Most children find long car journeys boring - so portable DVD players are usually bought to keep them quiet. But modern units can do so much more.

Many allow both audio and visual inputs, for linking to games consoles, viewing camcorder footage or digital photos. Audio and video outputs also mean they can be connected to a TV.

On top of standard DVDs, most play audio CDs, CD-Rs and CD-RWs, while better machines will often read MPEG4 or Div X compressed video. UK-supplied units tend to play only region 2 DVDs (ie. discs bought solely in the UK and Europe). Multi-region players read DVDs from anywhere.

The test
First, we looked at the essentials – screen size and picture quality, whether viewing was possible from different angles, battery performance and if mains and 12-volt power leads were supplied.