I created this thread 'coz I couldn't find one closely related to it. Moderator, feel free to merge this if there's an existing thread out there.
Anyways, I just bought a
7" Widescreen Panasonic LS55. This is a slight upgrade over the Panasonic LS50. Circuit City only sells the LS50 and Best Buy does not sell the LS50 or LS55 at all so I bought it from an online merchant.
The main upgrade done by Panasonic is the battery life and the FM transmitter. According to the Panasonic website, it's built-in battery can last up to
10 hours but I've read from one customer feedback that he used the player for 7 hours straight. Whether 10 hours is an exaggeration or not remains to be seen. Anyways, I'm still more than happy with 7 hours 'coz the standard battery life nowadays for Portable DVD players is from 1.5 - 3 hours (peeps, feel free to correct me on this).
As for the FM transmitter, this is also a very nice feature. The audio could be transmitted to your car stereo so you would be able to listen to the audio using your car's speakers. You just need your car radio to be tuned in to the
88.3 FM frequency (same approach used by iPod's iTrip accessory). The unit also comes with 2 separate headphone jacks but I would prefer using the car speakers since it would be more convinient for my demanding passengers
.
It seems this model is fairly new (may have come out late last year) since I only found a few reviews about it. On the other hand, a lot of people bought the LS50 and obviously very satisfied even though it has shorter battery life and no FM transmitter. Can't wait for the LS55 to arrive at my door =). There are other Panasonic models (9 incher units), which are kinda out of my budget and these are the LX95 and the LX8 (both have FM transmitters as well). IMHO, I think 7" would be ok and you shouldn't go smaller than this.
As an added bonus, the unit I bought comes with the AC Adapter, Car Adapter, Airline Adapter and bag (Car Adapter, Airline Adapter and bag are bought separately for this particular unit). Standard Remote Control also included.
The unit has tons of other features. Just click on the links below:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002EZ2KM/qid=1120590135/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl23/002-7999816-3256865?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/vModelDetail?displayTab=O&storeId=15001&catalogId=13401&itemId=71587&catGroupId=24991&modelNo=DVD-LS55&surfModel=DVD-LS55&cacheProgram=11002&cachePartner=7000000000000005702Note: Bought the unit plus accessories for about
US$335 shipped!
