Magnavox MDP850---Nice Little Babysitter

We finally caved in and decided to let the kids chip in for one of these portable DVDs for use in the car during longer trips. Once we got things situated I was pleasantly surpised by the experience it provided.

PICTURE:
The picture is better than I expected. There are a few adjustment you can make. You can adjust the color and brightness. This comes in handy for backseat car viewing, The 8.5 inch scree was surprisingly adaquate for back seat viewing. The screen folds up and over to close to protect the screen or may be closed face up for viewing while requiring minimal space. It also extends front/back offering a nice variety of viewing horizontal view angles. It does not swivel though.

SOUND:
Sound thru the speakers is just OK. When I connected the speaker jack to my car's radio the sound was VERY good. You can connect the unit to your car radio provided your car radio has an AUX input jack and you have the necesary connecting cable. This cable is similar to what you would use with your MP3 player to connect it to your car radio and is and available at WalMart for a couple of bucks. I tried a cheap .99 pair of headphones and they yeilded very good sound as well. Listening from a head phone or car/home speakers will yeild best results. The provided speakers will suffice for home use but may not be adaquate if your car is noisy...or filled with noisy folks. There are dual headphone jacks on the side of the unit.

BATTERY:
The battery connects to the back of the unit and charges when the power cord is plugged in. A red light shows while charging and shut off when done. A green light would have been nice for when the unit was fully charged. We charged the unit twice so far. The battery lasted over 3 hours each time. I recharged it before it ran out so I can not say how long it would have gone. Having a battery that last this long is nice on long trips. You can use the battery and eliminate the need for plugging into your cigarette lighter.

INPUTS AND OUTPUTS:
Input, Outputs and jacks are on the sides of the unit. Many if not maost units have these jacks on the side. I find this VERY annoying since inevitably you will need to plug cables into each side and it adds to the width of the unit. The unit itself wedged perfectly and snuggly between our front seats while resting on the front armrest. Tehre was however not enoough room to get the cables plugged in. I had bought a carry car to hang the unit fromt the carry bag. The unit fit nice and snuggly in the bag but once again there was not enough room to plug in the headphones or power cords while the unit was in the bag. Wider (10 inch) carry bags are available but rather liked the wag the unit snugly fit in the small bag I bought. COnsequently I bought some grommest and plan on sing them tho create pass thru access to the headhones, Car Adapter and AVin jacks. Then I can hang the unit in the car as desired while having in a bag consuming minimum space. One reason for having the jacks on the sides is because the battery connects in the back.

The unit has an AV Out to send its signal to a TV. It has a single input for gaming. (SEE NOTE ON GAMING THOUGH!)
It has something labelled coax in...I have no idea what this is for other than perhaps getting a cable in--not sure how usefull that would be and why you would not just connect this to the AVin. It has a DC input and car Adapter input. It has dual headphone jacks.

PROVIDED CABLES:
The car cigarette adapter is plenty long. The AC/DC home adapter is long but the plug is somewhat large compared to most plus. This makes toting it around in a case a real pain. There is a cable that has a single plug on one end that goes in the AVout and splits to the typical Red/Yellow/White for connecting to a TV. Its length is OK. This same cord can be used in for gaming but you need to plug it into the AVin. NOTE: It appears you must use the provided cable for this. I have a very similar cable that came with my camcorder. I tried using it with the Magnavox and it did not work unless I jiggled the cable just right. I tried a second cable I had---same thing. There is something a little different about the supplied Magnoavox cable....DON'T LOOSE it. This is a negative to me as they should use standard cables. Most of the time we will not be gaming or using this a s a DVD player connected to another tv so it is not a huge issue. It did give me a scare at first since I though I may have had a damaged unit.

GAMING:
If you have one of those 100 games in a portable joystick things or a themed portable joysticks (Sponge Bob for example-these are they types that can run off batteries) then you can attach your game to the AVin using the Magnovox supplied cable. (SEE CABLES NOTE ABOVE) You will need couplers though since your little joystick likely has Red/Yellow/White male connectors as does the supplied Magnavox cable. You will need female pass thru connectors to conenct everything up. These are available at Radio Shack for $7 or WalMart for $3. Radio Shacks are made better but WalMarts will suffice. There is a simple button on the DVD player that toggles between DVD, AVout and AVin.

WATCHING DVDs:
Press the open button. The door pops up. It seams a little flimsy. Insert the dvd and wait for it to load. Load time is a little slow and nosiy. After that the unit operated much like your typical DVD. It palys a myriad of formats but I tried only a store bought DVD and a home made DVD+R disk. Menu functions are most easily controlled from the 4 arrow keys that surround the enter key on the DVD itself. You can use the remote as well.

REMOTE:
The remote seams a little flimsy. They layout is merely adaquate. I do not think there is a power button or volume control. It uses one of those little pill batteries. It is small enough so as not to be a hassle to tote around in a case with the dvd but large enough to use. We did not use it on our trip as we were never that far from the 8.5 inch screen.

SECURING THE UNIT IN CAR:
Obviously this will change depending upon your car and where you wish to place the unit. Other than my comments on the input/output jack locations, there is not much to add here accept to be sure the unit is secured in some fashion so that if you speed up, hit the brakes or get in a fender bender the unit does not become a projectile. Plus you do not want your unit to fall and break. It has a 90 day labor and 1 year parts warranty I believe. I got mine at Best buy for abour $120. A 4 year warranty plan is $80---not worth it in my book. I heard a 2 year $30 plan may be available. That might be a worthwhile investment.


****UPDATE---7/9/2007
Regarding charging the battery. There is a green light that comes on when the unit is charged. It appears to go aff after some time thought so if you are charging overnight, you may not see it.

I was successfull in putting 7/8 grommets into the side of a leatherette case. These now act as a pass thru for cabling. I did have to shave down the AV cable a bit to pass thru the grommet. I guess you really would not need the grommets and could just poke a hole thru.