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Panasonic DVD-LA95 Portable DVD Player

Panasonic DVD-LA95 Portable DVD Player

List Price: $699.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pricey, but worth it.
Review: I was terrified when I first unpacked this thing - with grim reminders of the expensive and short-lived electronics of my youth (no matter how much I spent, every Walkman I bought lasted about a year). That said, the LA95 proved to be a champion, worth every penny. With its 2 hour battery, I had trouble-free watching while on an extended car-trip last winter. A nifty speed-scan ring allows you to skip past the boring parts with no problem. Though it's thinner than a Nicholas Sparks novel, and much lighter, the LA95 is durable and looks to be in about the same condition as it was when I unpacked it earlier this year - and since then it's been used largely by my 4 and 7 year old kids. Since this is my first portable DVD player, I can't really say anything about the quality of its picture or sound - but it's a movie that comes in your hand, how nifty is that? While 2 hours seems a bit short, the extended battery doesn't seem a bad buy considering that notebook batteries seem to cost about as much. Though it doesn't come with a carry case, mine was packed in this nifty bubble packing which seems to be as durable as the unit. (if it came with something to stick the adapter inside of, you wouldn't need to buy a case at all). On the downside, for a player that sits on your lap, it does build up some heat. I would have sacrificed some size and weight for a decent heat-sink. That said, it's expensive, convenient and durable. After months of trouble-free use, you'll know where your money went.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent bit of kit, but...
Review: I've had an LA95 for a couple of years now, and I'm generally delighted with it (as are my children, from whom not a peep is heard on long journeys when they can watch DVDs in the back of the car).

The point of this review: Twice the player has failed. On the first occasion, the unit failed to recharge; the other time it would play non-region-protected DVDs and CDs, but DVDs with (any) region protection would produce a message stating that: "This type of disc cannot be played. Please insert a different disc."

In both cases, the problem was resolved by simply allowing the battery to discharge (not a deliberate action on my part - I just left the thing in a drawer for a month or two while I tried to decide what to do with it). I suspect that the same effect could be achieved more quickly by removing the battery for a while. (Perhaps the player should've had a "Reset" button?)

I have a suspicion that the problem is connected with the additional, external (Panasonic) battery I bought. The problems happened after I attempted to charge both internal and external batteries together. The way to do it seems to be to disconnect the external battery and charge the internal one until the red LED lights up. Only then should you (after disconnecting the charger) reconnect the external battery, reconnect the charger and charge the external battery.

Hope this helps anyone who may have problems with his or her LA95.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perfect for Family Road Trips
Review: I've tried to imagine what our road trip with 3 small children from northern California to southern New Mexico would have been like without this player, but I shudder every time I try. The picture quality of the Panasonic DVD-LA95 is excellent for a portable and the sound quality and volume were sufficient enough to enable our kids to watch their favorite DVDs in a noisy minivan without the need for clumsy headphones. But more importantly, this player provided me and my wife with a peace and quiet you just can't put a price on. No having to endure the dreaded "Are we there yet?" mantra coming from the back seat. No shouts of "Daaaaaad, he's on my side!" or "I'm bored!" to contend with. A true sanity-saver. My only complaint was the short battery life and the somewhat cryptic setup menu. Neither of which would prevent me from highly recommending this player to other parents planning cross-country vacations with a carload of kids. However, if you plan on taking this unit on the road, do yourself a favor and purchase a cigarette lighter adapter. You'll be glad you did. The unit has also proved to be an excellent in-home player for the TV in our bedroom. After extensive research online and through local retailers, I found the Panasonic DVD-LA95 to be the best portable DVD player on the market. If only they had these things when I was a kid.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Panasonic LA-95
Review: Its great when workinging but at less than one year picture quite working. Still under warranty but involved to get corrected and approx $100.00 to fix under warranty. For an Expensive unit should have a longer life expectancy.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best DVD player on army base!
Review: My son is at Fort Sam Houston training to be an army medic.Last week I sent him a Panasonic DVD-LA95. Being very savvy about electronics, I feared he would be disappointed. The good news--he loves it and claims that he has the best DVD player on the entire base! He raves about the excellent picture quality. Only problem is that it lacks a carrying case, requiring an additional expense of $30-$50. It would be helpful to include portable DVD carrying cases in the list of accessories for this product.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very high quality
Review: Other manufacturers like Apex, Initial and Shinco make decent portable DVD players at a lower price, but Panasonic products are simply the best in terms of quality. From sharp pictures to booming sound (even from the built-in speakers) to build quality, you can't do better than this. The price is high, but you do get what you pay for. If you plan to watch DVDs on the road only occasionally, an Apex or Initial would suffice and you do get a lot of bang for the buck. If you watch DVDs a lot, though, I highly recommend the Panasonic. I have this and an Initial product and trust me, the quality difference is just huge.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great on plane with toddler
Review: Our 16 month old likes Baby Mozart. We were taking him to the Virgin Islands - a 4 hour flight. We decided to get a portable DVD player to help keep him from getting bored. This is the one we ended up with. We got the extra battery after reading how short-lived the included one is. Well, it worked great. Very pleased. Excellent, bright picture, decent enough sound though no bass to speak of, very portable.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Mixed Bag
Review: panasonic definitely cut a few corners in producing their latest portable. the fit and finish of the la-95 is much improved over last year's dvd-lv75. however, the 9-inch screen, although larger, is of poorer quality. images aren't as sharp or as bright as on the older model's 7-inch screen (the older screen is truly and engineering marvel). my guess is that the pixel-count was not increased along with screen size to reduce manufacturing costs. when using headphones, annoying reverberations could be heard while listening to certain voices on some DVDs. another design flaw is found in the orientation of the LCD screen itself. the screen goes very dark when you try to view it from an open angle, leaving you with a much smaller viewing radius than with the older machine, which was manufactured with the pixels reflecting in the opposite direction.

the dvd-la95 is a very pretty gadget to look at, but falls short on video and audio performance. (...)

panasonic, if you're listening, your next model should combine the fit and finish of the dvd-la95 with the screen quality of the dvd-lv75 without the background audio artifacts and reverberation problems associated with either.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Beautiful picture, very portable, lousy battery life
Review: Review title pretty much says it all.

It's so light, it's the definition of "portable".

The picture is very, very good, and the interface is great.

Speakers can be a LOT louder than they would ever need to be.

The AUX-in is AWESOME. I hooked my VCR up to it and watched VHS tapes. How cool is that??

The default brightness is way low so they can claim longer battery life. First things I did was max the brightness. 1.5 hours... not enough to finish a lot of movies. I'm currently shopping for an extra battery.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A MUST BUY!!!!
Review: The 9" screen cannot be beat. Although I must admit that the sound and the picture quality on the Sharp 8" player (which is cheaper) is moderately better, the LA-95 is overall the best portable player. It also does not get any sleeker than this. It is very easy to use, extremely light, and has the best collection of portable accessories of any new players (many of the older Panasonic model's accessories work with the LA-95). After all - if I am going to watch a DVD movie at home - why wouldn't I watch from my big screen TV? I recommend getting the optional battery pack CGP-H501... and/or the the XTend airline power adapter if you plan on (as I do) using on long trips to keep your children occupied. I am not sure, though, if I will ever need to play any of those other formats (what exactly is DVD-RAM?). By the way - cartoons look the best and color sci fi the worst.


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