LG DP781 8 in. Portable DVD Player

I don't know why, but somehow every time I have some gift cards from electronics retailers, I never seem to need anything, but can never keep them too long. Here again, I got a $100 Best Buy gift card for signing up for high speed internet access and after a couple of weeks I couldn't think of anything better to do with it, except to get a portable DVD player. I convinced myself that I could use one, even though I had very little delusions that I really needed it. Here is what I said myself I could do with it:

1. Stick it in my kitchen so I can watch something while cooking or eating or just feeling like hanging out there. I actually wanted a TV for there, but that's another story.
2. Take it on trips in a car, on a plane, in our country house, hotel rooms, and anywhere else there's nothing for me. This was my biggest concern for two reasons – one, battery life is fairly important, and two, I travel to Europe a lot so I needed a player that could be hacked for multi region operation.
3. Possibly use it as an extra DVD player if I do get a second TV for my kitchen.

Well these might seem like simple tasks, but the second limited my choices dramatically. After researching the available selection at Best Buy I narrowed it down to 2 choices – this LG, and a Philips model (which I probably should've got, but I've been seriously disappointed with Philips lately and decided not to). My reasons for picking those two were the combination of battery life and availability of multi region hacks (how could any self respected company could produce a portable DVD player that's locked to a single region is beyond me anyways, but whatever). Philips has always been very "world" friendly in that respect, so not surprisingly their model had a hack already posted on the net. The LG was not specifically listed, but its firmware seemed very similar to my LG recorder, which I already had the hack for so was hoping it would worked on the portable too (and it did, it's a file that has to be burned on a disc and played in the LG to unlock the region coding, the same hack works for most late model LG players and recorders).

The second aspect was battery life – the LG is rated at 5h, the Philips at 4. Here, I had to take a serious look at another model by Panasonic, which had a battery rated for 12 hours of playback, but Panasonic as well as Sony and Toshiba (the other available models at Best Buy) are notorious for being difficult to unlock, and as I suspected none of those had a region hack. There were also several cheap models from Dynex and Magnavox, which were only rated for about 2 hours so that didn't seem enough.

I settled on the LG because of my disappointment with Philips, the LG's slightly larger screen, and its cool looks. I took it home and after performing the region hack successfully I popped in a DVD to check it out. It seemed to fit great in my kitchen and even the small screen size didn't bother me too much. As other people had reported the image was exceptionally nice for a portable DVD player, with very vibrant and saturated colors, smooth edges, and almost complete absence of visible pixel structure. The screen also rotates on a single hinge so it could be pointed at any angle, or flipped down for tighter spaces. The remote control is larger than most portables and has real buttons, not the flat ones that are impossible to find by touch – this is a definite plus in my opinion. I started viewing on battery power, which had 2 bars out of the box (I read somewhere that before charging a battery for the first time it is a good idea to make sure it is fully discharged first). With the two bars of charge I got about hour and a half (that was the very first use, before any charging). A pleasant discovery was the ability to resume playback from the last point of a disc even after power off and eject.

I must say, as far as picture quality is concerned, I had nothing to complain about. The player has a couple of picture adjustments – for brightness, color saturation, and aspect ratio. It also has a button to flip the image upside down for when the screen is laid flat. Unfortunately none of these functions can be performed from the remote control.

And on that note, it is sadly time for the bad news.

While this portable excels in image quality, its operation is quirky at best. The lack of remote control buttons for image adjustments may not sound like a big deal, but if the screen is laid down flat, it covers the function buttons, and any adjustments would require opening and closing the screen.

Another thing I don't really understand in portable DVD players is the frequent omission of volume control on the remote control. OK so it makes sense that one would be close to the unit since it is a portable, but if there is going to be a remote control any way, why not include volume as well? The Philips and the Panasonic models had volume controls on the remotes. The LG does not.

It appears that LG's latest idea of "coolness" is touch sensitive buttons (I admit – I am a dork, but I like them!). The DP781's controls are also the touch sensitive type and they light up in a cool red light. The problem is that they are inactive and require one touch to be activated, and a second to perform the operation. This is similar to my recorder, and while I find it a bit annoying, I am willing to put up with it, just because it's pretty. But while on my recorder the buttons could be activated by touching anywhere on the front panel, on the portable one has to touch the middle of the "Menu" button specifically, and then the desired button. I just don't get it.

The set of buttons is completed by several "old school" buttons on the front for power, stop, play, and chapter search. Finally there is the open button. The disc cover is oddly shaped and feels flimsy. Loading times are relatively fast though. The display menus are very attractive although only the elapsed time could be checked, not the remaining or the total times.

A few more operational quirks – the remote control lacks dedicated fast speed search buttons, search is performed by holding down the chapter skip buttons for several seconds – to increase the speed you have to press and hold again, a press only will skip to the next chapter RETARDED! Oddly, there are dedicated slow motion buttons for both directions ( I don't know about any one else, but I use fast search much more than slow motion). There are both audio/video input and output option but they share a single plug on the side, thankfully the adapter cable is provided, the type of connection has to be selected in a menu. There is a mini coax digital audio for which the adapter cable is NOT provided. There are also two plugs for headphones, and a USB port. Oddly, for a USB equipped portable, the LG does not work with DIVX files.

One more thing that I simply do not understand is the selection of the power adapter – it only works on 110V. Pretty much every other brand had a power adapter rated for 110-240V operation.

A NOTE TO ELECTRONIC MANUFACTORERS:

People buy portable DVD players to use while traveling mostly – that includes traveling internationally. That requires multi voltage power adapter, preferably plug adapters, and of course region free operation. And not the least, pay attention to the category name!

PORTABLE!!!

This is my last complaint with this LG. The battery adds a lot of bulk to the already large unit. It also puts the main body at an angle and increases the depth needed to put on a table. I never tried it, but I don't think I will be comfortable with it on my airplane tray for too long.


I started counting – a cell phone with a charger, a laptop with a charger, a PDA with a charger, electric shaver with a charger, digital camera, DVD player and a charger…. See where I am going? I questioned the possibility of ever taking this player on any trips, especially with its power supply limitations. I also finally figured out how to transfer my DVDs to files suitable for playback on my PDA – I am so happy now! I actually take my PDA with me when I go places, and it lasts about 6 hours on video playback – not to mention that I can always get an extra battery for it. And as far as watching something in my kitchen, for the time being I think I am going to use my laptop. It's not quite as convenient or fast, but on the other hand the screen is much larger.

And while I was typing this last sentence, I just realised that I almost left out an entire very important section - audio performance. As I mentioned there are two head phone plugs, which is great, and the sound with headphones is excellent. The built in speakers are somewhat weak and of course quality can't be expected. When stationed at home I had mine hooked up to a pair of computer speakers, which gave me much better results.

If you haven't guessed yet, let me spell it out – I returned the LG DP781. At the end it just didn't seem portable enough nor world friendly to make it worth carrying.