Nine-inch DVD player fits the bill

WE'VE known Mustek for quite some time now. The company makes loads of computer gadgets and is well known for scanner devices. Some of you might know their photo and video cameras or DVD players.

We came across a portable, nine-inch DVD player, the PL8A90, a recent additon to the company's range.

The idea of watching a video in the plane, train or the automobile has always suffered from the limitations of battery life. Mustek's portable device can be used as a car DVD player and that is what makes this device rather attractive. The price and features are right.

The Mustek PL8A90 is a nine-inch portable DVD player (250x170x28 mm). It is a tablet design as opposed to the shell design like many available. Actually you do need to open the device to put a DVD inside but that's about it.

The device can work either plugged at the power cord or you can simply put its battery on. We tested the player as a stand alone device and as a real portable device.

The device has a decent-sized screen and features two small speakers. They will be sufficient to hear a rather nice quality sound with your movie. It takes less then ten seconds from the time you turn it on to be able to play the movie.

You have some basic controls on the right hand side of the playe, with standard play, select, stop, pause, previous and next buttons. At the front of the player you will find a power indicator and a remote control sensor.

The rather nice and small remote control gives you the option to change and alter every single feature on the player. We we unable to alter the volume during movies, but you can mute it. The player has OSD menu where you can change the format, mode and similar features.

A memory card reader tucked into left hand side supports SD or MMC memory cards. It is a neat feature that allows you to view photo files. Power button is also at the left side as well as DC IN jack.

The right-hand side is packed with a connectors and buttons as the volume scroll, phone jacks one and two, followed by Coaxial output jack, Audio Video In or out switch, audio output/input jack, video output/input jack and, last but not least, S-Video P-Scan output jack.

You can dock the battery from the lower side of the player. The pack includes the battery, caring case for the player, UK and European DC adapter, 12V car cigarette lighter adapter, audio in/out stereo cable, video in / out chinch cable and an earphone. Quick guide and Manual are there. You can hang a player on your car seat with a car harness that is included in the pack.

Test
The player works rather well as a stand-alone device. It plays DVDs including the recorded ones and CDs with the pictures, no DivX support for this device. It can play up to two and a half hours on the standard battery. It won't be enough for Lord of the Rings, but it will be just enough for a normal movie or a few TV series.

It is easy to use you can get use to the remote in a day, some buttons are not that logical but you will get use to it. It cost €270 at European retail and it is available now. We can recommend it as a rather nice and useful player especially for the car users and frequent travellers. It is much cheaper than most of the other car DVD solutions and it is easy to carry it around. ?