Product Features:

• 8" color LCD monitor
• Screen rotates 180°
• Screen flips to fold flat
• Plays DVD, CD, MP3, CD-R, CD-RW
• JPEG image compatible

Product Description:

Don't let international travel get you down--put travel hours to good use on planes or in hotels using Polaroid's PDV-0800 portable DVD player. The unit is small enough for travel and--with its 8-inch, widescreen TFT LCD--broad enough to render vivid, detailed, easily viewable DVD images. Its autosensing power supply accepts everything from AC 100V/50 Hz to AC 240V/60 Hz, letting you charge the supplied lithium-ion battery just about anywhere (it's a good idea to check the power standard for your international destination first). View family snapshots from JPEG image-encoded CDs and minimize the number of music discs you tote using MP3 encoding and playback, through which you can pack about 10 albums worth of music onto a single 700 GB recordable CD-R or rewritable CD-RW. A further boon, and not merely for travelers but for all fans of international movies and music: you can set the player to read discs from global DVD Regions other than its default Region, Region 1 (North America). And, yes, you can hook it right up to your home theater receiver or your television using the player's composite-video output and the included audio/video interconnect for viewing domestic or import programs at home. Want to listen in Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround? Connect an optical digital-audio cable (not included) between the PDV-0800 and your compatible surround receiver and multichannel speaker system for enveloping, full-bodied surround sound. At a mere 2 pounds (without the battery), you won't have to break your back to lug the player around, either. The PDV-0800 includes ESP (electronics shock protection) to ensure uninterrupted viewing and listening, and its screen offers uncommon positioning options with its rotational design: pivot the LCD left or right and, at 180 degrees you can even tilt it back upon itself for, effectively, "closed-lid" viewing. The rechargeable battery is good for an estimated 3 to 4 hours of use between charges and a total of about 300 charges. Built-in stereo speakers give you a choice of listening through the device itself, through headphones (not supplied), or through your home system (when connected). You can watch with a companion while you're out, too, as the player offers not just one but two .125-inch headphone jacks. What's in the Box DVD player, AC power adapter, DC power adapter, lithium-ion battery, remote control, remote battery, an audio/video cable (stereo analog audio/composite-video), and a user's manual

Description from Manufacturer:Don't let international travel get you down--put travel hours to good use on planes or in hotels using Polaroid's PDV-0800 portable DVD player. The unit is small enough for travel and--with its 8-inch, widescreen TFT LCD--broad enough to render vivid, detailed, easily viewable DVD images. Its autosensing power supply accepts everything from AC 100V/50 Hz to AC 240V/60 Hz, letting you charge the supplied lithium-ion battery just about anywhere (it's a good idea to check the power standard for your international destination first).

View family snapshots from JPEG image-encoded CDs and minimize the number of music discs you tote using MP3 encoding and playback, through which you can pack about 10 albums worth of music onto a single 700 GB recordable CD-R or rewritable CD-RW.

A further boon, and not merely for travelers but for all fans of international movies and music: you can set the player to read discs from global DVD Regions other than its default Region, Region 1 (North America). And, yes, you can hook it right up to your home theater receiver or your television using the player's composite-video output and the included audio/video interconnect for viewing domestic or import programs at home. Want to listen in Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround? Connect an optical digital-audio cable (not included) between the PDV-0800 and your compatible surround receiver and multichannel speaker system for enveloping, full-bodied surround sound.

At a mere 2 pounds (without the battery), you won't have to break your back to lug the player around, either. The PDV-0800 includes ESP (electronics shock protection) to ensure uninterrupted viewing and listening, and its screen offers uncommon positioning options with its rotational design: pivot the LCD left or right and, at 180 degrees you can even tilt it back upon itself for, effectively, "closed-lid" viewing.

The rechargeable battery is good for an estimated 3 to 4 hours of use between charges and a total of about 300 charges. Built-in stereo speakers give you a choice of listening through the device itself, through headphones (not supplied), or through your home system (when connected). You can watch with a companion while you're out, too, as the player offers not just one but two .125-inch headphone jacks.

What's in the Box
DVD player, AC power adapter, DC power adapter, lithium-ion battery, remote control, remote battery, an audio/video cable (stereo analog audio/composite-video), and a user's manualAverage Customer Rating:

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Comment: Picture Quality good when you tweek it Rating:
I bought the 8" model a few weeks ago, and was concerned about the picture quality too. The 7" model looked much clearer in the store than the 8", but the sales guy insisted that the 8" and 7" model were indentical in part quality. What I found was that there is a resolution setting (high/low) and mode setting (picture dimension). The factory setting had the resolution set to Low. Changing it to High, and experimenting with the screen dimension, I could get a very nice picture.

Still, JPEGs from personal photo CDs don't look too great. They are a bit blurry and smaller than I expected. Text within a movie is still a bit hard to read, but the bottom line is: don't be put off with the movie picture quality until you get the settings right. I'm very happy with the quality, especially when you compare it to other competing models.

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Comment: Unless Inferior Picture is OK, Keep Shopping. Rating:
I was excited about the reviews so I went to Best Buy and Sams Club to see it in person. I was greatly disappointed in the picture quality on this (and the 7"): It just isn't very sharp, even compared to some other el-cheapo no-name brands (granted, this is probably a far-east product with a "Polaroid" label stuck on it). You'll notice the edges of text are quite fuzzy and distorted -- and this is consistent across three different players (not just one bad unit).

Sams Club had the RCA 7" which had much better picture. Still others had a better picture than that, so COMPARE IN PERSON before shopping online. You may even find a good deal in the store. The Maganavox also has a decent picture, as does the G2G Gear brand at Sams (which comes with case and 2nd TFT/screen and strapable case, but I can't find reviews on that ANYWHERE. $399).

Other than the display, this has a lot of good features. If only it had a better picture..

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Comment: Everything good except the screen quality Rating:
The only complaint I have is the poor screen quality, which was enough reason for me to return it!

Posted at November 11, 2003 07:59 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)