Venturer PVS17212

...job, when I discovered the Venturer PVS1712 (purely by accident) at our local Toys R Us store.

As it was on display (working) I got to have a play with it and I was immediately impressed.

The first thing that strikes you when looking at the Venturer is how eye catching it is! Finished in a nice shiny silver, with a matching credit card sized remote, it certainly looks the part.
Add a nice large wide screen and ...
...and the image is complete.

I had looked at similar models to this on my quest and they had all been priced at around £200. So when I looked at the price tag and it said £129.99, I knew I had found what I was looking for!

After even more whining (to open my pressie early) xmas day came and I excitedly opened the package.
On the outside the box seems fairly small and you worry whether the shop assistant has given ... more

When portable dvd players were first introduced, a few years back, I just knew I had to have one! Not for any expedient reason, you understand, but because I am into gizmos.
So, after a lot of begging, my wife ultimately gave into my constant whining, and said she would get me one for xmas.

At the time, December 2004, there were about ten products on the market. They ranged in price from about £120 to about £400.

Picking one thet had the spec's I wanted at a reasonable price proved harder than expected. After wearing out a lot of shoe leather wandering around the usual electrical haunts, I was still none the wiser.

I knew I wanted one with; the largest screen possible, a remote control and that played most discs you put in it.

All the products I had seen that matched this discription seemed to be at the higher end of the price scale, at about £200 plus. I was about to give it up as a bad job, when I discovered the Venturer PVS1712 (purely by accident) at our local Toys R Us store.

As it was on display (working) I got to have a play with it and I was immediately impressed.

The first thing that strikes you when looking at the Venturer is how eye catching it is! Finished in a nice shiny silver, with a matching credit card sized remote, it certainly looks the part.
Add a nice large wide screen and inbuilt stereo speakers (set on each side of the screen) and the image is complete.

I had looked at similar models to this on my quest and they had all been priced at around £200. So when I looked at the price tag and it said £129.99, I knew I had found what I was looking for!

After even more whining (to open my pressie early) xmas day came and I excitedly opened the package.
On the outside the box seems fairly small and you worry whether the shop assistant has given you the right product.
Fortunately on the inside i discovered everything had been compacted in a clever space-saving way and it was all there.

Being a person with little patience I was, at first, disappointed to find loads of leads. If I had paid for it I would probably just tried to plug the adapter straight in and tried to use it. As I didn't ( and I,m scared of the Mrs, lol) I opted to read the instructions. These were fairly easy to understand, with illustrations. The whole process took about five minutes.

To use the player with the mains it is a simple case of plugging the mains adapter into the DCin socket and you are in business.

To use the battery to power the player is slightly more complicated but easy when you get the hang of it. The player comes with its own external battery. I was a bit disappointed to find that this is quite large and bulky (about a third of the size of the player). The only good thing about it is that is clips into to the back of the the player making it easier to transport. Once clipped on the mains charger plugs into the battery and a lead from the battery plugs into the yellow battery in socket. The battery life is about 90 - 120 minutes giving you enough time to watch most films.You can by extra batteries direct from the suppliers but they are expensive and hard to get hold of!

Along with the above you also get a free carrying case. At first this appears to be a nice extra until you actually try fitting the player into it! Initially I thought they had given me the wrong case as the player doesn't seem to fit and the zip doesn't want to close. However after much pulling, pushing and plenty of cursing the case eventually shut. After a bit of practice the whole process gets easier but it is still a pain in the backside an I would have preferred a larger case. There is an extra pouch at the rear of the back so you can fit a film in and head-phones which is a plus.

Also included with the package are two sets of wire head-phones. At first I thought they had made a mistake putting two sets in until I realised there are two head-phone sockets on the side. An advantage I immediately used for my own evil ends by telling my wife I had specifically picked this model so she could watch films with me, ha ha! She didn't fall for it but it was worth a shot!

Also included are a set of scart converter leads so you can rig the player up to the television and use it as a conventional player if you want! You might wonder what the point of this is (as I did) until all your familly are sitting around the goggle box to watch the renatal movie that aunty Maggie kindly provided, when your main dvd player breaks down! Eureka!

The player itself worked perfectly! The picture was bright and with the lights turned off its almost like being at the cinema. You have the choice of widescreen or normal. The sound is nice and clear but I must be honest I would have liked the volume to go slightly higher on speaker, although it is adequate.

During the two years I have had the player I have watched pre-recorded films and copies on it! It handles nearly everything you throw at it equally well. Be warned though it only plays our region, so don't dust down that American import and expect to watch it on this!

The remote is excellent! Containing all the major functions it comes with its own calculator size battery! In the two years I have had the player the remote is still going strong without needing to replace the battery!

The only problem I really found with my player, at first, was where to use it. This may sound silly but after playing with it for the first few days the novelty wore off and I spent most of my tv time watching films on our conventional player. This gave me buyers remourse and I wondered if I had done the right thing!
As time went on, I was surprised how useful it has been.

So far I have used it; at work (on breaks, honest!), on holidays, when my wife wants to watch something and I don't (a common occurrence) and believe it or not at Bingo! Bingo players will know what I'm talking about when I say the intervals are tedious and cashlines expensive.

All in all I am very glad I have my portable dvd player, it comes in handy at the strangest of times and never lets me down!

For anyone who might be thinking of aquiring one there is even better news. You can now pick them up brand new for about £70-£80 or second hand for as little as £30! Whats really impressive is that this model is still up there holding its own against much more expensive competition!
 

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