Polaroid PDV-0700 7" Portable DVD Player
a good deal for the money
Polaroid's portable DVD player PDV-0700 is a sharp looking, lightweight answer for trips in the car or long waits in an office. It has a very crisp picture, even when the picture is very dark. Many players can't handle this and the screen blacks out, but this player still shows all details. <br />The machine comes with Dolby speakers which sound good, but a little weak. When you plug in a set of headphones, however, the sound in them is great. The player will handle just about any format, from DVD to VCD to MP3 to CD-RW. It comes with a rechargeable battery which connects to the bottom of the machine. This powers the player for about 4 hours of constant playing. Of course, this player can also be used as the main DVD player in a house, with inputs to a TV and sound system. The remote is small and thin, and handles most features, but you have to go through a few hoops to do some things, like choose a chapter in a movie.<br />As mentioned by other reviewers, it is relatively simple to convert this machine to one which plays DVDs from all regions.  The directions can be found in the online manual.  I have used it to play everything from German DVDs to photo CDs received from the photo lab.<br />The only minor complaints I have about this machine are that the picture is not as good as some of the better machines I have seen, and the speakers could be a little better. I also wish you could control the volume with the remote and not have to rotate the volume switch manually.  However, these other machines also cost much more than the 200 dollars you would invest in this one. For the money, you won't do much better.