Samsung DVD-L25 Hand Held Mini DVD's Player

I purchased this as a gift for my 5 year old son and am looking forward to giving it to him for Christmas. However, I only rated it 3 stars because I'm having a terrible time finding very many movies on mini-disc.

If you notice the date from the sellers who wrote these revies, they are at least 2 years old. I have ordered at least four of these 'supposed' portable mini dvd players(I say 'supposed' because not one of them has arrived), over the past year and a half, and have yet to recieve one. This is the biggest scam online I have ever seen, if you have the opportunity to buy one of these players do not buy them on amazon. And definetly do not buy from the seller, 'book1998', or 'J&R music and computer world'. As it states in the title of the review, 'SAVE YOUR MONEY!'

The system (as of 9 Sept 2006) is incorrectly listed as a "Samsung DVD-L25 Portable DVD Player with 3" Screen"This discription is wrong:The unit does not have a 3" screen, it has a 2.5" screen. This can be verified on samsungs web site which states:"Samsung offers this new ultra portable DVD player which plays Mini-DVDs and displays images on a bright 2.5" TFT LCD"Also this "DVD Player" will not play standard size DVDs. It is technicaly a "Mini DVD player" and will only play the special 3" mini DVDs used in DVD video cameras.Getting beyond Amazon's deceptive advertising practices the unit has several issues:Battery life is horrible. It is advertised at 2.5 hours but I am getting considerably less. While the batteries are rechargeable it is a hassle as they have to be removed from the unit.While blank media abounds publishers have abandoned the mini-DVD format, anything you play on the unit you will have to "burn" yourself.For a portable unit it is VERY sensitive to any vibration. For best viewing place on a table or other stationary surface.It looks toylike but this is not for younger children. There are too many buttons, no "hold" mode (the buttons are always active), the main control is a finicky joystick and a nasty "put an eye out" warning if you lift the lid to look at the laser.

While it would not have been a good deal at its original price for the ~ one third of that that Amazon is selling it for now it is amazing. Battery life is reasonable. a set of alkalines lasts about 2 and a half hours at max volume. The included looney tunes cartoon disk works great and has a nice batch of classic cartoons. I used it mostly to play MP3 files burned to a DVD and the built in speaker is adequate. I strongly suggest using earphones for movies though. I haven't yet tried the included 2300mAH niMH batteries. The included charger charged those overnight...took more than 5 hours but less than 8 to fully charge them. Heck the batteries and Charger alone are worth Half the current price so look at this as a mini-DVD player for the cost of a case of decent beer and you'll be happy.The negatives are:1) It only plays mini-DVDs so know that going into the purchase. You'll likely be burning your own fair use copies of movies and having to hunt down blank mini-DVDs. Look for them in the Camcorder accessory isles at big box retailers or buy online.2) The buttons are very small and not easy to read the labels. This may be okay for a 5 to 9 year old, but not good for an elderly person.3) the main control for navigating either movie menus or file menus is the top mounted joystick. It feels pretty flimsey and I'd doubt it will last long in the hands of the typical child.4) It will not autoplay a disk just by turning it on. You have to push play. Not likely a problem for a child, but as my main use will be for my elderly mother to listen to recorded BBC radio shows that may be a non-starter. I won't find out for certain till Fall though.Other thoughts:It will eat batteries fast. It is powering a laser and a motor spinning a mini-DVD. You will need either a second set of rechargeables or a lot of Alkaline AA batteries if you plan on using it on trips of great length. A third option is to purchase a 6Volt DC adapter. I'd recommend taking the unit with you to Radioshack to make sure you get the right sized plug (The external power jack is a bi-polar located slightly forward of the headphone jack) and that the adapter has enough current(the manual calls for 6Volts DC at 1 to 1.5 Amps or order Adapter PA-AA25) to run it.

though it has a small picture, the quality is great.....I was warned that it was hungry for batteries, by reviews on your site....I bought high quality rechargeable batteries and they work fine......It plays everything I record on the small Sony discs.......It fits in my jacket pockets and is the smallest DVD player I have seen.....Thank You, Samsung

Item arrived with a shattered screen and was returned.

Pros: Great for long tripsCons: batteries will die quickly if not correctly charged.SCREEN SIZEI never realized how small a 3" screen was until now. When my kids were watching the cartoon on a recent trip they resembled a football huddle. The price is so great, I might buy a second player as a early birthday gift.SOUNDSound quality is surprisingly quite good. However, I didn't find the "enclosed" headset in the box. Of course, I did buy the item "used" which is always a risk. Fortunately, like most people with small children I have lots of extra headsets.BATTERY LIFEThe player says it can last for approximately 2.5 hours, however, I have had it last only 5 minutes after charging all night.Other: Can't play standard DVDs. Your recorded news, music videos and the like will all need to be transferred to the 8 centimeter Mini-DVD Format [DVD-L25].Overall, this was a great deal and one of my better investments.

I bought this as a possible travel DVD player, and misread the features: it doesn't play normal DVDs, only the small ones ("Mini-DVD") that you can't get any content on. It's not great for kids as it doesn't shut off automatically after a period of no use, so the batteries get drained every time my daughter uses it. I would have given it 1 star, but it includes a nice set of 4 AA rechargeables and charger so I gave it an extra star.