Review on iLuv i1166: A Versatile 8.9 Inch Portable Multimedia/DVD Player with iPod Dock by Jonathan Unruh

I've been following this product closely since it was announced at CES earlier this year and was fortunate to release one of the first batches. Here's a quick rundown of some of the pros and cons of this product. I have previously purchased a Philips portable DVD/iPod player DCP850/37 and have been very happy with it. Although the screen was only 7 inches, it was relatively portable, light enough and easy to use. Unfortunately it doesn't support the later generation 160GB iPod classic which I store most of my videos on (I could only use my 60GB iPod for Philips) so I decided to upgrade to the iLuv i1166. My first impressions are as follows: The iLuv 1166 looks superior to Philips. It has a nice sleek black bezel with a very nice large 9 inch wide bezel on the front of the gadget. Unlike Philips, which has the screen in the clamshell, the iLuv's screen is on the outside, with a small stand on the other side for support. When you open the iLuv clamshell, there's a DVD drive and an iPod Stand, as with most other ipods / dvds there are various adapters that you can use for your nano, ipod, itouch or iphone A definite plus of this product is that it supports many current generation iPods, which the previous model (i1155) and other Philips players was missing . So if like me you have a 160GB classic then this is the player for you. I was only able to test the gadget with my iPod and a test DVD. It's very easy to use (either via the remote control or using the menu buttons next to the screen) and the menu options are fairly basic. The menus are easy to read and it's nice to have a battery indicator to warn you you're about to run out of juice. The picture quality was pretty good. I've played DVD videos, movies, music videos, and TV shows from my iPod. The picture is sharp and the large 9 inch screen is definitely a plus. I still have to test the SD inputs. But in my experience there is definitely a noticeable improvement in picture quality from my Philips player. There are also 2 headphones. Connectors that allow multiple people to watch the same video. It took about 3 hours to charge the battery on first start and I watched 2 movies to drain it as a test. After about 3 hours of work (before bed) I noticed that it works well, so definitely well (compared to about 2.5 hours of playtime with my Philips). for movies on the iPod. So if you're watching a two-hour movie and want to fast-forward, this won't happen. It's a little annoying when you're trying to speed up 2 movies on a long journey. EDIT: (I switched a few movies to test and found that the chapter search works on one or two of the 6 I tried. I'm not sure why this happened and it seemed like the rewind function worked more than fast forward (I'm not sure if this is another bug like the one I saw with the iPod video mentioned below) I also noticed a strange bug where the menu on the iPod couldn't read my music videos in sequential order for some reason. Let's say if you had multiple Michael Jackson videos in Category 1, for some reason I couldn't access the Michael Jackson videos in the order they are on my iPod. Rather, every time I open a category, every video on my iPod appears in the list, regardless of category. Again, this is annoying but doesn't affect the performance of the device. There's also no video-out option (one of the good things about my Philips was that it had a video-out that I could connect to my TV). This isn't a deal breaker for me, but it's a little annoying for those of you who want to use the DVD option for say an extended stay in a hotel or other home and don't have a DVD there. I'm a gadget lover like me, I think you will love this article. I also recommend purchasing a case for this item (I ordered mine from iLuv/jwin) as the screen seems to scratch very easily due to its position on the outside of the clamshell structure. In summary: Advantages: 1. Cool, stylish design2. Works with most iPods/iPhones including current generation 3. Decent battery life4. Huge screen, great picture quality5. Wide range of inputs (DVD, iPod, SD, USB, multiple headphones)6. Can play in car with car adapter 7. Convenient menu, remote control Cons: 1. No video output option 2. No chapter search for iPod3 movies/TV shows. Kinda heavy 4. The location of the screen makes it easy to scratch/damage5. Sometimes buggy menu (at least for me) 6. Speakers not very useful (tinny and not very good for playback). But a clean network is a pretty handy thing when you're on the go. I would like to add the following comments: 1. After trying hard to protect the screen (I bought a case from jwin), I still noticed scratches on the surface after several uses. And that although we put the item in the storage box very carefully. I also haven't dropped the device or scratched it during use so I'm not sure where they came from but just wanted to warn you about possible scratches on the screen.2. I noticed that the battery life when used with an iPod to watch movies was between 3 and 3.5 hours. It seemed a little shorter than advertised, although I turned the volume up significantly at times as it seemed a bit low for certain movies or clips. I didn't have any brightness, but maybe maxing out the volume at certain times (I was using headphones) helped battery life.3. The video quality is great and a wide screen makes it so much better! I tested the SD card device and it worked perfectly. Considering the design, it can also serve as a kind of pretty photo frame, albeit a big chunky frame. I noticed that the photo slideshow was also moving a little slowly. However, plugging in an SD card to view images was relatively easy and painless.