What's on the Poxy Box?

Author's Rating:

Pros: Reliable, easy to use

Cons: Small, quiet

The Bottom Line: 
Buy it if you need one, but think first if you really do!

Author's Review
It had never occurred to me to buy a portable DVD player. I have a laptop which will play DVDs, and on long journeys I am usually the driver, so I never felt the need for one. I came to acquire this Sony model through my work - it was bought for me by my boss as a reward for some good results - a totally unexpected gift which delighted me completely. To be fair, I love praise, so he could have bought me a box of Roses or just thrown me a Bonio with much the same effect!

The DVD player remained in its box for a couple of months, and I shoved it to the back of a cupboard with the mercenary intention of selling it on Ebay, or re-gifting come Christmas. I kept the "Well Done" card pinned to my kitchen notice-board, as to me that had been the best part of the package.

A few months ago, however, my boyfriend's laptop broke, and he bought a new one which crashed whenever you play video. I used to watch episodes of Lost and Dawsons Creek while he watched football on the telly, so this annoyed me a little, until I remembered I had this bad boy stashed away.

I dragged it out and unpacked it from its box - tons of different bits and pieces came out, which made me quite daunted, and I expected to have to get my boyfriend to set it up for me. On reading the instructions, however, I found that most of the stuff in the box was just accessories, such as headphones, and a USB connector, adaptor etc. In fact, it took me very little time to set up, and since doing so I have had no issues wth operating it - its intuitive, and doesn't seem to go wrong (touch wood)!

The design of it is surprisingly sleek - mine is a deep glossy blue and they are also available in white, pink or red (my boss is a Chelsea fan, so that would explain his choice). It is nice and compact, 20cm x 15.5cm, so roughly A5 size, and about 4cm thick. It weighs 0.84 of a kilogram, which is not much, but it feels pretty heavy in your hand because of its small size. You certainly notice it if you put it in your handbag, let's put it that way.

Unfortunately the convenience of the compact design means that the screen is measly - only 7", and 480x234dpi. This makes for a slightly uninspiring viewing experience. Its too small, really for more than one person to watch at once as you need to be quite close to it to see what's going on. The colours and sharpness are ok but nothing special, and overall I find watching DVDs on it is a far inferior experience to watching on a proper laptop.

The sound quality isn't brilliant either. Its clear and sharp, but the volume doesn't go very high. You couldn't for example, use it in the car on a motorway without employing headphones. Obviously as a driver, I would prefer not to hear the latest High School Musical blasting over my shoulder as I cruise the M6, but there is only one imput for headphones, so if you have two little darlings in the back, they'll have to squabble or split the headphones and stick their fingers in their other ears! That's if they can both sit close enough to each other to see properly without the temptation to pinch, bite and poke overcoming them.

You can use the player for photos and music as well as video, and if you connect it to a laptop it will play MP3s, MP4s, DIVX and JPEG files. It doesn's support WMV format though, and if you have a laptop, I'm not sure why you wouldn't just use that to play files rather than go through the rigmarole of sending them to a much smaller screen.

Full Spec and manuals are available from:
http://www.sony.co.uk/product/portable-dvd/dvp-fx730#pageType=Overview

Overall, I can't say this is a bad product, because it is what it is, and it's reliable and easy to use. If you have a need for such a thing there is no reason not to buy this, but personally, although I use it now and again because the laptop's dodgy, I wouldn't bother spending my own money. It costs upwards of $200.