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A portable Panasonic DVD player sporting a nine-inch LCD screen has been introduced by Matsushita Electric Industrial, which plans to market the compact device in the United States in the fourth quarter.

It will be priced at $880 when it goes on sale in Japan in September, according to Kazumi Tamamoto, a Matsushita spokesperson. The device weighs just over two pounds.

The screen, the player's major feature, is just large enough to claim the title of largest on a portable player. Its nearest competition comes from Sharp, which plans to launch a player with an 8.7-inch display in Japan on August 24. Other rivals, such as Pioneer and Sony, have 7-inch screens on their machines. It is also considerably larger than the 5.8-inch displays that have graced Panasonic's portable DVD player lineup since the company launched its first model, the first in the world, in early 1998.

Supports DVD-RAM

The player offers another "first" among its features: it can play back DVD-RAM rewritable DVD optical discs. Most players are not compatible with DVD-RAM because the discs are enclosed in cartridges, requiring special drive mechanisms. Matsushita is backing the format and is also selling a DVD-RAM video recorder for domestic use.

In addition to DVD-RAM, the player is compatible with DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, and several CD-based formats, including Video CD. The device can also play DVD-R discs, although Matsushita only guarantees this feature will work with discs recorded on its own DMR-E20 recorder. It may work with discs recorded on systems from other manufacturers, but, because the format is new and the first machines are just coming onto the market, the company does not claim full compatibility.

Other features include a built-in TV tuner, an internal rechargeable battery that provides enough power for 2.5 hours of DVD playback, and support for Digital Theater Sound (DTS) and Dolby Digital.

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