Parents! This is the one to buy for road trips!
Written: Dec 28 '04
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Pros: Keeps the kids quiet during long road trips!
Cons: Cover is a little difficult to open
The Bottom Line: It doesn't overheat in the car, and enterains the kids while driving.
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| orioles35's Full Review: Toshiba SD-P2500 8.9 in. Portable DVD Player |
This past Thanksgiving, we agreed to attempt that stress filled vacation...making an extended drive with a small child (2+ years old). Anyone who has done this knows how frustrating it can be to try and entertain a kid through hours upon hours on the road. Our solution was to take along DVD favorites (Spongebob, Bob the Builder, Blues Clues) and allow our child to pass the time watching these shows. While features were important, especially the size of the screen, the main requirement was to get a portable DVD player that functioned for hours at a time. Many, many of these players have a history of overheating and shutting down. Having this happen in the middle of the day’s drive would be the epitome of bad timing!
After doing extended research, we settled on the Toshiba SDP2500 Portable DVD Player with 9 inch screen. This player can handle DVD, DVD audio, DVD-R, Video CDs, CDs, but not DVD-RAM, but it is also capable of playing SmartMedia and SD Memory cards, which hold photos (jpg files).
The main unit comes with a 9 inch screen, which is one of the best features of this player. Anyone who has seen five inch screens knows how tiny they seem and almost certainly have to be held by the person watching it to be able to be seen well. With small children, those buttons are just too hard to resist, meaning the player will be stopped...and started...and stopped...and started again. With a 9 inch screen, the player can sit between the front seats and easily seen by the kids in the back.
This player comes with a very thin remote, with 36 buttons. My initial impression of the remote is that I’m afraid of losing it; it’s so thin and small. Uses a coin shaped battery (CR2025), similar to a watch battery. The remote must be used from about a 30 degree angle to the right/left of the front sensor of the player, so trying to use the remote from the front seat of the car won’t work.
Included with the player are not one but two headphone jacks, important when listening to music or when the kids are sleeping in the car. Other options are a bitstream/PCM jack (used with Dolby receivers), AV in, component video connector, S Video jack, AV out and DC in jack. The player comes with a battery, however we’ve opted not to use it on trips mainly because we felt if it ran out of juice, we’d be sunk in the middle of a six hour drive. We’ve opted to connect this player using the DC cable and adapter with the cigarette lighter.
Basic playback consists of first lifting the top part of the player up to display the screen. This isn’t a tricky process, but there isn’t a button to press in to disengage whatever holds the screen securely to the base when closed. It almost feels as though you’re forcing the screen up, so it remains to be seen if regular use will wear the ‘lock’ down. To insert a disc, press the Open button at the lower left, which will open the disc cover. Because the laser and other moving parts are in this area, you do NOT want young children to play with this area as that might lead to damage to the laser, which would effectively ruin the player. What? Kids ruining expensive equipment? Say it ain’t so!
As the disc plays, there are other options to adjust. The LCD brightness can be adjusted by pressing the dimmer switch on the remote, volume may be changed by either the remote or the volume control +/- buttons on the player itself. This player also allows for external LCD Screen mode where you may use this player as a regular DVD player connected to a TV. When playing a DVD then pausing it for a long time, the screen saver of the player automatically appears (if this option is set). This will help avoid screen burn, or other damage to individual pixels on the LCD screen.
Other features include playing in fast forward or reverse, playing frame by frame, playing in slow motion, locating a specific title by using the Top Menu button, or locating a specific track (CD). To view pictures (jpg files), you can either insert a CD or a memory card into the slot in the front right of the player, then push the AV Source button to change the mode to read from the memory card. Up to eight thumbnail images will be shown, but you can also view the pictures as a Photo Album or Slide Show display.
There are a number of advanced features included in this player as well. You may enter the time counter of the desired location on the disc you want to begin play from, which is a really cool feature. Another option is to press the ZOOM button during normal, slow or still playback and change the magnification level of the picture. You can also change the camera angle on discs that have scenes recorded with multiple angles or change the subtitle language.
Another handy feature allows for pressing two buttons on the remote, which will display a graphics based on-screen remote control that allows control of playback as if you were doing it using the actual remote itself. I don’t know why this might be useful, as you need the remote itself to be able to activate this feature...therefore if you HAVE the remote, why not just use it instead? But it could be handy at some point.
Other interesting features involve the NAVI menu:
Strobe Viewer: Divide a scene into stop action frames for careful analysis
Setup: Change default settings to customize performance
Preview: Display thumbnail views of the first scenes of titles or chapters to select one to commence playback
Capture: Sample a scene from a playback picture and transform it into a background picture
Angle Viewer: Display all camera angles simultaneously and select one of them
Picture Setting: Fine adjust picture quality and store up to three custom picture settings in memory
E.A.M. (Enhanced Audio Mode): Preferred audio enhancement
Display: Disc information and status
Closed Caption: Can be displayed without connecting a closed caption decoder on your TV
Further options may be customized as well, for those of you with the desire to tinker with every setting possible:
TV Shape
Progressive 4:3 output
Progressive conversion
PCM Down Sampling
Dynamic Range control
Karaoke Vocal
On-screen, disc, audio or subtitle language
On-screen display
Background and screen saver
Parental lock
Title/Group Stop
PBC (used with Video CD)
Finally, this portable DVD player can be used as a regular player with your home TV. Because of the S Video and AV Out jacks, this may be connected to your TV (if they have these inputs) and used as a regular player. Cables are included for the component video (1 to 3 connector), AV out (1 to 2 connector for use with S Video or 1 to 3 connector if not using the S Video).
Most importantly, I’m happy to report this unit played perfectly on our 12 hour drives to Florida and back over Thanksgiving (broken up over two days). The unit did not overheat, but did stop 2-3 times during mid-playback. We weren’t sure if this was a result of our son kicking it, bumps in the road, something on the disc or the player itself. We’ll keep an eye on it, but I couldn’t have been more pleased with our purchase. I hadn’t bought many Toshiba products in the past, but this one passed with flying colors...the drive was a breeze. Quite literally, we didn’t hear a peep out of our son for the first five hours out of six the first day. As I’ve told everyone, this player was worth EVERY PENNY.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 450
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Epinions.com ID:
orioles35
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Location: Nolensville, TN
Reviews written: 58
Trusted by: 29 members
About Me:
I review stuff I like, music, movies or whatever.
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