Sony DVP-FX701 7 in. Portable DVD Player

I bought the Sony portable DVD player for my kids and myself when we travel from the Inland Empire up to Henderson. While not a really long trip it is a bit tiring. Now with this, I have a different form of entertainment on long trips.

This is a portable DVD player. It plays DVD's on a 7-inch 16x9 LCD screen so it is designed for personal viewing, although everyone in the back seat can watch fairly easily if it is positioned just right. You also have the option of playing audio CD's or MP3's that are burned onto a CD or DVD.

What it came with
The one thing I love about Sony products is they provide you will good quality cables for all of the major applications. Sony is unlike other companies that just provide the bare minimum and cheap cables. I had chargers for both a car adapter and a home wall outlet. I have a wire so I could plug it into a television or an audio device with RCA ports. It even came with a dual headphone splitter.

Main features
-Play DVD's or CD's with movies on them.
-Play music CD's, or MP3's that have been burned on a CD or DVD.
-View JPG files that are burned on a CD or DVD.
-Connect to a television through composite cables (not an HD signal.)
-Receive a signal from composite cables.

The buttons on the unit.
Just under the LCD monitor you have a slider for color and brightness.
On the body, you have Open, display, return, menu, top menu, LCD mode, and the enter-4-arrow keypad
On the front you have the power/hold slider, skip forward, skip back, play, pause, stop.
On the right side is the volume, headphone jack, audio output, video output, line-in and line-out selection slider, s-video out, and the 9.8V power input.

The remote
The remote look like a small infrared DVD remote. It has..
Numbers, power, clear setup, play, pause, stop, previous, next, scan/slow, random, A-B, repeat, program, audio, angle, top menu, menu, display, return, and the enter-4-arrow key pad. It takes 2 AA batteries.
What I am disappointed about is you have to use the remote to play music randomly or to program a play list.

My opinion of the screen.
The screen is a 16x9 screen and looks pretty nice, but the resolution is not the best. It is not an HD screen so do not expect that high level of an image. But for a standard image you will be hard pressed to find a better monitor, it is beautiful.
When I looked at it in the store I was very impressed with the viewing angle from side to side. The screen was also crisp and beautiful. But the thing I did not like was the viewing angle from top to bottom is fairly small. So a tall person like me has to have it angled back pretty well and this will affect the viewing quality of the shorter people around me (like children.)

The Line-in option and playing games
You can plug in external devices like a video game system. I hooked up my Game cube with an adapter and it worked pretty well. While not as nice as my Sony Wega Television it is still a great alternative. You plug in the supplied cables, get 3 female-female RCA adapters, and plug in the game system. You can only use composite cables so don't expect to see a nice high definition signal.

How to view pictures
If you have pictures on a burned CD or burned DVD then you just load it in and turn on the player. Select the JPG mode and look through the root directory or a folder. Once you select a folder you scroll to a picture. You will then have a preview of it come up in 1-2 seconds. When you select the picture it will take 2-4 seconds to load a 2MB picture. You can then cycle up or down through the pictures in the folder by pressing the forward or backwards buttons. You can also flip the picture around using buttons if you wish.
There is a slideshow feature. The four settings for this is fast, medium, slow, or off. Fast was about 6 seconds between pictures, medium was about 12 seconds between pictures, and slow was about 18 seconds between pictures. Once the Sony portable DVD player got to the last slide it then went back to the picture/folder selection screen automatically.

Playing music
Audio CD's work just like any other player. Just put them in and press play.
When you put a burned DVD in it asks if you want to view JPG's or listen to MP3's. If you hit music then it shows you the songs on the root directory and any folders you may have. At that time you can hit play and it will play in alphabetic order, choose songs and make a custom list, or hit random on the remote and it will randomly play songs in the directory you are in.

One screen menu options
You can control the audio and video options without the remote. You hit the menu button and it will give you a list that says

My opinion on the sound and the optical port
This is a department that is sorely lacking. The speakers act just like small cruddy speakers. I feel that Sony put the speakers in as an afterthought. If you are not used to a nice surround sound system or good speakers then you will not notice the sound quality, but it will annoy an audiophile. I always use an alternate audio source if that is an option.
The one nice feature it does have it you can hook it up to your sound system via an optical cable. This is a special cable you will have to buy separately but at least it is an option. They use the same 1/8 inch port for both the normal speaker output and the optical signal. If you look at the port you will notice a red light emanating from it, kind of weird when you first see it.

What problems have I had with DVD's?
I was a little disappointed to see that I have had some problems with DVD's. When I encounter a problem I will post it here. For the record, this is the only DVD player I have encountered this type of problem with and I have lowered the score because of it.
Lord of the Rings-Freezes at the title screen.
Akira- Automatically plays with the translation special feature, don't know how to turn it off.

Who is this for?
Anyone that wants a personal DVD play for themselves and a friend. It travels well and works well.
Someone that wants a nice looking screen (there are cheaper portable players out there but the screen sucks on these models.
It can also double as a 4 or 8GB MP3 player.

Cleaning
Just use a damp cotton cloth.

Battery life
According to the manual the battery life is around 3 hours. I calculated 2 hours and 55 minutes the first time I used it. If all you are doing is playing MP3's with the LCD screen off then expect it to last you 5 hours. The battery is a custom battery that hooks on the bottom. Approximately 40 percent of the volume is this battery.

What I like.
-Came with all the cables I needed.
-Good-looking screen.
-Compact.
-Sony quality.
-Dolby Digital option.
-Resume feature.

What I do not like.
-The viewing angle from the top and the bottom is not great.
-No alarm clock feature (would have been perfect for a unit like this.)
-Only 3 hours of battery life.
-7 inch screen (I would of liked 9 inches.
-Will not play avi's or other video formats.
-Not a High Definition screen.
-Does not have a Sony Memory Stick port (and this really ticks me off.)

Weight and dimensionsIncluding the battery.
Weight: 2 lbs, 4.5 oz
Length: 4.5 inches
Width: 7 7/16 inches
Height: 2.25 inches when closed, 7 3/8 inches when open.

Summary
This is a portable DVD player that also works as a MP3 player, a CD player, and a JPG viewer. It is extremely easy to use. You can import a video source as well as export a video source through the use of the provided composite cable. This means you can play video games while on the go or use an alternative video source. But it is a small screen with a limited speaker system because it is designed as a personal DVD player, not for a crowd.

Other Sony products.
Sony Wega Television.
Sony DVD burner.
Sony Handy Cam.