Best Portable DVD Players

A review of two top rated portable DVD players; my picks for travel.

Feb 16, 2007

Portable DVD players are common, and often cheap. The best picks offer superior picture and sound quality, durability, decent screen size and good battery life.

Luxury travel is within reach for us more now than ever: Lower air fares, quicker layovers, and heightened competition between airlines all makes time spent traveling relatively cheap, and easy. This, of course, leads to more families flying with young children - and nothing takes the luxury out of air travel faster than a few loudly unhappy kids on a plane.

Fortunately, technology can help. Children pipe down pretty quickly, you may have noticed, once they're plugged into a portable DVD player. Adults, too: On my last transatlantic flight, I noticed a guy sitting a few rows up, who spent the entire flight watching those epic Lord of the Rings movies. Worked better than Xanax, from the looks of it.

So, what are my best reviewed, top rated portable DVD players? It's important to know - you don't want your cheap portable DVD player breaking down mid-flight, particularly if that's all you've got for on-flight entertainment. These are my top picks, based on picture and sound quality, screen size and pixel count, battery life, and ease and durability for travel.

Philips PET1002. Eye candy in a portable DVD player? Yes. The Philips PET1002 is just about the best portable DVD player (in my book), and it looks great as well. It's not cheap: Online prices average out at around $320. The 10.2" LCD screen is larger than industry average for this price range, but the design enables this large screen to be in a sleek, compact body that travels well. The Philips PET1002 gets between 4-6 hours of battery life, which is at the high end for portable DVD players. The sharp picture quality in a multi-format player (so you can listen to CDs as well) is remarkable. With 800x480 pixels, the crisp picture quality on the LCD screen is the best I've seen on portable DVD players. The Philips PET1002 has intuitive unit controls; even kids can figure out the remote and volume control in short order. This is a durable machine already, and the padded carrying case provides extra protection during travel's inevitable slams and bumps.

What I don't like: The remote control is so small and thin it reminds me of a cracker (a minor complaint, as we haven't actually needed to use the remote during travel). The battery pack is designed poorly, in that it sticks out the back and looks like it could break off. Last, the speaker sound is pretty tinny. The Philips PET1002 is best used with headphones - and with headphones, the audio is tops. Remember, this is a travel quality DVD player; you're probably going to be using the headphones regardless. Also, it's really rude to skip the headphones on a plane. No one else wants to hear your movie.

[Philips has two portable DVD players due out imminently, that have integrated iPod docks. This is a big deal, since the company excels at consumer electronics; the DCP750 and DCP850 aren't in the Philip's PET line, and have smaller screens, but they're worth keeping an eye on. We love our video iPod, but that bitty 2.5" screen really loses a lot of visual detail.]

Panasonic DVD-LS91, LS97. My other picks for top portable DVD player, the Panasonic DVD-LS91 and LS97 have Dolby Digital sound in their speakers, providing excellent audio. This high quality sound system works great even without headphones. I really appreciate how the travel case doubles as a player mount. This function is particularly useful in minivans, for long car trips. The screens are mounted to be able to swivel, and there are dual headphone jacks. This makes these portable DVD players easy to share. The Panasonic DVD-LS91 is a high quality performer, and is very small and light - ideal for travel. The Panasonic DVD-LS97 comes with a built-in SD memory card slot and FM transmitter, adding to its multifunction capabilities. Both Panasonic portable DVD players have 9" screens.

What I don't like: The batteries drain faster than the company claims. Sure, you can get up to five hours, but only if you set the screen brightness to less than optimal brightness. DVDs look best on the Panasonic DVD-LS91 when it's set to maximum brightness of +5. The visual quality decreases dramatically once its set to lower brightness, and at +5, the batteries drain before 3 hours of use. The battery life is even shorter on the DVD-LS97, likely due to its enhanced multifunctions.

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The copyright of the article Best Portable DVD Players in Video/Film Technology is owned by Jennifer W. Miner. Permission to republish Best Portable DVD Players in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.