s still 45 minutes or more. With the USB system, you have to wait until you get back home to download a new program. Will your son be patient enough to wait to get home from vacation to see that new video? Or would he rather just pop it into the portable DVD player and watch?
As the previous poster mentioned, economics favor the DVD player. You can get 2 or 3 DVD players for the price of one USB system. Your son can drop the first one and you’ll still be ahead of the game. They also play audio CD’s, MP3 CD’s, and frequently photo CD’s, too. You don’t have to leave last year’s vacation photos behind!
I guess it’s because of this new mp4 format. The file size seems to be greatly reduced. So I thought that this advance in technology might bring on the same sort of revolution in video that mp3 brought on in music. It’s just a much more convenient way to store and play the media.
Have you considered notebook computers? Personally, if money isn’t an issue, I’d just go for a small laptop. They have bigger screens, they can play both DVDs and recorded video files (and probably any future formats too), and they can do everything a computer can do. If your son is of the right age, it’d also be useful for school/college so the additional cost might be justifiable.
There should be sub-$800 laptops available if you look hard enough, and that’s only about 2x the price of a good PVP. You get more bang for the buck… just a thought.