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

After much agonizing about the cost of portable dvd players, we found this one at an amazing price. With some hesitation, based on reviews and lack of familiarity with this brand, we bought one prior to a recent 3-hour airplane trip with our three year old daughter. We were pleasantly surprised with the picture and sound quality (especially at this price!), and the battery lasted exactly a full three hours. And, despite a bumpy flight and an even bumpier 1-hour ride to our destination, we didn't experience one skip or problem. The only thing that was even slightly disappointing is that the battery doesn't "lock" onto the unit very securely and is potentially left dangling by the plug. Not a problem, considering that our usage will be occasional, just something we had to be aware of when we were picking the unit up or moving it. Also, be aware of the fact that this unit doesn't come with headphones. The other accessories are all there, though - car adapter, battery charger, cables to hook up to TV, etc. Sure, we would have felt more comfortable with a name brand like Panasonic or Toshiba, but at this price, this little machine was wonderful for our purposes. We've been very pleased so far!

I have owned my initial portable for about six months now. I have had nothign but good luck with it for the most part, a few little things but nothing big. When you buy this, your taking a risk as you can see from all the reviews. I think some are made well and some aren't so be sure to buy the extended warranty. (circuit city 40.00) Best Buy 80.00 these are the prices for 4 years warranties. I got mine at circuit city of course. I payed 130.00 for it (cheap) and here are the positives and negatives of it.

Positives
1. Nice layout of buttons and controls
2. Cute remote that has all the options
3. Great picture Quality
4. Comes with car charger and to hook it up to your home dvd player
5. Battery life seems to be about 2 hours (good)
6. Very compact can bring it anywhere, still works fine and i've dropped it from my bed to the floor!

Negatives
1. Sometimes you can hear the motor but its not too bad
2. The sound quality is average one should use headphones with it if they are in a slightly noisy place. (thats how most of the portable dvd players are though)
3. My biggest gripe, it will not play some of my dvd's like "Seed of Chucky" and "The Best of Everything" they are region 1 and copyrighted maybe the copyright has something to do with it. I have 130 dvd's and these are the only 2 it won't play. It can be moody and or picky with what it plays the disc needs to be clean.

Overall though a great product loses a star for not playing all of my movies but well worth it but be sure to get the extended warranty.

I got 2 DVD player and both had problems. The first I received had an annoying "tac-tac-tac" and got really hot. I returned it and I was sent a replacement. The replacement although the same model, was an older one with same estrange features like having to connect the battery with a cable to run the player with it... still this model also had the annoying "tac-tac-tac" so I returned it. Finally I bought the Milata 710V, although a little bigger a much better one

I have had this DVD player for 3 months, and I use it most days on my 1 hour bus commute home from work.
It works great, convenient to carry around, the quality is good, and overall it has been a pleasant suprise.

I have two technical problems with it, but they are not bad enough to regret choosing this player:
1) Because of the way the battery detaches, it shifts side to side while it is connected. If you shift it to the right while the unit is operating then *POOF* it shuts off. It's particularly annoying since that happens to me once a week or so on the bus.
2) This happened to me twice (different movies) - the machine froze on a frame and would not play about 1 minute of the movie. These disks were not in good shape and were probably scratched there, but I felt the player didn't handle it well.

Overall - It's worth the $200 if you need a portable player.

This player locked up several times. The screen would freeze and we would restart, then it would lock up again. I've probably written only one other review in 5+ years I've shopped Amazon. This product was so bad that I wanted to warn others. When we hooked it up to our TV, the picture was also bad. When I returned it, the store clerk told me that she gets these back all the time, and that she rarely gets back the Panasonics. If you are lucky enough to get one of these that works, then it's a great deal. But if it's ultimately doomed to fail, is it really a bargain. Better to spend an extra hundred bucks...