Panasonic DVD-LS90

Print | Close this window

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/dvdpvr/0,39030417,39194021,00.htm

Reviewed 17 November 2005

Reviewed by Guy Cocker

For technology fans, portable DVD players are becoming distinctly unfashionable when compared to the new kid on the block -- portable media centres. Heck, even the iPod is getting in on portable video. Portable DVDs still sell well though, particularly in places like Woolworths for under £100, but they're clunky and you have to carry discs around with you wherever you go. But if you have the time to choose DVDs and CDs before you take that cross-country train journey, who could resist brightening it up with their favourite movies?

Panasonic's player sits at the premium end of the market, but it's still relatively cheap compared with its predecessors. It has a 9-inch LCD screen that's highly adjustable thanks to its articulated neck, and it will play DVD-RAM discs. The lack of DivX playback is annoying, especially as this can be found on most cheaper players. Most troubling is the poor video quality, which shares a 'screen door' effect most commonly seen on LCD projectors. There's not much to choose between this and the Toshiba SD-P1600 other than the DVD-RAM compatibility and large screen from Panasonic, but despite its high-quality look, the Panasonic ultimately feels lightweight. 

Design
The screen on the DVD-LS90 tilts at two separate points thanks to the spine that holds it to the player. This means that you can perfect the viewing angle with ease and you can even bend the screen back against the player if you want to make a neat form factor. The viewing angle of the screen is relatively good from side to side, so two people can share the player without a sore neck, but the vertical angle needs to be adjusted accurately.

The screen itself is one of the biggest we've seen at 9 inches on the diagonal. Despite its size, the player isn't thick, and it's easy to fit into a bag without it being a burden to carry around -- especially as the battery doesn't protrude. There are two headphone outputs -- a necessity if you don't usually travel alone (or if you have two kids in the back of the car), but there isn't a carry case to keep the player protected on the move.

There are video and audio outputs, but only the cables for analogue outputs have been included in the box. So if you want to output Dolby 5.1 or DTS, you'll have to stump up for the adaptor separately. While we doubt most people will use the TV out as a regular feature, it's disappointing to see Panasonic cashing in on the accessories market like a videogame console manufacturer, or dare we say it, Apple.

The package does include a flat, credit card-sized remote control, with watch-style batteries included for power. This is useful if you are hooking the DVD player up to a TV and want to sit away from the player itself. If you're using the player on the move, you'll find most of the important buttons are located to the right of the disc tray. It can be annoying to rewind and fast forward as you need to hold down the chapter-skip buttons -- some annoying jumping around is inevitable at first.

Features
The DVD-LS90 supports most disc formats, including DVD-RAM and other writable formats. DVD-RAM is the golden child of Panasonic's technology family -- it's the most versatile recordable format available and all Panasonic DVD recorders support it. It's good to see a portable player with DVD-RAM in addition to DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW. It's something you won't find on Toshiba's players, and it means you can record TV programmes without finalising the disc and pop them straight into the player for the journey to work. DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW discs still need to be finalised to play, however.

As we mentioned, the package is lightweight on the extras -- there's no digital cable included, nor is there a carry case. If you're travelling around without access to a mains or car power adaptor, you should be able to manage thanks to an excellent six-hour battery life. In fact, the detachable battery offers the best lifespan we've seen from any portable player. In our test, we found that it ran to five hours -- Panasonic's quote of six assumes you're using the lowest brightness setting and headphones instead of speakers. That's still enough to watch two average films, but it's just short of two Lord of the Rings epics. The box includes a mains adaptor that you will be able to use on many modern trains, and a car adaptor.

As for features on the player itself, there are a few practical implementations that will benefit both films and television programmes. The player can automatically format 4:3 material (older TV series, for example) so they stay square on the screen or are stretched horizontally and vertically to look natural on the wide screen. Again, we've not seen this before, despite a similar feature existing on most widescreen TVs.  If you're watching a movie and fancy the full cinema experience, you can engage 'Advanced Surround' which will give you a faux-5.1 experience through your headphones. We particularly like the 'Multi Re-Master' mode which adds lost frequency signals to DVD soundtracks and MP3/WMA music. Indeed, the audio performance overall is exemplary.

We often find that staying in a hotel room, it's great if you can watch your favourite film or TV series instead of shelling out for a paid movie on the hotel system. The Panasonic will output via composite video -- not the highest quality connector available, but we're yet to see a DVD player that offers component video outputs or Scart. If you want to link it up to a bigger home cinema setup, you might want to take advantage of the digital audio outputs. The Panasonic even goes as far as supporting DTS audio, which makes for a strange AV combination when you have the worst quality video connectivity combined with the best audio.

Performance
The 9-inch screen proves to be the Panasonic's undoing -- its large size results in the same poor picture quality as the Archos AV700. The resolution is low and gives a similar effect to a cheap LCD projector. You can actually see the separation between pixels, something that is sometimes referred to as the 'chicken wire' or 'screen door' effect. It's not pleasant, and given Panasonic's reputation for picture quality it's surprising to see something so weak.

Panasonic features high-speed motion scanning to help smooth the image out, which is useful for camera pans and fast-moving objects in video. Audio playback is also boosted by surround-sound processing when using headphones. The internal speakers are tinny and lack bass, so you'll want to use headphones not only for your enjoyment, but to spare those around you. It's a shame, then, that there are no headphones included in the package. Having said that, the audio performance from Panasonic's player is superb -- we could hear every nuance of background detail from our DVD movies. The performance was much better than on Toshiba's, and you can burn around 7 hours of music to one MP3 CD -- more than enough for most journeys. Panasonic's technology also makes compressed music sound surprisingly rounded.

Edited by Michael Parsons
Additional editing by Nick Hide