Initial IDM-1731 Portable DVD Player with 7-Inch LCD
Stay clear of this player!!!
Much like you are doing now, I read the reviews from owners of the Initial IDM-1731 who were for the most part disappointed with the performance of this portable DVD player and mentioned failures such as freeze-ups, skipping, screens going blank, and even warnings on the felt alignment pads on the body and adjoining lid surfaces going bad, contributing to disks being misread and ultimately scratched.  With all the negatives I read, I tried contacting Initial through their website at [...] to ask their tech support team if they had remedied any of the failures their machines seemed to be going through with previous owners who posted these negative reviews.  Their reply to me was that they would be glad to answer any questions I had, if I would reply with my machine's model and serial numbers.  So in affect what they were saying to me was \\"buy it first, then we'll tell you if we've fixed the flaws in this player or not\\".  I took a chance (I now realize a foolish move) and bought a IDM-1731 at Circuit City and paid for their one-year repair/replacement guarantee.  I bought this player in March and am on my third replacement (FOURTH unit).  Circuit City now says they no longer carry this model due to the large volume of returns they experienced and advised me that my only recourse is to return the unit to Initial for repair.  Initial's warranty on the IDM-1731 being 90 days on parts and one year labor leaves me with the fourth machine experiencing different failures, and having to pay to fix this latest one and no peace of mind I won't be going this route with the machine again in a month.  This first machine skipped so bad, you almost had to face away from it in order to keep exhaling breath away from it and making it skip.  The second machine froze on any and all disks I attempted to play.  The third machine had the receptacle where the AD/DC power supplies plug in short out so that the slightest movement caused the unit to lose contact and stop dead in its' tracks, and this latest hunk of crap is doing the same thing the second unit did and freezes on any disk I attempt to play.  AVOID the Initial IDM-1731 AT ALL COSTS!!!  As Initial refuses to acknowledge me as an unsatisfied customer now and make any attempt to provide me with a player that works longer than a month, I'm giving this unit to a buddy to use as a boat anchor, going out and buying a Sony or Toshiba, vowing never to purchase anything by this company again, and writing this in hopes of warning anyone interested in reading this review to PASS on Initial's products.  They are unequivocally in my opinion junk!nd this latest hunk of crap is doing the same thing the second unit did and freezes on any disk I attempt to play.  AVOID the Initial IDM-1731 AT ALL COSTS!!!  As Initial refuses to acknowledge me as an unsatisfied customer now and make any attempt to provide me with a player that works longer than a month, I'm giving this unit to a buddy to use as a boat anchor, going out and buying a Sony or Toshiba, vowing never to purchase anything by this company again, and writing this in hopes of warning anyone interested in reading this review to PASS on Initial's products.  They are unequivocally in my opinion junk!