Review for the Sony DVP-FX810. Primary use: Aboard our boat and used

with second 13" flat screen.

Well, like most people we've all been looking at these portable DVD

players for years. Remember when they were 400-500 dollars or more? Now

we have a large selection available for far less. The Sony weighs in at

a bit under 200 dollars. If you read the reviews on these players,

you'll generally see some happy users and an almost universal amount of

folks whose units went belly up fairly soon.

Here's the bottom line. Just about ALL of these players are built

cheaply. Speaking to a friend and a large retailer, I learned that

almost all see a fair amount of returns, including the pricier units.

No matter which unit you buy BE SURE to buy an extended warranty so you

can get a replacement if it dies.

Now....on to the Sony. This unit appears to be better... Read more

As I write this, Amazon still has the player listed as "not yet available" even though it's been available from other vendors for several weeks now. I've had mine for about three weeks.

As much as I like this player, there are a few reasons I'm only giving it four stars. First and foremost, the player has no screen mode for accommodating older wide-screen DVD's. When you watch one, you'll get black bands on all four sides. If you switch the LCD mode to Full, it only stretches the picture horizontally. It does a great job, however, on more recent "enhanced for 16x9" discs.

I'm not sold on the idea that glossy screens are a good idea on laptops or DVD players. A glossy finish supposedly makes the colors more vibrant, but it also means that, unless you're in a very dark room, you're always going to get reflections, particularly in scenes that are darkly lit.

The player is heavier than I expected. It is heavier without a battery than my older 7" Toshiba... Read more

The main reasons why I bought this DVD player is because: 1) I loved the way it looked (very sleek and stylish), 2) it was in my price range, 3) it said it had a 6 hour battery life, and 4) it has two headphone jacks.

Cons:

--The glossy screen makes for a lot of glares. to fix this problem, I hold up something dark in front of the screen!

--If you like to watch old movies on DVDs in wide screen, you're out of luck. It can only play those movies in full screen mode, which means you have a tiny screen (however, I don't know of any other DVD player that has fixed this problem)

--I think the screen is pixely, in other words, the pixels are quite large. It bothered me because it makes the picture less defined. However, an advantage to this is that your kids won't be tempted to keep their faces inches away from the screen and ruin their eyes. The farther away you hold the screen, the better the picture looks!

--The twist screen... Read more