Panasonic DVD-L50 Portable DVD Player
Excellent 2nd Home DVD Player and Road Warrior
I admit I am a bit of a gadget lover, but that aside,  I thoroughly enjoy my DVD-50 Player, and use it all of the time.<br />ONE: The screen. Although the screen is small, it is bright enough to view comfortably in just about  any indoor setting, and the swivel is such that it is easy to adjust to  just about any viewing angle. The pixel quality is equal that of many  high-end laptop computers, and it offers an acceptable viewing size for an  average 2 hour film.<br />TWO: The controls. The mini-remote control is  functionally complete, but a bit difficult to use in poor light. Perhaps  back-lighting or glow-in-the-dark buttons would have been a good addition.  However, the size of the remote is perfect as I can slip it in my travel  bag with the player, and it takes up minimum room. It is not much larger  then a credit card. While in hotels, I use it quite a bit and feel that the  size and functionality is exceptional.<br />THREE: Is a laptop better? Often,  a comparison is made between this unit and a laptop computer with DVD.  However, if you already have a laptop which has sub-standard DVD support  and you do not wish to go out and get a new one, this unit is your best  choice. If you have $3000 to burn, then perhaps a high end laptop with DVD  support is the way to go, but then you have a large laptop to deal with  instead of the nicely compact DVD-50.<br />FOUR: A secondary DVD player. One  of the greatest uses I have found for this marvel is to simply grab it, run  over to a friend's or relative's house, and plug it in! It is always a hit  to hook it up to another's TV and offer DVD to the  &quot;un-enlightened&quot;. Also, I can move the unit around the house and  connect it easily and quickly to TVs that don't have DVD drives hooked up  to them.<br />FIVE: Sound. This is probably the weakest area of the unit, but  you really can't blame the unit too much because the sound problem is  really due to the small size of the unit. Essentially there is no BASS. The  speakers tend to sound like just the tweeters from a home audio system so  the sound is very high and &quot;tin-ey&quot; sounding. With headphones  though, the sound is quite acceptable.<br />SUMMARY: I enjoy this unit and use  it almost daily. It is the smallest unit I found and offers the greatest  bang-for-the-buck, especially since the recent price drop.