Mustek PL607 DVD player price and reviews

I say pass this one by. I am looking for a replacement. I bought the player to fill plane trips, but after 5 movies I have yet to finish one. It worked fine from car charger or wall plug, but without power it is not worth the frustration.
The sound is also very weak both with or without headphones we were struggling to hear the dialog.

While the price is undeniably attractive (I found it at a Twin Cities CompUSA for $100 in the Sunday ad circular), my initial reaction was that perhaps a few more dollars might get you a much more usable player somewhere else.

Out of the box, the player was very straight forward to setup and get ready to run, but it was also very easy to see some significant limitations. For instance, there are only three controls on the player itself (play, pause and stop). Any other controls (FF, next chapter, etc.) are accessed through a very small remote, rendering the player almost useless should the remote get lost.

The screen quality was good (no dead pixels, good contrast and brightness), and playback was smooth and jitter-free, but the built-in speakers have a tinny sound and are not loud enough to use while driving at highway speeds. Perhaps it's expecting too much at this price, but there was also no travel case that would allowed the player to be hung from the back of a front seat in a vehicle.

So, while the basics were all there and actually did a pretty good job, the rest of the package left me feeling disappointed.

First let me tell you where I'm coming from. I know of no one who is pickier about video quality than I am. LCD's, DLP's, Plasma, CRT's...you name it. I've saturated myself with these different technologies over and over again for years. I'm an informed consumer and I never buy anything electronics-related unless I've done extensive research on them and talked to knowledgable people about products I'm considering.

My home theater set up is a DLP front projector with an eight foot screen surrounded by 5.1 speakers. This is how I watch my movies. True cinematic experience.

Anyway, back to the review. The LCD screen, like I said, is pretty good. In fact, it's better than a lot of the other 7" portables out there. The picture is smooth and transition from scene to scene are seamless. Color saturation and brightness are customizable via the remote control (more on this later). Audio speakers output are louder than I thought they would be considering it's a portable player. However, they are not loud enough to hear over the drones of highway driving. Other pluses about this player is the fact that you have a choice of S-video or component video output. And the fact that it is a progressive dvd player makes it all the more alluring.

As good as it is, this player is not without its downsides. Build quality isn't exactly the best. It's plasticky. You have to be careful to open it because it is only held closed by two small latches at opposite ends of the screen. The battery pack is relatively heavy because it is NiMH instead of the lighter lithium ion and it protrudes rather ostentaciously in the back. The buttons on the player consist of only three: Play, Pause and Stop. 90% of the controls are done through the remote control.

Now, about the remote control. I can see the gripes some people make about having to resort to using it just to control the settings instead of the convenience of having them on the player itself. For those on the go, it is inconvenient. But really, what is the big deal? To me, this is just a minor setback and certainly not a deal-breaker. I mean, how often will you use it anyway? Once you've customized the settings to your liking from the beginning, you will hardly use it. When watching subsequent movies, there would be only three main buttons you'll be using on the remote control: the Play, Pause and Stop buttons. Well, lookie here, those are the same buttons on the player itself.

This portable player is not perfect. I think that people who give their subjective opinions on a lot of things are being unfair. They would compare this player to those of the more expensive ones from Sony, Panasonic, etc. who have more features and thus are more likely to rate this one lower because of it.

Come on, people. For what it is, this portable player from Mustek is a great bang-for-the-buck toy. It only costs $99! If people would adjust their ratings accordingly, they would see that it really is a great deal for what you get.

It really boils down to the picture quality IMO. This is the one feature that you really can't improve on. With sound, you can always get headphones or attach computer speakers. With the remote, if you lose it, call Mustek and they'll send you a new one (one review I read had them send him a new one and he marvelled at how quickly Mustek responded). But the picture quality, it really has to be good or it isn't. You can't do anything about it.

Sure there are other better portable players out there for the money. But for $99? I seriously doubt you can do better than this.

Consequently, I bought this at CompUSA and also got the 2 year protection plan for $50. I highly suggest getting this because they have a great plan where you can exchange it for a comparable dvd player (at their discretion) no questions ask if something does go wrong. You really can't put a price on peace of mind.

Disclaimer: I don't work for Mustek or CompUSA nor do I have financial ties with either of these companies.

Hope this helps.

I wanted to like this player... but I can't say I do. The price is good... but that's where the positives end.

My big problems with this unit are picture quality and lack of buttons on the unit. The picture looks quite 'pixley' and not very smooth. I've seen some other cheap units that have much better picture quality. This unit does offer aolor saturation and brightness adjustments, but the adjustments are so 'coarse' and don't improve the image much. So you're pretty much stuck with the lack-luster image quality.

Also the only buttons on the unit are 'play', 'pause' and 'stop'. I can't belive there are no arrow keys or chapter buttons. It's VERY annonying to have to use the remote for everything. And if I lose the remote... I'm in trouble.

Also it only comes with a NIMH battery.. which is not as good as a Lithium-ion battery. And you can only get about 2 hours from the unit. Only able to watch 1 movie... kina sad.

It does have the option for S-Video and component outputs. It doesn't come with these cables so I assume they can be purchased from the website?

I guess if you don't care about these things... or just want the cheapest player you can find (I thought that was me) then this unit might be ok. But for me it was pretty dissapointing.