Portable DVD player for in car use

AMc

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We have the usual Christmas round the country trips coming up and I'd like to get a DVD player to help limit the screaming from our 2 year old on the motorway.

I'd like a unit that can be slung from the back of the drivers seat of a long wheel base Mercedes A-Class and run off battery/ciggie lighter.

7" screen is the smallest that will work because there is a big gap between the drivers seat and the back seat.

I want one that's either tablet design or will open 180 degrees as the tray table type are going to prevent my daughter from seeing the screen.

Multiregion and DVD-R/RW compatibility would be good so I can keep the originals at home.

Speakers are a must as she's too small for headphones.

I checked out a unit in Toys'r'us for £89 but the screen was quite poor - vertical viewing angle was very limited.
Woolworths are showing Welkin (T516) Portable DVD Player with 7inch LCD Screen £99.99 and a Venturer one at £130 in store.
There's a Philips one for a bit more and www.ebuyer.com have loads with various user reviews saying 'it's brilliant but the screen doesn't always work'
I already have something new and temporimental in the back seat.

Does any one have a recommendations from a recent purchase?
 
Hi,
I recently bought an Inovix IDP-1020 portable player from Tesco"s which sounds as though it might do the job.

Its a 10.2" screen and with the battery removed opens up to hang flat from behind a seat powered from the supplied 12v lead.
It has a switch to turn the viewed picture upside down and I couldnt work out why, until a couple of mins ago.
When secured properley in its supplied carry/seat hang case the unit is upside down.
Hense the requirement to turn the pic the other way.

Multi region out of the box and replays -r/-rw.

On board speakers are fine and a little louder than normal.
Also has a/v in socket.

Was £199 from Tescos extra.

Does the job for me.


HTH
 
http://www.allcam.biz/products/sdp-1720.html

Anyone got an opinion or experience of the 7" Shinco SDP1720A portable DVD / DivX player?

I've read great reports about Shinco but I will have to order blind which is a worry having seen the screen quality of the one Toys R Us are selling and one in Asda which looked awful.
 
I have bought the Welkin T516 from Woolworths for £99. It is quite good for the money!

Initial impressions are good playing back a DVD-RW made from home footage. Screen is bright and fairly clear with contrast, colour and brightness controls. Stretched 4:3 looks a bit poor but that's not hugely surprising at that res - looks OK when side barred.
Case is fairly plastic but feels reasonably well made. Batter clips on to the back of the lower half so the screen can still be opened right out.
Plays JPEGs of CD (again the low res screen makes this OK but not great).
Also plays MP3 of CD but I've not tried that yet.

Pack contains a remote but not much in the leads dept. (no av out or in leads supplied) but carry case/car mount AC and DC power supplies and a battery quoted at 2.5 hours.

The Venturer (7200?) 7" screen also scanned at £99 down from £149 (case, AC and DC power and AV out lead) and may have been a better buy but they didn't have any in stock.
 
Our 9" Shinco does a great job - peaceful 4 hour trips to Manchester are now the norm - bliss! :)

I found one for about £200 on eBay.
 
Shinco 1720C from play.com around £145 delivered. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Reads memory cards e.g. for digital camera photo stills + av input + divx. but... stutters a little on some disks (DVD-R with Divx files on) and the photo viewer is primitive.

Deag.
 
There's a 7" hitachi in argos for £99, for an extra £20 you can but an in car kit that's usually £40 and you get a £10 gift voucher as well as you're spending over £100 though I don't know when the GV offer ends. there's also a wharfdale 7" one for £79.99
 
I just got a cheap Goodmans GCE5006 7" Dual screen from TJ Hughes for £149.00. You get the portable player, an additional 7" LCD Monitor, car kit, AC adapter and battery.

It all works well enough for my 4 year old, she can watch the LCD screen and the wife can watch the actual player. Multi-region from the box, with a nice little credit card size remote. The picture quality is more than adequate for what I need, but not sure whether the internal speakers would be powerful enough for you. If your cabin is quite quiet like mine, and you've got a Merc so it should be, it should be okay.
 
Lots of good receommendations there should help the next parent.

After a couple of lengthy trips with the Welkin its still good.
Pros
- I found a region hack on here for a standard Welkin player that worked 100%.
- It's nice that the battery kicks in seamlessly if the ignition is turned off so Finding Nemo doesn't stop when I do.
- You can change the disc without unmounting the player.
- You can also lock the controls so only the remote works :).
- car adapter has enough wire to run comfortably from the ciggie lighter socket to the rear right of the player and can be tucked away (something I read was a problem with some other players).
- The car adapter fits firmly in the socket.


Cons
- Downside of the fold out design is my little one can kick the player. She's learnt not to but could be a problem for those less compliant kids. When she's bigger she'll be able to change her own discs without getting out of her car seat though.
- Car mounting kit is a bit fiddly to put in place, even once you've got the straps the right length.
- Car adapter sticks out quite a lot so you need to be a little careful not to catch it when changing up to 5th. The Merc ciggie lighter is directly in front of the gear stick.
- Some of the controls are a bit fiddly - power on/off is on the front of the unit and is awkward to get at when it's suspended on the back of the seat. Likewise the volume control dial is on the right and obscured by the car mount/carry bag.


On balance I would probably go for a tablet player in future as it would be easier to mount and less likely to get knocked. But the Welkin is still great value and was the cheapest 7" unit I could find with all the stuff I needed included.
 
Just bought 2x Sony 700HRs as portables / car for 3yr old twins. Can watch same on both screens or different - ideal. Car kit is quick release and fixes on the headrest risers. Speakers are OK but get real and use 'phones so you don't have to listen to Basil Brush for the umpteenth time - mine took to them fine - be sure to buy closed back. Expensive but build is much better than budget players. Saved our lives on budget flights to Egypt last week.
 
I looked at that one - it's also available from Argos for more money :).
The bigger screen looked like a good idea but the absence of any battery could be a problem. In my car if you turn off the ignition the cigarette lighter is disabled which means the film will stop if you need to buy petrol etc.
 
AMc said:
I looked at that one - it's also available from Argos for more money :).
The bigger screen looked like a good idea but the absence of any battery could be a problem. In my car if you turn off the ignition the cigarette lighter is disabled which means the film will stop if you need to buy petrol etc.

Good time for the kids to stretch their legs? and to rest their eyes from the close up screen? (He says, sitting in front of the computer screen that appears to rule his life)

These Centurion Units of which you speak... they're on the CarDVD.co.uk website, as are the twin screens that I wrote about in another thread. The benefit of the twin screens is that they connect to each other but they have a separate AV in so one screen could have the DVD playing and another one could be watching TV, using a freeview receiver box ... or playing a ps2 or the like.
 
Careful of buying things direct from Hong Kong, as per the reported Scam pages on eBay... not that I'm paranoid... much...

But some deals on eBay end up with the winning bidder having to pay a further 14% Import duty and 17.5% VAT on the won item, before the courier hands it over...

there is a discussion about the Centurion PPBDVD8 8" player at this link for more info...
 
Hi,

I am looking to purchase an in-car DVD player for the same purpose as most users on this thread :)

I am looking for a tablet slot-in type player with built-in speakers that can be easily mounted/removed from my headrest (only 1 screen required). I came accross what seems like a good solution and wanted to find out if anyone can recommend it, it is called the Nextbase SDV37 S. I found it for about 170 GBP on some websites and comes complete with all the bits. Official webpage: http://www.next-base.com/Products/SDV37-S.html

Are there any similar priced products I should consider?

Thanks,
Sami
 
We bought a Medion dual screen one quite cheap of a guy on ebay. They were selling the same things in Aldi for a while, but they were a bit more expensive....but still great value in my opinion!
 
Just got a PM asking for the hack details for the Woolworth's Welkin T516.
I'm fairly sure that this was the one I used - just open the tray with the button on the player and do the rest with the remote.

alanrob said:
To change the current region setting on this player
1. Press the Open/Close button on your remote control
2. Press the Clear button on your remote control
3. Press the 1 button on your remote control
4. Press the 3 button on your remote control
5. Press the 6 button on your remote control
6. Press the 9 button on your remote control
7. Press the 1 button on your remote control for region 1, 2 for region 2, and so on, or 0 for multi-region playback
8. Press the Open/Close button on your remote control


To change the current region setting on this player if the above does not work
1. Press the Setup button on your remote control
2. Press the 1 button on your remote control for region 1, 2 for region 2, and so on, or 7 for multi-region playback
3. Press the Pause/Step button on your remote control
4. Press the Previous button on your remote control
5. Press the Next button on your remote control
6. Press the Setup button on your remote control
Original thread
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82430
 
AMc said:
I have bought the Welkin T516 from Woolworths for £99. It is quite good for the money!

Initial impressions are good playing back a DVD-RW made from home footage. Screen is bright and fairly clear with contrast, colour and brightness controls. Stretched 4:3 looks a bit poor but that's not hugely surprising at that res - looks OK when side barred.
Case is fairly plastic but feels reasonably well made. Batter clips on to the back of the lower half so the screen can still be opened right out.
Plays JPEGs of CD (again the low res screen makes this OK but not great).
Also plays MP3 of CD but I've not tried that yet.

Pack contains a remote but not much in the leads dept. (no av out or in leads supplied) but carry case/car mount AC and DC power supplies and a battery quoted at 2.5 hours.

The Venturer (7200?) 7" screen also scanned at £99 down from £149 (case, AC and DC power and AV out lead) and may have been a better buy but they didn't have any in stock.

What's the AV in for ? DOes it allow the unit to act as a display for some other output (say a differant dvd player or a camcorder - anything with composite AV ?)
Cheers
 
Exactly that, with AV in you can connect a camcorder, iPod video, games console and use the player as a screen and speakers.
With AV out you can use the portable player to drive a bigger TV display - useful for showing your digital photos at your nan's house etc.
Shame no one knows where to buy the leads - might be a reason to go for the Venturer over the Welkin?
 
I take it you need to connect both the video out and audio out using both leads at the same time?

Does the audio out mute the internal speakers or do you just turn them down on the dial?

Might look into soldering up a couple of leads before we go away next.
 

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