Portable DVD players are compact, simple to operate, they do one thing and they do it well. Or at least, they used to do just one thing. Some interesting features have begun making their way onto portable DVD players recently, so it seemed like a good time to revisit the product category. I had the chance to spend some time with three models from Audiovox, Coby and Philips. Each one will get the job done and each one brings something special to the (airplane tray) table.
With the D8000IP, Audiovox gives you an eight inch LCD, two headphone jacks, an integrated USB port and iPod connectivity. Upon evaluation, the unit’s black plastic case felt a bit chintzy and button clicks tended to echo, but everything behaved as expected. Although eight inches makes for an ideal screen size, I was disappointed that Audiovox affixed the screen to a fixed, non-swiveling hinge. Also, and this may be the unit’s chief drawback, the D8000IP requires a bulky battery pack that adds significant depth and weight to the unit. It’ll still work fine in coach, but it’s not what I’d call compact.
The D8000IP is one of a growing number of portable DVD players to feature an integrated iPod dock. This allows the machine to double as both a DVD player and a television screen for any video you might have stored on your iPod. Using it as an iPod video player, picture quality was about what you’d expect from an iTunes download – good, but nothing particularly special. I used the “Drug Testing” episode of NBC’s “The Office” as my iPod test material. Unfortunately, TV shows download from iTunes in a letterboxed 1.33:1 format; this means that the only way to see the episode in its proper aspect ratio is to watch it “windowboxed” with black bars on all four sides. This greatly reduces the potential image size, but at least Dwight Schrute’s head is the proper shape. Once again, this is not a fault of Audiovox but rather the format in which iTunes video gets downloaded.
