
Super bargain portable DVD - make yours Region free!
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.
This portable DVD player is a really fantastic bargain, absolutely brilliant for the price! (I got it for less than £40 brand new including postage on Ebay.)
It does everything it says on the tin, and comes with all the features you might need, including a decently sized 7" widescreen, remote control, battery pack that can be removed to power the unit directly from AC power, and all the cables you could ever need to connect it to external speakers / PC / TV etc.
It also runs CDs as well as DVDs, and I think it also plays DVD-ROMs and CD-ROMS too - making it very versatile and not just for watching films.
Although it may not have the swish styling of some of the Toshiba / Phillips / Sony players, it also doesn't have anywhere near their price tag, and its silver casing and easy-to-find buttons actually look pretty sleek too. It's nice and light, doesn't get too warm when running, so is perfect for the kids or to keep you amused when travelling.
The removable battery pack is a nice touch, as the player can be run off the mains power adapter or the battery, and if you have another charger you can charge the battery at the same time if you want.
The only minor (and I mean very minor) let-down on this model is the slightly low quality sound output. It crackles a bit when starting up or selecting scenes / menu items, and isn't exactly Dolby Surround Sound, but is perfectly reasonable and no worse than any portable CD player or walkman. But then again, for just a few quid and such a tiny model what do you expect?
Sound quality is actually improved by using the headphones (supplied) or would be even better with a higher-class pair of headphones or external speakers.
There is also no volume control on the remote, only on the player itself, so that could get annoying if you were watching it from further than arm's length away! (But with a small portable player like this, why would you be?)
Overall I think it's a fantastic buy and mine has been a life-saver for long journeys or when away from home. I'd recommend it to anyone and in fact have bought more than one as presents for friends and family.
Even better is the little cheat below that makes it Region-free! Bonus for travelling and buying cheap DVDs overseas!
The Acoustic Solutions DVD 222 portable player is essentially a re-badged Starlite player with upgraded firmware.
You can easily turn a Region-specific player (ie. one that only plays Region 2 DVDs) into a Region-free player to play any DVDs by doing the following:
- Turn the power on, wait for the screen to light up and key in 5168 on the remote to bring up a secret menu
(Key in 9735 for slightly older players if this does not work)
- Use the arrow keys to select the Region encoding, and select Region 0 for Region-free to play any DVD.
- Exit menu to save settings as usual.
Now you can buy cheaper / imported DVDs and watch them all on the player!
In short, you can't go wrong!
Review ID: 10000000005205313

Thank you for voting. If your vote meets our
guidelines, it will be posted within 24 hours.
You cannot vote on the helpfulness of a review you wrote.
Your request cannot be processed at this time. Please try again later.