Philips PD7012/37 7-Inch LCD Dual Screen Portable DVD Player, Black (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I bought this DVD player for a very specific purpose - keeping two kids (6 & 4) entertained during long road trips. For me, a long road trip is anything in excess of three hours (as the kids can be entertained by other things for shorter excursions).That said, I recently had the opportunity to test this player out on a long journey from San Francisco to Las Vegas and back (roughly translating to 24 hours in the car). Let me tell you...this DVD player saved my life.Before I get into the details about what I like best about this DVD player let me start with the things I DIDN'T like.1. Wires. Running power and video cables to both screens makes things a bit unruly. Fortunately I was able to tuck the excess length of cable into the center console but I can see where this might be a problem for some. In some reviews I've read I notice people complaining about the cables not being long enough. I did not have a problem with this. The video cable that's included was the perfect length for my car and the wires from the power connector were much longer than I needed.Another small inconvenience with this setup is the placement of the cable ports on the main unit. On the secondary unit the cable ports and controls for volume and brightness are on the bottom edge of the screen. On the main unit, that screen that actually plays the DVD, the same controls are along the right side of the device. This means the driver's headrest is the optimal location for the main unit and the wires all run to the center of the vehicle - and perhaps this is why there are some complaints about the cables being too short.2. Changing Discs. It would be nice if a unit like this was able to use some type of auto feed or sliding tray for inserting and removing DVDs. Stopping every 90 minutes to change a disc isn't very practical. Fortunately, with a passenger in the front it's not very difficult for them to change a disc while the car is in motion but if you're a solo driver you're going to have to pull over to swap the movie. This would be as much of a problem if it was as convenient to mount the main screen to the passenger side headrest as the driver could easily reach over and operate the device. While that can be done you may encounter problems with the length of the power and video cables. I would recommend buying a 10ft. video cable if you plan on mounting the main screen on the passenger side.3. Lack of remote / Manual controls. Volume, brightness, stop, play, and menu functions are all controlled manually by buttons and dials on the screen. While it would be nice to have remote control capability it's not really logical to expect that from a device in this price range. It's also a bit annoying that each screen has it's own brightness and volume control. I would much prefer that volume and picture be controlled from one unit rather than two.With all that in mind... I still love this DVD player.I did not have a single problem with setting up or using this player. It loaded the DVDs quickly. The controls are easy to operate. The picture and audio quality is superb. The units are light-weight and mount to the headrests easily and securely. It's worth mentioning that because of their lightweight construction I suspect they will not stand up to rough/rugged treatment. I bought a padded travel case Case Logic PDVD-9 7-9-Inch Dual Screen DVD Player Case, Black  which did exactly what I needed.I don't expect to use this DVD player more than three or four times a year and don't know how it will stand up to more frequent use. Like any piece of electronic equipment they need to be care for appropriately. Still, for my needs this DVD player is exactly what I was looking for at a very affordable price.

**Update 3/19/2013** As of this past weekend, this DVD player no longer works. No matter what DVD I put in, it will only say "Reading" but will not play the DVD. I'm a little disappointed because I thought it would last longer than 2 years. Oh well time to buy another one, but definitely not another Philips brand.***I have had this DVD player since Feb 2011. Prior to finally deciding on this particular one, I spent about two weeks researching reviews on several websites. Despite the negative reviews, I decided to take a chance. So far, so good. I haven't had any problems. I use the DVD player every day for about 45 minutes and on occasional road trips. The volume is good, even when riding on the highway. Great color picture. I particularly like the resume feature. Since my daughter isn't old enough to operate it yet, I keep the primary unit in the front so I can change DVDs for her. My only complaint is that the price dropped about $30 after I bought mine, but overall it was a good buy and I highly recommend it.

We have just purchased and tried this DVD player and it works great in general terms. I was a little hessitant about having one simple and plain strap to set it on the headrest. To my surprise, that worked out pefectly and super simple to install and remove. While in the car, both screens are connected to the cigarrette lighter. There's also one adapter to connect only the main unit to the wall outlet. Each screen has its own brightness and volume control, wich I found very useful. However, this device does not come with an internal rechargeable battery like a similar one we had in the past. Hence, it can only be viewed with the car running or while plugged to the wall outlet. Our old device allowed us many peaceful dinners as our 2-year-old daughter used to take it to the restaurant and watched her movies while we enjoyed our meals. Yes, the unit starts from the position you left off every time you turn off/on the car, so that saves you the trouble of fast-forwarding the movie each time you turn the device back on. However, the unit does not remeber the settings (i.e. language for audio and subtitles), thus we still need to do some adjustments each time we turn the device on again. Additionaly, a remote control capability would have been nice on this device. These three minor downsides are the only reason why I didn't give this unit the 5 stars. Anyway, all to all and considering the fact that we purchased this unit on discount from Amazon, this device is a good value for the money.

I gave this to my friend in India as a gift and he went totally nuts! The picture and sound quality is superior as i hear from him and installation was a snap. The best feature, which is not advertised well enough, is that this unit doubles into a portable DVD player for home and away (not just for the car). It comes with a regular DC power adapter which you can plug into any wall outlet (he tried it at his home in India which supports 230v AC 60 Hz) and he could use the main screen as a personal DVD player. Of course it fit very well in his car too and both the screens worked just fine. The product quality is excellent by the look and feel and so is the play back audio/video quality. Highly recommended gift item for under $120.00.

They could be better priced plus I was hoping that for the higher price it was the model that lets you play two DVDs at the same time but that was not the case. All in all decent quality compared to some other generics.

After a day of travel one stopped working. Was not impressed.