I'm thinking of buying a portable DVD player. I have been looking at what Wal-Mart has to offer and I see a brand named Durabrand for $149.87. It has a 7 inch LCD display. It can play DVD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3, Kodak Picture CD. Do any of you have a portable DVD player? What kind do you have? Are you happy with it? I notice that the players have wide screen dimensions. How do the Charlie Chan movies display on them?
I'm also considering ordering the 12 disk Charlie Chan set from Old Time Radio UK. Have any of you ordered from them? I see they are now selling them for $85. Sounds like a good deal if they are good quality.
Anyway, I would appreciate any feedback you can give me on this.
Thank you
Jack
jack@theofficenet.com
I have seen portable DVD players at retail stores such as the one you mention. I, too, hope to get one someday fairly soon. Aside from that, I cannot offer any suggestions to you. I am sure that if you were to purchase the machine you mentioned, got it home and tried to play your DVDs on it, and if you were not completely satisfied with the quality that you could get a refund.
I have a complete Chan set from Old Time Radio, U.K. and am VERY satisfied with the quality, although the quality does vary from film to film, with a very few, maybe three at most, being close to "viewable" or even "poor." This said, I still say this deal cannot be beat, and a little quick math tells me that, at $85 for 12 disks each with three films (36) comes to less than $2.40 per movie! And FREE postage on top of that!
I have heard from someone whose opinion I trust state that he has purchased more expensive DVD Chan films from other reputable sellers whose product is no better than that offered by Old Time Radio, U.K. Andy, who runs Old Time Radio is very honest, and bends over backward to keep his customers happy. One person who regularly attends our Monday evening Chat/Film Viewings told all of us how Andy sent her replacement DVDs at no charge to replace some that were not playing properly in her DVD oplayer.
Hopefully this has been of some help to you, Jack.
I bought the set from Andy in the UK in June. They played fine, but I had some problems last month. I emailed Andy and he sent me a new sent gratis. We think it was bad disks. I would heartily recommend him. He's a nice honest guy.
I don't have a portable DVD player, but in regards to your question about the widescreen dimensions, you might want to make sure that the player has an aspect ratio control feature that will allow you to watch the movie in 4x3 mode. If not, the player will either chop off the top/bottom of the picture or it will stretch the image to fill the screen.
I have the Eran Trece DVD from Andy and it is very well done. Unfortunately I couldn't get any of his other Chan DVDs to play in my player so I had to return them to Andy. He was very gracious about this and explained that the media he uses is incompatible with a handful of players.
Hi Steve,
Hey, thanks for the information. I think I'd better get in touch with him and see if the disks are compatible with the player I plan on buying.
