Philips DVP3520 > Reviews (1)

The DVD player is one of the oddities of modern technology - the cheaper and older they are the more likely they are to play rental discs, and its very annoying. I think we have all had the frustrating experience where state-of-the-art kit won't play discs and we are up and down to the player to get through the movie, eventually whacking the box in irritation. For some reason £300 pound players will find every scratch and mark on the disc whilst those sturdy £29.99 jobs with just three buttons on the fascia will pretty much play any film, even those with the disc as rough as Cameron Diaz skin.

The good thing about this situation is the rental stores are very sympathetic and know that DVD movies are indeed crap after about free rents and offer to clean them up there and then, or give you a refund or replacement. But again that does involve more annoyance taking them back during the rental period. Music wise I have refused to buy CDs for this very same reason, right from the day they took over from the trusty and durable tape player. Portable CD players are useless and not a patch on tape players. I sued to run a lot and listen to music when I trained. Portable DVD players had to be handled even more delicately than those nuclear triggers they used to pull out of the bombs...don't touch the sides...one false move and they jump... Fortunately the MP3 format saved the day and I think they really do need to design likewise for movies as this rental disc thing is very irritating. I was equally in love with video tape, but once Choices went under and Blockbusters started to just rent DVDs I had no choice in the matter and so went in search of a player.

To be honest it was a short search, a herring bone pile of them in the aisle at Dixon's at a clearance price of £30 bucks fine by me. I'm not into lots of lights and twiddly buttons and with play and fast- forward clearly marked I took one off the top and was out of their before the annoying spotty attendant could even attempt to sell me a 48 inch plaza to go with.
As you would expect my telly wasn't exactly what you get around the Beckhams, a square analogue peg in a round SCART hole. But I'm like a surgeon with those wires and if you plug the SCART from the Video player into the SCART on the DVD player it doesn't need a SCART socket in the telly. Job done!

I prefer black electrical goods over the silver ones because in my experience black ones are better. To prove it the black box in aero planes is actually silver. The place crashed! You see what I mean?
Although the player is basic it's the input and output plugs at the back that's important. You can plug in anything you need in there and boost up the power and ability of the slender oblong. Sound-surround speakers will slot in nicely and that 48 inch monstrous TV. Another amp, maybe, your home video kit straight in. No problem. The DVD player's only job is to spin the disc-all lasers that read the discs are all the same. The player has no other job than to just get a laser to read the disc.

Your extra hundred quid won't buy you a better laser. When you pay big bucks for a DVD player, never mind how many multi-regional chips it's got, you're paying for the brand full-stop. You can get multi regional codes off the internet.

The action is with the remote control. Oh yes! All those buttons that mean nothing mean something. You could be sitting there with a movie dragging on and your finger accidentally pressing a button with initials above it. Suddenly the audio commentary comes on. Interesting? That's the language button by the way. Try it! No one knows what the 'PBC' button is for. The 'Display' one will give you how much of the movie has gone, and if you keep pressing, how much is left. Those buttons mean things. Press away. All the other buttons are there and there is a 5 x slow motion for your porno and horror replays. This model doesn't record TV programs though. It will play your music though. Yes, DVD players are also CD players. What do you mean you didn't know that girls!

-Spec-

12-bit/108MHz video processing for sharp, natural images

192 kHz/24 bit audio DAC enhances analogue sound input

High quality outputs for analogue and digital audio

Plays CD, (S) VCD, DVD, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW

Plays MP3, WMA and JPEG digital camera photos

Progressive Scan component video for optimized image quality

Ultra-slim design that fits anywhere?

-Cost-

I bagged it at £39, 99 and I think it's on Amazon for about twenty quid. With cheap cell-phones as little as ten quid, now is the time to buy a cheap DVD player for your bedroom when the main pansy one down starts won't play your rentals. For once the best technology is not the best technology. Keep it generic, keep it cheap guys!

-Any Good-

How can I say? I can't compare it to the other hundred makes. For me I went cheap because I knew I was buying the laser and not the brand. This will do the job and you won't have to get up to many times during the film and have to eject the disc and polish it with your bloody sleeve.