Recommendations of a Good Portable DVD Player

Sadly, in this day and age, electronic items have become disposable. My aunt who worked for Sony for over 30 years has recommended many times to just buy the cheapest piece of equipment you can find. She tells us that it's no longer worth repairing anything anymore. If you can find a DVD player for around $100, you got a deal

I have an amazing DVD player, it is a Panasonic and has an 11 hour battery!! Most plane trips won't require that much but it's so great for car trips! It is an older model that I got on ebay and have not regretted it one bit! I would stay away from the Coby or other store brands, I've heard they break easily.

Try going on Amazon and looking at the user reviews, that's best!

Take care,
H.

Good idea, we never fly without our portable DVD player. It's a special treat for him on the flight and he loves it. You can turn the volume down, and over the drone of the plane's engine, you won't be disturbing anyone either.

We used an Insignia at first, which worked well, but since you need to use the battery on the plane because you can't plug in - the battery is bulky on this model and if it isn't connected exactly right, it actually won't charge. Then you are stuck with a dead dvd player on your trip. So we switched to the Coby - works perfectly, is inexpensive, and the battery is built in. So it's smaller overall and you don't have to worry about whether it's connected properly when it's charging. The charge holds for at least 2 hours.

Also I have to throw this in here since it's your 1st flight with him - try to get your little one to drink something during the ascent and descent of the plane so that his ears don't build up too much pressure. If he doesn't want to to drink anything, massage his ears during those parts of the flight.

Have a fun trip!!

Hi C.,

We have a Philips and it's great. First we bought a cheaper one (forgot the brand) but that one ran out of batteries soon. The Philips you can recharge and play at the same time which is great.
It's also great for when your're having dinner...
Mirjam

We have a Polaroid and have been very happy with it. The picture and sound are great and we have been really happy with it. I thought it was Panasonic at first but I checked, it is a Polaroid.

hi - i was really worried about not wasting money on a cheap one that would fall apart quickly but we ended up getting the cheapest one at target ($80 at the time - this was a couple of years ago as my daughter is 3). its been fine! assuming you're not super h*** o* things, i'd just get the cheapest one! : )

I have aSony FX810 --spent over $100 and broke in just over a year!

Hi C.,

I recommend (if you are flying out of O'Hare, or have easy access to Union Station) renting a dvd player from InMotion Pictures (inmotionpictures.com). They make it really easy, and I think they even included an extra battery (or you can rent one). We did this when we flew to Seattle, so the whole thing for one day was $15 plus tax. It was great! If you aren't flying to a place that has an InMotion kiosk, you can arrange with them for you to send it back, or keep it (at a cost, I'm sure). Anyway, this is a great alternative to spending $100 or more if you're hoping not to use it too much in the car, or don't expect to fly a lot. We'd do it again!

Good luck--T.

That's a great idea. We have one, but I can't recall the brand. We got it from Best Buy, and here's the important thing: We purchased the extended warranty. It wasn't too expensive, but... when the model broke (and it did) we got a brand new one immediately. The next one lasted quite awhile. We don't have one in our vehicle(s), so we purchased a carrying case and rig it to the seat in front of him, and run it through the car's sound system when we're on long driving trips too.

Also, get your movies and put them in a CD carrying case. They work wonderfully, and conserve space. You could even go on the computer and print off small pictures of the covers and use book tape or scotch tape to put it in a corner of the plastic sheath that the movie fits in. That helped our son find the ones he wanted to see faster. We started doing that with some of his Baby Einstein videos when he was just one year old. It gave him some control in picking out his movies.

Hi C.,
I have an "LG" portable dvd player. It has a swivel screen which I highly recommend. Make sure you look at battery life when purchasing a portable dvd player. You want the longest battery life possible. Good luck

I say buy cheap. We bought one for my daughter when she was seventeen months old and we were going to fly to Mexico on vacation. She's five and a half now. It still works fine. I got it at Circuit City. How many options does a little kid need? The point is to keep them entertained for a few hours.

Hi C.,
My advice is not spending too much. We have gone through 5 different ones. The first one was a Toshiba and thought because we spent alot on it, it would last. Well let's say it burned out the third day of our trip out of the country. I went to Target and bought some piece of $#!+ that barely worked out of the box... some made in China junk some off-shore never heard of brand- my mistake, returned it (they gave me such a hard time returning it too) Then we bought a Polaroid from Target,(because they would only let us exchange the defective one, thank heavens they were sold out of the no-name brand one) it still works but somehow plays upside-down?!? We then got a Coby (?) from Best Buy because it was a special for Rewards members. It too still works but since my son has dropped it a few dozen times I was afraid that it would too crap out a day into our last trip. Just in case, I bought a new Polaroid for $88 at Target and it has been working great for 6 months now... so if you go cheap, go with a brand that you've heard of, but this Polaroid works great! (it is Target red too)
Good luck!

We got a Sony and it was expensive, BUT we had a credit of 140 so we paid like 50 bucks difference .
We got it for our then 1yr old as we were traveling by car for 15 hours to visit family. The dvd player is so awesome, it is so clear and the screen is a nice size. We have had it 4 four months and so far so good.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=306895...