Very nice but with flaws

First off, I've tried many of the newest portable DVD players before settling on this one.

The picture on this unit is fantastic. The colors are rich and the resolution is about as good as it gets in a portable DVD player. It also has useful features like a multi-card reader, component cable to hook up to a TV, and pretty decent sound for a portable, but that that's where the good stuff ends.

The SD-P2900 is top heavy even without the heavy battery attached to the bottom, so if you watch it in bed or on a sofa, etc., you may find it has a tendency to tip over backwards. The remote is not the easiest to use. Some most often used buttons are also the smallest, making it difficult to operate in the dark.

The most serious problem I've found though is that the DVD mechanism itself is quite loud. During load up and chapter changes, there is a painful screeching sound, and during normal play, there is a constant noise that's hard to describe while the disc is spinning, which is different than the relatively quiet hum that most portable DVD players have while the disc spins. This sometimes requires that the volume be turned up during quiet passages in a movie. Finally, on a few occasions I got a message that the DVD was invalid. I would have to stop the player and start it again to get it to play the DVD.

All in all it's a very good player that doesn't have the "cheap" look and feel of some other players out there, and if those issues don't bother you, it's a great player.

NOTE: I went back to the store and listened to the one on display. It didn't have that screeching noise I hear on mine. It could be that the store has more background noise which makes it harder to hear the noise or that mine is defective. The unit at the store still had the annoying sound during playback though.