Shinco SDP-1720 Review

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Shinco SDP-1720
4.3 stars
Average rating for this product is: 4.3 out of 5

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Sirius's Review of Shinco SDP-1720 Portable DVD Player

14th Jun 2004

Overall Rating

4 stars
  • Value for money
    4 stars
  • Image Quality
    4 stars
  • Battery Life
    4.5 stars
  • Time Portable DVD Player Owned
    Between 1 - 4 Weeks
  • Sound Quality
    4 stars
Good Points

Reasonably priced
Good Specification
Great quality picture and sound when hooked up to TV


Bad Points

DVD Transport Noisy
Metal casing has been replaced with cheap plastic
No A/V inputs
No Volume Control on Remote


General Comments

I recently bought this Shinco SDP-1720 portable dvd player from a Uk website. It is now the Shinco SDP-1731A as opposed to the 1720. It's still advertised as having a metal body....but beware, it doesn't, it's cheapo plastic!
Picture quality is acceptable for a budget player but I couldn't get confirmation from anyone regarding the contrast ratio of the screen. It's advertised as having a 370:1 ratio compared to the 200:1 ratio of other budget models. There is no info with the unit confirming either. Therefore it's possible that the higher rated screen has also been replaced with a lower spec version along with the casing. DVD transport is fairly noisy, but if you close the DVD cover VERY gently, it does run more quietly. It plays just about every Disk Format, DVD, MP3, JPegs, CD-R, CD-RW although the Manual doesn't tell you this! It didn't like the DVD-R/RW disk I tried (kept freezing)and I haven't tried the DVD+R/RW format.
It really shines when you hook it up to a full size TV using the (supplied) A/V leads. The picture quality is easily as good as my home based Panasonic and sound quality is rich and clear.
Overall, it's not too bad for the money considering it's specifications but you may want to try out some other makes as well before you part with your hard earned dosh.

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Members' Comments onSirius's Review

  • redgammon on 4th Jul 2004

    This from an "official distributor" site

    FAQ: What is the difference between Shinco SDP-1731A and SDP-1720 portable DVD player ?

    A: Two differences: 1. The SDP-1720 is a super slim & compact & light model for better portability, SDP-1731A is almost twice as thick as 1720, ; 2. SDP-1720 is equiped special portable DVD player laser head, while SDP-1731A use computer DVD drive laser head which reduce the cost dramatically. This is similiar to the comparision between laptop DVD drive and desktop DVD drive. The SDP-1731A portable DVD player was initially designed specially for Wal-mart to meet their low cost requirement.

  • oceandeep on 6th Aug 2004

    Hi
    I'm the Senior Buyer at one of the websites that supply Shinco players. The picture of the model you review is the 1720 and not the 1731A, the two players are different models and are still both available.
    I think I know where you purchased the player and the reason you may believe the two are one and the same is because that company swapped from the 1731A to the 1720 when supply of the latter was restricted due to an exclusivity agreement on the 31A.
    The casing of the 1731A is in fact aluminium ( the A on the product code indicating this ) but it is true to say that the bottom of the unit has a plastic housing.

    Hope that clears up any confusion.

  • Sirius Rank: Lance Corporal on 12th Aug 2004

    Thanks for your comments, I've got more information on the unit from posting a review here that I got out of the website I got it from! I can confirm I have the SDP 1731-A model and I can also confirm that the screen housing is most definitely plastic, not aluminium. I've found a couple of reports since that say they are aluminium, but not so in my case.