Samsung - DVD-L70 Portable DVD Player Review

As someone who survived - unscathed -  the passages of not one but two hurricanes in the record-setting 2005 hurricane season, one of the worst effects was the boredom and resulting crankiness caused by power outages that lasted several weeks until Florida Power and Light restored service.

Now, I was grateful that our house was spared total destruction; when Hurricane Katrina passed overhead in its Category One incarnation on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, we lost power for just a few days and had a bit of water damage from oversaturation, and although Wilma did tear off a chunk of our roof, the house itself remained structurally sound.

 Still, as someone who's used to working from home and/or using the Internet for both employment and entertainment, not to mention someone who watches at least two DVDs a week on average, the 15 or so days that we were without power  (and thus without any electronics to ease the stress, ennui and anxiety) - particularly at night - were, to put it mildly, not very pleasant.   

 It was this nasty experience that made me reconsider my "I don't need no stinkin' portable player" stance.  Before the summer and fall of 2005, I figured I had no need for a small DVD player with a tiny screen and top-loading DVD tray like those my friends Danny and Ivan carry with them when they go to work as "port ambassadors" on cruise ships.  After all, I do own a perfectly good Samsung 5-disc player connected to my 27" Samsung TV set, and the portables are almost as pricey as their "big brothers," especially if they're made by Sony, Panasonic, and, yes, Samsung.

 But after having to endure my none-too-suppressed frustration - I kept on looking at my 50 or so DVDs, which were neatly lined up on a shelf, and I couldn't even watch one! - my mom and sister told me to order a portable DVD player from Amazon and they'd reimburse me at Christmas time.

Features and Assets - What Samsung Says:

"The DVD-L70 further raises the bar with its sleek industrial design. Designed for consumers who want an ultra-light DVD portable but don't want to sacrifice functionality, the DVD-L70 makes a style statement like no other player available on the market today. The DVD-L70 also comes with a car charger The DVD-L70's 7" TFT LCD display both offer 480P resolution, a 16:9 aspect ratio and a 160-degree viewing angle for incomparable front-of-screen performance." - From the Samsung Internet site.

Features and Assets - Fardreamer's Take:

The Samsung DVD-L70 Portable DVD Player is a compact unit (see Product Specifications below), and, like a smallish laptop, has a built-in 7" liquid crystal display (LCD) screen right above two integrated speakers which are set in the unit's flip-top cover. The buttons that activate DVD operations as MENU, INFO, PLAY/PAUSE/STOP, and SKIP FORWARD/BACKWARD are laid out to the right of the DVD disc cover/tray.

Set into the right side of the unit are the volume control dial plus several input/output jacks for the AC adapter, audio output connection, cigarette lighter adapter, and headphones. On the front, there is the Open Tray button that allows you to place and remove your DVDs or CDs, as well as a small LED power/charge indicator and an infrared sensor for the tiny remote control that comes with the player.

Last but not least, at the back there are the slots for the removable and rechargeable Li-Ion Battery Pack, which holds a charge that lasts, depending on ambient temperatures, supposedly two hours.

Now, although you do need to attach the battery pack to the back of unit (with a bit of care, I might add), using the Samsung DVD-L70 isn't very difficult.  If you're going to use it as a true portable, charge the battery for about eight hours.  The manual claims that this gives you two hours' worth of playing time with the volume at medium or lower, depending on whether it's hot or cold where you are using the player.  (I have to say that this is a very optimistic claim, because even in warm weather I've only been able to watch movies with a running time of under two hours using the battery.)  You'll know when the battery is fully charged - the red LED light will switch off when the process ends. (Of course, it'll also go out if you have a power failure.....)

Although I have watched one or two 100-minute-long features using the battery, I have found it's much better to simply use the Samsung DVD-L70 with the AC adapter only.    It seems to run contrary to the logic of why I was given the portable player in the first place, but since we haven't had any hurricanes hit nearby since 2005, the player's raison d'etre is rather still "in theory," as it were.

As I said before, I own a Samsung 5-Disc DVD player that's connected to a Samsung (analog) TV, so the DVD-L70 isn't my "primary player," but sometimes when I want to watch a movie in another room of the house, the portable one is my only option.  What I do then is to hook the player up to a set of multi-media speakers left over from a long-ago discarded PC, carefully set the whole kit-and-caboodle on a tabletop or desk, and sit back and enjoy the experience of a hastily improvised yet effective home theater system.  This frees me from having to use headphones; although the speakers' stereo sound is crisp, clear, and perfectly acceptable for someone with normal hearing, for this hard-of-hearing reviewer the sound is somewhat muted unless I'm wearing the little earbud speakers that are so popular these days, and I don't like those.

Although it's far better to watch a movie such as Spider-Man 3 on a "normal" DVD player and a TV set, the DVD-L70 can play most Region 1 DVDs and CDs (including those with WMA and jpeg files) without a problem. The images that appear on the 7" screen are remarkably clear and sharp, indicating that Samsung uses top-of-the-line components that result in high quality playback with awesome resolution. This was one factor that I considered when choosing my player, having learned  that a cheaper product is likely to have more problems playing back DVDs because it has inferior "insides" that perform badly.

The DVD-L70 isn't too difficult to operate; the buttons are inlaid onto the surface of the player next to the tray. You do need to look where you're pressing, but using the player doesn't require a Ph.D in physics. The remote control is actually a bit easier to use, but make sure you aim it at the infrared sensor just right.

Liabilities:   Visually, none - unless you have a bad DVD or a bootleg one, the images you get here are as good as if you were using a tiny laptop with an LCD screen.  In fact, the only time I had a glitch involving the picture quality was when I watched Star Wars: A New Hope on it.  During the Y-wing attack on the Death Star, there were a few instances of pixel lag in which the images seemed to freeze a bit.  Otherwise, no worries there.

The sound is good - up to a point - if you have normal hearing, and if you have a good headset or earbuds.  Don't expect to get a big sound from the DVD-L70 - unless you happen to have a set of multi-media speakers as I do!

The performance of the rechargeable battery is underwhelming.  Considering that this was purchased because it'll be needed during a no-power scenario, I fail to see how it will help if the charge doesn't even last two hours on warm-weather days.  I would have to find a trusted (and trusting) neighbor with a running generator to recharge the battery, and though that's a possibility, it's also a big hassle.

Final Thoughts: The Samsung DVD-L70 will never, of course, become my primary DVD player; the screen is too small and I don't feel like hooking up the multi-media speakers from an old PC if I want to really hear a movie's Dolby 5.0 sound track. It also probably won't do me much good in a "hurricane knocked the power out, what do I do now" situation.  Nevertheless, the player does have nice resolution for its size, and it is easy to use and can be watched anywhere.  (Even in a car? Yes, because there's a "cigarette lighter" plug you can use to power your DVD player with if the battery option isn't your cup of tea.)

Product Specifications:


Terminals: Audio L/R Stereo Out 1 set
Video Composite Video Out 1 set

Net Dimensions: 7.9"(W) x 1.1"(H) x 5.5"(D)

Net Weight: 1.3 Lbs.

UPC Code: 036725600706

Supplied Accessories: Car adapter
Rechargeable Li-Ion Battery(2 hrs.)
Remote Control
Size

Product Dimensions: 7.9"(W) x 1.1"(H) x 5.5"(D)

Product Weight: 1.5 Lbs.