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19 Jun, 00:00
I go on vacations with my family all the time and we drive everywhere. So I am always looking for fun ways to pass the time while sitting in the car for long road trips. And Toshiba sd-p1400 player is now my NEW BEST FRIEND! Nothing passes the time better than to watch a two-hour movie or enjoy a "tv on dvd" marathon of my favorite show.
RESEARCH:
I spent several hours, weeks even, reading reviews of several dvd players and comparing costs before I pick this one. If you are doing the same, I definetly recommend not paying over $200 for a portable player, stick with name brands, and not getting one with a screen bigger than 7 inch. 7 inch is big enough so that you feel perfectly comfortable watching it and not so big that for the cost and size--you might have as well brought along a laptop.
IMPORTANT THINGS LEARNED FROM ACTUAL USAGE
I bought this player before a thanksgiving trip in nov. 2004 and been very happy with it since.
ONE (POWERING THE PLAYER FOR LONG USE):
Personally, I am not concern with the battery life, as I use the car power adapter the whole time during road trips and the power cord when in hotels. I do sit in the back seat of a huge suburban, and no the car power adapter cord that comes with the player was not long enough, but I bought a $10 car adapter extension cord and it solve the problem like a charm! Just hook the extension and the toshiba car adapters together for plenty of cord length for just about any car or truck.
TWO (PICTURE & SOUND QUALITY):
Picture quality is very nice. Sharp and clear. But as with any LCD screen, including laptops, dark scenes will be dark but not to a horrible point, and more than two people will have trouble watching it--as LCD screens from far away or too far from the side look very dark.
The sound is very good for a portable player but I would recommend tht for best sound, you do have to wear headphones and set the audio on the player to 3D surround headphone mode. I never really like listening to it through the speakers on the player. It has two headphone slots and if needed for maybe a third person, again buy a cheap $3 headphone splitter (lets you hook two headphones in the same spot). Overall, I watch tv shows like the Sopranos, the Simpsons, and movies like Finding Nemo and Pirates of the Caribbean very comfortably.
THREE (USE IN A HOTEL OR HOUSE):
Most hotels don't allow things to be hookup to the tv but for families, that go to condos, or in my experience, Marriott Vacation villas, this player is super easy to hook-up to tvs. I have so far only use the av cable for hook-up but s-video cable is also available with this player too. It is very convient to have this player to watch dvd rentals or movies you brought, as sometimes, even expensive vacation houses will "gip" you out of a dvd player for the tv or it is convient just to have an extra one for watching movies in other rooms.
AS FOR HOME, this player is my best friend on vacations, but when it comes to home, I don't use it. Portable dvd players are small and the inside internals that make it work are very small and might burn out with over-use. So I would not recommend putting a portable player under the strenuous use of home viewing (watching movies or "tv on dvd" just about every day or week, all year long), as regular dvd player units are as cheap as $30 -$60 dollars now and so they would be less costly to replace and will hold up to home use better anyway.
Overall, for a couple hours use - every one or two week vacation or so, this portable player works GREAT.
WELL, obviously, I like this player. It has lots of other features that I havent even mention, like you can watch 'burn' movies on it (dvd-r) and listen to cds (regular and mp3s) on it too, and more. DEFINETLY AN AWESOME player for the price and to have fun portable viewing on the road.
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