Portable DVD Player

[Poignard]

I've got an eye operation coming up soon followed by a week or so with "eyes down". Instead of staring at the pattern [crumbs] on the carpet I thought I might put a portable DVD Player on the floor and watch that. Later on it would do for entertainment on the boat [12volt] . Problem is that there's a bewilderingly wide range of models/prices on the market. [Bewildering to me, that is!]

Q1. Any suggestions for "best buys". Don't want to go over say, £100, unless nothing below that price is worth having.

Q2. Will they work with the screen flat on the floor, i.e. with the disc vertical?

Q3. Would I be able to watch DVDs recorded on the DVD Player/Recorder we have at home?

 

[ms1]

I bought a portable DVD player (Philips) last yer to use on board. Spotted something immediately wrong in that after a minute or so the Vision & sound synchronisation went out. It did however work perfectly when the player was viewed through the boat TV. To cut a long story short it was admitted by the shop that these things had problems because the digital video went one way and the analogue sounds another and sync probs were common, wheras when played thru the TV the signals went together. Anyway they said I needed to buy an expensive Panasonic which was much better quality. Pulled one off the shelf and it did exactly the same thing. I gave up on the DVD player idea and now if I want to I play movies though laptop PC. I do know of people who have abslutely no trouble with the DVD player. So I recommend take a DVD that you know well with you when you buy and watch it for 15 minutes before you part with your money.
The philips was a lovely little machine; shame it didnt work out...
Q2 answer is - yes
Q3 answer is - not necessarily

 

[Guest]

Good luck with the operation. SWMBO went through something similar recently, a (very) detached retina. Fortunately for her she didn't have the face down treatment though (nitrogen bubble ?)

Guess you need a laptop so that you can capture all those deep thoughts you'll have and forget later. Connected via GPRS to your favourite yachting forum of course.

Sorry, don't know about DVD players /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[tugboat]

I bought a Panasonic 7inch model a couple of years ago, it was about £300 but prices have come down. Part of the price is the battery and I wanted a Lithium Ion battery as I knew the usage would be occasional (you know, battery memory and all that jazz). Also it came with mains and 12volt chargers. The screens often fold almost completely flat so the disc player can be flat too. Most of the weight of these things is in the base/battery. It should play discs recorded on your home machine, but you'd probably need to 'finalise' the disc which means the recording is permanent. The sound on lots of the cheaper units is quite poor, they are really intended for use with headphones. Mine has 2 phones sockets so 2 people could listen together. I guess like most things you get what you pay for. I play commercially recorded discs plus home-recorded stuff and have never had any synchro problems.

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
I bought a portable DVD player (Philips) last yer to use on board. Spotted something immediately wrong in that after a minute or so the Vision & sound synchronisation went out. It did however work perfectly when the player was viewed through the boat TV. To cut a long story short it was admitted by the shop that these things had problems because the digital video went one way and the analogue sounds another and sync probs were common, wheras when played thru the TV the signals went together. Anyway they said I needed to buy an expensive Panasonic which was much better quality. Pulled one off the shelf and it did exactly the same thing. I gave up on the DVD player idea and now if I want to I play movies though laptop PC. I do know of people who have abslutely no trouble with the DVD player. So I recommend take a DVD that you know well with you when you buy and watch it for 15 minutes before you part with your money.
The philips was a lovely little machine; shame it didnt work out...
Q2 answer is - yes
Q3 answer is - not necessarily

[/ QUOTE ]

Often found in AVI and MPG version video is the out of synch later in the movie ... played on suitable dvd equipped PC with codec installed - all is fine. Takle it to DVD player and after 5 mins or so ... sound and vid are out of synch.

I usually cure by converting the vid to an earlier mpg version with Nero or similar ... but only about 60% success rate so far.

There are utilities available on web to convert formats - some professing to cure this .. maybe !

 

[Norman_E]

If you have a laptop, play the DVDs with that plus an external speaker system, because laptop sound is usually poor. The laptop will let you set the screen flat or at a slight angle for the most comfortable viewing.

 

[ShipsWoofy]

Put a mirror down and watch the television, albeit upside-down.

I have come to the conclusion that you can't buy any portable DVD for less that £200 if you want it to work. Which basically says, don't buy Chinese junk!

Been there, done it, sent them all back!

Why can't you look up, I think that you have an almost impossible task ahead, but best of luck with the op.

 

[Spyro]

Most of the screens fold flat open so will not have to play the discs vertical.
Cheaper ones don't play all formats of dvds usually they will not play rewritable dvds. The more expensive ones will play almost all formats My Kids have a Goodmans, build quality is very poor but it came with a lot of extras e.g. free battery, 2 sets of headphones, leads to use it as a player for a Larger TV and 12v adaptor, it will play any format.I haven't had any trouble with it. I bought it to do as you suggest record things from TV and then watch elsewhere. Watch out for play back time and battery capacity

 

[pandos]

I have a nextbase player that is like a tablet pc. It came with a li-ion battery and it cost somewhere around €600 5 or 6 years ago.

It has worked flawlessly since and the kids have used it for 100's of hours. it works flat and has a very good remote.

Halfords are now selling them here as a pair. here. http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/store...ategoryId=31338

I am not sure that at this price you will get batteries or even a home adapter but the adapters are cheap.

Maybe you can get someone else to buy one of them from you.

Good luck.

Tony.

 

[Poignard]

Thanks for the advice. Difficult to decide what's best. Maybe a cheapo will do for a couple of weeks. I'm not sure now I would feel entirely easy having any form of telly on the boat, especially as I have just ordered an HW Tilman book to read. I can imagine his comments on any crewmember turning up with a dvd player!

Dogwatch's idea of the mirror and viewing the television upside down is intriguing. Hanging upside down like a bat should certainly satisfy the surgeon's instructions to keep my head down but might result in a headache!

 

[DavidTav]

I bought a portable DVD / TV player about a year ago from the High Street. I've never experienced any of the problems described in this thread. It was the cheapest one I could find that had a 7" screen and with TV. TV works best with an external aerial, but that's understandable. It is a Maxim and I'm pretty sure it cost less than £100

 

[ShipsWoofy]

May I ask, do you use only bought DVDs or do you manage to play everything?