Panasonic DVD-LS50 7-Inch Portable DVD Player Review
The DVD-LS50 and DVD-LS55 are essentially the exact same DVD players, save the much larger / heavier and longer lasting battery in the LS55; and the LS55 has a pretty useless FM transmitter to listen through an FM radio (through your car speakers without an audio jack). The chassis is exactly the same.
This portable DVD player is my best friend. It has travelled with me for the past 5 years, well over 300,000 miles worth of plane trips (last year it was on about 50 short round trips) and hotels all over the world. That funky looking hinge looks like a crazy, useless idea - au contraire, it is well near brilliant. Its super easy to adjust the viewing angle and position to the perfect spot. Aside from a recent tear down and cleaning, this DVD player has not let me down. If you have landed on this review, it is probably because you are looking at the portable DVD player from a used source. This is a darn good DVD player.
The small bad thing I had to do recently. Discs would sometimes skip after playing for a while. As with almost all DVD players there is a worm drive for the laser, and it is pretty much totally exposed to the elements - hair, dust, dirt...all kinds of things. No matter how well you take care of this, the worm drive is going to get gunked up. It's a pretty simple matter to remove all the screws from the back, pull off the back, undo one ribbon cable connector (the flip down trap type), take a cotton swab or small screwdriver and remove all the gunk. A light spray of a compatible lubricant, I used 3M's silicone spray, and the machine was back in business. There are pictures of the teardown available, just use your favorite search engine.
This DVD player has probably seen over a 1,000 DVD's in its lifetime. As it's gotten older, dual layer DVD+R's are a bit random if they will play. I've never had a problem with single layer DVD's. Commercial discs play flawlessly. In an airplane, if you set the player on a tray table, after about an hour the machine gets pretty warm and some discs will skip. The solution is to just hold the player in your hands, or don't put on a full cover label on the DVD.
Quality of this player - images are good. I've always had the color dialed all the way down to -5, and even there the saturation is a bit intense for my taste. Over the long haul, I've had to set brightness a bit higher. I used to watch at 0 in a normally lit room, and -3 or -5 in a darkened plane. Now I'm finding 0 for the dark plane, 2 or 3 for the room, and 5 in any kind of daylight. The screen is still very visible. Two headphone jacks, outstanding, I share a movie occasionally with my wife. I've never used the optical out. But line out audio and composite video with the included cable work just great in the new hotel room video television connectors. No this does not have component out available at all. The build is solid. That hinge has lasted a great long time. I can always adjust it to get a good quality image.
Video does require a straight on view; the viewing angle is very narrow. Speaker sound - what do you expect? They are dinky speakers - great for in a quiet room and one person. Headphones are the way to go for sound on this machine.
The player is rugged. In all these miles and all these discs, there are only three tiny chips in the black paint, not a wear mark or scratch anywhere else. The battery has held up well. I can easily watch two full movies on a single charge. Yes its 5 years old, so the battery doesn't have the capacity it once did. Replacement batteries are readily available, but sadly they are almost the price of a whole new player. I'm considering a DVD-LS83 with a larger screen, less battery life, and much heavier. But it is a whole lot less money than I paid for the LS-55 brand new (read way over 500 dollars).
This is a really great portable DVD player. It has served me extremely well.
Panasonic DVD-LS50 7-Inch Portable DVD Player Feature
- Portable DVD player with 7-inch screen; measures 7.5 x 6.5 x 1.1 inches (W x H x D) and weighs 1.8 pounds
- Adjustable LCD screen; Cinema Mode lessens glare; dialogue enhancer increases center-channel volume
- Compatible with DVD-Audio, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, video and audio CDs, MP3, WMA, and CD-R/-RW discs
- 1 A/V out and headphone minijack
- Dolby Digital and DTS surround-sound output (for use with compatible A/V receiver and speaker system)
Panasonic DVD-LS50 7-Inch Portable DVD Player Overview
The DVD-LS50 features a 7-inch (diagonal screen measurement) LCD 16: 9 screen, built-in stereo speakers, the Mono Arm design and dual headphone jacks. The battery life of the DVD-LS50 is 2.9 hours at the minimum LCD brightness. The Panasonic portable DVD player includes high-speed, 5-step Smooth Motion Scan, a feature that provides crystal-clear forward and reverse scan, in 5 speeds. At the highest setting, the unit scans at an incredible 100 times normal speed. Panasonic portable DVD player optimizes the viewing experience by adding two key features - Dialog Enhancer and Cinema Mode. Dialog Enhancer boosts the center channel volume - where most of the principal dialog emanates when playing a Dolby Digital 5.1 disc - by 6dB. Cinema Mode improves the picture quality by reducing glare, softening resolution and improving visibility of details in dark scenes - resulting in a more realistic, cinema-like image.
Panasonic DVD-LS50 7-Inch Portable DVD Player Specifications
Enjoy your favorite movies wherever you roam with Panasonic's portable DVD-LS50 multiformat DVD player. Featuring a 7-inch screen, the 16:9 aspect ratio DVD-LS50 enables you to watch movies in widescreen format or conventional 4:3 formats such as letterbox and pan-and-scan. The LCD can be manually adjusted to a variety of different angles that can accommodate a wide range of viewing positions. The DVD-LS50 also features built-in stereo speakers, a rechargeable battery with a battery life of up to 3 hours, audio output for Dolby Digital and DTS, and a remote control.
In addition to DVD video discs, the DVD-LS50 is compatible with DVD-Audio, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, video and audio CDs, MP3, WMA, and CD-R/-RW discs. It also supports HighMAT (High-Performance Media Access Technology), a technology codeveloped by Panasonic and Microsoft that improves the method of storing, arranging, and playing back digital photo, music, and video collections on recordable discs, such as DVD and CD recordable media.
With the high-speed, 5-step Smooth Motion Scan feature, you'll get crystal-clear forward and reverse scan at 100 times normal speed at its highest setting. The Cinema Mode function lessens glare, providing colors that are more cinemalike, and picture resolution that is gentler to the eyes. It also improves the visibility of details in dark scenes by automatically adjusting picture contrast, and helps to suppress color smearing as well. The Dialogue Enhancer feature increases the center-channel volume relative to other channels, making movie dialogue easier to hear and understand.
The DVD-LS50 has 1 composite A/V out and a 3.5 mm headphone minijack. It offers advanced virtual surround sound, headphone surround sound, and optical digital audio output for Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound--making this road warrior a complete solution for your home theater as well.
Tech Talk
Dolby Digital: Digital audio compression technology developed by Dolby Laboratories that provides the same 5.1 discrete channels of high-quality digital audio found in Dolby Digital cinema audio systems. Because all of the channel data are recorded discretely, Dolby Digital offers good channel separation and little sound deterioration due to the digital channel data processing. It conforms to 5.1-channel surround sound. The rear channel is stereo, and there is a discrete subwoofer channel.
DTS: Digital audio compression technology developed by Digital Theater Systems that conforms to 5.1-channel surround sound. The rear channel is stereo, and there is a discrete subwoofer channel.
What's in the Box
Panasonic DVD-LS50 portable DVD player, remote control, batteries for remote control, rechargeable battery, and AC adapter.
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*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Mar 10, 2010 17:52:20
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