Product Review: Daenyx MP-700 Portable DVD

If time is money, I am in trouble yet again! I am writing this product review on here because this item is not yet listed in Epinions or any other product review site that I have found. Actually, when I was researching portable DVD players the last while, I had trouble finding information specific to electronics available in Canada. If anyone knows of a Canada-based product review site, I would like to hear about it.

The story of the portable DVD player saga goes as follows: First I purchased a portable DVD player from a guy on Kijiji classifieds. It was supposed to be multi-functional and top of the line. He came over, I paid, he left, the machine failed to function properly. When I couldn't reach him immediately by email, I thought I had been scammed. To my releif, he did get back to me and kindly came over to refund my money. The same day, a family friend surprised us with a visit and a gift. A portable DVD from Walmart! Yippie. It was the black Venturer that was available there. The catch for me was that we didn't have a receipt. I wanted to have a receipt for the warranty because I know that these things can go at any time. I decided to return it to Walmart for a gift card and look around at a couple different models.

BIG MISTAKE

I started out with the Citizen from Zehrs which was about $90.00 + tax. Read bad reviews and decided not to keep it. I also didn't like that the DVD cover is held down by a tiny clip. I can just see that being the first thing to break and then us having to use a piece of tape to keep it closed!

I then started doing some research but didn't come up with much. Back to Walmart I went, but they were all sold out of black Venturer DVD players. The good news was that the model I liked was on sale. I bought the pink one with hopes of exchanging it for black at another store or when they were re-stocked. I called a few stores and was given different prices and different information about the item being replenished. Most said that it would "for sure" be replenished "any day now". Finally an employee told me that the items was a limited time offer and would no longer be on the shelves. Ahhhh. I spoke to a manager who confirmed this. What next? I emailed the distributor to find out if there were other stores carrying the machine. By now I was obsessed and felt that this was the best bang for my buck and therefore worth the search.
Didn't hear back from Walmart or Venturer or anyone -

In the meantime, I was getting anxious to settle on one that we liked because we have a couple of long drives coming up and an airplane trip to Nova Scotia in mid-September. I had been to Zehrs (two locations) and looked at a portable DVD for $100.00 called an Astar PD8800. I found pretty good reviews but someone did mention the sound output being low. I checked out the player for myself really felt that it seemed cheap and probably too sensitive for our young family needs. The DVD cover was plastic and flimsy and if you touched the top of it the disc skipped or went back to start.

I asked people online about advice on places to go for a good value and a good machine - but didn't get too much response other than the usual, Walmart - Zellers, etc. I checked out Toys R Us, Canadian Tire and other stores on line - but came up with nothing. I did find out that a store called Factory Direct carries machines for as low as $39.00. They are refurbished and my husband did not want to go there - so we passed on that one. The warranty would be 30-90 days from that store.

Last resort was the Daenyx model from Zehrs which has many features that I like and only a couple that I don't.

Good features

- Battery is built in

- Can also hook up to your tv and be used as a regular dvd player solid design

- 7" screen (though we did consider a bigger screen or a two-screen unit)

- DVD case is sold and not held down by a clip

- Volume goes 1-16 and is okay, though still not very loud

- Has a jack for earphones (we will use on the airplane)

- Black inside (husband prefers this to the pink Venturer that is yet to go back)

- Has a ONE YEAR over the counter warranty from Zehrs! (Venturer manufacturer warranty says 90 days)

- Picture seems good

- Came with a remote, earphones, various wires, car adapter and regular outlet plug (which also charges the machine)

- with a carrying case that we can use as a spare or sell (I bought a Case Logic case on Ebay because I could not find them for less than $25.00 anywhere)

Features I would change:

• Machine itself does not have buttons to fast forward or rewind the scenes on a movie (you have to use the remote)
• Silver outer design looks like it will scratch easily
• That's it so far!
  

Cost: $90.00 + gst (sale). The same price as the one that was originally given to us - so it is essentially the same gift with a bunch of hassle in the middle that I brought on because I wanted to check out different brands. I can report that they are not all the same and that it is good to have a bit of exposure to different ones before spending the money. Epinions is great, but as mentioned, does not review all Canadian brands or models.

So far I give this DVD player an 8/10