7 Best Portable Dvd Players for Kids

A fixed screen assumes a lap. The 9-inch panel here rotates 270 degrees and flips 180, which means the player can sit in a seat-back holder, on the console, or wedged between two car seats and still face the child it belongs to. If you have ever propped a jacket under a player to change the angle, this is the fix.

This is the car-use pick of the group, and not only for the hinge. Break-point memory picks up where the disc stopped, which matters when a movie is interrupted at a rest stop, and the remote lets you restart it from the front seat without reaching back. Operation is simple enough that an eight-year-old can take over, and the 800×480 picture is clear — a step softer than the 1024×600 screens on our top picks, but not a step that bothers anyone watching cartoons.

Two things to plan around. The battery is rated at five hours, and holding a charge is the part of these players that ages first, so keep the long car charger in the bag as part of the kit rather than a backup. Sound is the other compromise: the dual speakers are decent rather than loud, and road noise will beat them. Headphones or an audio cable to the car stereo settles it, and most kids end up on headphones anyway.

This is not a lap player, and it doesn’t pretend to be. At 15.6 inches with a 1280×800 panel it is the largest and sharpest screen in this group, and it measures nearly 15 inches wide and about 2 inches thick when closed. That’s the trade: it lives in the car rather than in a bag, and in exchange nobody in the back seat is leaning sideways to see.

The sharing argument is the real one. Two or three kids on one bench, one screen, no negotiation over whose turn it is — and at this size the picture is watchable from the third row, which is not true of a 7-inch player propped on a console. We also like the anti-shock circuitry that keeps the disc reading over patched pavement; a big screen is no good if playback stutters every time the road does.

Battery is the other thing it gets right. A 5000mAh cell rated at six hours is the longest run time here, enough that the car charger can stay in the glove box on a half-day drive instead of dangling across the seats. Controls sit on the panel as well as on the remote, and the menus are simple enough that a six-year-old can work them.

It costs more than anything else on this page, and the purple plastic shell is the least premium part of the package. Both are fair for what it is: a shared screen that ends the argument. If only one child will ever use it, the 9.5-inch players cover the same ground for far less and go in a bag afterward.

The picture is the reason to look at this one. The 9-inch 800×480 panel renders color well and stays clear over a full movie, and the AV output holds up when you plug it into a hotel television. For a player this old, that’s the part that has aged best.

The rest of the spec sheet reads like an older design. Four hours of battery is on the short side of this group, the body weighs three pounds, and there is a single headphone jack. What it has going for it is build: the flip screen and the shell feel more solid than the budget players here, and the USB port keeps files in play when the disc wallet runs dry.

Pair it with the included car adapter and treat the internal battery as a bridge between outlets rather than the main event. Pricing on this model moves around, so weigh it against the longer-running 9.5-inch players here before you commit: the picture is the argument for it and the battery is the argument against.

Seven inches sounds small until you check the resolution: 1024×600 on a 7-inch panel gives the sharpest pixel density in this group, and at arm’s length it shows. The trade is obvious — a smaller picture — but for one child holding the player on a lap, the compact body is easier to manage than a 9.5-inch slab, and it drops into a small backpack without a fight.

The price is among the lowest here, and the dual speakers are adequate rather than impressive, which is the honest expectation at this size. The 4-to-6-hour battery claim is generous; treat it as a solid double feature and keep the car charger in the bag. None of that gets in the way of what a five-year-old actually asks for, which is a movie that starts when they press the button.

It swivels, 270 degrees of rotation and a 180-degree flip, and on a screen this small the articulation earns its place: you can tip it up toward a face instead of hoping the lap angle works. The remote ships without batteries, and the buttons on the unit are the ones a kid will use anyway, so check they stay reachable once the player is strapped in.

Two years of coverage is unusual at the cheap end of this market, and it’s the first thing we look at on a player this small. pofoto backs this one for 24 months, longer than the one-year terms on most of the others here, and that changes the arithmetic on a device that will be dropped, sat on, and handed between siblings.

The reason coverage matters is the lid. The hinge that holds the 7.5-inch screen is the part that gives out first on a budget player, so teach the kid to open it from the middle rather than prying a corner, and keep the receipt. Do that and the warranty is the thing that makes this a reasonable buy rather than a gamble.

The rest is better than the price suggests. The 800×480 screen is bright and clear at this size, the dual speakers are surprisingly strong for the body they’re in, and the 2500mAh battery is rated at four to six hours with the car charger covering the rest. At 8.3 by 6.1 inches it’s the smallest chassis in this group, which makes it the easiest to hand to a five-year-old in a car seat.

Same idea, smaller bill: a 9.5-inch screen that rotates 270 degrees and flips 180, a five-hour battery, and three ways to keep it running — the internal cell, the AC adapter, or the car charger. The swivel matters as much here as on any player in this group, because it’s what lets a strapped-down player face the child instead of the seat.

The difference shows up on the screen. The 800×480 panel is bright but not as clean as the 1024×600 displays on our top two picks, which is most visible in dark scenes and in fine text on disc menus. That, more than anything else, is what the lower price buys you. For cartoons and bright animation the gap is easy to live with.

Controls are straightforward and setup takes a minute, and the 9.5-inch body still fits in a backpack. The remote is the loose end: it needs two AAA batteries that aren’t included, and its response is inconsistent enough that the buttons on the unit are what you should count on. Check they stay reachable once the player is strapped to a seat back, and the remote becomes a bonus rather than a requirement.