Philips PET710 7-Inch Widescreen Portable DVD Player Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I was originally looking at two other models of 7" portable DVD player, the Samsung DVD-L75 and the Toshiba SD-P1600.After looking at both at a local Best Buy store, I was dissapointed by their lack-luster (literally!) LCD screen.But thinking that there was no better choice available around the same price range, I still bought the Samsung since it was lighter in weight than the Toshiba and had a better button layout.

When I got the Samsung L75 home, I was further put off by the inconvenient way to adjust the aspect ratio on it (I don't like images from my TV show DVDs being horizontally stretched out to fill the widescreen) - you have to get in layers of menus to do it, and it doesn't remember your preference for the next disc.The final straw was that it also randomly stops (not just skips) in the middle of a show, so I returned the Samsung L75... and am SO GLAD that I did!Because the next thing I found was this little gem of a Philips PET710, which is MUCH better in many ways.

Pros of the Philips PET710:
- best LCD screen amoung competitions
- very good (and loud) speakers for the size
- brushed aluminum casing, not cheap plastic
- good user interface design (button layout and menu navigation)
- can be made region-free (more on this below)

Cons of the Philips PET710:
- no AV input ports (for gaming/digital camera/iPod/etc.)
- loud spin-up noise when loading a disc
- battery life is adequate, but not as long as I'd like

And here's the hack to turn the PET710 into a region-free DVD player:
1. power on
2. open the DVD tray cover
from remote control:
3. press "setup"
4. navigate to the "preferences" page
5. press "OK"
6. key in "2" "5" "2" "3" "1" "5"
7. press the left arrow
8. press the down arrow
9. press "0" when region code is displayed
10. press "setup" again to exit

I can confirm that this model works with home made DVD+R, DVD-R (although the "-" formats are not listed as compatible), VCD, SVCD (but doesn't seem to support SVCD subtitles), and MP3 CD.Have not tried DVD+RW or DVD-RW discs but they probably will work as well.Aside from being region free, it can also play both NTSC and PAL formats on its own LCD screen (but does not seem to be able to do conversions say if you want to play a European PAL DVD in the player and output to your North American NTSC TV set).

[Added 12/6: In response to another reviewer's comment on the screen being "not a true 16:9" - it definitely is!You only need to take out a ruler to verify this.The actual LCD screen on this player measures 154 mm by 87 mm, which is compliant to the 16:9 ratio.The top and bottom filler black bands do still show up on some movies, because some movies are filmed in the 2.35:1 ratio, an "ultra-widescreen" if you will.]

Click Here to see more reviews about: Philips PET710 7 Inch Widescreen Portable DVD Player

Product Description:
Keep yourself or your kids entertained on long flights or road trips with the Philips PET710/37 portable DVD player with a widescreen 7-inch screen, enabling you to enjoy DVD movies in their original 16:9 aspect ratio format. This compact unit weighs less than 2 pounds (excluding battery) and is powered by a rechargeable NiMH battery, AC adapter, and car power adapter (all included).
The PET710/37's LCD screen has a 480 x 234-pixel resolution, 30 ms (millisecond) response time, a brightness rating of 400 cd/m2 (candela per square meter), and 250:1 contrast ratio. (The higher the contrast ratio, the greater a screen's ability to display subtle color details and not get washed out by ambient room light.) It's compatible with a wide variety of disc and file formats, including DVD movie, CD audio, DVD+R/RW, VCD, SVCD, CD-R/RW, MP3, and JPEG (Picture CD). It features anti-skip buffers for different formats, including 2 seconds for DVDs, 5 seconds for VCD, and 10 seconds for standard audio CDs and CDs burned with MP3 files.
Disc playback modes include A-B repeat, multi-angle selection, disc menu, fast backward/forward, repeat, shuffle play, slow backward/forward, and zoom. Other features include PAL/NTSC video output, parental controls, and aspect ratio conversion. The rechargeable battery has a battery life of up to 2.5 hours and a recharge time of 3 hours. It offers the following connections: headphone, line-out, composite video, and digital coaxial audio for Dolby DTS surround sound.
What's in the Box
Portable DVD player, battery, AC adapter, car power adapter, video cable, audio cable (RCA to mini), remote control (with batteries), printed operating instructions