Initial 9510 4 in. Portable DVD Player

I really wasn't in the market for a portable DVD player when I bought this one, but with this price I thought "why not" and figured that not only could I use it as a portable, but also use it in various rooms in our house--a heck of a lot easier than lugging around our full size DVD player. A month after buying it, I find myself using it even more than I thought I would.

My first experience with this player wasn't good. I ended up returning one because it froze up on me frequently which I have since found out is a common problem with this particular brand and model. Since exchanging it for another one, I have had no trouble at all and realize that the other one was screwed up from the beginning. Thank heavens for a simple return at Walmart!

What is neat about this DVD player is not just it's compact size, but the fact that you can play a variety of formats--not just DVD's. I especially liked the JPEG feature as I have a digital camera and take a lot of pics, and when playing these, it even turns them in to a slide show for you. It is also possible to play music CD's on it which would eliminate dragging along another piece of equipment if you were on vacation. It plays MPEG's as well, but I haven't tried this feature out.

The quality is good, I haven't had the opportunity to try it out on a larger TV, but to be honest, I haven't had the desire either. I'm having too much fun carrying it around my house watching DVD's--literally! One evening while my husband watched baseball on TV, I loaded a DVD in it and sat quietly in my part of the living room, then realized that I hadn't cleaned the kitchen up so I carried it with me to the kitchen and continued watching, and so forth around the house. The sound quality through the speakers isn't all that great but improves considerably with a pair of good headphones (I just steal the ones from my Discman).

The remote and the menu screens are a little difficult to get around and the buttons on the unit itself are a bit confusing. The manual just plain old stinks, it's very poorly written and is hard to figure out. Some of the stuff you might actually need help with isn't even there. This is an area where there could be significant improvement.

The included battery pack takes a little longer to charge than one would expect in this day and age, but once fully charged, exceeds the suggested usage times in the manual.
Also included is a power cord to hook it up to a cigarette lighter, something I haven't tried yet, but one of these days hope to get around to. Most of the time I just run it off the power cord to a wall outlet or with the battery pack.

Overall, I think this is a good product and I'm happy with how it works. I am a bit concerned about how long it will last, especially after my first experience. While $200 isn't a lot of money for a portable DVD player, I still don't like throwing money away on something that will die quickly. Only time will tell. I think this would be a great player for someone with kids who want something to entertain them with in the car or to take with them on vacation.