Portable DVD Player by Sylvania

As I set about to write this Hub my first instinct was to put something in the title (or sub-title) like, "What I learned the hard way - that most people already know." That didn't seem quite right, though, because I didn't really learn anything I didn't already know with regard to making a sensible purchase. It was more a matter of my being reminded of what I already knew, which is not to let your heart decide what to buy and, instead, to always make sure it's your head that's making the decision. Not long age I made one of those "heart" purchases, which is extremely uncharacteristic of me. The item wasn't an awfully expensive one, though, and I was in the mood to "just be crazy" and go with my heart. In fact, it was so uncharacteristic of me to do such a thing that I gave all my reasons for doing it so much thought I wrote a Hub about "shopping therapy".

As I already mentioned in the "shopping therapy" Hub, I've been suffering from a serious case of "almost-Spring-but-still-Winter" blues. I always get that when it seems Spring is almost within reach; and this year it's been particularly bad because I injured my knee fairly "dramatically" just before Christmas, and this "monster-injury" (although almost better now) is still making its presence known with just about everything I do.

So, as I browsed Amazon for something I didn't really need but might like to have, I ran into the Susan B. Koman Pink DVD player by Sylvania. Normally, I like my electronic gadgets in "traditional black" or, even better, "tasteful off-white"". The Susan B. Koman factor (a percentage of the sales goes to the Susan B. Koman foundation, aimed at finding a cure for breast cancer) was, of course, appealing to me. I'll be honest, though: I just plain liked the metallic pink color of the little DVD player. So, when it caught my eye I decided to go to WalMart's site to see if they had the same DVD player for a better price or else other "particularly cute" DVD players. Both Amazon and WalMart had the pink player for just under sixty dollars. I had some gift cards (often a factor in deciding where to buy). The WalMart site had not only the metallic pink player, but a very pretty metallic blue version, as well. The blue player was thirty dollars more than the pink one, so I imagined that the "charity" version may sell in enough volume to allow for a lower price, or else that it was going to be discontinued and was selling for less.

Originally, I was concerned about the "you-get-what-you-pay-for" factor, but when I saw the blue Sylvania player for a price more similar to those of other inexpensive players I assumed the low price had a reason other than low quality. "How neat," I thought, "to have this little personal (and so cute) DVD player to bring into kitchen and work out to my fitness DVD's (once this horrific knee injury gets better, of course)." So, with being strangely "in love" with the pink player, its low price, and the fact that I was desperately in need of something "fun" and "just for me", I ordered the Sylvania player (from WalMart.com). Sure, I'd have to be pay for shipping (when I could have had Amazon Prime free shipping), but I was in a "going-wild" frame-of-mind; and I didn't want the item sent to a WalMart store. Shopping therapy is only fun when the item is delivered to your door.

There weren't a whole lot of reviews for the player (although, I supposed, if I'd tried to find more I could have). There were only a few that involved grandparents buying the player for their grandchild and being happy with it and a few more than were written by people of similar demographics, who said (essentially), "Don't waste your money." With so few reviews, I didn't think it was a good sampling; and I know it can be more likely unhappy customers will voice their negative opinions than happy customers may be to take the time to write a review. There will always be someone who has a bad experience with a product, especially with one as "tricky" as a portable DVD player can be.

When it arrived I was a little concerned because the shipping label that was supposed to hold the outer box flaps closed wasn't really attached, and the box wasn't really sealed. Inside, the product's own box had an open flap as well. I didn't have a good feeling about it and wondered if I may have received a returned item. Once I got through the packaging, however, I found the DVD player to be every bit as good looking as it had in the picture. It didn't look particularly "cheap", as I had thought it may. It came with a cute little remote control, a car charger, the cables to connect it to a tv if someone wanted to, and the AC power cord. The player didn't immediately look cheaply made. It did, however, appear to be a very simple product, with a few simple arrows that would get the user into the menus and sub-menus, from which just about everything had to be done; and which looked sleek and simple but which could be kind of aggravating for the person not yet familiar with making her way into and through the menus. It wasn't that the menus weren't designed well. It was just that I'd never had a portable DVD player before (or used one).

I wasn't too pleased to discover a pretty "sparse" booklet when it came to instructions for player. For example, the book said very little about charging the battery. I had a lot of questions about when, why, when not to, charge the battery (etc.), but I couldn't find any answers. Still, the product doesn't take a rocket scientist to run it, so I overlooked what seemed to me like a pretty incomplete set of instructions.

The first DVD I tried loaded well, although the picture was pretty dark. I wasn't worried, because I figured I'd just have to adjust the settings. Adjusting the settings didn't particularly seem to lighten the picture (at least not unless I adjusted them "to the point of ridiculous and barely visible), but I figured, "maybe it's just the DVD, itself - not the player". I hadn't had a lot of expectations for such an inexpensive player, so I was happy with the fact that I could see and hear the movie. After getting to the know the player for a little while I decided to try a music CD. The player allows for listening to CD's that include those with mp3 files, and that was a main determining factor in my choice to buy it. A player that played both DVD's and CD's was better than one that didn't. (Some play DVD's and also include a radio, but I have a zillion radios and only one CD player.) There were some odd little noises coming from the player, but because I've never had one before (and because I never sit that close to the regular DVD player on my television), I wasn't sure if the noises were normal or not. There was definitely one that seemed to be "outside" the other, less isolated, sounds the player made; but it was very low and only occasional.

Well, the music CD didn't load. The screen kept showing, "loading", and nothing else happened. I tried one CD after another (some "commercial" CD's, some I made myself), and I tried another movie. I gave the player time to load - plenty of time to load - each time, and nothing was happening. In spite of the "box issues", I didn't automatically assume I'd received a bad player.

Instead, I thought there was a chance I'd "done something" when I was learning to navigate through the settings menu. I called the service people (who are "Curtis", not Sylvania), but I was told the individual would have to call me back. The product doesn't come with a warranty (although, of course, one that doesn't work can be returned).

My plan was to just ask a service person if there was something I may have done in the settings (like inadvertently set things up to require a password without actually programming in a password, or something like that) I may have done, or if there was something I didn't know about the battery charge (particularly in view of the fact that the instructions said little about it).

Wanting to know whether I'd be returning the product immediately, I decided to go to a technical forum I know about and see if anyone on there knew anything about DVD's players. One person, who said he used to work for Sylvania, said he thought I should just consider the player, "dead on arrival". He made a few comments about how Sylvania DVD's players "can be good" when you get a good one, but how portable DVD's players can just run into more "issues" than some products do.

After waiting a few hours to hear back from the Curtis guy, I called again. Thinking he'd just kind of go over the settings (maybe) - the way cell phone customer-service people sometimes do when there's some issue. It turned out there would be no simple "going-over-of-the-settings". Instead, the guy told me I should first let the player "sit idle" and not-on-the-charger for a half hour or so. When I asked if me meant, "idle but with the power on" or "idle and with the power off" he answered as if I was stupid by repeating, "idle". I'm not big on my technical knowledge, but my thinking was that cars "idle" with the engines on, so, to me, "sitting idle", didn't necessarily, automatically, mean "no power". Maybe I AM just stupid when it comes to "electronics terms", but I wondered if this guy was just reading from a list someone else had written and didn't really know the answer to my question about the power.

In any case, he told me after I let it sit idle for the half hour (and it turned out that meant, no power on and no battery-charger connected to it at all) I should take the back of the player and remove the battery. He said it was OK to unscrew the back of the player, and noted I should be careful to put the battery back in correctly when I did that. Since I'm not an awfully curious person when it comes to things like how the backs of electronics products are fastened on, I just assumed, based on what the guy was saying, that taking the back off and taking out the battery would be along the lines of doing the same with a cell phone. I know that no cell phone I've had has ever had a back held on with screws, but this was a DVD player - not a cell phone. I wasn't particularly worried about the idea of unscrewing the back. If I recall correctly, the guy said I should remove the battery and let it sit for a half hour before putting it back in. I, personally, didn't get why the machine would have to have that first half hour of "cooling off" (my term, not his, and not related to temperature at all) before taking out the battery so IT could "cool off"); but what do I know?

The service guy told me that after I'd done all the things he'd said I should run a cleaning disk because (which I don't happen to have on hand). At this point I was thinking, "Oh, brother. I didn't plan to get all this involved with getting the thing to work; and why, by the way, does a new item need cleaning anyway?" The resentment was building, and the joy of the pretty pink DVD player had pretty much dwindled away.

I was kind of uncomfortable at the thought of removing the back and the battery from a new electronic product, but this DVD player had no warranty. Still, I wasn't feeling good about it if I were to be able to return it. Rather than the two or three screws I'd imagined when I was on the phone, the player had eight screws (well, it should have had but had only seven) to remove. Not immediately completely worried about the possibility of simply unscrewing some screws, I pro- ceded to remove all seven screws. I was still imagining how once I got the back off I'd "simply remove the battery" and replace it. Once I got the screws out it became clear the back wasn't something that would just pop off, as I'd assumed it would be. The back was "assembled onto" the main part of the player - not just screwed on. I had no idea how it was assembled, of course, because I'm not a bloody DVD-player assembler! All I could imagine was breaking the whole thing and not being able to return it, so I wasn't about to try too hard to get the back off.

I wasn't going to force it, but I thought I'd just a little closer to see if I could figure out how it was assembled. All I could see by "just peaking" was a whole lot electronic stuff, none of which looked like a battery, even though I could see the section just inside where the charger plugs in.

In the midst of all this looking I discovered something else. There are two indicator lights to let the user know if the battery is charging (etc.). One is red, and the other is, if I recall correctly, green. I wear glasses sometimes, so I hadn't noticed this until I put them on to try to following the service guy's instructions; but there was no lens to cover the two little lights. Without a cover, there was, of course, space around the little bulbs through which, I'm guessing, dust could get inside the machine. Whether or not the player was designed to have those lights covered or not, or whether (like the eighth screw) a cover was missing, I didn't know. All I knew was that this wasn't a good situation.

On top of that, it wasn't worth it to me to risk breaking the plastic back (or anything else), only to discover that I didn't recognize this particular battery once I finally got to see it; so I screwed back in the SEVEN screws and decided to just return the thing to my local Walmart.

I'm nothing if not a fair person; so in fairness to Sylvania, I wondered if the real problem may have been WalMart and the possibility that someone there had sent me a returned player (and not bothered to seal the boxes to boot). In fairness to WalMart, I wondered if, because the outer box hadn't been sealed, someone had gotten into it and damaged the player after it was shipped. Also in fairness to WalMart, I wondered if Sylvania had just made a horrible product. I've always kind of trusted the Sylvania name, but, as they say, people change. I'll admit to being something of a snob when it comes to WalMart. As it happens, I've never received a bad product from Amazon. Having been as fair-thinking as I could, I decided not to ponder it and just return the product to the local WalMart. Returning it was the proverbial piece-of-cake, and since the store didn't have any other pink Sylvania players or many others at all, I got a refund. My plan was to give the product another shot, only buy it from Amazon the next time. Apparently, that plan is an indication that I was blaming WalMart for the problems (while also giving them credit for being so "good" at accepting returns and refunding money). Having other things to think about over the several days to follow returning the player, I kind of forgot about ordering another one for quite awhile.

When I finally got around to going to Amazon to give the Sylvania player a second shot, I started to think more about the few reviews on Amazon and about how, if I recall correctly, they seem to be a pretty much fifty/fifty thing when it comes to positive and negative. If they're not fifty/fifty the balance goes toward the negative reviews, and the Sylvania player (now that I looked at it) only had two and a half stars. I still loved the looks of it, and I still kind of wanted to give it a second chance; but with all the little "issues" (and the main one) I had, along with the fact that other reviews said the player just didn't load the DVD's at all (or after one use), it was pretty hard to imagine spending even that much money on the product. What would happen if a second one worked for, say, two weeks, and then just stopped? I didn't know what Amazon's return policy on electronic products is, but I know it's two weeks for WalMart. This particular player comes with no warranty (that I know of, anyway); and Amazon only sells service plans for these if their price is over $75. Sure, there was a chance I'd luck out and get a "good one" the second time, but as much as I really liked how cute this little player was I didn't want to risk it. The fleeting thought that the blue ones may be better (because they may have been "regular ones", as opposed to "made-for-a-cause-and-volume") did pass quickly in and out of my head; before I (I think) came to my senses and decided to look for another brand. (Besides, the whole idea of the pink one was that it was pink. The blue one was pretty, but I knew I'd get sick of blue about an hour and a half after first seeing it, even if I did seriously consider buying one.) Other companies make pink players, but the pink is, in my opinion, an "ugly" pink.

So, I decided to look for another brand, eliminate all the silver-colored players, and find a traditional (and yet appealing in its own way) black player. Once I started looking I started to notice how many get four or five stars and how few get two and a half stars. A lot of them get three stars, but so many get the five it suddenly seemed ridiculous to even consider disregarding the number of stars and writing off negative reviews as "people who expected too much" or "people who just got one bad item." What had begun as a "love-at-first-sight" process had turned into a more sensible approach.

It was clear that only another player or two were similar in price to the pink Sylvania player, and one I noticed did not have built-speakers. In other words, it required ear phones. There's a world of players priced substantially higher than the Sylvania player, but there are a several that are only slightly higher in price. I discovered an Audiovox player priced similarly to the Sylvania one, and the Audiovox does what the Sylvania player does, comes with a remote control, two headsets, a case, and even a car-mounting "thing". The Audiovox player got plenty of stars and good reviews, but as of recent days ships in two or three months. This purchase that was, for me, "supposed to be" an impulse/fun purchase out of a wish to cheer myself up, couldn't, as far as I was concerned, turn into a several-months-long affair. After all, I wasn't buying a house. I was buying an reasonably inexpensive DVD player.

The Sony player (in the similar price range) got good reviews, but I wasn't seeing "built-in-speaker" by the Sony; so I ruled that one out. My plan for a portable DVD is to be able to bring it into my kitchen (where there's no rug, nothing breakable, and lots of floor space) and work out. That won't work if I have to be tethered by the head to the DVD player.

So, after getting over my love affair with the metallic pink Sylvania, accepting that the only real "cuteness" involved in this purchase may be the small size of a black DVD player, I opted for a Philips. (The Philips player is reviewed in a separate Hub, http://hubpages.com/hub/Philips-Portable-DVD-Player).

I'm not usually one to care a whole lot about what electronic gadgets have or don't have, as long they work; so I don't know what it was about that pink metallic Sylvania that made me like its looks so much. Still, as I was going through pictures for this Hub I found that even now I kind of wish I had the pink one, instead of the black Philips. I'm "OK" as long as I don't look at the picture of the pink one, and I do seem to be "getting over it" a little at a time. I suppose it's just that sometimes things can be like people. There's sometimes the one whose looks you're really attracted to but who is so otherwise wrong for you; and then there's sometimes the one who looks "only good enough" but who is clearly so much more right in terms of being "relationship material".

I guess, as I wrap up this long mulling and stewing over an impulse purchase gone wrong, and as I think of the metallic pink player as a "love that wasn't meant to be", I should remember a few old (and in some cases, modified) adages (and one new saying):

All that is pink and glittery is not gold. "Good things come in small packages". "Beauty is only shell-deep". "When it comes to buying electronic products, follow your head - not your heart." "There are other fish in the sea." Finally (and I'm making this one up and directing it pretty much at only myself), "Lisa, you idiot, next time check out the number of stars!"