dvd home theater

I have been dying to get a portable DVD player for years, then I received a 1710 for Christmas. It's been absolutely wonderful! When I first sat down to "try it out", I was upset because it seemed like the DVD player wasn't working. I admit, the quick help guide wasn't much help. Then I tried the AV IN/AV OUT button and discovered it was set in the incorrect position. What a simple fix! Since then, I have enjoyed watching an array of movies from mini DVD-Rs (1.4GB), full size DVD-Rs (4.6GB), old DVDs and new DVDs, and even rentals. Everything has played flawlessly. The sound quality is so good that it can be heard clearly from a different room. The picture quality is great in any of the 3 available format ratios. The function keys are spaced well for easy use and are easy to read. From a distance of approximately 10 feet, I could see the picture clearly, plus the remote control worked from that distance too. I've used my 1710 almost daily since I got it for Christmas and have had no problems yet. If my opinion changes, I will get back online to give an update. I can't attest to the customer service given by Audiovox because I haven't had to use them. :-)

My wife and I had been thinking about buying a DVD player for home use. We do some traveling year-round and go camping in the summer, so it seemed like a good idea to get a portable DVD player, but we thought they were very expensive. We chose the D1710 for its portability, appearance, features and mostly its price range. At $200. or less, we weren't expecting much. Smaller 4.5"-screen players were only $30. to $50. cheaper.

The D1710 reads DVD's, CD-ROM's, MP3's, JPEG's, TIFF's, and possibly other types of disks/files. It has audio/video and coaxial outputs so you can watch movies on your regular TV, and it comes with a credit card-sized remote control, which works well. The screen is as clear as other players we saw on display costing twice as much, and the sound is typical for such small players with little speakers; it sounds good, but tiny. When using headphones or plugging into a TV or home stereo system the sound is crystal clear and as powerful as a home-based player.

So far we've watched about 10 or 12 movies on the D1710, and although it's tracking is decent, it's not flawless. We haven't played a single DVD yet that didn't momentarily skip or hang at least once or twice during the movie. An occasional black screen happens, but each time we waited and the movie picks right back up within maybe 5 to 15 seconds. To be fair, most of the movies we watched have been on cheap DVD's, and judging from reviews of more expensive units this seems to be quite common among portables.

The battery, though we've only used it once so far just to test it, lasted exactly 2.5 hours on the first charge. I understand the life increases after a handful of charges.

Lastly, we couldn't get JPEG's to show, and the manual is all but useless. I looked up the Audiovox website, which wasn't much more help. You have to create a user-account and then send off some text (no email address for help!), and someone will get back to you within 2 business days. They did, and directed me to call a toll-free number. It turns out that in order for the D1710 to read JPEG's, you need to record them onto disk using CD burning software as opposed to using the "drag and drop" CD feature in Windows XP. After that, it works fine.

Overall, this is a great player for $200.

I decided to invest in a DVD player to keep my 2 1/2 year old toddler occupied on a cross-country plane flight. This product was definitely a worthwhile purchase. We have had no problems with the player so far, after use on 2 roundtrip plane flights as well as daily usage for a week in the hotel. The battery life is reasonably good, and the picture quality is good as well (no problems with skipping either). My only complaint is that the battery pack is pretty heavy, so the entire unit weighs a bit more than I expected it to.