Insignia IS-PDVD10 10-inch Portable DVD Player Review

Bottom line: The kids are gonna love watching movies on the Insignia IS-PDVD10.

What It Is

The Insignia IS-PDVD10 is a small portable DVD player with a 10.2-inch (diagonal) screen. The screen is in the modern 16:9 widescreen ratio, the same screen ratio as HDTV broadcasts. The unit's case resembles that of a small laptop computer, with the LCD screen flipping up to reveal the well for a DVD and lots of buttons.

Weighing about 3.3 pounds, the IS-PDVD10's case has a classy soft-touch plastic. One of the most interesting things about the unit is that its screen pivots in a way that lets the unit fold up with the screen on the outside. Two small loudspeakers under the monitor screen sound decent in a quiet room but the unit's built-in sound system is swamped in a loud environment, such as a car.

The $280 Insignia IS-PDVD10 ships with a rechargeable battery pack, wireless remote control, a "wall-wart" style household power supply, a power cable that plugs into a car's cigarette lighter and an audio/video cable for connecting the unit to an external monitor or TV tuner. It came with all the batteries needed, as well as a decent owner's manual. The unit does not have a built-in TV tuner - it can only play DVDs and CDs.

Using It

Like many other gearheads, I wanted to see how far I could get without opening the owner's manual. As it turned out, the Insignia IS-PDVD10 is so easy to use that I could load the battery and fire the unit up without instructions.  

Images on the IS-PDVD10 looked very nice. The screen is big enough that two or three people could easily watch at the same time. The speakers are tinny but it was really not bad in a quiet room. For example, my wife and I started watching a movie at the dining room table and eventually took it to bed with us. The sound was fine for this non-critical watching in quiet rooms.

I ultimately took the Insignia IS-PDVD10 on a road trip, playing back movies in motel rooms and in the car. Since a car is the most likely place for the IS-PDVD10 to be used, I wanted to see what it would be like watching a movie in a car, while rolling down the Interstate in broad daylight. The result: The picture is fine but watching movies in a car requires headphones. Be prepared for this, since the unit does not come with headphones.

There were a couple of downsides to the Insignia IS-PDVD10. First, the case has no convenient knob or ridge to easily get my finger under to flip the lid open. I can't help but think that some kids will fumble so much with the IS-PDVD10 that it will get dropped too easily. Second, the underside of the unit gets hot quickly in operation. Finally, the mechanical whine the unit makes as it spins a DVD or CD.

On the upside, it worked flawlessly on its battery and the unit never stuttered or skipped over bumps. (Battery playback time is about three hours.) The remote control is easy to use and its buttons seem more responsive than the buttons on the actual DVD player.

Summary

The Insignia IS-PDVD10 is a neat little DVD player that will keep the kids quiet in the back seat. Adults might also like its ability to play a film for a few minutes in the quiet before lights out at night.