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Reviews
Amazon.com
Now you can take your home theater with you--or at least a miniature version of it. The Panasonic DVD-L50 PalmTheater lets you watch DVDs on the road, at a friend's house, or wherever you feel the urge for entertainment. The DVD-L50 PalmTheater's sleek steel construction looks great and provides added durability. Panasonic has done a great job of miniaturizing both screen and speakers without sacrificing too much quality. The virtual surround sound is impressive for such small speakers, although it definitely leans toward the high end, making some sounds too shrill or tinny. The sound improves drastically with headphones. The picture is fairly good with an adequate viewing angle to either side--not what you'd get on a TV, of course, but still good enough to sit through for an entire movie. The DVD-L50 lets you choose between 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios at the touch of a button. It also offers a zoom mode that lets you fill the screen with a 4:3 picture, although you tend to get a rather pixellated image. (We found that we preferred the smaller but sharper non-zoom mode.) The DVD-L50 provides video and digital audio outputs and can be hooked up to a larger home-theater setup. It strikes us as a good choice to take to a friend's house to watch DVDs or to use with hotel TVs on trips. It does have about a two-hour battery life, so you could conceivably watch a whole DVD without being hooked up to an AC outlet (on a plane, for instance). You can also use it as a portable CD player, with or without headphones. Pros:
- World's smallest DVD player with built-in screen
- Virtual surround sound makes for impressive audio
- Bright, sharp screen
- Lightweight (only two pounds)
- Rugged steel construction also looks great
Cons:
- Speakers make audio a bit shrill
Customer Comments
Average Customer Review: 
Number of Reviews: 61
An electronics enthusiast from Pittsburgh PA , October 7, 1999 
This little thing is AWESOME
This is the best toy for any road warrior out there. Forget trying to get work done in those little seats on a plane, just sit back and watch your favorite movie!!!! Combine this with a set of noise reduction headphones and the trip is a lot more enjoyable. The sound through the speakers isn't great, but it's passable. The screen has to be seen to be believed, the detail on the small screen is incredible, and the fact that you can hook it up to a regular TV just adds to it's value. It also plays audio CDs, so if you just want to listen to music, there's no need to carry 2 devices on board. neeraj11111@mail.com, Neeraj from In my home , October 5, 1999 
A reviewer whos strapped for the billz
it's a decent unit but a laptop is better because you get a 14 inch screen for like 600 dollars more. i dont see the point in getting it until it comes with surround sound bose or jbl speakers. adam@directwire.com Adam Bush from Atlanta, Georgia , September 30, 1999
Whiners: Notice that most of the "bad" reviews are 5 stars!
This ultimate gadget is a must-have for a true gadget junkie (like myself). I got the DVD L-10 when it first came out and now, the DVD L-50. Sure, it runs hot after a few hours, but so does every portable PC DVD. Please notice that almost everyone that complains about this unit still rates it 5 stars because the movie watching experience itself is awesome. The "1 star" folks obviously didn't buy it or even see it up close. Mine stays hooked up to my home theatre system with the optical audio and S-video connectors when I'm not traveling. I own a Sony VAIO notebook computer with DVD and would ALWAYS choose to view a movie on the DVD L-10 because the quality of the viewing experience is that much better. The hardware MPEG of the DVD L-10 instead of the software MPEG of every laptop except the Apple G3 powerbook is the main reason. Gurranga@yahoo.com from Wales,UK , September 29, 1999
Movie fanatic's Must have!
I brought one of these and I never regret a penny of it. It's amazing. Portable, plug in to a wide screen tv, watch anywhere. If you got the cash by it! hmccurdy@compuserve.com from Atlanta, GA , September 28, 1999
Ho-hum...Just another 5 star review.
There's little I can say about this machine that hasn't already been said 10 times before. I can only perhaps persuade some users of the older model L10, why it may be time to move on up the latest model, the L50. The fact that the the L50 will accept video and audio inputs (like from a video camera) without first having to remove the battery was a selling point for me. Also, the L10 sounds terrible through its speakers. I can only stand to listen to it through headphones. The L50 has a much more pleasing sound, although admittedly still not great. But at least, I don't have to go running for the heaphones when I turn the L50 on. True, the L50 has a smaller screen, but oddly enough I don't seem to particularly miss the slightly larger screen of the L10. The Li-ion battery of the L50 is a definite improvement, although I have been warned it's only good for 300 charges. On the plus side, the cost of these batteries have already dropped from around $250 to about $180 and hopefully may drop even more. And the weight - forgitabouit! - the L50's too light to believe! GAL@pea.gov.ph, JOY HIPOLITO from Manila, Philippines , September 27, 1999
A "must-have" for videophiles!
When I first saw the DVD-L10 early this year, I knew I had to buy it and I never regretted having paid more for such a wonderful piece. My family, especially my three-year old son loves it. He watches his favorite movie every night before sleeping - the player beside him on top of the bed!!! With the new DVD-L50, I know watching DVDs will never be as great! jdhigh@ibm.net from North Carolina , September 25, 1999
Get one!
Folks, forget the computers with the DVD drives as a reason to keep you from buying one of these. The L50 is worth it, even at this price. Five star all the way! An electronics enthusiast from Renton, Washington , September 25, 1999
Great for keeping your small kids busy on a long plane trip
The things I liked about this player are it's portability, small footprint compared to laptops w/ dvd players, excellent picture quality, excellent sound quality with good earphones and most importantly a way of keeping my small kids quiet during long plane rides. It even has a HOLD option to prevent the buttons from doing anything so my daughter doesn't accidently press anything. The areas I think it can improve on are the sound of speakers isn't that great (if only it sounded like Bose speakers), gets extremely hot which will cause the screen to go wacko if you keep it on too long, and it's sometimes difficult to choose the right menu options using the joystick.
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