Initial 9510 4 in. Portable DVD Player

In early March, I took a trip to California to visit family. Because the trip involved two 4+ hour flights, I wanted a portable DVD player, but was not going to pay $500 for one, especially for something that I was not going to be using a lot. I was not looking for a fancy model, my requirements were simple, play DVDs and have decent battery life. I didn't really care about display quality, remotes or even size. I figured the best place to get a good value was looking for a used one on eBay. So I spent about 3 days looking, bidding and being outbid. I came across many models missing important parts, like batteries and chargers and found even the older complete models were going for over $250.

Then I stumbled on a review of the Initial DVD-9510 while searching on Google for deals. After doing a little research, I purchased it from Walmart.com for just under $200. However, this was a couple of months ago, last I checked on Walmart's site, the price was down to $169, easily worth it. It seemed to meet all my needs and then some.

Display
The DVD-9510 has a 4" standard display, not wide screen. So, wide screen only DVDs appeared smaller with the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. However, I found that many of the newer DVDs have a full screen and wide screen version on the same side now. Because I would be using this in coach seating, I knew I would be sitting close to the screen and didn't mind the smaller size. However, the screen size may be too small for multiple people sitting around it, like maybe using it for a car trip. But, the screen is not that small because a flight attendant was able to quickly identify a movie I was watching while walking by.

The screen quality is not the best in its class, but for under $200, it looks great to me. On some white tones, the screen actually appears with some color pixels around it. And text can appear a little unclear, or blurry with the pixelation around it. But, I watched Run Lola Run with sub titles and did not have any problems reading the sub titles. Other than that, I found no clarity problems with all the movies I watched on it.

Performance
I was impressed with how it handled the special edition Terminator 2 DVD, my old APEX DVD player choked on some of the scene changes and could not handle the menu system. But, the DVD-9510 had no problems with it. All DVDs I've watched on this have been trouble free.

However, VCD playback is a different matter. I tried a couple of TV show episodes I had on CD in VCD format and the first 5 seconds or so was fine, then the shows started skipping and getting boxy until they just stopped playing. Not a big deal because I really didn't buy it for viewing VCDs.

The speaker quality is excellent, better that I was expecting. The two small speakers seemed to handle all the sound affects well, though, as expected, were lacking in bass. The DVD-9510 only has one earphone jack, however, if you want to share it with friends, an earphone splitter can easily fix this.

At first test, the DVD-9510 seemed to get very loud through the earphones, I had no problems hearing the movie. But, once on an airplane with the noise in the back ground, it's a different story. We were using it with a splitter and two sets of earphones. One of the earphones was the foam over-the-ear type that was almost impossible to hear over the plane noise. You had to hold them close to your ears to hear anything. The other earphones were the Sony ear bud type that worked well, I had no problem hearing the movie over the plane noise. So, if you'll be using this for air travel, I recommend using ear bud, or in-the-ear style headphones, not the foam style that sit farther from your ear.

The battery life was a big selling point on this model for me, which was said to be about 2.5 to 3.5 hours, much more than many of the used models I was looking at. It was important for this to last the entire flight. Well, I'm getting about 3 to 4 hours out of this. I watched two 90 minute movies and got about 20 minutes into the 3rd one before it died. I also had one last an entire 4 hour flight, I watched two longer movies. I splurged and bought a 2nd battery for it, doubling the battery life. Currently, you can purchase a 2nd battery for about $40 from Walmart.com.

The controls are very easy to use and figure out. However, the lid to the DVD drive seems a little flimsy when snapping it closed. Unlike many more expensive models, the DVD-9510 does not have a separate display. I did not miss it, but if you plan to use it as a CD player regularly, you may long for the smaller display listing track numbers.

After running the DVD-9510 for awhile, it did start to get pretty warm. But nothing abnormal, it still stayed cooler than many notebooks I've used and never felt like it was going to over heat. But, if you're using it as a stand alone DVD player, the lid closed while watching DVDs on a bigger TV, it could probably get hotter.

What's in the Box
The DVD-9510 surprised me with all the accessories that came with it. It came with one battery, battery charger, power adapter, car lighter power adapter (only for viewing, not for charging the battery), remote and a manual that I didn't look at. It also came with audio and video cables to use as a stand alone DVD player and hook up to a TV. The AC adapter can only power the unit or charge the battery, not both at the same time.

Parting Shots
No, the DVD-9510 is not perfect, but it's as good as it gets for under $200 and does the job. Considering all it's flaws, I still think it's a great buy for a portable DVD player that comes ready to be used anywhere with long life battery and car adapter. If you're a frequent traveler, this may be a great way to catch up on movies. I give it 5 stars because it was a much better buy than even the used ones on eBay and it met and exceeded all my expectations for the price.