Pana Portable Dvd La95 Or A Laptop?

[kerrybr]

Need DVD on the move. Thinking of the Tiny @£500, or the Panasonic LA95 @ £850/£900. Although if I spend that much I could get a laptop with DVD plus a much bigger screen which would also play games.
Will the quality of the picture of the laptop be as good as the panasonic?

Undecided what would you do?

[millec199]

Depending on the spec of the laptop the pic would prob be as good to the eye. But a portable player would use a hardware decoder while the laptop would use software one (unless you got a decoder card as well) which normally has a slightly worse picture.

Also a laptop will be a lot bigger and may not have the same battery life. My ThinkPad 600 will run for about 100 mins watching a DVD, and is about 5 times as big as the latest pioneer.

Although I do get a bigger screen but it is a 4:3 screen not a 16:9.

It is a personal preference depending on where you use it (a laptop can be hard to use on a crowded train while a portable DVD player would be handheld) and if you would use a laptop for more than movies.
.

[Ron Hill]

I've never been happy with DVD playback on any PC laptop i've seen.
If there's anything running in the background then you get the odd
tiny pause in playback which I personally find unacceptable.

There's also the bootup time and the faffing you have to do to
deregion effectively. Typically using DVDgenie or some such.

I need a laptop for study and I want a decent portable DVD so thanks
to the miracle of 0% credit cards like Capital One i've decided to go
for both. :D

BTW, Nice new compaq presario laptop for £999 in Dixons.

900Mhz AMD
128MB ram
20GB HD
DVD
14.1" screen
Windows XP

Not bad eh.

[nigel_williams]

I've got a Panasonic portable which is great. I tend to travel for work so it's very handy when the only english speaking TV is CNN. It has optical outputs and S-Video so I can set it up at home too.

I have a Toshiba Tecra 8100 with DVD and the picture is certainly bigger but the battery life is 90 minutes top. I can't use this is a home player either.

I did notice a Dell laptop which has Coax AC3 output.

Stick with the dedicated player as it has 4 hour battery, enough for 2 movies. You will need decent headphones though as the in-built speakers don't produce enough bass. Try the Beyer Dynamic DT 231's for £40.

[Ron Hill]

Nigel: Where did you get your Beyer headphones? Do you have a link?

[nigel_williams]

I was lucky enough to find them in my local HiFi store, Billy Vee in Lewisham, London.

Best bet is a HiFi shop as I doubt High Street stores will stock them. Empire Direct also have them.


Nigel

[Ron Hill]

Thanks Nigel.

Empire Direct it is. :)

[Ron Hill]

Nigel: Got the Beyer headphones today and gave them a quick test with
my hifi. They really are rather good sounding for 'phones less than
£40. Very comfy too. Should be great with the portable DVD when it
arrives. Thanks for the recommendation. :)