Audiovox D1700 Portable DVD Player

Rating:
Summary: Poor customer service
Review: I needed a new replacement for the USB battery charger for the D1700 and when I contacted customer services they said so sorry, discontinued. I you have one to sell: [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: 1680 is much better
Review: I originally purchased this model instead of the Audiovox 1680 because I prefer the widescreen setup. However, this unit was nothing but trouble. It is flimsy and was unable to play several newly purchased DVDs. Further, the method for recharging the battery was really unintuitive and clumsy. I returned it in favor of the 1680. The 1680 is very solid (and heavy) and despite the fact that it has a more traditional television width ratio, I have been very happy with the unit both as a portable and as a home DVD player.

Rating:
Summary: I would not recommend
Review: I purchased this product and returned it in 3 days. It would play for 20 minutes and then the DVD would spin out of control and the unit would heat up. This happenned in the car and plugged into the wall. Also, when you adjusted the screen, the picture would fade out and it need to be moved up and down to finally get the screen to come back. I bought the Panasonic LV70 and it is a much better product in my opinion ( light, solid, incredible sound ). The Audiovox also became VERY hot when played for short period of time and the unit was incredibly heavy.

Rating:
Summary: Audiovox D1700...go back to D1680!
Review: I recently returned from a trip (Chicago to Upstate New York and back) with two children. The DVD player performed flawlessly hour after hour with no complaints concerning picture or sound quality. I noticed none of the problems with that other reviewers noted. However, we are very careful to keep DVDS clean and to place them in their holders so that they do not scratch.

Rating:
Summary: Indispensible for cross-country trips
Review: I recently returned from a trip (Chicago to Upstate New York and back) with two children. The DVD player performed flawlessly hour after hour with no complaints concerning picture or sound quality. I noticed none of the problems with that other reviewers noted. However, we are very careful to keep DVDS clean and to place them in their holders so that they do not scratch.

Rating:
Summary: I like it BUT...
Review: I've been having the same problems with my D1700 as the others..it will skip, freeze and otherwise act irratically sometimes. But sometimes it will work perfectly, and when it does, it is a wonderful thing to have. You can hook it up to any TV in your house and watch DVD's on the big screen. You can take it with you in the car (or, in my case, on the commuter train)and watch movies any time. ... The customer service site online is very helpful and will respond quickly to service inquiries. Audiovox sent me a new D1700...and it works a little better than the first one---but this one skips sometimes too!! VERY disappointing!

Rating:
Summary: Worth Every Penny
Review: Just got the D1700 and love it. The picture is bright and crisp. No problems playing any DVD's. The picture is much better than the Panasonic, RCA, and Toshiba models I looked at in the store and costs way less. It comes with everything to take it on the road. As with any portable DVD player, you have to read the directions and be careful when loading and unloading DVD's. If you follow the directions you won't have any problems.

Rating:
Summary: Awful DVD player: Lousy Quality control??
Review: Minus one star, actually. I am very disappointed w/ the D1700 I recently purchased. As reported before, my unit looks great on paper, the price was right, the picture and sound are fine (loud enough to be heard w/out needing a headset even in a noisy van), battery life seems to be w/in the 3 hour range, size and weight are quite up to par for the size of screen, and the available feature list is impressive for the price - but it just did NOT work, skipping, pixelizing, and freezing on every DVD I tried to play on it.

I tried 5 different DVDs, and 2 CDs, loading them as carefully as I can: I also tried them a) running on AC, b) running in the car off 12v DC, c) stand-alone, off the LiIon battery. At best, a DVD ran for 1 h 30 mn before going haywire, at worst it started skipping, pixelizing, and freezing right off the bat... 2 of the DVDs were brand new, one had been played once, the 4th one was a rental. All work fine on my "big" home player. Also, as reported, the Rewind and Fast Forward button on the deck are temperamental. The CD's worked fine, but the control pad was a headache, usually requiring many presses before fast-forwarding or skipping tracks.

I tried to let the unit cool off overnight and play a DVD, jumping directly to 3/4 of the movie: it misbehaved the same, so it's not overheating (not that this would be an excuse anyways.) My unit is a "REV 03", so it's not an issue of cutting teeth either.

7-30-02, a month later: got a replacement unit, which works _much_ better than the original, but still freezes out randomly on 1 out of 5 DVDs, and with the same mostly unusable keypad. Still not recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Had to send it back
Review: My first unit had many problems, so I exchanged it for another. (See my previous review). The 2nd unit eventually started having the same problems as the first one. So finally I asked to exchange this for the 1680 model. I've had the 1680 for several months now and it has worked much better...although not perfect. (I wonder if there is any brand or model out there that works 100% of the time?) I also noticed that Audiovox now makes a model number 1730. Probably they realized the 1700 was a dog for the most part and have discontinued it(hopefully). I still maintain that customer service was really very good.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't work
Review: On the "plus" side, the price is right and this unit comes with everything, including a cigarette plug adapter for the car.
But, it doesn't work. After two returns, I've tried three separate units and none of them work. First, it won't play certain DVDs (even if they are brand new). Second, for no reason, it will occasionally spin out of control requiring complete reset. Third, the fast forward and rewind buttons on the unit do not work (but the remote fast forward and rewind works sometimes, but not all times). Fourth, it doesn't play well. It will skip, pixelize, lock-up, etc., even on brand new DVD's.
Having said all that, all of the units I have state that they are REV 00, so maybe Audiovox hasn't worked out the bugs yet and maybe they will get it right by REV 01. But if this is true, in my opinion, they should never have released REV 00.
I am returning mine for a Panasonic. No more Audiovox for me.