Audiovox D1705 Portable DVD Player with 7-Inch LCD
Caution: UPDATE: downgraded to 3 stars... please READ!
As a 43 year old video professional who worked in television (TV master control room) for many years, I tend to be a stickler for higher quality products that deliver both value and performance.  And if these products can be had for less money, well, so much the better.  That is what I was searching for when I researched affordable portable DVD players that don't cost too much.  I did not want to spend more than around two hundred dollars or so, so the Audiovox D1705 grabbed my attention.  I comparison shopped it against a model by Polaroid, Toshiba, Mintek, and a few inexpensive 'off name' brands, and easily came to the conclusion that the Audiovox was easily the best buy, with the best 'track record' picture quality-wise and reliability-wise.  In addition, being able to easily modify the player to become 'region free' (as indicated in a post below) was a big 'plus', which I did with no problems whatsoever.  The actual mod itself took all but one minute, and now I have a portable player that plays DVD's from any region, both domestic and foreign.  It is great to know that I can flawlessly play some of my British rock and comedy DVD's that normally would not play on an American market player, as well as all my North American DVD's!  The picture quality is very good, and you can fast forward with the provided remote.  The audio quality is not that good, but acceptable.  Using small headphones or earphones will provide a much better quality sound.  Keep in mind that most portable DVD players have such tiny built in speakers anyway, such that the audio will be normally compromised.  This is the tradeoff to compactness.  No big whoop. In addition, the player provides a level of features normally found in more expensive players, which is nice.  This encompasses audio and video inputs, outputs, and actual screen menu adjustments for color and hue saturation and levels.  Very nice Audiovox!    CAUTION: UPDATE 6/2005    It's a shame.  My original, glowing 5 star review needs to be downgraded.  The rechargeable battery this unit comes with is completely worthless after only a few months!  It loses it's capacity quickly, and in my case, completely!  I put the unit in storage, for a few weeks, and charged the battery every 2 weeks, as indicated on Page 30 of the manual.  In short, the unit would not hold any charge when I tried to recharge it last night, and would only play about 3 minutes of a DVD before conking out!  This should NOT happen at all with a new product, and Audiovox clearly needs to improve their battery technology, and send out free, improved batteries to everyone who has this unit.  Again, the unit itself works fine, but the battery is a joke!  I now have a worthless portable DVD player, since I relied on battery operation for my application.  If your unit is experiencing the same problem, and it is fairly new, please write or call Audiovox and demand a new battery that works!     Update: 11/2/05    It's been months since I wrote Audiovox again, and they never got back to me.  Initially, several months ago they sent me a typical facless corporate response letter after sending them a first letter (I sent 2 total), indicating that they would not send me a new battery unless I paid around $90 for it!  So they want me to give them $$$ to replace a defective battery to begin with!  In addition, their customer service people (at least the ones I spoke to) were extremely rude and one-sided.  They did not at all seem interested that their batteries would not retain a charge, even if the unit was 'babied' and relatively new!!!  I will NEVER deal with Audiovox again. Once they sell you a product, you're 'on your own'!!!