Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Affordable Player for DVD+R's and DVD-R's
Review: I've tried a couple of affordable portable DVD players, such as APEX and Minitek, and both did not play my burned Memorex DVD+R media. This one plays DVD+R's and DVD-R's with no trouble at all. I thought that I'd pass along this information...
Burner: Sony DRU-510A
Media: Memorex DVD+R/DVD-R's
Rating: 
Summary: Will not read Duel Disks
Review: I bought my model 1731, 7" Inital portable DVD player a Walmart a week ago. I started watching aome of my faverite movies on a car trip and it kept frezzing up in the middle of the disk, I soon found out from a eletronice speicalist that it has trouble reading duel disks, well thats great all the new disks today are duel layered I only had two disk that it woud read all the way threw and that was becuase it was older DVD disk and was not duel disk. I soon replaced it with a 8" 1810 Inital and it worked great. I say do not buy the 7" becuse this model has problems.
Rating:
Summary: too bad it doesn't work right
Review: nice item if it worked! only played certain discs and not others. i will get a different brand.too bad they don't make it better.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Bang for the Buck
Review: I picked this up to use on the treadmill at the gym. I can't just look blankly at a wall for 60-90 mins! I've used it for over 75 hours so far (I plug it in a nearby outlet) without any problems. The volume is great, picture quality is good. I gave it 4 stars because of 2 really stupid omissions: 1) the lack of contrast in dark images and no way to adjust the contrast. Brightness can be adjusted, but that only goes so far. 2) When viewing a movie at 100%, there's a 1/2" to 1" border all around the image. If you do a "full screen" view, the image fills the screen, crops part of the top, and stretches/distorts the image to fit. Zooming "squares" off the image leaving a 2" border left and right! Why not just fill the entire screen and use the correct proportions?!? I've tried combinations of zoom and full view, etc. No option or combination of options utilizes the entire screen except the distorted fit option.
Rating:
Summary: Do Not Buy this Product
Review: We have been able to watch a movie on this player once. Every other time we have attempted to use it, it skips or freezes. We have had nothing but problems with it.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad
Review: I have read all of the reviews here and was sceptical about getting this product. I have had it for about a month and so far nothing has gone wrong. I had gotten concerned about the unit because the mechanical noise (from the drive itself) was alittle bit loud, so I thought about returning it and getting a differant brand. I bought a AMW, which was mechanically quieter, but the speakers were horrible and the picture wasn't as good. I returned that one and bought a cool Poloroid one with a swivel screen. The sound out of that one was awesome, but the picture quality sucked. I took that one back too. I played with a bunch more at the stores and decided that none of them really had the picture quality that this one had unless I wanted to drop a bunch more money. This one has a good price, good sound, and an awesome picture. My only gripe is the mechanical noise when loading, but it gets quieter when the movie plays. Sounds like if you can get a good one of these, this is the one to get, especially for the cost/value ratio.
Rating:
Summary: Great quality for the price
Review: After much agonizing about the cost of portable dvd players, we found this one at an amazing price. With some hesitation, based on reviews and lack of familiarity with this brand, we bought one prior to a recent 3-hour airplane trip with our three year old daughter. We were pleasantly surprised with the picture and sound quality (especially at this price!), and the battery lasted exactly a full three hours. And, despite a bumpy flight and an even bumpier 1-hour ride to our destination, we didn't experience one skip or problem. The only thing that was even slightly disappointing is that the battery doesn't "lock" onto the unit very securely and is potentially left dangling by the plug. Not a problem, considering that our usage will be occasional, just something we had to be aware of when we were picking the unit up or moving it. Also, be aware of the fact that this unit doesn't come with headphones. The other accessories are all there, though - car adapter, battery charger, cables to hook up to TV, etc. Sure, we would have felt more comfortable with a name brand like Panasonic or Toshiba, but at this price, this little machine was wonderful for our purposes. We've been very pleased so far!
Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: Spend the extra 100 dollars and buy a Panasonic! The picture keeps freezing up and the tech support at Initial D is horrible.
MOst of the parts must be made in China like any other American made electronic product. Poor quality.
Rating:
Summary: portable quality
Review: I recently purchased the Initial 7" player and watched "In Hell", a prison movie, and I was quite amazed at the crisp and colorful picture. The briteness seems to be perfect at around a 6 setting. The player does come with a complete accessories package including charger and cigarette lighter plug-in for use in vehicles. I looked at more expensive players and noticed the picture was not as clear and crisp as this player. I do not know how long the player will last but I do have a small handheld tv I purchased from Casio in 1997. It has thousands of hours of use from its TFT screen like this screen and it has not one failed pixel. I think if you take care of this unit, it could last 20 years or more. This means keeping it out of high humidity areas, no drops and basic tender touch with the keys and so forth. Always keep the sound level just a hair below maxed out and the bright level at around 6. This is the perfect unit for what its intended purpose is for. I suggest a leather DVD carry case to keep it fresh and dust free when not in use. DVD players are not perfect and some momentary pauses or freezes are normal if the DVD has the slightest imperfection. This DVD player will most likely correct itself and keep playing with its delayed reaction time(anti-skip). I also suggest purchasing a can of compressed air to spray off the dust inside and outside the player after every use. I believe there are bad units in every manufacturer when a batch of 1000 units is made. There may be 15 to 30 that something went wrong during assembly and quality control did not catch it. I also believe the 7" version is the model that was most popular and Initial has a higher quality standard on this model as well. The unit has high quality sound within 5 feet and a magnificant picture that you must see for yourself. I would highly recommend this product to all DVD fans.
Rating: 
Summary: They want to Hide this From You
Review: My wife bought this unit in August but we didn't really use it until October. I was looking forward to enjoying a couple movies of my own choice on a cross country trip. But - you guessed it, half way into any movie, any disk, it would freeze up. I would have to stop the unit, restart, then try to find where I left off then it would freeze again. I spoke to the tech guy at Initial (1-800-216-5156). I told him what happened and mentioned the fact that so many other reviewers had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM. He said that most of those were because people had 'dropped' or 'trashed' their units! Since the 30 days had elapsed Curcuit City couldn't give rip (basicly telling me tough sh*t)and Initial says they will fix it for $45 plus shipping and a 5 week wait. What great service! Basically I think this unit has a serious design flaw and Initial is trying to avoid a recall. I don't know how you get a recall going but I would be the first to demand one. Spend a little extra money for a better unit (Panasonic maybe?)with REAL service. I will say that the picture on my unit was great. When it is frozen you have a lot of time to really look at the detail . . . .
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