Watch movies and listen to MP3 CDs using Initial Technology's IDM-9520. The player comes with everything needed to use it in the car or in the home. Its built-in 4.2-inch widescreen TFT (thin-film-transistor) LCD displays your favorite movies in their native aspect ratios, while its onboard antiskip protection--a surprisingly rare feature in portable DVD players--paves the way for media enjoyment during more active uses.
Listen through built-in stereo speakers or through the headphone jack using personal headphones (not included). Connections include a composite-video output, an analog audio output, and an optical digital-audio output so you can hook up the player with your audio/video receiver and multichannel speaker system to enjoy immersive DTS or Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround from your discs (optical digital-audio interconnect not included). The unit gets about 2.5 hours of playback from the supplied rechargeable lithium battery.
What's in the Box
DVD player, limited-function remote control, remote battery, AC adapter, high-capacity rechargeable lithium battery, 12V DC car adapter, composite-video interconnect, analog audio interconect, and a user's manual. Headphones are not included.
1 Going strong after 8.5 months
Bought this item last July at a very low price ($100). We use it almost exclusively in the car for our 4-year old to watch during in-state road trips. It gets used about once every other week. We attach the unit with velcro to a home-make wooden platform that fits the back of the front seat head rest. The unit takes a fair amount of bouncing, and has always performed well. Based on reviews of other Initial buyers, I did buy an extended warranty, and, with an upcoming cross-country vacation planned this summer, I hope that if it does crash, it does so before our trip, not on it!
2 definately not worth it
I live in Germany and my family in the USA, so Amazon is a great place to go for presents for everyone. Less than one year ago, I bought this DVD Player for my sister for her birthday. She has had minor problems with it since the beginning and now the player will not turn on. When she contacted the customer service department, the representative informed her that her problem is quite common and it is typical to just replace the unit.
In the warranty that comes with the player, it states if the player breaks, there is a one year warranty on parts and replacement, however only a 90 day warranty on labor. My sister was advised to send in the player along with a check for $40 for repairs, yet, as stated above, that it would likely just be replaced and there would be no refund of the labor charge.
This was something that was quite difficult for me to understand, so I contacted the company directly. In the correspondence I received, I was told that Initial stands by their product "with a 3 month labor 1 year parts warranty." I was also informed "When purchasing our product, there is the warranty card and information that comes with all of our product. This will inform our customers the warranty information and then they can make their informed decision whether to purchase the item or not." Although Amazon states the 1 year parts and replacement, 90 days labor, the warranty card is not available to be read. Furthermore, warranty cards are not made available in stores either, so true details of the warranty are not clear until after the product is purchased.
Now let me be completely clear, I understand the point of the labor charge. However, if Initial stands so firmly behind there product, how can the company justify having only 90 days to cover labor. It would seem to me, if a company truly believes their product to be of quality, they would offer a warranty that covers replacement, parts and labor for the full term of the warranty. The fact that Initial only covers labor for 90 days leads me to believe it is expected the product will break. I am very unhappy with this product and the service both my sister and I have received. Therefore, I would highly recommend not purchasing this product from Initial, but look to a different company which truly stands behind their product.
3 For a Off Brand Not Bad
I just received this player yesterday and I played around with it last night. Picture for such a small screen is not bad. All the buttons and the remote work. Played through Return of the Jedi and everything was great. If you are looking for a cheap protable then this would be it. Now as for its bad points. It is a bit loud on startup and you can hear when it skips tracks and such but not overbearing. The AC adapter gets really warm. I had it hooked up to charge the battery and unplugged it because I was afraid it would start a fire...lol. Also on the chapter screen and optoins screen the highlights are hard to see. But overall good little player...enjoy.
4 Very "moody" player
I bought this for my son when we go on long car/plane trips. We have had it for about 7 months and it has been "moody" since day 1. It works when it wants to work and it skips when it wants to skip. Some movies play fine and have minimal skipping, but other movies skip every few minutes. I have tried cleaning the discs and as well as the player and it still skips. It is almost impossible to watch a complete movie on this device. However, it does keep my son happy on trips so I guess I got what I wanted. The skipping doesn't seem to bother my son who is so happy just to be watching a movie although it would really bother me. So think twice about buying this if you are someone who gets annoyed easily....or else you will throw it out the window.
5 Great Item - Give it a try
I am thrilled with this little player! It is my favorite toy. I was a little concerned about some of the negative aspects that other reviewers pointed out, but I decided that the positive outweighted the negative and gave it try. Am I glad I did! I take it to work to watch on breaks and at lunch and fits in my handbag.
I admit that I have not tried all the functions and have always used the A/C adapter so I can't offer an opinion on the battery capacity as yet, but for a simple, portable way to watch your favorite movies on the go, it's great. The picture is fine and the sound is not bad either(better with headphones).
If you are looking for a good value, this is it.
Added on 4/12/05: I have had this player for over eight months now, and still have not had one bit of trouble with it even though I use it almost every day on my lunch hour. I don't know if I was just lucky when other reviewers were not, but I still highly recommend it.
6 Gave it another chance.
I wrote a bad review because the dvd player froze
and acted like the other bad reviews.
Tried it one more time before sending it back.
Now it works great.
it plays and plays. I deleted my last review.
I love this player. Took it on a trip in the car
and not a problem.
Picture great,sound through head phones is wonderful.
UPDATE:
Had player for a month with a lot of use.
works awesome.
took on another trip and worked perfect.
UPDATE #2
Had the player since august and now its december and i still love it.
not once has it froze up and i use it a lot.
i don't know why in the beginning i had trouble with
the freeze up but when i was ready to send it back
i tried one more time and not one problem since.
7 IDM-9520--so far so good
I had read a lot of reviews about this player, some were bad, but I decided to get one anyway--I was surprised , it works well, I have not had it a month yet, but I have useing it almost 8 hrs a day for close to thirty days, it get pretty boring doing night audit--the sound is not that good, but you get some speakers or headphones and it is great
The bad reviews did make me buy a three years replacement for about 17.00
8 Pretty Much Like HAL 9000
I love toys. And I love the idea of bringing a DVD player anywhere I want to. It's so amazing that it's so small - just about as small as a dvd player can get. it's no frills, though. on and off, you could say, but who needs that much more, right? my problems with the model I have is the low battery life, which I'm sure can be fixed with advances in technology. maybe from 3 hours to 5.
it has nice visuals and the sound is great. the one feature that expands video to television aspect ratios doesn't suck, but it's not award-winning either. but the thing that really burned me was how every couple of movies, it is prone to skipping or freezing. but only when i use the battery. when i use the cord and outlet, its fine. still, skipping and freezing gets pretty darned upsetting.
9 BEATS THE BIG BOYS
Bought the Sony 7" TFT DVP-FX701, exchanged it because it was NOISY. Opened the second one, the drive spinning was less noisy - however, the top metal plate (lid/screen)had a flaw-it was chipped. Needless to say turned the unit over and it says: "Made In Korea." I felt like a surprise was in every DVP-FX701 box. And the price is no box of Cracker Jacks either.
I really didn't have a preference in monitor size because at that size 7" is no different than 4" to me. I look through monitors of all shapes and sizes all day long including a $30,000 HD BVM Sony Monitor. Anyway, I found the IDM-9520 to be unique and in a class of it's own. For one, most smaller screens are standard 4:3 aspect. Not even Sony offers a 4.2 16:9 aspect ratio TFT screen. The price of the IDM-9520 is 1/5th of the Sony. So at 99 bucks who can complain? But that's not all : The drive spinning noise the Sony made? Non-existent on the Initial Player - extremely quiet! The built-in speakers? Very crisp and loud enough to fill a 600 sqare ft. room. Turn up the Sony and it distorted. IDM-9520's Firmware includes pull-down menus with equalizer too. Sony's firmware does not even include an EQ! This company is out of La Verne CA which is considered local to any Southern Californian so I don't see any problem if I have a problem. Lastly, quality: No doubts when I opened the sealed plastic container that was over the entire box, everything was secure, wrapped, sealed, and the DVD drive even had a cardboard disc in it to protect the unit after leaving the factory. (Sony portable DVD did not) Professional registration card also included. Believe it or not. Sony does not factory seal the DVP-FX701 box, no registration card, SEL customer service is not what it used to be either. Anyway, if anyone is going to complain about this little portable they're just down right cheap. This is the best valued portable DVD player at around 100 bucks made with extreme quality. Way to go Initial ! You beat the big boys on this one. One more last thing! - I didn't get technical about the Thin Film Trasistor LCD - it's phenomenal! The color and brightness adjustments are digital (in the firmware) The Sony player had two cheap slide bars to adjust. Anyway to replace this monitor alone would be more than the 100 you spent on the whole package. Outstanding product bar none.
10 Don't be Fooled
I bought this because of the price, and got what I payed for. It worked for three movies and froze up, then would not load anything after that. Thnking it was a lemon, I returned it only exchanged it for a second one, only to have it happen again after five movies played.
Finally, I exchanged it for an APEX for the same price, and have not had a moments trouble for 6 months.
Sure the price is good, but you can get so much more for your money.
11 Don't BUY
I agree with one of the previous posts. Do not buy an Initial Dvd player. I bought mine at the end of November for a road trip. It worked great. We used it a few more times since then, but recently noticed the screen would suddenly go out. Today, I tried to power it up using both the car adapter and the regular plug and nothing happened. My husband tried to power it up and still nothing. So after only 6 months I have to replace my portable dvd player.
12 Great price, great quality!
I thought I was going to have to spend a wad on a brand like Sony in order to get something good. I am very pleased with the sound and video quality of such a light, and inexpensive device.
The only downfall I can see is the proprietary battery. It only lasts 2 hours and takes 6 hours to charge, and can only be charged 500 times. Small inconvenience in my book to save the difference in the price to one that can do better.
13 Stay Away From Initial
I hate to say it, but the people who have given this item good reviews haven't owned the player long enough. Initial's build quality is very poor- it is a fact that if you buy a product from Initial, it WILL need service. It is only a matter of time, and, unfortunately, not that much time. Now, you have your new DVD player that you were all excited to purchase, but it's worth jack because the screen hinge completely broke and it won't play movies. You now get the unenviable task of contacting Initial's customer support. It's a nightmare! I think their customer service is comprised of a bunch of 8 year olds in a sweat shop in India.
Trust me on this one, go with a proven brand like Sony or Toshiba, and you won't regret your decision if anything ever goes wrong.
14 What a grate player!!!!!!!
I got this the other day and it works grate!!!! the sound is perfect! the picture is near perfect! and it comes with all the cables and a car kit too!!! and all this for $139.99?!?!?!?!?! buy it now!!! BUY IT NOW!! before they are all gone!!!
15 Great for the price
Have owned this DVD player for about a month now and have had no issues with it. Wish the screen was bigger but this portable is great for traveling. Have hooked it up in hotel rooms and it works great. It is nice being able to watch NetFlix movies on airplanes and in hotel rooms.
16 awesome - NO problems here!
I bought this for a trip - it has worked GREAT!!! I have it hooked up to a TV at the moment - and have played about 60 hours so fat with NO problems at all! It has also been used by itself with NO problem. It is easy to use, compact and light. The remote is incredile - very slim and light. My 4 year old can use it herself!
If you charge the battery don't leave it sit though. I charged it and didn't use it for about 4 days and there was no juice left - about 20 minutes... So charge right before you use it!
but I would definatly recommend this!
Great item for the price!
17 This thing continues to impress me!
I'm the one who wrote a review on christmas, I'm back with an update.
I decided to test a few new things on it. I set the player at the end of a hallway at my college, and attempted to use the remote... I'll be darned, the thing worked from 40 feet away!
I popped in a cd+g (karaoke) cd.. Played it.
I am (as i type this) encoding episodes of my favorite show, Hikaru no Go, at a rate of 1300kbps mpeg2 with cq_vbr of 47, audio @ 32khz, 160kbps, stereo. Yes, I already told you this thing doesn't care about "standard compliance".
I found it's first no-no a few days ago.. It does not play mpeg videos with mp3 audio.. Don't blame it though, Windows Media Player still has issues with that type of video.
I am giving this puppy the 5 it really deserves. There are so many undocumented features in this lil powerhouse, you just need to go and get one, it will not be regretted.
Tuesday, a very bad thing happened.. It was dropped for the first time ever.. Picked it up, and the darn thing was still playing!
As for the disc mechinism issue some people have been having, thats what a warranty is for. I am happy to report that this puppy doesn't and hasn't had that issue yet.
Display is still very beautiful on it.
After these 3 months that I have had it, the casing is starting to wear on it, but this is due to me keeping it in my pocket (yes, it fits). I walk back and forth a long ways a few times a week, and this thing is perfectly happy being in my pocket, and the remote even works while in my pocket too.
I already wrote a review here, but after seeing my all-time favorite device getting poor reviews, these reviews are very different from what I have experienced. If you can, buy one. If it breaks, get a refund. It's that easy. I have owned a lot of portable electronic devices, but this is by far my favorite.
This little puppy earned me some cash too. I rented it out to friends of my relatives when they went to vegas, got $30 for one week rental. If it would have broken, and gotten reimbursed for the device, guess what.. I'd buy the exact same one again.
I am still finding out new things about this little powerhouse. I wasn't ever expecting this thing to be able to do so much. VCD, SVCD, XVCD, MPEG burned onto a regular ISO, it generates its own menu! If it ends in .mpg and is a video, there is a 99% chance this DVD player can play it from the CD, no need to even waste time making a VCD, i just burn all my videos onto a CD as an ISO now, it's a real time saver.
Seriously, go check out the review I submitted on Xmas. It will give you a much better review than the one I just left here. This is just an update really..
18 This one is okay
This model is okay. It didn't last long. The Model ID-M830 is much better.
19 Mine Quit working also
My Model IDM-9520 worked great for about two movies. Now it is all I can do to get thru one movie. It will freeze after about 10-15 min of run time. Only way to recover from this is to shut down and try and reload the movie(which does not always work). Great price, but definatly not worth the aggravation.
20 secret function
Guess what- it plays mp3's on dvd r's- that's right- not just cd's
This is a very rare thing = only the portable sony dvd-rom does that- and this has a nice little speaker and screen display
it's worth buying just for that
21 Don't buy it
Same as the others, it worked for 3 days and then stopped working, it would freeze in the middle of a movie, we upgraded to the Audiovox 7 inch and are much happier.
22 If it sounds too good to be true, then it probibly is.
The audio/video quality on this little guy is great. However, here's where Initial Technologies rips you off. The disk mechanism only lasts for two days. Save up for a Sony, Tashiba, Philips, JVC, or Panasonic. RCAs only last for a few months. They also have great audio/vidio quality, but very poor disk mechanisms. Note that amazon.com currently does not stock portable DVD players by Sony, Philips, or JVC. I don't remember seeing many Tashiba portable DVD players either. Amazon.com does have a good selection in many other catagories, but not portable DVD players.
23 Unfortunately not well built
I got this item for Christmas and was extremely pleased with it for the first day or so. However, after 3 or 4 movies, it acts up now and will not finish a movie. If it does manage to start the movie (which is increasingly rare) it may get through 5 minutes or 30 minutes, but it will freeze up and you simply have to turn off the machine.
The picture and sound quality are beyond what I was expecting, and the size is great for toting around. I am about to go out of the country for 6 months and was looking forward to taking this with. Unfortunately, it didn't last beyond 6 hours let alone 6 months. I will take it back and try another, but I am not getting my hopes up after seeing the problems others had with the durability of the player.
If the next one I get works like it is supposed to, I would give it 5 stars without hesitation....IF it works.
24 2 of these died in less than 24 hours
Warning. This product is named INITIAL becuase it only works initially! We bought 2 of these for our kids for Christmas. Both worked all day yesterday (about 3 DVDs watched on each). Both units will not load a DVD today. 1 unit quit working first thing this morning and one quit this afternoon. I'm going to try again and hope that I got 2 lemons and their replacements will be okay.
25 BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I purchased this dvd player this afternoon after much research and debating throughout various models. I decided on this particular model because of its price and widescreen TFT LCD. I am HIGHLY impressed its performance:
- Sound is excellent
- Picture is great
- Screen is awesome
- Size is practical
Overall i would recommend this product to anyone looking for a dvd player, it will definately be a great resource for you int he future to keep you busy or your children!
26 Quite the powerhouse for such a little guy.
I recieved this thing today for christmas.. Holy smokes I was impressed. Let me break this down for you.
Sound quality is impressive. Accurate, precise, and loud! Compatibility is amazing. I had an MP3 CD i burned about a month ago that had a few videos on it. I never expected this thing to play MPEG videos from a list, not only that, but these videos weren't standard compliance. I had one at 352x288 with a bitrate of 1600kbps, completely non-VCD complient, This monster played it no problem. I had MPEG2s that were non-complient.. Meh, no problem for it. As I was coming back from the family get-together, we live on a dirt road. I thought I'd stick it on the dashboard to test durability. It was pretty darn good. It froze twice when we nailed huge potholes, but I don't hold thgat against it. It recovered quickly and was back in the game, considering it bounced up from the force, it's pretty good. Battery life is good also, a single charge from earlier is still going strong. As for picture quality, Simply amazing. That's all I can say about it. Crisp, sharp, bright, and it doesn't have a problem with high-motion, something I worried about.
The only minus that I must give this thing is this.. Color accuracy is somewhat off. On one of the videos, it's a "Zone Music Video", there is a dark blue circle that spins in during the intro. It appeared a bit too bright of a blue. I cannot hold that aginst it, it is a very small flaw, but still enough to drop it down to 4 stars. Also, if you plan to watch subtitled-anime, you may want to consider a larger screen. It looks crisp and great, but the subtitles are hard to read. They appear a bit liney and somewhat pixelized. It's a four-inch screen, I expected that. If you are looking for a great portable DVD player for a good price, DEFINATELY go with this one. You can't possibly go wrong with it. I am impressed by it. It's not worth it's value, it's definately worth more than amazon asks for.
My personal CD player has some issues lately, this thing is small enough to fit in my coat pocket. I think this thing will get quite the workout!
27 best whether low price or not
this is a little dvd player packing a big punch!! the picture and sound are excellent and you can not go wrong for the price! I highly recommend it!!!! All connectors are included as well as battery
28 Away We Go With Portable DVD Player
I JUST LOVE THIS DVD PLAYER! I received it yesterday and have viewed one movie so far. The picture is perfect, good resolution, speakers are clear. I would recommend this product for everyone.
29 Great!
I just recieved this DVD player today...and so far so good. I bought it for car trips, plane tripes, etc. I haven't experience the problems that seem to go along with the 9510 version. The screen is small, but that is the size it's advertised for, and I feel its more than sufficent for something so compact. The colors are good and despite the size the screen seems to have a pretty good resolution. Other than the battery SEEMS to only be able to recharge when off the system,(keep in mind I'm figuring it out) it seems to be a wonderful little machine. Well worth the money, very compact and affordable. Should any problems arise I will rereview, but up to this point I give it 5 stars!
