portable DVD player

Not yet - I'm waiting for them to drop nearer £100 before I buy one.

I'm hoping to find one that will work with NTSC on the line-in.

They seem to be holding pre-xmas prices in most stores/websites!

Gavin

All the main UK retailers had an agreement, called 'hold tight' not to do any sales till AFTER the new year, so as not to be fooled by the consumer into offering things cheap, just because we the consumer waited till the last minute to do our shopping.

Just wait till after the new year and watch those TV ads come!

I am also waiting for the prices to come down but
does anyone know where you can get an fm
transmiter to play the audio of a portable dvd player through the sound system of a car with only a radio/cd player intalled.

Ray Maher

Comet have one for about £70, I saw yesterday.

Thanks, must have been looking in the wrong section.

Ray Maher

Got some bargains from Comet - Gel Mousemats and a Gel KB wrest for £1. Epson 009 colour cart £1

:D

Will wait for the 7" LCD/DVD combo's to fall very soon...........

Be nice if they came with built in TV tuner as well...

Gel Mousemat with TV tuner?

The ones with TV tuners were £1.50 - I was only willing to go to £1.25.

Went into Comet at Bognor today,they said they don't do them.

Ray Maher

I was in Reading...

Mooblie,
Can't find the unit on their web site so I have fired an email off to them.

Ray Maher

They have replied that they do not stock them.

Ray Maher

there are plenty of the sort of thing you want on ebay Ray...

tesco had a portable DVD player recently for £70! sadly no inputs though... :( same is true with ebuyer's £100 one...

I just bought THIS - and I'm very pleased with it - havent tried it with my camera yet though - good idea!

Dee,
It doesn't mention +rw dvd playback.
Do you know if it does.

Ray Maher.

cstv,
re the fm transmitter.
I had been looking on ebay but I was just hoping to be able to try one out to see how good they are.

Ray Maher

havent got any to test I'm afraid Ray - but if you or anyone is interested in buying one I would be happy to test if supplied.

The widescreen is fantastic by the way!!!

This E-buyer portable DV player Coby 7" Widescreen does appear to have AV-in. It's not mentioned in the spec, but check the image gallery.

Chris

Indeed, it has a switch on the right-hand side marked IN-AV-OUT, implying that the composite/audio sockets work both ways. But it also has another socket on the back, marked "#video" where the # might be an S, I can't tell. It also appears to have two phones sockets, one each side, that could stop arguments on the back seat

eBuyer seems to have over 1000 in stock, who's going to be brave and find out?

I've been to Coby's US site. The manuals there do not include the 7100 BUT similar machines, with similar switches (7500 for instance), do mention 'AV-in' in the the manual even though it's not in the spec.

They had over 1500 in stock a few days ago

I forgot to mention that my one is a Venturer. Sockets include av in/out, s-video out, digital out. This unit also plays cd's, mp3s, and even creates it's own slide show of your jpegs. It is also available with 2 screens which are not attached to the main player. Handy for the bigger car owner.

Paul H

I forgot to mention that my one is a Venturer. Sockets include av in/out, s-video out, digital out. This unit also plays cd's, mp3s, and even creates it's own slide show of your jpegs. It is also available with 2 screens which are not attached to the main player. Handy for the bigger car owner.

Paul H

BTW people, the Comet one is described here.

3.6" screen? That's a bit small, the Coby's 7".

I thought I found the one I wanted until I realized there were no inputs.
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=82854

Lucky I asked because someone mentioned it.
http://www.3wisemonkeys.co.uk/proddet.jsp?id=1126&cat=1 reviews start half way down.

Regards, Tibor

Why does it say it has inputs then.

http://tinyurl.com/462p4

Ray Maher

made tinyurl to stop screen width problem

Gary

[ 08.01.2005, 06:11 PM: Message edited by: harlequin ]

This seems a good deal. No inputs isn't a problem for me.

Ray Maher
http://tinyurl.com/6lmqu

made tinyurl to stop screen width problem
Gary

[ 08.01.2005, 06:13 PM: Message edited by: harlequin ]

I have bought the player in the above post from Argos.
It is region free and plays +/-R/RW, mini dvd, vcd and svcd. It has video/audio in an out. Svhs playback on a tele using a phono/ scart lead.
It has a carry case that can be mounted on the front headrest for the kids in the back and has a double headphone adapter.
The only drawback is it hasn't got it's own power supply and works off the cig lighter or mains.

For the money I think it is good value.
The offer finishes on the 12th Jan.

Ray Maher

Ray, what size is the screen?

Centurion Portable DVD Player/8in Widescreen TFT
+++++++++++++++++++
LCD. This item is excluded from the 16 day money back guarantee. See the Additional Information panel for full details.

This from Rays URL, hope my ++++++ are in the right
place !

Alan

The screen is 8.2ins

Ray Maher

Philip,

I know, because of the price I took a chance.

So far I am impressed with the spec.

Thanks,

Ray Maher

Ray

You say it plays mini DVD, is that a DVD title set on CD, and does it manage menus etc (what bitrate)?

TIA

Yes it does play the menues and I believe the bitrate was 6000. (they were done by my brother before the days of dvd burners)
The playback was a little jerky so you may have to come down a notch.

Ray Maher.

The CD that Ray refers to was produced by an early version of DVDIT (circa 2001/2002)

Thanks for the info Ray !
I couldn't order one yesterday, managed to get my order in this morning and will get it on Monday!
Again thanks,

Philip

Re the Coby unit on ebuyer for £100, this was in one of the reviews:

Very nicely styled, good construction overall. Slightly tinny sound with not great volume but supplied with nice headphones which sound great. Picture quality excellent. Best left in ntsc mode for both pal and ntsc discs. s-video socket but no supplied jack to s-video adaptor. Also mentions optical output but no such lead is supplied and I question whether it would be optical as surely it would be a coaxial digital feed unless it was a lead with additional electronics. AV input/output switch and you can connect external sources via composite and possibly s-video. Does audio input as well.

Ray & Terry

Thanks for the details, seems like a handy little machine.

Stigg

Centurion Portable DVD Player/8in Widescreen TFT
Which is sold in ARGOS.

Bought one today and very pleased with it!

The screen size 6.75" x 3.75" Diagonally its 7.75"
Their stated size is a wee bit out, unless you go by the diagonall diamention!
Its then only .25" out!
Thanks again Ray, (May your meter keep birling)

Philip

Glad you liked it philip.
Now I am trying to find an an external rechargable battery pack with 12v DC output.
Nothing on any uk sites as yet.

Ray Maher

Hi Ray,

My Venturer has an external rechargable battery.

Paul H

Now I am trying to find an an external rechargable battery pack with 12v DC output.
Nothing on any uk sites as yet?
-------------------------------
Ray, I purchased a couple of Gel Cells BP7-12(12V,7AH/20HR)From Maplins plugged on a pair of car lighter sockets (Maplins)and use them when not near the car, Digital Cameras: video and still
all seem to have small capacity batteries supplied
with them!
You can buy larger wallet depleting types, the above method though is much cheaper!

I am a retired service engineer and home brew is in the Scottish blood!
Regards,
Philip

Paul H

The Centurion Portable DVD Player doesn't have a battery supplied with it and it runs off 12volts.
It is supplied with mains and car lead though!

Philip

Philip,
That is why I want an external battery for use say on a plane or train.

Ray Maher

Ray, when you look for a power supply, I suggest you get one with a fair bit more capacity than you need for just the DVD. Then you can run a camcorder or any other 12v stuff from it at the same time, and thus save lots on expensive lithium batteries. You can get the cigarette-lighter plugs and sockets from CPC, really cheap.

I'm not what you call a frequent train traveller but the last train I went on just before Christmas had 240v standard sockets under the windows. Never seen this before, the train was an InterCity, can't remember which company but the carriages did look past their best.

Martin

I saw these sockets a few months ago when i accidentally sat in 1st class on the way to waterloo... took me a while to work out why the train was quite so wonderful... then i looked down towards the next carriage and all became clear! :D

Ray,
A continuation of my above post on batteries.

Maplins 7ah 12V/sealed acid batts weight = 7.5lbs. Price is £25. Their 12v 350ma constant current charger for SLA batts is £13.99. A higher output charger will cost much more, this one will do!
The sockets and plugs needed can be obtained from there as well.
Using a videocam from it would require a car power adapter to lower the 12V to 7.2V ?

The 12V 25ah batt from golf trolley weight = 34lbs. So as the amps go up, so does the weight! If your taking your wife with you no problems!!!
HTH
Philip

Pretty well any camcorder, running on less than 12v supply, can be powered from 12v using the right adaptor. You just get the "official" car adaptor for it, or if you know what you're doing, find a regulator that will do the job, making less than 12v from a 12v source is pretty easy.

It's interesting to observe how the price of the E-buyer Coby player has changed. With 1500 in stock it was (give or take a few pence) £100 with 'free' shipping. Subsequently it ceased to be 'free' shipping. Then a couple of days ago (?) it became £110 plus shipping. I see that today, with stock at 750 (+/-), it's £110 with 'free' shipping.

Another example of the British disease.... selling price is not related to cost but is decided by what the market will bear.

It's still good value though!

Chris

yeah, i noticed that too Chris... odd eh?

i blame you for linking to it from here... ebuyer probably noticed the increase in traffic and bumped the price up... ;)

mark.

I think this seems to be what I want.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11169&item=6735689904&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Any comments,

Ray Maher

... and now back to £100 plus shipping.

They really do have fun don't they!

Chris

I think it's about time I moved this thread to its rightful home in "DVD, VCD and MPEG", and so have done so, and closed it in "Desktop Video General".

Bob C

Sorry, I'd accidentally locked the moved version, too.

Thanks to johnpr98 for the heads-up.

Bob C

I recently purchased an i-Berhard 9" portable DVD player from E-Buyer and I am quite happy with its performance. What I particlarly wanted, as well as use as a portable player, was AV in to use it as a monitor and S-Video AV out to play DVDs through my projector. S-Video out is provided but it is connected via a mimijack that doubles as RGB video out.

Unfortunately, no S-Video lead was provided and no diagram was given to show the minijack pinouts. To accommodate the RGB signals, the minijack socket is four way, with only three being used for S-Video.

I could not find a suitable lead listed anywhere, so after some experimentation, I have determined that a standard stereo jack plug can be can be used for the S-Video and the connections are:

First ring - Ground
Second ring - Luminance (Y)
Tip - Chrominance (C)

I nwas therefore able to make up a lead using an S to S lead with one end cut off and wired as follows.

MiniDin pin 1, Y GND screen to minijack first ring
MiniDin pin 2, C GND screen also to minijack first ring
MiniDin pin 3, Y Signal to minijack second ring
Minidin pin 4, C Signal to minijack tip

I dont know if other devices use a minjack for S-Video, if they do, hopefully this is a standard configuration, and this information may be useful.