Just thought I'd post a few comments about my Panasonic DVD-LS50 portable DVD player.
I got this player last year to repalce my old Panasonic LS10 portable player, it was a bit big and the battery life was not as good as newer players, but apart from that it still worked well. (Which was sold to fund other purchases.)
I decided on the Panasonic as it had a reasonable size screen built in, good connectivity, and a larger battery to be released. I did not want a 'big' screen as found on some models as I needed it portable as it needed to fit in a bag with other stuff when I'm travelling for work.
It got its first test on holiday when I used it to take DVD's from my Toshiba RD-XS32 recorder and backups of some movies. It played back the DVD-RW discs without error, and also performed well with DVD+R & DVD-R type discs when I copied some movies over.
As an aside, I use DVDShrink to create backups of movies I have, I then take a backup rather than the original away with me.
The playback quality on the TV at our holiday accomadation was very good, and the audio/video outputs performed well. To be honest I reckon quality is at least as good as stand alone players in the low to mid end price range, if not better.
I have since used this many times when travelling with work, and have yet to try a disc it has rejected, which leads me onto compatability. You might be led to belive by the packaging, manual and stickers that this only supports DVD-R discs. But this seems to be the type of unfinalised disc it supports.
I have used DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R & DVD+RW and they have all worked fine.
Ok, so its portable what is battery life like? When I first got it all I had was the standard battery, I could get about 2 hours from this before the battery started to give warnings. (This was dependant on brightness/contrast settings.)
Last month I got the extended battery from Panasonic, this easily gave me the best part of 10 hours use, and I eventually recharged before it went flat.
(To clarify this I had watched the first two Lord Of The Rings films (extended versions) and The Punisher before recharging.
The extended battery does add some weight and does increase the physical size of the player as it it sticks out the back slightly, but the player is still pretty compact with this attached.
Beware and do not be afraid when you first charge the extended battery, it does take a long time before the charging indicator goes out.
Portable screen and audio quality? Another factor important to portable DVD's is the screen and sound quality.
Firstly let me say that anyone looking for the same picture quality they get on their 32in widescreen might be dissapointed, but I feel the quality is very good and pretty sharp considering its only a 7in screen. I found that the area it struggles most on is very dark areas, but this was mostly a function on the DVD compression on backed up discs.
I never felt let down by the picture quality.
Sound if listened to through the speakers is a bit of a let down, not much depth and they do not do the soundtarcks justice.
But when listed to through headphones the sound is very good I believe. I have used mine with BOSE Quiet Comfort 2 and Sennheiser PXC250 headphones and have found the sound to be good through either of these.
When in hotels or other accomodation I try to connect via Scart or I use headphones, I do not use the onboard speakers at all really.
The controls are very easy to use and it comes with a pretty good remote which is nice and compact, though I do not take the remote away much to save on space. And to be fair most time the player is on my lap or the table in front of me!
Many of the controls are on the player itself as well as duplicated on the remote.
All in all I am well pleased with this and my next purchase will probably be the car adapter for it, though this is pricey so I might not go for it.
One slight dissappointment is that it does not come with a case of any sort.
I have bought a Vivanco case I use to store it and when tarvelling in the UK. But when travelling abroad it would be good to have a nice 'slip' case to put it to protect it whilst saving space.
I went for this model over the model with bigger screen as portability was key for me, and I have not regretted that decision. For me the screen size is good and gives the unit the right size/portability ratio.
Hope thats helps anyone thinking about getting one.
I got this player last year to repalce my old Panasonic LS10 portable player, it was a bit big and the battery life was not as good as newer players, but apart from that it still worked well. (Which was sold to fund other purchases.)
I decided on the Panasonic as it had a reasonable size screen built in, good connectivity, and a larger battery to be released. I did not want a 'big' screen as found on some models as I needed it portable as it needed to fit in a bag with other stuff when I'm travelling for work.
It got its first test on holiday when I used it to take DVD's from my Toshiba RD-XS32 recorder and backups of some movies. It played back the DVD-RW discs without error, and also performed well with DVD+R & DVD-R type discs when I copied some movies over.
As an aside, I use DVDShrink to create backups of movies I have, I then take a backup rather than the original away with me.
The playback quality on the TV at our holiday accomadation was very good, and the audio/video outputs performed well. To be honest I reckon quality is at least as good as stand alone players in the low to mid end price range, if not better.
I have since used this many times when travelling with work, and have yet to try a disc it has rejected, which leads me onto compatability. You might be led to belive by the packaging, manual and stickers that this only supports DVD-R discs. But this seems to be the type of unfinalised disc it supports.
I have used DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R & DVD+RW and they have all worked fine.
Ok, so its portable what is battery life like? When I first got it all I had was the standard battery, I could get about 2 hours from this before the battery started to give warnings. (This was dependant on brightness/contrast settings.)
Last month I got the extended battery from Panasonic, this easily gave me the best part of 10 hours use, and I eventually recharged before it went flat.
(To clarify this I had watched the first two Lord Of The Rings films (extended versions) and The Punisher before recharging.
The extended battery does add some weight and does increase the physical size of the player as it it sticks out the back slightly, but the player is still pretty compact with this attached.
Beware and do not be afraid when you first charge the extended battery, it does take a long time before the charging indicator goes out.
Portable screen and audio quality? Another factor important to portable DVD's is the screen and sound quality.
Firstly let me say that anyone looking for the same picture quality they get on their 32in widescreen might be dissapointed, but I feel the quality is very good and pretty sharp considering its only a 7in screen. I found that the area it struggles most on is very dark areas, but this was mostly a function on the DVD compression on backed up discs.
I never felt let down by the picture quality.
Sound if listened to through the speakers is a bit of a let down, not much depth and they do not do the soundtarcks justice.
But when listed to through headphones the sound is very good I believe. I have used mine with BOSE Quiet Comfort 2 and Sennheiser PXC250 headphones and have found the sound to be good through either of these.
When in hotels or other accomodation I try to connect via Scart or I use headphones, I do not use the onboard speakers at all really.
The controls are very easy to use and it comes with a pretty good remote which is nice and compact, though I do not take the remote away much to save on space. And to be fair most time the player is on my lap or the table in front of me!
Many of the controls are on the player itself as well as duplicated on the remote.
All in all I am well pleased with this and my next purchase will probably be the car adapter for it, though this is pricey so I might not go for it.
One slight dissappointment is that it does not come with a case of any sort.
I have bought a Vivanco case I use to store it and when tarvelling in the UK. But when travelling abroad it would be good to have a nice 'slip' case to put it to protect it whilst saving space.
I went for this model over the model with bigger screen as portability was key for me, and I have not regretted that decision. For me the screen size is good and gives the unit the right size/portability ratio.
Hope thats helps anyone thinking about getting one.
