DBPOWER 16.9” Portable DVD Player Review

DBPOWER 16.9” Portable DVD Player Review

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DBPower is a name well known in tech circles for the range and quality of their products and this new stand-alone DVD player is no exception. It is a smaller version of the 17.9” model I reviewed some time ago. Like the bigger brother it can play multi-region DVDs and audio discs, along with a wide range of files on SD cards or USB drives.

In the large but attractively designed box can be found the player itself, a UK power adapter, remote control, remote control battery set, car power adapter, RCA cable set, and a nicely printed and easy to read user guide.

Build quality seems fine, the DVD player is far lighter at 2.3Kg than might be expected for the 16.9" size but it feels well made and robust. The remote control is fairly small with a large number of tiny and hard to decipher buttons but the build quality is good and it feels well made enough.

Looking at the player itself, it has a large and bright 14.1″ LCD screen with a 1366 x 768 pixel resolution (resolution is reduced when playing some file types from USB or SD). The discs are loaded into a top opening panel on the inside face of the unit surrounded by a range of controls, all with large buttons and a positive clicky operation. On one side is a port bay containing a USB A port, full sized SD card slot, 3.5mm audio jack port, AV in and out ports, a Power On/Off slider and a power in port.

On the left of the disc bay are buttons for Mute, TFT/On, Subtitles, Audio, Rewind, and Fast Forward. Next to it is a jog wheel for Volume and Forward/Back with in the centre a button to call up the Settings menu. On the right of the disc compartment are buttons for Mode, Setup, USB/DVD, Menu, Stop, and Play/Pause Selecting Setup gives access to a wide range of options to allow for almost every situation, but probably most users will not need to go there. Below is another large control pad for menu navigation. All the controls are on the front panel and are large, well marked and easy to use, well suited perhaps for older and less tech savvy users.

The remote control is well made with a good positive feel to the buttons. It has a large array of identical buttons and allows almost every feature to be selected and controlled but their small size makes this a difficult and confusing task. In any case, I doubt many people will want to use this device with a remote. The cables and accessories are pretty much standard and all of decent quality.

The region-free unit can play DVDs, CDs and most types of audio and video files on disc, SD card or external USB drive. It can also connect to external devices using the supplied RCA cables but sadly there is no HDMI port or Bluetooth connection option. However, you can connect external source devices and view the output on the DVD player screen and connect the DVD player to external screens using the AV Out port.

Supported Discs
CD-R, CD-RW, VCD,SVCD, CVD, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW
Audio Formats
MP3, WMA (32-192kbps)
Video Formats
AVi, MPG, DAT, VOB (720 x576 max)

I have to say the video and audio quality are better than I expected, previous players I have tested have not been good, Video is good and bright, sharp and with well saturated colours. I did find the angle of view to be quite tight and it is best to sit directly facing the screen for best results. The screen is ball and socket mounted and can be flipped 180° and rotated 270° to almost any position to make viewing easier. Picture format, quality and audio can all be finely tuned in the extensive settings menu.

This is a nice device, well made and easy to use and targeted, I suspect, at mainstream users that will not mind the absence of HDMI, Bluetooth or advanced file type support and will use this to revive and enjoy their collections of old DVDs and CDs.

Not a bad buy, I think, for a penny under £110 before discounts - and yes at the time of writing massive discounts are available for this device.

Music: YouTube Audio Library: Guitar House - josh pan