Nice DVD player in a slick package

Sony's DVP-FX810 Portable DVD Player is one of the few name-brand players in a market of bargain off-brand competitors. While there isn't much performance difference to distinguish one portable DVD player from the next, (they all play DVDs on a little screen), alongside its competition this Sony player looks and feels deluxe.

Many players I saw at Target, especially the dual screen models, had buttons, switches and cabling all over them, as if the designer had never asked himself if his wife would want it in her living room. Ergonomic they are not! By contrast, the Sony designers thought it through, and delivered the streamlined very ergonomic little DVD player. Just what you'd expect from the maker of Vaio laptops. The outside is textured black with brushed silver accents, instead of plastic painted silver. They also have it available in red. The inside is laid out very cleanly, and the screen is installed behind a hard acrylic bezel that protects it from sharp objects and dirty fingers. Classy and down-to-business. You could very easily take this to a sales presentation and not worry that the player made your organization look cheap. Speaking of cost, you're definitely paying for the name with this product, the off-brand players it competes against are much cheaper.

OK, so enough fluff, why'd I buy it? This player replaces our older RCA that recently died. We use the DVD player as a portable when we're traveling with the kids, and the rest of the time, it's plugged in to the TV as our primary DVD player.

Since the DVD player gets used every day, I wasn't too worried about spending a little extra for a name brand, (I looked at Panasonics at other stores, but when I was ready to buy I was at Target, and they didn't have Panasonics). I don't have videophile pretensions, my DVD player doesn't have to have the best picture in the world, or the best audio, I just want it to work reliably for a long time. I bought the Sony hoping that 2, 3 or 5 years from now, it will still track without skipping. Time will tell if that's the case. Had I checked Epinions ahead of time, I might have been swayed toward the Panasonic, which doesn't have any recurring negative comments, as this Sony does with its battery. But we'll fill out the product registration and hope for the best.

I've seen people diss this player because they can't get the buttons on the player to work. This is not a defect, it's a lock-out feature the owners didn't know about. The lockout could be a handy feature if running the player at a trade-show with a promotional video. The player has a three position power switch. "On" with the "lock-out" enabled, is left-most position on the power switch. Choose the middle "on" position for the onboard buttons to work. More info on page 16 of the user manual.

Other than that, using the player is very straightforward. Throw in a DVD, make sure it's completely seated, close the lid and wait for the menu to come up. Simple! Navigation from there is just like any other DVD player.

Lastly, I like the large, rugged remote that came with the player. Getting stepped on, or run over by a Tonka truck won't hurt it. If his DVD is already loaded, my 4 year old son can easily get his video rolling without any help from us, and using the remote, I don't have to worry about him bumping the sensitive mechanical parts of the player.

Would I recommend it? Sure, with a healthy dose of buyer-beware. The internal parts might be identical to the Coby, GPX or Polaroid players that sell for a fraction of the cost ... we'll never know. But if you're style conscious, or if you're being judged by the player you pull out at a sales meeting, this is the one you want.

Update, Jan. '08: Player continues to work very well, but I have to agree with other reviewers about the whisper quiet volume. They're right, it should be able to play louder. We drive an 2003 Honda Odyssey, which is not a quiet car. When we use this DVD player on a car trip the onboard speakers can't be heard over the road-noise. We attach the DVD player to a little FM transmitter and play the audio through the car stereo which solves the problem.