Philips PET730 > Reviews (3)

Introduction
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I would like to start this review by stating why I chose to buy this product instead of the many other portable DVD players that I could have bought. The first reason was simply the price. This was the cheapest Portable DVD player that I could find at my local Electronics store. You must understand that I do not travel all that often so I just wanted a cheap portable DVD player so that I would not get bored during any long journeys that I would encounter by Train or Car during the summer. To put it simply if I did not have this device when I was travelling I would have been incredibly bored. Portable DVD players become lifesavers on long journeys.

This machine was also useful for those times when I just fancied lying back on my bed and watching a film. Even though my TV with DVD player was just feet away, I found that it was much easier to just boot this product up, slot in a DVD and sit back and relax. I loved not having to first switch on my TV and then switch remotes to power up my standalone DVD player. Even though I was obviously watching on a smaller screen I found it was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

This product in a way has improved my health to. In my room I have my regular TV and DVD player to the side of my bed. This meant that when I wanted to watch a Film or regular TV whilst in bed I would have to crank my neck to the side. I found after a few months of doing this a minimal but noticeable pain in my shoulder and neck area. With this purchase though my problems have all is solved. I can easily prop up a few pillows, Lie back, and look directly in front of me to watch all the movies I love.

Another reason chose to buy this product was because I often keep lots of pictures on my iPod by using it as a memory device. With this DVD player I could easily view my images strait from my iPod with no worries at all. This is really great for viewing slideshows as I do not need to keep swapping disks as I can just stream the images from my iPod. I find this feature also saves me on disk usage as I can now view allmy home made images on a DVD player without the need to burn the images to a disk. This has saved me a countless number of disks as I often take many stills for slideshows in my Media Studies classes as well as my photography and film classes.

Overview
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This is the latest portable DVD player from Phillips that is designed more to save on price than to include all the latest features. This does not mean however that the quality of what you are watching decreases in any way. This just means that Phillips has designed a portable DVD player that Ticks all the basic feature boxes, Shows you good quality video and images, and is also affordable.

One of the first things that struck me about this product was its style. When the screen is down this product seems to be the latest laptop and if you had no prior knowledge of this being a DVD player you would be forgiven for coming to this assumption. This player’s elegant look uses black and white as the prominent colors to convey its feel.

When you take this out of the box you will be impressed and feel that a lot of time has been spent to design the look of this product so that it is absolutely perfect in every way.

The controls are layered out on the lower half of the player when it is opened as you would expect. These controls give a sort of indented effect that gives the impression that they are one with the rest of the machine that you see before you. You can perform any action that you would want to with ease e.g. play, pause and rewind with these keys. You can also use them to navigate through the setup menus and to look through any files stored on your USB device in order to view them.

This DVD player can handle the regular video formats plus two more. It can play DVD, DVD+/-R and DVD+/-RW, (S) VCD and even your DivX and MPEG4 movies! The wide range of videos is very useful to me as I never know what media type I am going to be watching next. It is great also that I can view all these different types of media on the move. For photos you can view your standard JPEGs plus one or two other formats as well. Normally though I just stick to the classic JPEGs and if an image is not a JPEG then I just save it as one in a different name or overwriting itself.

As for the screen itself all your videos and images can be shown in a widescreen format or with a simple selection from the options you can choose full screen. Most people though will be happy with the widescreen to take full advantage of the screens size. The picture is crystal clear and I have never had any problems with the quality. This is the exact quality I have come to expect from Phillips and I know that their products always give a very clear picture. The screen makes use of Zero Bright Dot screen so that you gain optimal screen quality.

The player includes 2 Built-in quality stereo speakers so that you can hear all you MP3s and audio from your videos. The sound like the image is crystal clear and is good by any standard of Portable DVD player. You can also play WMAs so music can be easily transferred from your PC to CD without the need to convert for playback. A Smart Car mount is also included so that you can use this as an MP3 player for your car. A feature that I took full advantage of.

Disadvantages
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I did however, as great as this player is; find two flaws with it over all. The first was that I found that the speakers were not as loud as many other portable DVD players on the market. You may think that this may be a good thing if you’re on a packed train with no headphones but when I used this at home I wished many times for a higher volume. With your headphones on though the sound on this player cannot be faulted.

The second problem that occurred to me was in the design. As stylish as this might look when closed I found when I opened it up to view the screen and the controls that it was a little plain. I would have preferred some more variety in the controls instead of standard, same color, integrated design.

However this was a minor thing and this was just my first impression. The design at this time has grown on me a little.

Specification
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Portable DVD player
Plays DVD, DVD+/-R and DVD+/-RW, (S) VCD, DivX, MPEG4 movies
Plays MP3/WMA-CD, CD and CD-RW music
Zero Bright Dot screen for optimal screen quality
Built-in stereo speakers
USB connection for photo and music playback from USB
Inbuilt Dolby Digital decoder
Parental Lock

Price
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I bought this product for around £150. Now if you shop around online you can get one of these for around £120 on some sites. I would recommend checking out your local electronics dealer as you may be able to pick up one of these cheaper. You could even pick one of these up second hand as I have seen them going for around £100 in shops around me lately.

Conclusion
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I feel that this product was a great buy and I would recommend this to anyone looking for a portable DVD player. As there are hundreds of similar products on the market today it is hard to convey why you should choose this one. If there is one reason you choose this product it should be for the superb picture quality that you will receive. If you are willing to spend more on a similar product their are better quality machines available for purchase. In this price range however I feel that this is the best option.

Score
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7 Out of Ten