Sony's DVP FX810 - A Solid Player With A Decent Screen

Sony's DVP FX810 portable DVD player is a solidly built device with a sufficiently long battery life. Although it doesn't come with headphones, it does include a number of useful accessories. While the nuts and bolts of the DVP FX810 are well-made, what brings it down is the most important part of a portable DVD player – the screen. The FX810's screen is only average, and that ultimately prevents it from receiving a stronger recommendation.

Physical Stats

The FX810 measures a shade under 9” wide and a shade over 6” deep. Its thickness is about 1 1/4” without its battery, and a little more than 1 1/2” with the battery. It is nearly all-black with a silver band around the outside edge of the screen. With a hard plastic exterior, it feels sufficiently well-made to withstand being thrown in a bag for traveling. It's not light; with its battery, it's nearly 3 lbs, not much less than some laptops.

The screen is 8” on the diagonal with a widescreen format. The screen itself raises up and swivels 180 degrees, and will even fold flat on top of the player, not unlike a tablet laptop. All the inputs/outputs are on the right side – two headphone jacks, and audio/video jacks with a switch to go from input to output. The volume control is also on the right side, as well as the power cord receptacle.

In The Box

In addition to the player itself, the DVP FX810 comes with plenty of accessories, save one notable omission – headphones! To a degree, the headphones that are typically included with a device aren't worth a crap, but, if you're like me, you'll have to go back and get your headphones the first time you use the player because you didn't realize they weren't included. Just something to keep in mind.

The player does come with audio/visual cables, a remote control (with batteries) and a car adapter. The missing headphones really aren't a big deal, but the lack of carrying case, let alone one that can be slung onto a carseat headrest for easy viewing, is a bit of a bummer.

Screen

The FX810 has a good sized screen at 8”, widescreen. It is covered with a hard acrylic coating for protection of the LCD screen. The screen itself is adequate, nothing more. Your kid is never going to notice the difference between it and a high-end player. You might, however, as the picture lacks the crispness of something more expensive. In addition, the best viewing isn't a wide range of angles. You'll have to adjust the angle of the viewscreen until you get it just right, and then don't move very much, or you'll lose the best picture. Of course, if you're sharing the player with a friend, neither one of you is going to get the best picture.

It's probably an unfair comparison, but from purchasing their TVs over the years, I've come to expect the best picture from Sony. This isn't it, and it detracts from what is otherwise, a very good player.

Sound

I have the same complaints about the sound on the FX810 that I do for every other DVD player – it doesn't go high enough. The fact is, you cannot listen to a DVD player with ordinary headphones on a plane; the engine noise is simply too loud. Yes, I know the problem is easily fixed with an expensive set of headphones, and I imagine the volume maximum is set to ensure that little kids don't fry their eardrums, but I still find it really annoying. When I left my headphones at home on a recent trip and had to buy some at the airport, they weren't of the best quality, and I was left straining to hear the volume most of the time.

But that problem is not unique to the FX810, of which I have no complaints about its sound. A single control on the right side regulates the volume, which is adequate either with its speakers or through the headphone jack. It's not your surround system at home, but it meets the expectations of a portable player.

Controls

The controls for the FX810 have their pros and cons. It does feature a number of controls immediately below the screen which are readily accessible, even if you are using it like a tablet with the screen folded back on top of the player. However, while the controls include the necessities like play, stop, pause, display and menu, they do not include fast-forward and rewind, instead only offering previous and next chapter. I like to not-infrequently rewind during movies (probably a bad habit I got into with my TiVo at home) because I either missed a line of dialogue or wanted to see something a second time. Not possible, unless you use the remote.

The remote is not the “credit card” variety you often see in portable media devices, but rather a full-sized remote with all the buttons and all the features. Again, there are pros and cons here. On one hand, do you want a full-size remote that's going to take up more room in your carry-on bag on the plane? On the other hand, I don't use the remote with a portable media device on a plane or in a car, and I doubt anyone else does either. If I ever use the remote, it's the rare occasion that I've hooked up the portable device to a hotel TV or someone else's home, and in such a case, a full size remote would come in handy (but I still don't want to find a place for it in my bag).

Battery

Sony bills the FX810 as having 6 hours of battery time. That's an exaggeration, as if it were true, I should be able to watch three movies on a single charge. You can watch two full-length movies without any danger of shutdown, however, which is pretty darn good.

Actual warning from manual - “Note that there is a danger of explosion if battery is incorrectly replaced.” I love Sony, I really do, but the lengths they go to keep you from going off-brand. . .

Compatibility

The FX810 plays virtually every type of disc you'll want or need to play – DVD Video, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL, as well as CDs, CD-R, and CD-RW. I have personally recorded taped shows from my TiVo onto DVDs, and the FX810 played those discs without a problem (granted, they were both Sony machines, but playing home-recorded discs is always a crapshoot in my book).

Parental Controls

The FX810 includes the ability to enable parental control through the use of a password. The rating level can be set between 1 and 8, and the player will automatically prevent the viewing of movies and even specific scenes that are unsuitable for that level. The alternative, of course, is to actually know what the heck your kids are watching, but I suppose this prevents them from swiping that Rated R movie from your collection and watching it in their room on their portable DVD player.

Conclusion

At under $200, the DVP FX810 is a good value. More people won't notice, let alone care, about the screen resolution, and a good, durable player with a decent screen earns a recommendation, just not a “must buy.”