Portable DVD Player
Portable DVD Player (commonly abbreviated to PDP) is the name given to any portable device whose primary function is the playing of DVDs.
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[edit] History
Portable DVD players were created in order to aid the ability to watch DVDs away from home. They were created in 1998, first introduced by Panasonic. They are practical for on the go use, and many perform secondary functions such as playing music from audio CDs and displaying images from digital cameras or camcorders.[citation needed]
[edit] Design
Most PDPs have an LCD or LED screen attached to them. The most common PDP screen size is 7 inches (18 cm), although some are as large as 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 cm). Some have swivel-screens that rotate 180 degrees & fold flat. Portable DVD players generally have connections for additional screens and a car lighter plug.
Some PDPs now have iPod docks, USB and SD Card slots built in. Some can play videos in other formats such as MP4, DivX, JPEG and PNG either from CD's, flash memory cards or external hard disks. Also some DVD players include a USB video recorder.
Wireless connections (bluetooth and/or wifi) are useful to manage (play/record) content wirelessly from or to other devices (i.e. cell phones).
Previous models of portable DVD players had AV inputs for external game consoles, now some selected models have built-in emulators for internal game console action.
[edit] Price range
Prices of portable DVD players vary, usually retailing for about $80–300.00 USD. When first released, portable DVD players used to retail for over $1,000 and were once manufactured in Japan.
[edit] Criticism
A growing complaint among PDP users is that the closer you get to a PDP's screen, the worse the image becomes, this is because the current industry standard for built-in LCD resolution on PDP's is usually only 480x234. The highest built-in LCD screen res. offered on current "high-end" players is still only 800x480.
Future players will likely have far higher built-in screen resolutions, especially in order to support the newer Blu-Ray format.
There are many major companies making PDPs, among them Panasonic, Pioneer, etc.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
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