Great compromise player
By Crash and Burn "Resident Curmudgeon" (USA) reviews of Sony DVP FX 820
I just received and tried out this player. I got it because my wife thought a Panasonic 10.3" player was too big; and to tell the truth, its size overwhelmed me, too.
The battery came nearly fully charged, and I was able to play a DVD without reading the manual. One of the reasons I like this player is it has the capability of accepting composite video and audio from another source, as well as sending it to another source. The A/V Inputs and Outputs are the same ports, they are switch selected. I had to read the manual, and go all the way to the back of it to realize the Digital Audio Out connection is also for Audio I/O. The two headphones jacks are seperate from the Audio Digital Out port.
I haven’t quite decided which DTV to Standard TV adapter I’m going to get, but I’ll make sure it has composite Video Outputs so I can use the Adapter/DVD Player combination as a portable Digital TV. I have an extra indoor TV Antenna I can use to acquire signals already.
The speaker’s volume isn’t overwhelming, but will be good enough for all the people you can get around the DVD player to watch. It is pretty tiny, but considering the size of the speaker, its not surprising.
I tried some cheap headphones at home, and I had to turn the volume almost all the way up to overcome the ambient room noise. No way is there going to be enough volume to overcome the cabin noise of an airliner. I have that covered, though. Also, the player has a volume control, but not for individual outputs.
I am an aspiring pilot, and I have a high end headset with active noise reduction. In the apartment, when I turn them on, the ambient noise goes away, and the DVD sound is sweet. Of course, this headset cost 3 times as much as the DVD player.
Amazon sells some pretty good ANR headsets. They are about 1/3rd the price of Bose’s ANR headsets, and the reviewers say they are much more durable than Bose’s. As I’m using the aircraft ANR headsets, I don’t need them.
My headset has the capability for using a cell phone (while you are on the ground). It came with two adapter cords. One works with my cell phone, the other with the DVD player. You can also get a stereo phone plug to mini-phone plug adapter from Amazon, Radio Shack, or a myriad of other places.
Now, I need to get a carrying case for the player.