My wife, Judy, and I occasionally stay at a friend's house. (It?s in Cambria, on the California coast, right on the ocean. Surprised that we have influential friends, eh? Me, too.)
They don?t have a DVD player (hard to believe, I know) and one of our pleasures is to take a handful of Netflix DVDs with us.
I was taking my notebook anyway and debating whether to try to feed the DVD?s signal from my notebook to the TV. ?A PITA,? my buddy, David Jung, said. ?Spend $100 and buy a portable 7-inch DVD player, and don't waste your time and energy with the notebook.?
I checked PC World?s Product Finder and found plenty to choose from. In fact, Geeks.Com had a Nexxtech for $63, but it was refurbished.
Hey, There?s No Screen
As I looked at the specs, I realized I didn?t want to schlep around yet another five pound device. I didn?t need a screen (I was feeding the image to a TV) and David said not to bother taking it on a plane; the batteries don?t have much staying power.
Then I remembered seeing just the DVD player I wanted at a Consumer Electronics Show. It was a portable DVD player ? no screen or battery, but it did have a remote. It?s the YDP-700 Yahoo Micro DVD Player (it?s actually Diamond Electronics who licenses the Yahoo name). FirstStreet sells it for $100, but I've seen it at Target, by way of Amazon, for $50. It?s small ? about 8- by 5- by 2-inches and weighs a little over a pound. There is a downside: The absurdly large AC-adapter.
Strangely enough, the company rep insisted it wasn?t portable. ?...the unit has no battery, must be plugged into the wall, has no screen, and is only a very uniquely designed ultra compact DVD Player for your home or office. It does fit nicely into a suitcase, but is not portable.?
?No battery?? I fired back. ?Of course not, and that's the point of a DVD player without a screen. It doesn?t need a battery and it?s amazingly small ? the footprint is less than an 8x11 sheet of paper, It?s definitely portable and I can use it in any room in the house, take it along to a hotel or a guest house, or anywhere where there?s a TV.?
What do you think ? is this a device you?d use?
Would I? It's already in my Amazon shopping cart. Every so often I give presentations with video clips, and as lightweight as it is, my Panasonic player is a little awkward to carry around. I can just toss this in my shoulder bag and be on my way.
Steve: The constant gamma rays eminating from your PC screen are affecting your little grey cells. If my husband took me to a week-end at the beach and just wanted to watch movies--I'd catch the next bus outa town. Softrain@Quik.com I'm also trying to find out how to email you about your 9/27 newsletter but haven't figured that out yet. JW
Stargazer: We've been married almost 35 years. That tell 'ya something?
Send me e-mail at steve_bass@pcworld.com and I'll figure out your 9/27 newsletter stuff.