The Panasonic DVD-L50A, which has been on the market for just over a year now, is the follow up to the world's first readily available portable DVD player (its older sibling, the DVD-L10), the L50A is rough, tough, and ready to play from the moment you take it out of the box.
Weighing in at 963 grams with battery pack attached, the L50A is lighter and a bit more solidly built than its predecessor, but strangely enough steps down a notch in the screen department to a five-inch-wide LCD display, compared with the L10's 5.8-inch screen. In a system that's miniature enough as it is, that's a huge difference, but not really noticeable unless you put it side by side with other, more endowed, units; it makes no attempt to hide that it has a small screen. The screen is brightly lit and delivers sharp, clear colours, even out in the pounding sunlight. A brightness knob below the display allows for quick adjustment when you step indoors or when a cloud passes in front of the sun. A button above the brightness knob adjusts the area of display itself, removing the black letterbox bars or squeezing the image to better fit the display, depending on the formatting of the disc you're watching.
Flanking these controls are a pair of small speakers, about 2.5 cms in diameter, which deliver surprisingly clear, bright sounds over a broad range of volume levels. In fact, when circumstances allowed, the speakers at maximum volume still delivered a great sound with minimal pop, hiss, or distortion, except during some particularly loud moments in the films. A separate volume knob on the unit's left side provides precise level selection, especially when headphones are plugged into the neighboring 1/4-inch jack. Along that same side is a full-size S-video output jack and the 1/4-inch input/output jacks.
The provided patch cords let the Panasonic send sound to a standard Dolby Digital two-channel input. Video goes to a television via an analog RCA jack. By flipping a tiny switch, you can reverse the flow, allowing the unit to act as a portable display for a camcorder while on the road. Playback as a video monitor was nothing short of what you'd expect from videotape - it was a bit grainy and coarse but certainly viewable. The L50A makes a perfectly acceptable (although expensive) portable CD player as well, and although the manual says it can't be done, we played several CD-R and CD-RW discs full of tunes with nary a hitch.
Control is a snap on the L50A, with play, pause, and stop buttons shaped elegantly into the front of the unit (but surprisingly, no fast-forward or rewind buttons are to be found; you'll have to scan using the remote or a clumsy submenu of the setup screen, an unusual omission considering the amount of free space left over on the unit's top face). A small silver joystick/button on top lets you quickly and easily select DVD playback menu items as well as system setup options and audio settings in conjunction with menu, title, and "return" buttons all in a row. Actual menu functions are a bit hard to grasp because of their tiny, hard-to-read icons, but a quick trip through the manual will have you adjusting, scanning and selecting in no time.
The remote that Panasonic includes with the L50A is a tiny credit-card sized affair that handles all the functions of the built-in buttons and provides the only button-selection area for the virtual surround sound effect that's built into the system. Since direct Dolby 6 channel translation isn't available, the virtual sound is used, and it delivers a respectable "fake" surround sound when plugged into the home units. The manual suggests you don't use the VSS effect on the built-in speakers, but through them (and especially through headphones) the audio experience is greatly magnified and highly recommended.
The L50A ships with a chunky lithium-ion battery that provides an impressive three hours of continuous playback at high brightness and medium volume levels. Charging is a simple matter of leaving the battery clipped to the rear of the unit and leaving the whole thing plugged in, but be warned: The manual clearly states that the battery is only good for 300 charges, and a replacement will set you back quite a bit from Panasonic, so use the bare AC adaptor as often as you can. With either battery or AC power, though, the L50A gets mighty toasty on the underside during extended playback, so be sure to set it on something that isn't easily affected by heat (like your lap) or a well-ventilated area (like your lap on a breezy day).
As the most seasoned veteran of this pack, the Panasonic coughs up fantastic value, durability, and performance. RRP is AU$3,011, but online searches show these little wonders selling for as low as AU$2,699, enabling you to get on the portable bandwagon quickly and cheaply.
Panasonic DVD-L50A
Company: Panasonic
Ph: 02 9986 7400; Fax: 02 9986 7450
Price: RRP AU$3,011.
Rating: 4 Star
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