Insignia NS-PDVD9 9 in. Portable DVD Player

Just bought this during boxing day sales at Future shop for $99 Cdn (85US). This was apparently 1/2 price. Good deal as I initially bought the 7" version for the same price. I then exchanged that and went for the 9". Brand name ones would cost 2-3 times the price for the equiv.

PROS:

-9" screen
-Good picuture
-Good sound - very good with headphones
-Lots of features
-Function buttons on player itself -unlike others where you must rely on the remote only
-International adaptor 100-240 V
-Fairly sleek size & charchol rather than silver colour
-2 headphone jacks
-Video/Audio in and out
-Can play most formats + or - R

CONS:

Big battery attaches to back
Short battery life (advertises 2hr but manual says 2 1/2)
No DVIX or VCD playback

Hit or miss quality. Insignia is a Best Buy/Future Shop label but made by some company in China who also makes Axion and Audiovox. You can tell as the style is identical, also you can see the menu system is identical.

These no name China type of products will either work or not after 90 day warranty period. This is the chance you take. You could buy the extended warranty but that's 1/4 of the price i paid. If i was to do that I should go with a brand name eg. LG or Toshiba, Samsung with a smaller screen and have the confort of a 1yr warranty. I'll take the risk but may kick myself for if it konks out. The is no write up on this model anywhere on the net. Not sure if new or just not a popular item. I then tried looking at similar products and looks of other brand. The most common problem based on the reviews manufactured by this china company is it won't load or recognize a disc upon loading. This is prob because of a cheap lens and quality control/or lack of. You would think if a large company such as best buy puts their name to it, it would ensure some standards. I guess, if a manufacturer is only willing to give you a 90 day warranty rather than the std 1 year, this should be a big alert sign saying we don't even have faith in our own product. I owned mainly fairly good brand name electronics but have just recently been snapping up cheapy DVD machines (G TEC, MAGNASONIC, ZENEITH, NOVA) for $10-30 to go with my numerous tvs around the house (now standing at 2 HD TVs/5 reg TV /1 Panasonic DVD recorder & 4 dvd machines) And they've all been fine so far. Sometimes no names can be better than brand name just ensure you put it to the test right away so that you can return it or it's still under warranty if it konks out on you. Maybe this is why I was willing to chance it with this machine. Well of course PRICE was the main driver.

If this lasts 2 yrs, I will be satified given price / size and picture quality. If only last 6 months it will be an expensive lesson.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.