DVD Players
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June 2006
Where can I rent a portable DVD player for use on a cross-
country plane trip? We'll be gone ten days, but only really
want the player for the airplane. I know I've seen kiosks for
this in the airport, but the only info I can find online is for
the ''InMotion'' brand, which, unfortunately, doesn't serve the
airport we are flying to (Boston). Are there other services?
Local stores that rent for reasonable daily rates? I suppose at
some point it becomes more cost effective just to buy one, but
I'd rather not.
Trying to make the flight manageable
Why not ask to borrow one from someone on the network? I bet you'd get one. Of
course, you'd need to replace it for them if it was lost, stolen or broken - but I'm
certain you'd take extra care with that in mind
-Sharing adults
July 2003
We would like to rent a portable DVD player for a little over a
week to help our family have a comfortable 5 hour flight to and
from our vacation destination. Any recommendations of where to
go/who to call to do this? Thanks.
You can rent a DVD player from SFO in the Untited terminal.
Check out their website, inmotionpictures.com.
Jackie
Try this site. http://www.inmotionpictures.com/index.asp
anon
Depending on your destination, you can just do it at the
airport. At SFO and OAK there are Inmotion boothes that rent
DVD players for the plane trip, and I think you can keep them
for the week (additional details can be found at
http://www.inmotionpictures.com/). I've rented a DVD player and
movie from them several times - both to use at the airport while
I waited for my connection and on the plane. It was fast, easy,
and relatively inexpensive. They have a lot of children's titles
available for rental.
DVD fan
September 2005
I understand a portable DVD player is key when traveling with
toddlers. I am in the market for an inexpensive yet quality DVD
player for some upcoming airplane travel. Can anyone recommend
a good brand/model and a good place to shop? Thanks in advance.
julie
I have a Polaroid PVD-300 DVD player. It has broken and had to
be replaced three times in two years. From my research, it
seems that most of them, cheap or expensive, break very easily
and are not up to the usual wear and tear involved in carrying
them in luggage, dropping from car seats, etc. I bought mine at
Best Buy, with a full extended warrantee. That warrantee was
the best investment I ever made. They have replaced mine on the
spot; no questions asked all three times it has broken. My
advice is to buy the one with the features and picture you like,
and factor the warrantee into the cost, as it is a must.
Anon
My husband bought a cheap generic brand
DVD player on Amazon for a long plane trip with
our 3-year-old. The battery ran down after about 45 minutes, so
we were only able to use it for a small portion of our trip over, and
not at all coming back (but we still had to lug it, the pwer cords and
battery, and the DVDs we brought, for a week in our suitcase.)
It stopped working altogether after the 2nd or 3rd time we used it
and got added to the Big Box of Non-working Equipment in our basement.
April 2003
We are interested in purchasing a portable DVD player for use
on long road trips. We are looking for high quality, not
necessarily the least expensive. We would appreciate any input
regarding features (such as screen size), brands,
likes/dislikes, etc. Many thanks.
Erin
I travel for my work and found myself with lots of idle time in
airports after 9/11. After renting the portable DVD player from
http://www.inmotionpictures.com/ at the SF airport several
times, I decided to buy the Panasonic model they were renting.
The player is easy to operate and I figured it would not be too
fragile if they were using them as rentals. The battery lasts
for 5 hours. Our player has a 7'' screen and it seems plenty big
to me for close range viewing on the plane or in bed.
Headphones are a must. You can buy a splitter to connect two
sets of headphones if you want to share the player in a public
place.
I've had the player for over a year and been very happy with
it. My 4 year old gets to use it only when we are on vacation.
It was worth its weight in gold when she couldn't fall asleep
after traveling to the east with a 3 hour time change. I went
to sleep and she watched her video. When it was finished, she
pressed the stop button and went to sleep.
Dara
We bought one from Walmart.com for about 300. The brand name is
'Initial'. They have three models with different size screens.
We have the 5.8 in screen which is fine. We love it! It comes
with a remote, a car charger, and a rechargable battery. The
battery charge lasts for about two movies. We use it as a last
resort for eating out and long car trips and it has made life so
much less stressful with our 2 year old in certain situations.
Highly recommend it!
Diana
June 2005
We're driving to Yellowstone from Oakland in August with our 9-year-old and
nearly 12-year-old. Everyone I talk to says a DVD player in the car would be a
huge help. Where do I go to rent one (or purchase, if that's cheaper)? Also any
recommendations for where I can rent or borrow lots of DVDs for 2 weeks? I
am happy to pay a reasonable fee to borrow from anyone's personal collection
of kid-friendly DVDs!
Thanks for your ideas.
joan
We're thinking about the same thing.
You can get DVD's at most libraries. I don't know if you can
keep them for 2 weeks, but it's worth finding out.
Also try some Stories on CD. Have fun.
anon
Just to suggest an alternative -- We've driven to Houston and
back and to Yellowstone and back multiple times with our kids,
beginning at age 2 1/2. If you don't want to do DVDs, you
don't have to! We've always done books on tape. There are
lots of great books on tape available at libraries; we'll
usually buy a long tape for a really long trip. Cody's has
some great choices if you want to buy -- we got ''Inkheart'' for
our trip to Seattle at Christmas, and it lasted the whole way
there and partway back.
Too much video at my house already
We keep our 3 boys (ages 6,9, & 12) happy in the car by
listening to recorded books - either CD's or tapes. They love
it! Most libraries have them and there are also Internet
resources for buying and renting them (Google ''recorded
books''.) The Harry Potter books in particular are good and
very long recordings. But we have listened to many others
both classic books and contemporary ones. We prefer it to
DVD's as at least the kids have to imagine the story in their
heads. It is also possible to find old radio shows like Zorro
and the Lone Ranger - very fun.
Road warrior mom
Not sure where you can rent or buy a DVD. But I do know that my
local library rents out DVD's for free. They have a pretty good
selection and typically you can rent them for one week only, but
you can extend the time frame by simply calling to request an
extension,(anyday before they are due...) Might be a pain to
call from your trip.... but if you want to rent alot of DVD's it
might be worth the trouble to get a bunch for free! I belong to
the Kensington library, which is part of the contra costa
system. Not sure if you have to be a resident for it to be
free. You might want to check out your local library to see if
they have a similar system. Good luck.
Julie
Feb 2004
We just bought a portable DVD player to make roadtrips more
enjoyable for our 2 year old son as well as for us (last time we
drove to Tahoe, he screamed more or less for 2-3 hours out of
the 4 hour drive...). We are now, however, faced with the
dilemma of how to install the player in the car so that he can
see the screen without being able to touch or kick it. We've
been searching high and low on the internet for some sort of
contraption but the only thing we found was some sort of 3-
legged construction that is usually used for laptops and costs
around $300. We also found a carrying case at Best Buy that can
be suspended between the two headrests, but it was also close to
$100 and I think our son would be able to kick it in that
location. We have a Toyota RAV4 which is an SUV, but on the
smaller side.
I can't imagine that everyone has a car with a built-in DVD
player and am assuming that other people ran into the same
problem while trying to enterain their kids on the road. If
anyone has come with or found a perfect (and inexpensive)
solution ... please let me know !!!
mom that wants peace on the road
We had the same problem with our DVD player. We ended up with
a case by ''Case Logic PDK3'' which we purchased on line from
BestBuy.com for $24.99. (It's $5.00 more in the store and
shipping is free.) It hangs either between the two front seats
or behind one of them. For the price we think it works great
and my 3 year old can't reach it when she is strapped in her
car seat!
Susan
We, too, use a laptop computer to play DVDs in the car. The space
between our two front seats happens to be perfect for the laptop. The
computer sits snugly on top of the captain's chair armrests and is
strapped down with a bungie cord. Short of that, I was set to buy/build
something to sit on top of the center console to provide a stable base for
the computer. I even considered a blanket folded up. Thinking it would
provide a base and cushion the ride. When there's a will...
Good Luck.
Steve
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