Home > Consumer Reviews > Initial IDM-1731 Portable DVD Player with 7-Inch LCD

When I first saw the Initial IDM-1731 I'd bought for my mother, I was envious. I'd just purchased a little 5-inch GoVideo/Memorex for myself and was impressed with the sharpness and clarity. Now I was looking at a 7-inch screen. Talk about poor timing!

But when I turned it on, the envy left me immediately. The sharpness and clarity was more like that of a VHS. There was no shadow detail and even on widescreen, the image looked stretched. When changed to TV ratio, the perspective was perfect, but you lose half of your screen size. Good enough for mom, probably but I was awful glad I'd gotten the little GoVideo.

No matter which one of these guys you go with, drop by a Radio Shack and pick up a small amplifier. Powered by a tiny battery, you can plug your headphones in and use it on an airplane. If you don't, you won't have the volume to hear over the engines.

And, again, get the 5-inch screen. This and the GoVideo are obviously made by the same company. And why haul around something as heavy as this around when you don't have the benefit of a sharp screen.

This is a horrible piece of equipment! I have owned 9 players and also purchased the 2 year free replacement extended warranty (thank goodness). My first lasted 7 months before the screen broke. My second lasted 4 months before it quit playing. My third free replacement broke in 4 days. Every time it was a different defect. Comp USA has replaced so many of these that they no longer offer a free replacement warranty on this machine. Spend a little more to get a good machine! Don't forget to buy the extended warranty...it's worth it!!!

I purchased this dvd player 3 months ago as a partial solution to the boredom that occurs during my almost monthly 3-8 hour flights for my job. It does a ok job at what it does... but not great.

THE GOOD:
Price - This is one of the cheapest 7" models you are going to find anywhere.
Battery life - I've routinely seen battery life of almost 3 hours.

THE BAD:
Screen - its low resolution screen makes watching movies on a flight somewhat harsh as you can easily see the pixels in the screen from lap level.
Speakers - This player's speakers aren't loud enough for a relatively quiet vehicle ride, so using the speakers on a plane is a total no go.
Battery attachment - While the battery life is good as I said above, the placement on the back of the player itself is terrible. It's makes the player clunky and much larger than it needs to be when you attach the battery to the player.
Disc compatibility - It seems to not like some types of DVD-R discs as you have to load them into the unit several times before it wants to read them.

OVERALL:
I'd say it's a 5-6 out of 10. It serves it's purpose adequately, but not outstandingly. It's a good player for the kids or a someone of a budget. Otherwise, I'd spend a bit more ($100 or so) and buy a brand name unit from Toshiba or Panasonic.

My wife bought this unit in August but we didn't really use it until October. I was looking forward to enjoying a couple movies of my own choice on a cross country trip. But - you guessed it, half way into any movie, any disk, it would freeze up. I would have to stop the unit, restart, then try to find where I left off then it would freeze again.

I spoke to the tech guy at Initial (1-800-216-5156). I told him what happened and mentioned the fact that so many other reviewers had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM. He said that most of those were because people had 'dropped' or 'trashed' their units! Since the 30 days had elapsed Curcuit City couldn't give rip (basicly telling me tough sh*t)and Initial says they will fix it for $45 plus shipping and a 5 week wait. What great service!

Basically I think this unit has a serious design flaw and Initial is trying to avoid a recall. I don't know how you get a recall going but I would be the first to demand one.

Spend a little extra money for a better unit (Panasonic maybe?)with REAL service.

I will say that the picture on my unit was great. When it is frozen you have a lot of time to really look at the detail . . . .

I purchased the 7" Initial DVD player before reading any reviews on it, now I wish I hadn't been quite so quick to buy a no-name brand. The picture quality is really excellent, but unfortunately I only got 15 second to 5 minutes of viewing in before it would freeze up. After 2 weeks of continually freezing, or refusing to load at all, it's back where I got it and I'm saving for a namebrand. Whatever causes these same problems in all these 1 star reviews is still going on, mine was fresh on the shelf when I bought it in October 2004.