Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DVPFX810 8-Inch Portable DVD Player, Black

I've been using this product a lot for a couple months now. The screen is quite good and unlike other units I've tried this one has very low dvd spin noise (in fact, when a dvd is playing you don't hear it at all). So far I've not had one problem with this unit. Why only four stars then? Because the volume is really not loud enough; infact, I use this with two small portable Sony speakers that plug into one of the two mike jacks (the speakers work with their own battery). The overall battery life is great, but of course you can plug into a regular wall outlet or battery outlet in your car.

Sony, a name of usually high quality products doesn't disappoint with the DVPFX810. Here's my breakdown of this product:

PROS:
Beautiful design
AWESOME battery life compared to any other player out there (5 hours +)
large 8" screen
Lots of options for contrast, brightness, etc.
excellent full functioning remote
swiveling screen makes it easy to watch movie on cramped plane tray (just like a tablet PC)
Acrylic hard coating screen makes for a scratch resistant viewing area
Plays DVD-Rs or CD-Rs with Jpegs
Plays mp3 with excellent sound on burned discs
2 headphone jacks
car charger included
dual remote sensors on unit for convenience of operation
PRICE IS EXCELLENT

CONS:
the screen is merely average, actually has less pixels vertically than a smaller sized PSP (280 for PSP 220 for this)
built in stereo speakers don't get too loud (use your headset)
no included case
no memory stick/SD card slot

Conclusion: This is a VERY good unit for under $200. I got mine for $200 even including tax (thats the deal I made with ABC warehouse). There aren't any other units that can play 2 full movies on one charge that is 8" in diameter. I highly recommend this in spite of its few shortcomings.

Less then a month after we received this DVD player it stopped working, we returned it to Sony for a replacment but they didn't have one so the "repaired" this one. 3 weeks later (a long time in my opinion) we received the "repaired" one back, and the motor was so loud when playing that it wasn't really useable - so back to Sony again. It's been about a week now and we haven't heard back on whether or not they are fixing that one or if they have any replacement units yet. Don't recommend it. It's also a little on the heavy side (maybe some people would like that). Our last one was a panasonic 50 (old version I think) and it died after about 18 months - we thought that was unacceptable so we bought the Sony - but in retrospect I wish we had bought our old one again. It lasted longer, was lighter weight and the screen tilt was more versatile.

Finally a portable DVD with a truly spectacular picture. This is the 5th different DVD portable I have purchased and up until now I was pretty dissapointed with the grainy pictures I was seeing. This little guy has a great picture. The operation is smooth. Included is everything you need for portable viewing and inside viewing. Sony does it again. I've only owned this for 1 month but it has played every home made DVD-R I have made and every movie without a glitch! The sound is alos quite good for a portable unit. Great purchase.

I was looking for stereotypical Sony quality but did not find it in this machine ($198.00). First of all, the quad-motion "Enter" button on the unit doesn't work, I had to use the remote. Second, every time when starting a disc, or restarting from Pause or Stop, the English subtitle comes on. I can't find a way to make this not be the default start-up item. So I again drag out the remote and manually turn off the subtitle each time I get ready to watch a disc. Thirdly, and this is my biggest complaint, the speakers hardly put out any volume whatsoever despite having the volume control put on high. With the volume control on high the headphones I purchased from Sony ($19.99) did put out enough volume. Nevertheless the speakers should put out enough volume to be able to hear a movie in a quiet room. Fourthly, the resolution is too low. I can't read the credits at the end of a movie. All in all, make sure you know what you're getting beforehand if you decide to purchase this product.