Panasonic DVD-LS850 Portable DVD Player with 8.5" Diagonal Widescreen LCD - Deluxe Version includes Carry Case, Car Headrest Bracket, DC Adapter & 6 -Hour Battery Review

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(More customer reviews)I have recently jumped into the portable DVD player bandwagon, to make my 1-hour-plus-each-way train ride a little more pleasurable. I started off with a lot of research, and ended up with a Philips 8.5" player - 6 hours battery life, and a screen that washes out the competition (mostly from Sony).

I ordered online, after going through the specs from multiple websites, and making sure that looks perfect. The product arrives - and guess what I missed in my multiple weeks of research - the battery weighs an additional 1.5 lbs, and sticks out significantly from the pack. So much for the pleasurable commute - lugging a close to 4lb DVD player. Might as well have taken my Thinkpad along.

Luckily (or un-), the product stopped working after only 2 weeks of use - and I went through a complete return and refund. My next stop - the Panasonic here.

Out of the box, it looked great - multipleviewing angles, no hidden heavyweight batteries (product weights 1050 g / 2lb 5 oz with batteries, as per my kitchen scale), and the battery goes into the hinge - like some Sony laptops - a big plus.

The flip side is that the 6 hour battery is at the minimum brightness and headphones on - which means if you choose anything other than 'moonlight' as your brightness preference (there's daylight - the brightest, which I like the most, naturally - and also a user-defined setting of brightness and contrast) the battery will last less. Frankly, all I need it for is one full length movie, maybe 2 - so I am happy so far with the battery life - it's not going to be less than 3.5 hours anyway.

Battery life apart, everything - I repeat, everything - in this is better than the Philips. My purchase from Costco came with a carrying case - it's possible that this is not a standard accessory - but the Amazon listing has this as well. The case is on the bigger side, but rather nice - well padded, with a main zipper to store the player and a side compartment to hold 4 DVDs, some cables, etc. As for the box, here's what's in it - the player and the battery pack, AC adapter, car lighter adapter, a mount kit for placing the player on the back of a car headrest, and AV cables. Enough to get you started. This takes 12V DC input, so the car adapter is pretty straightforward - the Philips used a weird 10.5 volts (IIRC).

The Philips also had a super minimalistic design - which meant you had to use the remote to do fast forwards, since there was no FF key on the unit. This saves you the pain. The buttons are cleanly, clearly and conveniently located in the front of the unit.

Another big win over the Philips - disk resume. I watch about half of a movie during my morning commute, and need to resume from where I left off in the evening - this is easy on this. Just press play.

Next win - the on/off button. Philips had this on the side - with the big heavy battery pack on, a brush on the side of my messenger bag could flip this switch - which meant when I finally sat down to watch my movie, the battery was dead. Panasonic has this shielded by the clam-shell design - much better. Plus, the off button (same as stop, press longer) fades out the screen gently and switches the player off - a nice touch.

Yet another plus - noise level. The Philips was positively noisy - people sitting next to you could easily hear the loud whirring of the DVD, unless you took the headphones off, so the soundtrack could distract them. Not so on this one.

As far as the screen is concerned - they are both equally good - the Panasonic is a little tighter, as the player is roughly 16x9 in dimension, while the Philips has a little more blank space around the frame, since the player is a little off the 16x9. In any case, it's a close call.

Overall, I'm glad the Philips died, and this came out right on time. Panasonic was out with similarly designed DVD players way earlier than the rest of the market - but they then carried a $400 price tag and a 2 hour battery life. I am really glad they moved things around, while still keeping them light enough to actually be able to carry them around.

*update: November 15, 2008*: Just a quick update here - my Panasonic DVD player is still running strong, and though the models have gone through some minor changes in these 18 months, the base functionality is pretty much unchanged. I'm surprised to see, so is the price. I guess this market has settled down of sorts, and that makes the Panasonic a clear winner - no earth shattering releases from anyone else in this space.

*Edit: July 14, 2010* - ugly typos fixed. FYI, DVD player still running strong.

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Product Description:
Portable DVD Player with 8.5" Diagonal Widescreen LCD, Multi-Format Playback, Multi-Angle Viewing, Car Headrest Bracket, Car DC Adaptor and Carrying Case.....The large 8.5" widescreen display pivots for multi-angle viewing so you can adjust the position for optimum comfort and image quality. You can also adjust the screen brightness to get the best view of your DVDs in all kinds of light conditions. You get beautiful images while watching movies on a dimly lit airplane, or when you're relaxing in the sun at a resort or other outdoor spot.

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