Pioneer PDV-LC20 7 in. Portable DVD Player

I bought this player (1) to use when travelling myself, (2) to amuse the kids on long trips, (3) so I could watch movies in bed in the evening, _and_ (4) as the "normal" DVD player for our second TV set. In all of these uses the PDV-LC20 player has proven excellent so far.

The LCD screen has excellent picture quality and brightness. Some "jaggies" are evident in the picture because the LCD resolution is actually _less_ than the DVD's resolution, but this isn't annoying and I can watch the screen for hours. It's a great convenience that two headphone jacks are included too. The LCD screen supports playback of PAL and NTSC content too, which is something apparently some other portable players lack (ie the "other" video standard on those can only be output to an external TV).

When connected to a TV (via SVideo to a 16:9 TV in our case), the picture quality is just as good as a desktop Pioneer player. The player has L+R analog audio outputs as well as an optical connection; I've only used headphones, the (more-than-adequate) built-in speakers, and the analog output - all these are fine, and I would assume the digital output (which passes DD, DTS, MPeg and PCM audio) would work just fine.

The onscreen displays and menus are clear and simple, the operation is fast. I've put quite a few(!) discs through it and everything works as you'd expect - playback, menu navigation, skipping forwards/backwards, bookmarking.

Some things which surprised me when I ordered the player were that a second (Li Ion) battery seemed very expensive (around $US250) and a car power adaptor about the same. I get over 3 hours of movie playback with the included Li Ion battery though, so perhaps I shouldn't be too worried. Also, the unit's input voltage is 9.8V, meaning I haven't been able to (yet) track down a second/spare AC adaptor to take away with me.