Mustek MP100 review

Mustek, a company known for its scanners, has moved into the portable DVD market. Its latest offering is the rather hefty MP100, which sports a large, 10-inch-wide screen and looks like a minilaptop--and at 3.75 pounds with battery, it weighs more than some ultraportable notebook computers. While its styling is decidedly basic, the MP100 does boast a wealth of features, including a memory-card slot, USB connectivity, progressive-scan output to HDTVs, DivX support, digital audio output, and two headphone jacks. That said, its most appealing feature is the screen's ability to swivel 180 degrees and fold flat on top of the unit, much in the manner of a tablet PC. In this mode, you can tuck the MP100 into its included canvas "frame," which also doubles as a carrying case, and strap it to the back of one of your car's headrests for backseat viewing.

We could spend a lot of time talking about the MP100's impressive media features--how it can play back MP3 music and JPEG images, as well as DivX, XviD, MPEG-4, and AVI files from media such as MMC/SD cards, USB thumbdrives, or home-burned DVDs and CD-Rs. But really, the main reason to buy this player is for backseat viewing in the car, because you'll be better off with a slimmer, lighter player for air travel--this just isn't the type of player you'd want to lug around.

As for the MP100's picture, one of the problems is the player's rather limited viewing angle. It's fine so long as you have the screen flat or at a right angle when in clamshell mode, but if you tilt it a bit, the picture deteriorates. Also, if you're sitting too close, there's enough space between the pixels to give you the impression you're watching a movie through a screen door, and the picture generally appears softer and noisier with less-accurate colors than with many portable DVD players we've reviewed. There's very little point in trying to make adjustments by tweaking the brightness and color settings, because the picture is pretty much at its best at the default settings.