Polaroid PDV-1002A 10 in. Portable DVD Player

Santa brought this DVD player to my girls last Christmas, and it was a much-loved item for 18 months before it went to the great junkyard in the sky. Sadly, the machine was still in working condition: the DVD player met an untimely end when a child dropped it.

This is a great "toy" for a family. It was nice in the car (we used a piece of non-skid under it, and it sat on the console, giving the back seat a nice view). It could also be taken into a hotel room, a doctor's office, a tent . . . weighing about 3 pounds and fitting into a camera-bag, portability was its greatest feature. A couple times we hooked it to a projector and let the kids watch huge movies on a the wall or a white bedsheet (great fun for pajama parties).

Power: The player came with two power cords: one to be plugged into a cigarette lighter in the car and one that could plug into any outlet in the house. The battery could be re-charged while a DVD was being played. Typically, the battery lasted long enough to watch one and a half movies. We noticed no lagtime when running with a battery.

Visuals: Our screen was 7 inches; most of the cheap-o units that are offered as loss-leaders have 5 inch screens. I strongly suggest that you spend a little extra; when you're only talking about inches, that little bit matters. Don't buy a tiny DVD and expect top-quality viewing. It often takes a bit of maneuvering to get the screen to "just the right" angle, and if you have several people watching someone's going to be at a bad angle. This is not unique to the Polaroid model; rather, it's a problem with the tiny screens. The graphics, however, played smoothly without problems with bitmapping or skipping and were good enough to be enjoyable to adults as well as children.

Sound: The sound on this model is surprisingly good. Sound adjusts with a standard wheel on one side. It doesn't get movie-theater loud, of course, but it's easy to hear throughout the entire car. We didn't really use the headphone jacks, but they're there for people who'd appreciate that feature. We frequently used this player to play music CDs in hotel rooms, etc.

Use: The DVD was very simple to use. The screen closed on the main body in a clam-shell fashion, which protected the screen. The controls were simple: On and off, volume, and fast-forward. I found it easy to play a movie, but somewhat difficult to move forward and back within that movie.