DVP-FX730 7-Inch Portable DVD Player, Black

I bought an inexpensive (COBY) DVD player for my daughter for car rides that lasted 3 months before it busted. Decided to buy from a name I know, and I have been very impressed. PROS: 1) Very portable. Nice and light 2) Bright, clear screen 3) Great sound 4) Battery life is up to 6 hours (We have gotten better than it's claims). You really wouldn't expect it from such a lightweight, but it's a champ 5) Durability is great as well. It's taken it's bumps and spills and continues to work as well as the day that we bought it. 6) Came with not only HOME charger, but CAR charger, and other AV cables to connect it to a TV! CONS: Screen is a bit small, being only 7 inch. That being said, if you're looking for a wonderful little DVD player that goes anywhere, you really can't beat this one

This is a fairly good DVD player, but I am surprised that screen resolution of these devices, in general, is not better. We bought an 8-inch LG model about two years ago with better resolution. The LG still works perfectly, by the way, in spite of very hard use by two pre-school children. (LG models seem to no longer be available, unfortunately.) This 7" Sony model has quite good sound quality, with good volume. The on/off switch is a little clumsy to use, but no big deal. And the "hold" button next to it can be accidentally switch on. Screen resolution may be better than average, but still not very good. Otherwise, this Sony DVD player seems to be quite high quality. We have had it about two months. At one point, it wouldn't play disks properly, but cleaning the lens fixed the problem. Several people complain about the way the screen format defaults. I disagree. I think the device works just as it should. This Sony player's screen has "widescreen" proportions (16 x 9), like a modern HDTV. Therefore, when you are playing a typical widescreen DVD, there is no issue: The image fills the screen, and everything is in proportion. The issue is what to do when playing a DVD with "full screen" proportions (4 x 3), typical of an older movie or pre-HD TV show. This player keeps the image in proportion and leaves black bars at the sides. That is what I prefer. Some people prefer other options, usually stretching the full screen image out horizontally to fill the screen. I don't like the resulting distorted image but, if you do, you might want to skip this player. I believe that you can set the screen to that choice, but you will have to do it every time you insert a DVD, as it defaults to black bars.

It's a nice DVD player. I took my DVD player with me on a long road trip and I was able to play movies for days by just simply recharging it when necessary. It will last 5 hours on a single charge. It's very light and easy to use. It also plays burned DVD's for those of you who have DVD backups. It's very simplistic and there's not much to say. It works and I like it a lot. I'm not sure whether or not it will play any other region besides 1 since I don't have any of those discs to try. All I have is region 1. Hopefully, the video upload will help you in making a smart purchase. If you have any questions, leave a comment here and I will respond. Ease of use: 5 out of 5 stars Image quality: 4 out of 5 stars (only because it's not HD) Portability: 5 stars (especially since it came with both a car and home charger) Sound Quality: 4 out of 5 stars (great for a portable dvd player with small speakers. It's loud enough and has enough bass to enjoy the movie but I suppose it could be better) Overall, I rate this product 5 stars. No hassles since I bought it from Amazon and you know how convenient that is. -Justin

Base on my research, this model has a quality problem that is common to many buyers. I recommend against purchasing this product. I bought this unit about a year ago. I saw the bad reviews for quality and should have listened. It worked fine for months, but then would suddenly stop for no reason. A restart would get it going again, but it would frequently just quit. Before the 1-year warranty expired I sent it in. This required opening a complaint on the Sony website and printing some paperwork. The day after I shipped the unit to Laredo, TX I got an email stating that my record was closed out. That's it--no info as to why it happened or what I needed to do. Now my unit is on a truck somewhere. I call Sony and explain the situation. They tell me to call back in a few days with the UPS tracking number. I did, and they gave me a new complaint number. Weeks go by and nothing happens. I look up my complaint on the Sony website. Nothing. I call and they have no record of me yet again. Once they locate my unit by tracking number they assign me a new complaint number. Weeks go by and the exact same thing happens again. Now it's been about 3 months since I sent my unit in. I want my unit back so I call and escalate to a manager. They promise to have a replacement sent the next day, after they charge me $33 since by now the warranty only covers labor. I can't believe my eyes when a unit shows up the next day. After about 3 weeks this refurbished unit has quit. I'm not going to bother getting a replacement. Keep in mind that both units were well taken care of. They were never dropped, allowed to get wet, they were kept clean and stored in a case in a controlled environment. I have lost all confidence in Sony consumer electronics. After I post this review I'm going order a new player from a different manufacturer.

UPDATE: 5/25/2012 I just wanted to update my previous review, because after 18 months my 4 year old spilled water onto this player. The player stopped running and made horrible sound. The screen went black and even though we tried to dry it out with a cool hairdryer on low, this player would not come back to life. Took the DVD player to electronics heaven(box in the closet) and forgot about it. Two months later, was closet cleaning and decided to just throw it out. Plugged it in just to make sure it was really, really dead and it came on! Over a year later it is still going strong. I take back what I said about Sony quality! _________________________________ Original review: 12/2009 Bought this portable dvd player for my kids for Christmas after reading many reviews. I thought I had done my homework, but I didn't realize I was missing some important information: 1. Picture Quality - Does not live up to some of its reviews. The resolution is poor; like looking at the picture through a window screen. The tiny grid-like effect gave me a migraine. Picture very dark. After checking the instruction manual for product specs, I found the screen resolution is a low 480 x 234 pixels. I quess with todays Hdtv's I'm really used to crisp images. By the way, this information on screen resolution is missing from the product specs and technical info on the amazon product page. 2. Sound Quality - We have owned Sony TV's, dvd players, & computers and the sound quality has always been top notch..not so with this player. The sound comes from one speaker along the bottom of the screen and as another reviewer puts it, sounds hollow. 3. Overall Product Quality - There is significant amount of noise and vibration while dvd is playing; had to turn volume up just to block some of this annoying feature. Good News: 1. Long-lasting Battery! Not sure about its longevity though. 2. Light-weight & easy to carry around. 3. Better quality than a majority of the cheap models: Despite its problems, it is preferable to some of the cheaper alternatives. That said, this dvd player was purchased to replace a Zenith model that we had for about 5-6 years. The old one finally bit the dust after my 3-year old dropped it numerous times(we can still get it to play occasionally.) My Zenith was way superior to this Sony in every way, the picture was so clean and crisp and the sound was wonderful! Too bad they don't make that model anymore! I'm still contemplating keeping this (the kids don't seem to be as picky as I and it is for their use), or returning it for the Sony 9-inch 800 x 480 resolution screen.

I read other reviews and have to agree this Sony player is junk. Not even an hour out of the box it was freezing up completely. Angry is another word I would use. I will be returning this piece of junk A.S.A.P.

This little guy is well worth the buy. I had read a lot of reviews before choosing the Sony DVP-FX730 and the most important feature I was searching for was SOUND QUALITY!! I was surprised that not a lot of people reviewed the loudness of any of these devices. I will be using this mostly on the road and as we all know, driving can drowned out just about all portable audio systems. Not this one!! The sound quality is fantastic for a portable device, and it is LOUD! I was laying in my hammock while my roommate mowed the back yard and I could still hear it without the headphones. (I mowed the front yard) The video quality is what you expect from a portable, perfectly acceptable. But what I am amazed with is the number of included extras. Two headphone jacks, brightness adjusting, a remote, car adapter, just to name a few. But the most exciting part for me is that it works as a dvd player. You just plug in the included A/V jacks into your hdtv, shut the screen and it plays on the wide screen just as well as my normal dvd player. Very impressed for under one hundred dollars. I will be taking a trip to Key West and upon my return will be a travel review. I hope you are as excited as I am. EDIT: July 2014 This thing finally decided to quit on me. So, four years of great service. I hope this helps.

Purchased to use in the car for long trips. It has been well cared for although used quite often. There is now a loud stuttering noise and the error message "cannot load disc". Have spent close to two hours contacting Sony online via Chat Support, phone call to Customer Service plus phone calls to each Recommended Repair Center. Everyone was quite polite but the message was clear - the unit needs to be sent in for repair and it will cost you. I really am disappointed that a small electronic device has such a throwaway factor. The repair "flat rate cost" via Sony is anywhere from $120 to $138 - totally unacceptable. Each Repair Center I called, as recommended by the Sony site, does not work on DVD players at all much less a portable. We've enjoyed using the DVD player, it has a nice sturdy feel, good picture quality, great battery life and comes with a remote, A/C power, video cables and DC power cable. What a shame it only lasted a little over a year. Good customer service would endear me to the Sony brand forever, throwaway electronics do not make me want to buy another from them.