"Are we there yet?"
Portable DVD players have been around for yonks now and have
found a comfortable home strapped to the back of your car seat, entertaining
the kids on long journeys.
We've never bothered to look at any before because, lets
face it, the technology in them is hardly cutting edge. But when we received
one through the post this week we thought we'd give it a go, not just because
the player has a USB port and SD card slot, but because it's cheap as chips...
and you'll be able to pick up some chips while you're buying it.
We have Aldi to thank for this, as it seems that the supermarket chain is beginning to stock things that you definitely shouldn't put in the oven.
The player, manufactured by Tevion, boasts a seven inch
screen which is fully positionable meaning the whole thing can be flipped and
folded up to resemble a tablet (albeit a chunky tablet without a touchscreen).
But although it lacks some of the more modern features of tablets and laptops,
we believe the player shouldn't be overlooked.
In the box you get the DVD player itself (with a choice of
white or black), power cable, car cable and remote control... with batteries
included. Yay. There's also an internal rechargeable battery which makes the
player useful out of the home and car. Apart from the obvious DVDs, it can also
handle DivX, VCD, CD, CD-RW, MP3, MPEG4 and JPEG. But was the MPEG4 that we
were most excited about.
The video player works great and although the picture isn't
the best we've seen before on a device like this, we had no complaints. There
wasn't any noticeable skip from the DVDs when the car went over bumps, and
being able to pop a flash drive or SD card in there was brilliant - especially
when your child tells you they definitely DON'T want to watch the DVD they
insisted you bring when you left the house.
Simply put, this is a great media centre for your car, and
we think that because of the low-tech elements. We've always been slightly
nervous about hanging our iPads from the back of the driver's seat while sticky
fingered kiddies jab at them. Because the player's screen can fold to cover all
other controls, there's no need to fret about little Billy accidentally
switching it off and them screaming for Charlie and Lola to come back while
you're doing 70mph down the M1.
£39.99
Visit www.aldi.co.uk