Sony DVP-FX810
Manufacturer: Sony Part number: DVP-FX810
- More product information:
- Editors' review
- User reviews
- Specifications
- Manufacturer info
- Bottom Line:
- The Sony DVP-FX810 may not offer a great picture, but its sleek design, above-average battery life, and affordable price make it an attractive value in the portable DVD category.
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Where to buy
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CNET editors' review
Sony DVP-FX810 price range: $124.95 - $189.99
- Reviewed by: David Carnoy
- Edited by: John P. Falcone
- Reviewed on: 05/25/2006
- Updated on:05/08/2008
- Released on: 05/01/2006
The good: The affordable and sleekly designed Sony DVP-FX810 has an 8-inch swivel screen and strong battery life. It also offers dual headphone jacks, an A/V input/output, and MP3/photo CD compatibility.
The bad: The screen coating causes a noticeable glare, and the picture quality is merely average.
The bottom line: The Sony DVP-FX810 may not offer a great picture, but its sleek design, above-average battery life, and affordable price make it an attractive value in the portable DVD category.
Editors' Note: As of spring 2008, this model has been replaced by the Sony DVP-FX820. That model retains the same basic design, but--because it includes a non-glossy screen with a much higher resolution--it's a big improvement over the FX810 reviewed here.
In years past, Sony's been fairly quiet in the portable DVD player market, ceding it to Panasonic, Toshiba, and a variety of second-tier--and even third-tier--brands. But with the release of two new affordable, slickly designed models, the Sony DVP-FX810 and the D-EV7000S DVD Walkman, the company seems determined to steal some market share.
Eschewing the silver styling of many earlier portable DVD player models, Sony's gone with an all-black look for its DVP-FX810 ($200 list), which sports a generous 8-inch wide-screen that swivels 180 degrees and folds flat on top of the unit much like a tablet PC. Surrounding the screen is a glossy black bezel, and Sony's covered the LCD screen with something called a Hard Coating acrylic panel for a "clear view." It's nice to have the protective coating, but we don't think it makes a difference in the clarity of the picture. It certainly doesn't help eliminate the screen's glare issues--with the unit off, the screen can almost serve as a mirror. On a more positive note, Sony's conveniently placed all the controls right below the screen. While the remote isn't terribly compact, the buttons are clearly labeled, and it's easier to use than most credit-card-size clickers that normally ship with portable DVD players.
Weighing a somewhat hefty 2 pounds, 14 ounces with its detachable battery clipped on (it attaches to the bottom of the unit), the Sony DVP-FX810 has all the requisite features, including a set of A/V minijack connections (you can use the included composite A/V cable as an input or an output, at the flick of a switch), a cigarette-lighter adapter for in-car use, and dual headphone jacks. The player accepts MP3 CDs and JPEGs burned to CD-Rs, but there's neither DivX support nor a Memory Stick slot. Also, it would've been nice if Sony had thrown in a cheap canvas carrying case that could double as a headrest mount for backseat viewing when the player's in tablet mode. Some inexpensive tablet-style portable DVD players (namely, the Mustek MP100) ship with just such an accessory.
As far as the picture goes, it's OK, though not great, which is what we've come to expect from players that cost less than $200. As we said, the screen has some glare issues, but overall, the picture simply suffers from lack of resolution. In other words, the screen is quite watchable for almost everybody, but discriminating viewers won't be satisfied. The picture is pretty soft, and if you're sitting too close, there's enough space between pixels to give you the impression you're looking at a movie through a screen door. The Sony DVP-FX810 offers a good amount of picture control options, but you probably won't stray far from the default settings. The exception: Shadow detail isn't a strong suit, so you might want to crank the brightness on darker movies.
Aside from its attractive styling, another one of the Sony DVP-FX810's assets is its battery life. Sony says you can get up to 6 hours of battery life if you keep the brightness settings down and listen through headphones. That's a stretch, but we managed around 4 hours with the brightness setting cut down a bit from the default--better than average for portable DVD players.
Sony's done a good job of designing a player that looks more expensive than it really costs. Throw in good battery life and an OK picture, and you're looking at a decent value, especially if the DVP-FX810 sheds a few dollars from its list price.
User reviews
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Great product, great portability.
by Pro Edit on May 17, 2006
Pros: Good screen maintenance, whole unit cleans up well. Multiple presentation modes. Ability to display images from something other than a disc. Multiple power sources. Product size vs Image size.
Cons: 6 hour battery life max, (if headphones are used and the screen backlight is set to minimum brightness).
Summary: I am an independent camera operator / videographer. Since 1991, my work has been seen on national television.
The 3 main selling points for me with this product were; 1) The ...Summary: I am an independent camera operator / videographer. Since 1991, my work has been seen on national television.
The 3 main selling points for me with this product were; 1) The classy looks for business lunch meeting presentations. 2) Portability and ease of maintenance. And finally 3) The ability to send audio and video signals to the unit for preview before rolling tape in the camera.
Much of my work is single camera productions with the client present on the set location. Having the ability to show my client what the camera is "seeing" and "hearing" is always a major plus! This makes for little to no suprizes with the finished product after editing.
Being highly mobile and packing light is tops on my list for single camera on location work. Having three different power source options, (AC / DC and a rechargable battery plate), was another major selling point for me. Because of the 12 volt, (negative ground), powering option, I can use this unit at any location for longer than the 5-6 hours stated by Sony.
The fit and finish of this product make the statements of, "Excellence" and "Professional" to my clients. I see it on their faces. While I am not a Sony product fanatic, (meaning I'll buy anything that has the Sony brand name on it), I know a good product when I see it, and this one suited my needs perfectly.12 out of 12 users found this user opinion helpful.
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not bad, less than expected from Sony - I would say 6.5
by donaldov on May 28, 2006
Pros: great aesthetics and feel .. its a Sony
Cons: disappointing contrast
Summary: I did something I never do when buying electronics. I bought this one sight-unseen. My previous player (Panasonic LS50 died and would cost $170+ to repair). I figure you have ...
Summary: I did something I never do when buying electronics. I bought this one sight-unseen. My previous player (Panasonic LS50 died and would cost $170+ to repair). I figure you have to look at these units as pretty much disposable anyway, so I bought a Sony. Any and every other Sony product I have ever owned performed great and I expected that it should be just fine.
Out of the box, I have to say that I was impressed. The look and feel of the unit is great. I like the all black look and the Hard Coating over the display actually serves to create a nice integrated panel - you don't feel like you have any wasted real estate. The battery is a slim element with the same footprint as the overall unit and is pretty slick. The controls are ok. I actually don't like them below the screen. If you are holding the unit in your hands, your thumbs more naturally go to the top side of the player as opposed to the screen. Also, the control dial is pretty small so getting it to respond correctly can be tricky. I did like the ability of the screen to rotate all the way around and fold over so the unit can be used as a tablet. All in all, I think the look/feel/controls are better than most I have looked at.
Viewing a DVD on the other hand is not all that pleasant. I was very disappointed at the darkness of the picture. I adjusted the contrast and the brightness, but to little avail. The picture by default is very very dark - and I mean unwatchable. Daylight scenes were dark and night scenes were almost completely black. Adjustments to brightness/contrast resulted in washed out picture. Oh the angst of buyers remorse. I did find a solution, however. I had to tilt the screen about 5-10 degrees TOWARDS my face. Typically, these things perform better tilted somewhat AWAY from your face. With the screen tilted to me, I could get the picture as the movie was intended. I am thrilled to have found a solution, but A, this isn't the preferred ergonomic viewing angle, and B, I suspect this will not work well on a flight being shared by two people. One other complaint is that the unit has very little to offer in the way of controls. While trying to resolve the contrast issue, I had hoped to find additional presets carrying embedded picture configurations which may have helped. None were to be found. You have only the most basic ability to adjust the picture. On a positive note, I did think the picture was pretty good - maybe not as crisp as the Panasonic, but as good or better than anything I looked at in stores for a similar price.
I bought this sight unseen because none of the retailers had this unit on display. I wonder is the Sony reps have also experienced this picture contrast/display angle issue and decided to keep them off the display shelf. On the other hand, maybe I just have a faulty unit. I don't know. I will keep it as I can reasonable watch movies now, but I would have expected more.11 out of 11 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Decent player with great battery life
by yophoto91 on June 4, 2006
Pros: Price, Battery Life, Includes car adaptor
Cons: Screen is average but it gets the job done
Summary: I looked around for a portable DVD player that would suit my needs and decided to pick up the Sony dvp-fx810. I went for this model because I wanted a ...
Summary: I looked around for a portable DVD player that would suit my needs and decided to pick up the Sony dvp-fx810. I went for this model because I wanted a player with battery decent life. This player feels pretty solid in your hands. The "door" for the DVD changer feels a bit flimsy but it gets the job done. The tablet feature is a nice addition that I find very useful at times. There are some glare issues that can annoy you at times but I guess that is with any portable device that has a large screen. As said in the Cnet review its hard shiny lcd surface doesn't help the problem. However, there are ways to minimize the glare by tilting it in different directions. Annoying but possible to work around. Sound quality from the speakers was surprisingly decent in my opinion but the max volume isn't nearly loud enough. This doesn't matter to me because I will be using headphones 100% of the time to help conserve battery. Now to picture quality. I saw some of the other reviews for this player right before I received mine and I was very concerned if I would be satisfied with it. It turned out to be a lot better than expected. Don't get me wrong, the screen is definitely cheap and of average quality but it gets the job done. People need to remember that this is a portable device. A nicer screen will probably consume more juice and cost more. Upon turning on the DVD player for the first time I was surprised by how bad the text looked (the words: DVD Player) but once I popped in a DVD it looked much better. Subtitles are easy to read. Battery life was better than expected. Although Sony claims 6 hours I was expecting to get 4 and a half. It was nice to find out that a fully charged battery can squeeze out about 4 hours and 50 minutes (using headphones at medium volume and turning down the backlight a bit from the default setting). The buttons on the player feel pretty solid and the joy stick works pretty well. When hooking this player up to a TV its output quality is excellent. All in all I'm pretty satisfied with my purchase (cost me $185 shipped). Would recommend this player if you are concerned about battery life.
6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Excellent Quality and Features
by cantaffordit on May 23, 2006
Pros: Elegant design, doesn't look cheap like most. Simple to use, excellent picture
Cons: doesn't support secondary formats like VideoCD or DivX
Summary: I use this only for commercial DVDs and home video, so it has the perfect fature set for me. Good quality, and the battery sits under the player rather than ...
Summary: I use this only for commercial DVDs and home video, so it has the perfect fature set for me. Good quality, and the battery sits under the player rather than hanging off the back the way cheaper styles do. Very nice unit.
4 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Don't buy this dvd player
by ceceandlee on December 23, 2006
Pros: small size, attractive, nice headphone
Cons: picture quality very poor
Summary: This is the only time I have ever bought any electronic equipment without reading the cnet ratings from actual buyers. What a mistake. I have always had great quality from ...
Summary: This is the only time I have ever bought any electronic equipment without reading the cnet ratings from actual buyers. What a mistake. I have always had great quality from sony from tvs to dvd players to cameras. This was the first time sony has disappointed me. The picture quality is extremely poor, grainy, blurry, and poor color. Even after adjusting everything possible it was only a slight improvement in quality. My old Mitek, which is old and falling apart still wins hands down in picture quality. I am giving this to the grandkids and buying something better.
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Adequate...
by davemartin7777 on November 2, 2006
Pros: Looks rugged, well designed, batt life... cool factor
Cons: Screen resolution.
Summary: I use a portable DVD player to kill an hour on the elliptical trainer at the gym, resting it on a book-holder... really a great distraction.
The saving grace for ...Summary: I use a portable DVD player to kill an hour on the elliptical trainer at the gym, resting it on a book-holder... really a great distraction.
The saving grace for the pixelated screen is the ability to tweak the back-light, contrast, hue and color.
My Samsung L300 at twice the cost does not allow for that extent of fine tuning (but the resolution is vastly better).
Definitely an 8" screen is a small as I want to go... anything smaller is bordering on product suitable for the Fisher-Price crowd.
Very mix feelings about the screen quality while not horrible, Sony would have had a kick-ass product with 25% more pixels.
But like I say you can really bump up the color, brightness and to a more limited degree the contrast.
Motion blur is a problem too, I don't think anyone has addressed that.
Sound is fine, but too small for any significant bass per the laws of physics.
Awesome batt life, but getting a spare proprietary batt for the 810 is half the price of the unit itself at $100... one can get a nice third-party lithium-ion universal DVD 9.2v batt for half that.
I think if your not too picky, aren't expecting to see National Geographic programming in high def and have not been jaded by a high resolution portable DVD player this will suit the bill just fine.
I don't think I've ever been so stuck on a fence with a product before... usually it is a yes/no binary decision.
I'll probably end up taking mine back, stick with my old Samsung and wait for the next gen Sony video Walkman.2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
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LCD quality is a let down
by gary-ads on May 26, 2006
Pros: Swivel screen, cheap
Cons: LCD screen is not clear, cheap LCD
Summary: I bought my unit because Sony products are usually quality products. The LCD is an inferior product and does not measure up to usual Sony standards. The picture resolution leaves ...
Summary: I bought my unit because Sony products are usually quality products. The LCD is an inferior product and does not measure up to usual Sony standards. The picture resolution leaves alot to be desired. I have an external 5" LCD that I hooked to the DVP-FX810's video out port allowing me to do instantanious A/B comparisions for picture quality. My external screen looked awesome as it usually does, but my 5" screen is a high quality high resolution screen. This tells you the player itself is capable of good quality, it's just the LCD that Sony selected is the problem. If your picky about video quality, don't purchase this unit if you plan to use it for the built in screen, you WILL be disappointed. If you still want to try it, buy it from a reputable authorized dealer that will let you return it. I played it for 2 minutes and knew I didn't like it. After hooking my external LCD screen, I boxed it up for return.
3 out of 5 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Nice design and long battery life but very bad screen with low resolution and poor contrast.
by aditus on November 18, 2006
Pros: Good battery life and nice design
Cons: Extremly poor screen with very low resolution (400x220)
Summary: This could have been the ultimate portable DVD player to kill time on long flights but unfortunately it isn't. It is simply amazing how Sony quality people could have ...
Summary: This could have been the ultimate portable DVD player to kill time on long flights but unfortunately it isn't. It is simply amazing how Sony quality people could have let them use such an utterly poor and low resolution screen in this otherwise nice design.
The screen is quite big at 8" but with only 400x200 in resolution it is simply not suitable to watch DVDs. The picture become pixelated and You can actually see the distance between individual pixels, like watching the movie behind a grid. In addition the screen has a very poor contrast and all dark areas blends together.2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Sony DVP-FX810
by Nigel Langley on June 19, 2006
Pros: Best Overall Quality , Battery Life, & Price
Cons: Volumes a little low
Summary: Sony's done it again!!! It's not their 1st try but the best to date. I really like this portable DVD player. Everything from it's beautiful picture to ...
Summary: Sony's done it again!!! It's not their 1st try but the best to date. I really like this portable DVD player. Everything from it's beautiful picture to it's ability to play DVD-R & +R media with no trouble. Just place this next to a commonly over priced portable DVD player even Sony's previous models and you will choose the new Sony DVP-FX810. It has the weight an design sleekness of small laptop computer along with quiet operation and shock resistance. I have small children and this unit being very solid says it just won't tip over when nudged say be accident (when on a flat surface). This unit is more what I expected from SONY or any other overpriced make or brand name. The picture quality I found to be the best I've seen in a portable unit. I've read some of the complaints and yes I found that the screen plays a little dark in the default setting but I simply turned up the backlight and wow! such radient color along with a very crisp 8inch picture, which can adjust a "Full Screen" playing DVD to full "Wide Screen". Most units on the market sold with the features found on this Sony model sell for an upwards $350.00 to $450.00 dollars and most that I've seen are flimsy in comparison. SONY was thoughtful in choosing a design with the battery located beneathe the unit with nothing to get in your way like many other models on the market. The multi positioning screen has firm movement and stabilty. The controls located on the lower half of the screen are in reach of your thumbs if you choose to view your movies in the tablet position with the swivel screen facing up. The battery life was an ultimtate selling point because being able to watch at least to full length DVD's before needing to recharge the batteries was a definite plus with a 5 to 6 our battery life a feature not common with other portable players. And lastly I challenge you to find these features with any make or brand at this cost MSRP $199.00 (I paid 189.00 before tax). Do expect other popular brands to begin to take a nose dive in price to keep up with this often Sold Out Sony model as I had to search high and low just to find it at a retail store as well as online and that alone says that the Sony DVP-FX810 is probably the best and most afforable portable DVD player on the market today. For me it was either a IPOD or Portable DVD player and I'm so glad that I waited for SONY to introduce this player to the portable electronics buying public. Thank You SONY!
2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Poor product, worse customer service
by cjb71224 on February 25, 2008
Pros: Product Appearance
Cons: Everything else
Summary: Received 2 orders from Sony, one by mistake. Was billed twice for the same product. First product didn't play DVDs. Returned with authorization to SONY. Instead of crediting my ...
Summary: Received 2 orders from Sony, one by mistake. Was billed twice for the same product. First product didn't play DVDs. Returned with authorization to SONY. Instead of crediting my account they sent me a THIRD DVD player. Received run around for 3 weeks from SONY Customer Service on how to get authorization to return the non-requested 3rd unit. They delayed long enough to say that now that the 30-day return period has expired I was stuck with the DVD player they sent me by mistake and would not credit me for the duplicate billing. When I asked for alternatives the SONY spervisor said to just try and sell it on Ebay. This, my friends, is a world class organization?! I have now decided to buy a DELL XPS PC instead of a SONY VAIO. A word to the wise...
1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Sony
- Part number: DVP-FX810
- Description: Marketing description is not available.
General
- Product Type DVD player
- Form Factor Portable
- Width 8.9 in
- Depth 6.3 in
- Height 1.3 in
- Weight 2.2 lbs
- Enclosure Color Black
DVD
- Media Type CD, DVD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, DVD-RW, DVD+R DL
- Video D/A Converter 12bit / 108MHz
- Audio D/A Converter 24bit / 96kHz
- DVD Repeat Modes Title, Chapter, A-B repeat
- CD Playback Modes A-B repeat, Program play, One track repeat, All tracks repeat, Random play / shuffle
- Supported Digital Audio Standards MP3
Display
- Display Type LCD display - TFT active matrix - 8 in - Color
- Image Aspect Ratio 16:9
DVD Features
- Parental Lock Yes
- TV Screen Saver Yes
- Additional Features Screen saver, Parental lock, On-screen display, JPEG photo playback
Audio System
- Sound Output Mode Stereo
- Surround Sound Effects Virtual Surround Mode
- Digital Audio Format Dolby Digital output
- Additional Features Volume control
Remote Control
- Type Remote control
- Technology Infrared
Connections
- Connector Type 2 x Headphones, 1 x Composite video/audio (input/output)
Miscellaneous
- Included Accessories Car battery charger
- Cables Included 1 x A/V cable
Power
- Power Device Power adapter - External
- Battery 1 x DVD player battery - Rechargeable - Lithium ion
- Included Qty 1
- Capacity 5.5 hour(s)
Manufacturer info
- Sony
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Sony products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.sonystyle.com
- Address:
16765 W. Bernardo Dr., San Diego, CA 92127 - Phone: 1-877-865-SONY
- Email: contact@sel.sony.com
- Fax: 941-768-7790
