potable DVD player - what to look for?

MATH

My 8 year old daughter is after a portable DVD player for her birthday next month. I've no idea what I'm looking for in terms of functions. I guess she'll watch DVDs in the car, in her room, elsewhere in the house, possibly in the garden and will take it with her to our caravan. Budget is around £100 and I've seen one in Argos for £90 but I've not idea what I'm buying! Can anyone give me some advise please? Thanks

Edinburghlass_2

The main thing seems to be the size of the screen according to other posts on here that I have seen. A lot of people seem to look for 7" screen minimum, however I got one for my daughter's Christmas and its a 5" screen and is ideal for our use. I think the bigger screen is better if more than one is viewing at the same time, however, we used ours on a train journey once and it was fine.

I haven't tried it but like a laptop you can connect them to a television to view the DVD through, which would be ideal for you all viewing at the caravan.

The one I got was on offer in Tesco at £80, an Alba and is very neat but was one of their when its gone, its gone type bargains.

You can use headphones with them, which I like if its being used in the car as I can then listen to radio2 with no complaints

I think Argos sometimes have a carry bag included or at half price which I think means you can put the player in and hang over the back of the front seats for viewing in the back?

Oh and like all of these things they are coming down and down in price!

gk172

We looked for the 7 inch screen and whether it was region free as we do order from usa/ca/aus so that was important to us, also we looked at it being able to play dvd-r too as we keep the original and kids get a backed up copy as they do tend not to look after them. I got the maplin one for £99 and its really good with all the bits included.

Edinburghlass_2

I take back what I said about them coming down in price as they all seem quite expensive to me now I have had a search :rolleyes:

I agree with the above re playing back-ups as if they are going to kick about the car and get left in the sun they can get pretty scratched.

I did notice one in my Tesco Extra this past week but it was around £120 but you might like to have a look at it just to see the size and what you would get for your money.

MATH

Thanks everyone for informative responses. I agree wholeheartedly with the copy CD/DVD thing because we've always copied CDs for the same reason and will copy DVDs too.
I'll go and do some more shopiing now I know what I'm looking for.