Panasonic DVD-LS80 8.5-Inch Portable DVD Player
See it at Amazon.com for $228.21Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)the 6G of Portable DVD Players - Panasonic does it again
Bottom line up front: This DVD player is ideal - it is light, great battery life, evolved smart design, and looks great. It has a faux black leatherlike coating on the screen backing and the black matte finish to the player which looks cool and doesn't distract from the movie. The hinge that rotates the player from tablet-like flat to most any angle is strong and well hinged - looks like it would survive a fall. The picture is perfect without any adjustments; however, there is a button that adjusts for daylight and moonlight viewing as well as a a button to adjust brightness and color manually. The main menu allows several video adjustments (I used full digital noise reduction and full depth enhancer). Also, I enable bass boost, dialogue enhancer and sound enhancer and use Headphones Enhanced from the speaker/headphone menu. The buttons at the bottom of the player are easy to use and clearly marked for playback and the center button to the right of the dvd door allows up down and side to side menu navigation. I like a small button just above play that lets you advance the movie frame by frame with each push of the button and then hit play to resume. The picture is tight and not pixelated to my eyes. The colors are very warm, I prefer to tone them back a few notches. I noticed that this model seems to have better viewing angles. Before when watching say in the kitchen on the older DVD-LX97 I noticed that the angle had to be just right or I couldn't see the picture - not an issue anymore - great! It supports DIVX, which I plan to use extensively. I don't care about some new bells and whistles such as usb flash drive support or memory card readers - those aren't the purpose - playing DVDs right away is and this does the trick. No remote is not an issue with me, never use them for portable devices anyway. My wife really likes these Panasonic players, this is our second one, your family will too. Mine gets used every night on my bedstand to watch movies as I fall asleep so I don't have to fall asleep to Roseanne reruns on nick at night. A gadget guys best friend.
(1 out of 5)Terrible. Marketed as a 6 hour portable but only lasts 3
So I bought this portable DVD for my dad for his birthday. I chose this one because it had the longest battery life of any other option on the market at the time, and had the best array of features and support (plus it looks really nice).
We received the device, and my dad let's it charge overnight, as instructed. He tests it out the next day by watching a video, running on battery charge only. It lasts 3 hours. He does the same test the following day. Lasts even less time.
We call customer support. Here's the story they tell:
In order to achieve a 6 hour battery life you have to use headphones, not the external speakers and run the display at -5 brightness. Just the clarify, -5 brightness is BLACK. There is no picture at this brightness. So essentially, you're listening to the sound track. This is a glorified CD player at this point, and even then, the battery life is crummy.
We then write a letter to the chairman, only to get a letter back from a director of marketing telling us exactly the same thing.
This product, likely a great DVD player, has been ruined by Panasonics Marketing department. The fact that the DVD player explicitly says 6 hour battery life on the package, multiple times, and no where indicates the need to drop the display to -5 brightness (except in the manual) and yet doesn't even come close to that level of performance is terrible.
I've been a huge supporter of Panasonic products. Saying they're the underdog and under rated. Well now, I'm changing my tune.
You know, it's ok to be wrong. Admit the package and marketing of this product are wrong, and don't tell me the customer, who supports your job and business and technology and brand, that I'm wrong, or that I have to use the product in such a way that it doesn't even make logical sense.
So for those of you thinking to buy this, keep looking. It's not what it says it is.
(5 out of 5)Great for the road
Just returned from a two-week trip to London and Paris: this unit was a winner. Both kids were able to watch movies at the same time which reduced the wear and tear on Mom and Dad. No issues with 250V/50Hz power. It's small, light and has excellent battery life. Don't waste your time on the ultra-cheap units: buy this one and be happy.
(5 out of 5)Very happy with this product!
I had done a lot of comparison shopping before purchasing this product and was very pleased with the item.
The long battery life is SO worth the price over the cheap models with the shorter battery life. The player's screen can be tilted and angle adjusted and the picture quality is great! Using the settings you can even adjust the size of the image on the screen, depending on whether you like the picture widescreen, full screen, or other. The sound quality is great. I was concerned since the volume seems to be a concern on some models, including the sony, however we used this on a loud airplane ride with no problems. It has 2 headphone connections which is nice. If you need to hook up more headphones, I purchased a splitter at Radio Shack, and it worked great with this DVD player, allowing my 3 children to listen using headphones with no complaints! We also used the provided cables to hook it up to a tv and it worked wonderfully and the picture was still fantastic. Also, it does NOT have a remote, which was actually my preference. I did not want a tiny remote with such a small portable device. I would have been afraid to loose it, and then be stuck with a machine I could not use.
(5 out of 5)Big things come in small packages.
This little DVD does the work of a big TV. And it is very compact with a screen that can be positioned. Great for travel, great for home.