Try as we may to be completely objective, reviewers are unavoidably coloured by their prior experiences with products, services, and vendors. Such is the case with me and LG. The time I have spent with past LG gadgets — a phone with a dreadful interface and poor call quality, wireless speakers that constantly cut in and out, a dual-format high-definition disc player that failed miserably in its playing of one of the formats — has instilled in me an ever-present wariness of anything stamped with the South Korean manufacturer's two-letter logo.
That was my mindset as I unboxed and began monkeying around with the company's new DP392 Portable DVD Player with Digital Photo Frame. However, after playing with it for the better part of two nights I found that I was unable to detect any fatal flaws in this stylishly crafted and highly multipurpose piece of gear.
Put another way, it does what LG claims, and I like what it does.
A NICE PHOTO FRAME...
LG’s portable two-in-one DVD player and digital photo frame is a stylish and useful gadget. (LG Electronics Inc.)
As its full name so gracelessly insists, the DP392 is both a portable DVD player and a digital photo frame. However, it looks more like the latter than the former, thanks to a flat, fold-down stand and a smart, minimal matte-black frame that surrounds its 8-inch LCD.
And, indeed, it is a perfectly functional digital frame. The 800-by-480 pixel WVGA screen is bright, clear, and adequate for viewing photos from a metre or so away. Pictures can be drawn from an internal 256 MB memory or your choice of portable flash-based storage (MS, MMC, SD, USB drive), and are displayed in their proper aspect ratio, with black bars above or beside the image as necessary. There are several transition effects for slideshows, and even an option to play MP3 files in the background, with the music coming through the unit's surprisingly un-tinny monaural speaker — though it's worth noting that, for reasons I couldn't deduce, selecting the music slideshow option caused displayed pictures to shrink in size.
...AN EVEN BETTER DVD PLAYER...
Seen sitting on a shelf, the only clue that there might be something more to this frame than displaying stills is its thicker-than-average depth, which measures well over an inch. The extra girth is due to a separate chassis behind the screen that houses the device's DVD assembly. A hidden disc bed is accessed by gently pulling the LCD forward.
It plays DVDs well. Video colour is a little off — skin can appear a bit orangey in certain conditions, and the basic colour adjustment controls did little to help — but I have seen few portable DVD players in the same price range and with similar resolution screens that offer a better picture.
It has a durable screen, a pair of headset ports to allow two people to watch and listen at the same time, and a remote that provides access to most of the features you'd expect in a typical DVD player, including slow motion, zoom, and custom looping. A respectable three-hour-plus battery managed to get my daughter and I through Enchanted and most of Bee Movie before needing to recharge.
...AND JUST A FEW QUIBBLES
It was only after significant fiddling about that I started to find a few minor issues. SD cards, for example, don't slide all the way into the body. About half of the card remains sticking out from the side of the unit, soiling the DP392's otherwise clean and beautiful lines. Another foible: While it is capable of playing video from files located on a memory card or USB drive, it is only compatible with those of the DivX variety.
But these are negligible nitpicks. There's no getting around the fact that the DP392 is a useful, functional, versatile gadget. In my home, it would likely play the role of a photo frame on my dresser most of the time, but I imagine my wife and I would also use it to watch the occasional late night movie in bed. And, clearly, it would be a great travel companion for the family during long car rides and plane trips. When we get where we're going we could use it to show friends and relatives some of our pictures.
Priced at $249, it may cost more than you'd be willing to pay for either a digital frame or portable DVD player on their own, but keep in mind you'd likely spend $300 or more if you bought both separately — assuming you wanted decent quality screens.
I'm not entirely sure that this little DVD player-cum-photo frame has restored my faith in LG — it will take more than a single product to do that — but if I were looking to buy a digital photo frame or a portable DVD player right now, the DP392 would be high on my list of possibilities, and that's a good step toward reinstating my trust in the brand.
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