Portable DVD players make life easier at time. They help make long drives easier and give the option of another screen in the household for others to watch what they want if the TV is being used. There are so many names on the market for what to choose for a DVD player. In my home, we decided on purchasing the Polaroid DVD Player PDM-0711. Polaroid makes a wide selection of electronics that can be found in stores such as Wal*Mart, Bestbuy, KMart and Big Lots.
The DVD player has a 7 inch screen and comes with a rechargeable battery, AC adapter, car power adapter, A/V cable and headphone splitter. It has two built in speakers below the 7 inch screen. The product includes the usual items for a portable DVD player such as: Menu, Play/Pause, Stop, Mode and Title. It also includes Setup, Zoom, Slow and A-B playback. A-B playback means you press the button to start at a point and press again when you have finished a certain part of a song or movie that you’d like to play back. It will only play back what was requested. Headphone splitter piece included allows two people to be able to listen to audio at the same time without interrupting others around.
The player itself comes in silver with a black AC charger. First impress is the item looks nice and sleek. Discs can be placed for use by simpling pressing on the button to flip open the cover. Press down until there’s a click to ensure the disc is in. Polaroid claims to lasts 3.5 hours for video/audio before needing to be recharged but that hasn’t been the case. It’ll last about 45 minutes before it needs another charging. If you are running the DVD player via a TV screen and have the DVD screen closed, more than likely a surprise of the player turning off due to no battery will happen. Only on the DVD screen does a red battery flashing display to show the charger is needed. If the player shuts off, the DVD player remembers via memory where it left off on the song or video. That feature is nice but at the same time a bit frustrating when it has the claim of over 3 hours before needing a charge.
The sound is alright though if you plan on using it to listen for audio, you’ll need to leave the screen open to avoid the sound being muffled. The video isn’t awful but it’s not great. There hasn’t been any problems as far as not being able to view video on the screen. The buttons after 3 years of use still work fine but there are a few items that have need home repair.
At times the player will indicate it can’t read the disc. Make sure to always ensure the disc is completely in for this player to read it. Of course don’t press down too hard or you’ll end up breaking the black piece in the middle. This happened to the DVD player and ended up getting super glue to fix it. Also the button to pop up the disc cover still works but now the cover won’t pop up. The remedy is to put double sided tape to make a handle to help open the cover after pressing down on the button. It’s not the most attractive way to fix it but it works.
Next comes the battery and charger issue. The charger wire has opened up near the base of the charger causing an issue of not enough of a connection for the charger to work. The remedy for this was to tape up the wires so close to the charger for a connection to work. It proved successfu when the red light came on the charger. Again, it looks pretty crummy having tape all over the charger but it’s less expensive than buying a new one. The battery itself no longer stays in it’s case. I’m beginning to see here that packing tape isn’t just good for taping up packages but now great for wrapping up the battery to stay in the DVD player.
And the last issue is the sound it makes when it’s playing. Now if the video/audio is being run through a TV, more than likely the sound won’t be heard. It’s a whirling sound that can become distracting when it’s in use. The reason for why this started is unknown. The concept of this player is good. It’s nice to be able to view video, JPEG photos and listen to audio. But it does have a lot of issues with quality. The price at the time was $119.00 and may be more or less depending on where you shop. For now due to the tough economy I will continue using this taped up player as it does still work but suggest looking at another DVD player.
