Very Disappointed, But There May be Hope

Author's Rating:

Pros: Rugged look and feel, good battery life, good display on replacement unit.

Cons: Poor quality on 1st unit. Confusing Toshiba Customer Service.

The Bottom Line: 
Replacement unit still in service after 2 months. If it lasts as it should, would say that it is at least equal to others in this price range.

Author's Review
Bought this unit for the Toshiba name, and the rugged physical appearance. Its not rugged, however. As a gift presented in June 2003, right out of the box the DVD player’s screen would flicker and become grainy when the buttons on the console were pushed, (particularly the up arrow). After a few weeks of occasional use, the screen would flicker on and then go black when first turned on. To get the screen to come back on, the display button needed to be pushed several times. When the player is plugged in to A/C to charge, the orange charge light would not illuminate or would be very dim (with the battery completely discharged). To get the charge light to illuminate, it is necessary to wiggle the connector at the DVD, sometimes having to hold it tightly without releasing. The most recent ailment of the player was when the screen was last opened and had many hair-thin cracks from one corner and black spots between the cracks. The cracks were on the inside of the screen. This is very curious, because since its last use the player had been stored in its box awaiting the opportunity to return it for service.

The unit seems very well built from a rugged feel standpoint. It is somewhat heavy, but that seems appropriate. The battery is the same size as the unit and cleverly attaches to the bottom of the display / control section. Battery life seems comparable to that of a mid-range lap top. The mobile 12V car adapter is quite expensive, but probably worth it for those long road trips instead of two batteries.

It is too bad that our experience has not gone well, but Toshiba has since agreed to provide a refund (for some reason they cannot ship a replacement). As such, we will likely try another Toshiba unit that was built on a better day. (Besides, we have a useless $90 12V car adapter.)

UPDATE: Toshiba accepted the unit under warranty. They could not replace it due to nil stock, so instead, placed me in Q for a refund check. That check arrived some 8 weeks later, and due to the already on-hand car adapter and carrying case, it was replaced with a like unit. Thus far the replacement unit has not demonstrated any of the problems experienced with the initial unit (2 months in service).

Still, obtaining a satisfactory conclusion to this was a very long and drawn-out ordeal. Toshiba needs to streamline the route one must take to obtain warranty service on portable DVD players.