Sony DVP-FX930 9-Inch Portable DVD Player, Black (2009 Model)

I had been looking at the previous Sony model that had over 300 reviews and CNET had it as their choice in the portable DVD products in the 7"-10" screen sizes. I am very please with the latest Sony model, what has changed is they made the screen an inch larger and placed touch buttons on the newer model. This FX 930 looks more modern, sleek although it is a little larger. I am very pleased as I have played various DVD's, using full and normal settings that you can select for wide or standard screen formats. I have played many CD's from the actual artists to my own made CD's at home and played music files from my PC and taken along photos like a photo album when I want to share or have those close to me with me so to speak when traveling. Sound is fine for the little speakers but 99% of the time I use really good headphones and you get two jacks so you can share when sitting with someone on a plane, train, or in the car as long as you are not driving. Had to toss that in! ;) It is not too heavy compared to many, certainly much less than a laptop and still small enough screen size to know you are not luggin around a laptop. Battery life is standard, I have it run out yet but have not been on pure battery for 6 hours yet either. I try to have it plugged in most of the time during use and for the car you get a car charger included in the box. Being it is smaller it makes it more mobile for your travels whether local or abroad. I have been using this item non-stop almost without any issues. Could it be improved, yes, almost any product can be and as with any electronics they seem to improve with almost each iteration. With this said, you can save $30-$40 by buying the previous model. It is an inch smaller but the screen resolution is the same and many of the features are almost identical. Take it for a test drive and remember you've got 30 days to test it and if it is not what you like or expect, return it and try another, but choices on these products are quite limited since many use their PSP, iPhone, or iPods to watch movies/videos etc.

*****Update*** I had erroneously mentioned that Amazon charged me 20% penalty. Amazon refunded me the full amount. As usual, I have always found dealing with Amazon support to be a pleasant experience. ************** The picture quality is good. The touch-buttons are sleek, the rotating screen is a good feature. if you plan on mounting it to the rear of a car seat. These are the issues I had with this product: * the touch-buttons are sometimes annoyingly unresponsive and you may have to press a couple of times. * the joy-stick is very painful to use. I had a one-week learning curve - even then I would not get it right everytime. Everytime I pressed the directional button, I would end up pressing the enter key and inadverently going into the menu. I do *not* have big hands or, literally speaking, fat fingers. If you do, believe me, you will not be able to use the buttons. Sometimes you will want to select a menu and keep pressing the directional button. I am really surprised that none of the reviewers mention this. This is not a minor gripe. It is a major usability issue. * ok, there may be a workaround for this, but by default the picture size is very tiny (a widescreen movie will take up a quarter of the screen with bands on all sides.) You go to the LCD menu, select options and make it 'Full' to stretch it out. Now everytime you press any button (stop or pause or menu), the screen reverts to the original quarter size. I apologize if there is some menu tweak (its not there in the manual for sure), but if not, its an excruciatingly annoying thing and should make you think twice before buying this product. Now it is possible that all portable DVD players have this issue, in which case you may not have a choice. But if you can do without a portable DVD player (buy a cheaper laptop), then for this reason alone stay away from portable players that have this display limitation. I have no idea when a DVD would ever take up the entire full screen. * a month and 5 days after I ordered this from Amazon, I got a light blue vertical band about 0.5 in from the right border. That pretty much sealed the deal for me and I returned it to Amazon with a 20% penalty. I usually find Sony products very durable and of high quality. I guess there is always a first time.