Sony DVP-FX740DT > Reviews (1)

My partner spend much of his time at work on call and gets rather bored waiting in his van for a phone call. Sometimes he can be waiting for hours with nothing to do so we decided to get him a portable dvd player to keep him occupied whilst waiting around at work.

My partner is very much a labels man so a cheap and cheerful one just wouldn’t cut it with him. He would rather spend more money and have a decent make as with it being in the works van, it was likely to get thrown around a bit and he wanted one that would withstand a fair amount of battering.

He opted for a Sony one in the end as Sony is his favourite make. The model number we opted for was the DVP-FX740DT. After shopping around, we found it on Amazon for around £169.00, which is a little cheaper than the £199.00 general price this dvd player retails at.

This is obviously quite expensive compared to the price you can get dvd players for nowadays, but the quality of it was excellent. The picture and sound quality were unmatchable to me as both were as clear and crisp as you could possibly get o such a gadget in my opinion. There was no kind of distortion at all within the picture with every detail being clear and concise and even when the volume was turned up to maximum, there was no voice distortion either. This to me proved the quality of the product as I have owned portable dvd players before, but for me personally I tend to go for cheap and cheerful makes, but this one was in a class of its own. Its really sleek looking too and you can tell immediately that you have a high quality product on your hands.

This dvd player comes in black and has a 7” LCD screen. It has a built in USB port so you can connect to a PC if you wish to access films, photos and music and also has a digital tv tuner. It has a 5 hour rechargeable battery which lasted well. It also has a powerful embedded speaker and twin headphone jack with volume control as well as a built in DVB-T tuner. It also comes with a remote control, car adaptor and portable antenna all included. It has DVD-R/RW playback as well as CD-R/RW playback too.

As for cleaning, this is pretty easy too. Obviously with it being an electrical item, its not a good idea to cover it in anything, but a slightly damp cloth is enough to get rid of any marks/fingerprints and as the player is predominantly black, you don’t really see much in the way of dirt and marks.

The DVD player itself looked quite bulky when I first saw it but I was surprised at how lightweight it felt. I like the fact that it was light to carry, but didn’t feel at all cheap or flimsy. It was really solid and well made and I could see straight away why my partner opted for this one as you could tell it wouldn’t fall apart or break with ease.

Overall I have to admit that when my partner purchased this, I was a little worried at the price he was paying for it and thought it was well overpriced for what it was, even though it was from a premium brand such as Sony. However, after using it myself on a regular basis when the kids hog the tv, I can see why he went for a more expensive one.

It doesn’t do much more than a cheaper, more ordinary dvd player does, but it’s the quality for me which justifies the high price tag. I have never seen such clarity on a portable dvd player with every element being of top quality.

If you are just looking for a cheap and cheerful dvd player to keep the kids amused in the car, then this probably would be wasted and you would be better off looking for a different, more cheaper brand. However, if it is going to be used on a regular basis in different scenarios as ours is, then you may want to opt for something of high standard and if you are looking for something around this price bracket, then I would highly recommend you look at this one. It is solid and well made, but without being too big and bulky to transport and has a quality like no other I have tried before.

All in all this is a great portable dvd player and comes with a high recommendation from me, even with the large price tag that comes with it. Sometimes though, you really get what you pay for.