Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I must admit I have never been a big fan of Coby and other off/budget brand gear. I tend to buy only Panasonic, Sony and other name brand video gear. I bought this for a road trip for my 5 year old, to try to make my hours of driving on vacation more bearable for him.
I selected it after comparing it with about 6 or 7 other players. Very quickly, I came to the conclusion that any player with a smaller than 8" screen would not be worth considering. I also found that there are not many name brand players available to choose from. It is best to bring a high quality DVD with you to compare the players one by one. Cars, Happy Feet, Toy Story or other recent animation gives you a pretty good idea how good the picture quality is on each player. Some of the players in the store, when I got there, were playing old Hello Kitty stuff that made all the players look fuzzy and terrible.
After spending about 8 hours with this player this weekend, here are my perceptions.
The good:
The 10" screen, besides being a very nice size, has an excellent picture quality with its 480 x 800 resolution, vs WQVGA 480 x 234 on many models.
The player came with no dead pixels on the screen, which is always nice. The screen is also matte (anti-reflective), meaning no glare in the car.
It comes with a nice remote that controls all the functions except the volume control, (it is also the only way to control the player when you use the headrest mount).
It includes a complete set of accessories (see list below).
The screen swivels and can be laid flat like a tablet, rare in a budget player.
The speakers are more than acceptable for car use, even with some road noise.
The anti-skip feature works very well, no skipping observed while driving on some rough roads and various on- and off-ramps.
The unit has a video-in port to connect cameras, video games etc.
Two headset ports (both controlled with one volume control).
The battery is built in, making the player thin (1") and light and is replaceable via a battery door on the bottom of the unit.
The bad:
The two headphones are mostly for kids, since they are rather small.
The battery life is on the short side, rated at around 2 hours (not tested), probably due to the built in design.
If you use the headrest mount, changing DVD's is a bit of a chore.
The typical warranty on this player and most portable DVD players is 1 year parts, but only 90 days labor. If they break after 90 days, repairing them in most cases will probably not be worth it. The batteries are also in many cases not replaceable, although this player has a battery port access door.
Problems noted:
This player (for unknown reasons) does not care for my Pixar Cars DVD. The audio will skip continuously the first time you start the movie. If you go to the MENU and then return to the movie, everything is fine. Did not see any problems on the 4 or 5 other DVD's I tried. This DVD is new and scratch free, and has no problems on any of my other DVD players.
The details:
The player has a 10" screen with 800 x 480 resolution, far higher than most other players that have smaller screens and WQVGA 480 x 234 resolution. The screen brightness and contrast are excellent, and are adjustable from the remote. The WQVGA screens I saw on other players looked pretty bad, even a few feet away. Even with the smaller screens, they were just barely, or not acceptable in my opinion. The credits at the end of movies look especially chopped up, almost unreadable. The viewing angle on this player, and most other typical portable DVD players, is rather narrow, maybe 30-40 degrees. This will make it a bit tricky for other passengers to see the movie using the headrest mount. This appears to be a common limitation on many LCD screens I have encountered on various devices.
The accessory list included is pretty complete: two headsets, car charger, wall charger, video out cable (for playing on an external screen, the Hotel TV for example), cassette adapter to play the movie through the car stereo (assuming you have the rapidly disappearing cassette player), and a headrest adapter. The car charger can be used to power the player continuously in certain airplanes (American Airlines planes for example), and in your car. I mostly intend on using this as a car player (and mostly fly AA), making the battery life for me mostly a moot point.
The headrest mount works well and holds the player securely. It is much more comfortable for your kids than holding the player in their lap, and prevents it from being dropped on the floor in case of tired fingers, car braking, dozing off etc. It can be mounted on headrests and airplane seat tray tables rather easily by adjusting two clip-together straps. This player and most portable DVD players are rather delicate equipment, and probably won't survive being dropped more than once or twice, making the mount pretty useful.
Changing DVD's while using the headrest mount is a bit tricky. The mount is a bag type mount the player slides into on one side, closed by a velcro strap. While inside, the DVD is between the screen and the player, which means not accessible. To change the DVD, you have to take the player off the headrest, remove it out of the mount, unlatch the screen to get to the DVD compartment, swap out the DVD, re-insert player into the mount, re-mount the player on the headrest. Mine was mounted on the passenger side headrest, so leaving the mount on the headrest was not possible. It might be possible to slide it out of the headrest if mounted on the drivers side (not attempted by myself).
Here are some of the players I compared before buying this one:
Sony DVPFX810 - a contender but with a smaller 8" screen, low resolution and a great potential for glare with its shiny plastic window.
Audiovox D1917 - With a 9" screen, probably an ok kids player due to it being rather inexpensive with a relatively large screen for the price. Picture quality appeared to be ok, but the QWVGA resolution is again barely acceptable.
Memorex® MVDP1102 - With a 10.2" screen, could have been a contender but the screen was very dark on the player I looked at. I could not find a brightness adjustment anywhere to see if it could be corrected. Could have been just this player, but it was ruled out because the screen was too dark (an obvious factor for daytime use in a car).
Maxx Digital PDV8500 - With a 8.5" screen, the picture on this player was excellent, the sound was good, appeared to have the best picture of players with 8" - 9" screens. It is also a flat player (not clamshell type), so it probably can be mounted easily on a seat or headrest. The plastic construction appeared somewhat fragile however.
Wanted but not found:
Panasonic DVD-LS850 or LS-82. Probably my first choice sight unseen if I would have found one, and if I was choosing this for myself. Excellent battery life of up to 10 hours (LS-82). I have always been a fan of Panasonic video gear and would probably have chosen this player as my #1 choice. If the Coby ever croaks, this will probably be its replacement. I did not see this player in any of the stores I checked. Has gotten very good reviews everywhere I checked.
Not considered:
Accurian(tm) 10" LMD-5108A - The Accurian players appear to have a bad reputation and appear to die prematurely according to the users posting on the Radioshack website. I therefore did not consider them a viable choice in my search.
Conclusion:
My conclusion here is that in the budget brand portable DVD arena, the Coby might be getting a bad rap, and is by far the best budget 10" player I have found. I was not expecting much, but was actually very pleasantly surprised that the picture quality of this player was as good as it is. It will be an obvious choice compared next to most lower resolution/smaller screen players. That it can be headrest mounted (although the DVD swapping is a hassle) makes this a good kids DVD player for car travel. Considering that most younger kids prefer watching the same movie over and over, it appears to be a pretty good choice. To overcome the DVD changing issue, I'll probably use my DVD recorder to make a 6.5 hour cartoon/kids show collection DVD. That should easily cover a day's worth of vacation driving. My son likes it and can operate the remote on his own, so I have no complaints so far. If picture quality and screen size are important to you, and you are shopping for a budget brand player, I would definitely put this player on my list.
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Coby Electronics TF-DVD1021 10-Inch Slim Portable DVD Player with Swivel Screen10" Widescreen TFT Portable DVD/CD/MP3 Player with Swivel Screen.Super slim portable design with 180 degree rotation.The 10" widescreen has a 16:9 TFT color display and anti skip circuitry.
Click here for more information about Coby Electronics TF-DVD1021 10-Inch Slim Portable DVD Player with Swivel Screen
