If it’s all about the picture
By E. Rudolph
When shopping at Best Buy for a portable DVD player, I tried a Toshiba, the Panasonic LS86 and asked about a Sony. My salesperson, who was knowledgeable, steered me away from the Sony, saying he didn’t like it because it has a "glossy screen." So I tried the current Toshiba 9" and the Panasonic LS86, touted for its 13 hour battery life. I selected the LS86 because it has better blacks, meaning the Toshiba had a more washed out picture. I took the LS86 home and while learning how to use it I was pleased at the degree of control you have. (Yes, this will soon be a review of the Sony DVP FX 820 - I returned the LS86 and got an FX820 - but first a little more about the Panasonic.)
With the LS86 you have great control: you can control the brightness of the subtitles, you can reposition them, you have several factory presets for picture and one user picture preset, there are degrees of noise reduction available, a number of audio settings to control the tone of the sound and its stereo spread. It seemed great except for one thing: the picture was slightly disappointing. Text was awfully chunky. The edges of things looked rough. In a word, it had a lot of aliasing.
I went on line to read some reviews of the LS86. I’d read reviews prior to shopping but, somehow, hadn’t found any for the current Sony player, the DVP FX 820. On my second internet visit I found the Sony right away. When I learned it has much greater resolution, I packed up the LS86, went back to the store and exchanged.
Sony DVP FX 820 has lots more pixels and that makes for a lots better picture. It has less control over those pixels, but as nice as adjustments are, they don’t compensate for a poorer image. So, in my mind, the Sony is better.
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The downside of the FX820: this model has a fair amount of edge enhancement, or sharpening. And there’s no way to control it. I’m not going to describe what it looks like, because if you own one of these units and edge enhancement is below your radar, why point it out.
What about the glossy screen the salesperson mentioned? When he said "glossy screen," I imagined that the screen itself was shiny. What he was referring to is the fact that the screen is surrounded by a shiny black plastic bezel. A matte finish would be less distracting, but the shiny plastic should not be a deal breaker.
The contrast of the default LCD settings: I had to work a little with the "Backlight" and "Contrast" settings to keep the blacks from being crushed. Otherwise, things like someone’s head of black hair might lose their detail.
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Summary: A good solid unit with a consumer-oriented design philosophy. The controls are basic and fairly simple to operate. The picture seems to be the best in its price range. The audio, through headphones, is fine.