Digital Concepts - DVD-150R 75W Power Inverter Review

Overall 3.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

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bkovacs
Annandale, VA

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Great price -- not enough power

a techie, thrifty, a gadget geek

Pros

small, inexpensive, attractive

Cons

only 60 Watts, can't run a laptop

APR

2008

I love gadgets and find that I have a need to run some of my gadgety stuff in the car. Most of the things I want to run have batteries, but that means that batteries need to be charged regularly. Better still, if I can operate some things directly from standard AC power, I will get better performance and not have to worry about the batteries running down. Thus my quest for a power inverter that could operate my laptop computer in a car. My first stop in this quest was the DVD-150R 75W Power Inverter, which sold at Wal-Mart for a mere $15.

What it is

First of all, a power inverter is a device that takes 12-Volt DC power (such as you have in a car) and converts it to 120-Volt AC power like you have in your home. The Digital Concepts DVD150R has a built in plug that sticks directly into a cigarette lighter socket in a car. At the other end of the device is a standard three-pin receptacle like those in your home. It's housed in an attractive plastic case that looks much nicer than the unit's $15 cost might imply.

The DVD-150R has a big label on it that states the unit produces 75 Watts of AC power, which just might be enough for a laptop computer. However, the label on the other side of the unit -- the side that you can't see in the packaging in the store, says the unit produces 60 Watts of power. And that's not enough to run a full-size (15-inch screen) laptop. Click on the pictures above to see the labels and get an idea of the unit's appearance.

In use

Using the Digital Concepts DVD-150R couldn't be easier. Simply plug it into the cigarette lighter socket in your car and watch the pilot light come on. There is no power switch and nothing to adjust. Plug whatever AC-powered device you have into the standard AC socket, and away you go. I used the unit to charge both my cell phone and my laptop, and it worked fine for those tasks.

When I fired up the laptop in the car (actually, I was driving and my wife was using the laptop), it initially booted up fine. However, after about 15 minutes, it started switching between power and battery operation every few seconds... the Digital Concepts DVD-150R simply didn't have enough power capacity to run the laptop without being overloaded and switching off.

In fairness, the unit worked fine to charge batteries and it probably could be used to run a small radio or many other low-power electronic items. However, it didn't have the guts to run a laptop computer and that was my requirement.

Summary

If you need something to charge electronic gizmos as you drive down the road, the Digital Concepts DVD-150R is a good choice. It looks good, seems reasonably well made and it will easily charge just about anything you throw at it. It will even run your cell phone, GPS device or boom box if their batteries are dead. And the price ($15) is fantastic. Just don't plan on it running a laptop computer or anything equally demanding of power.

Last edited on Apr 06, 2008

Digital Concepts - DVD-150R 75W Power Inverter is recommended by bkovacs

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Comments about bkovacs’s Review

kid-kansas wrote on Apr 7, 2008 at 9:50PM

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In response to bkovacs's comment from Apr 7, 2008 at 12:42PM:

Yeah they are bigger, mine fits perfect on the tranny hump in front of my console so it was unused space anyway ;) Ron

bkovacs wrote on Apr 7, 2008 at 12:42PM

Inappropriate? Reply

In response to kid-kansas's comment from Apr 6, 2008 at 7:47PM:

I also have a 300-Watt unit that I use occasionally around the house. I have used it in a car to power a laptop but it's more awkward than a little thing like the one in this review. Thanks for stopping by!

--Bob

kid-kansas wrote on Apr 6, 2008 at 7:47PM

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I have a much larger one that I use. Mine is 500 watts with a 1000 watt surge capacity. It's a Power on Board converter. Thanks for the heads up on these 75/60 watt converters. ;) Ron

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