Shinco SDP-1560: a portable DVD player that works best at home

While reviewing the Eyetop DVD system, we decided to take a few extra minutes to take a detailed look at the bundled portable DVD player. I wish we hadn't.

As a DVD player, it basically works fine. It's no better or worse than any of the generic $29.99 DVD players that you can buy at Walgreen's. I have no real complaints with the playback, video or audio quality, or anything related to DVD playback.

However, the Shinco SDP-1560 is so poorly designed it's comical. And only for one basic issue, really. In fact, I think I'll explain through the following pictures (click on any to zoom):


The yellow cable is the video output, located on the back of the unit. Since the device does not have its own LCD screen, the portable DVD player is designed to connect to a TV or other display.


Now I've connected the battery pack. The power input is on the left side, as you can see in the photo.


However, I'd like to attach the battery pack to the DVD player for portable use... So I disconnected video, and am ready to mount the battery pack to the back of the unit.


Here is the battery pack, cleanly latched on to the DVD player. So I need to reconnect the video if I want to actually watch it from the road.


But, alas, I cannot. It is not possible to connect video out at the same time as the battery pack. That's right - if you would like to watch the output of the unit WHILE the battery is plugged in, you CANNOT attach the pack to the back of the DVD player!


Ron, a good friend of LIVEdigitally, shows us what he thinks of the Shinco SDP-1560 portable DVD player.

The unit does support MP3 disks, so you can use it as a music-only player if you want. So I guess that's something...

JANKY!!!