Philips portable dvd players are most noted for their exceptional image quality, placing them in the top two spots of the best portable dvd players overall.

The 850 is popular with ipod users, with its ipod docking station, to allow the viewing of ipod movies.

This review includes:

Philips PET1002 Portable DVD Player
Philips DCP850 Portable DVD Player
Philips PET824/37 Portable DVD Player

Philips PET1002 Portable DVD Player

The Philips PET1002 offers excellent image quality in a sleek form with 10 inch screen, positioning it at the head of the portable DVD player market.

The Philips's PET1002 [also known as the PET1002/37] provides good image quality at a moderate price [Est $330-400].

The player is a is a sleek-looking player, with a large 10.2-inch piece of equipment with a large screen and supports a wider range of media formats than many.

Image quality - sharpest, highest-resolution displays on a portable DVD player. Accurate, well-saturated colors and only minimal noise. Movies appear more three-dimensional than on standard, budget, portable DVD player.

Sound quality - okay, although maximum volume is a little low.

Form Factor

Sleek design - Silver exterior, with a matte-black inside finish.
Huge 10-inch screen
Measures 10.2 by 1.2 by 7.1 inches
Weighs 3.5 pounds with the removable lithium-ion battery attached and 2.6 pounds without it.
Nicely designed remote--it's a cross between a standard- and credit card-size DVD remote
A cigarette-lighter adapter ships in the box to power the player during long car rides.
PET1002 battery life - 4 hours plus - that's impressive for a player with a screen this size.

Features

Media Formats Supported - plays DVDs and CDs, MPEG-4 and DivX video files and MP3 and JPEG CD-Rs.
Connectivity - car adapter, a component-video output, and two headphone inputs
Cable package - component-video and S-Video outputs for connecting to a TV. Most other portable units include neither type of cable.
Digital-audio output for connecting to an A/V receiver, a video input so that you can use it as a monitor
Dual headphone jacks - keeps two kids quiet for the price of one!

Downside

Two disadvantages over other portable DVD players are the cost, and:

Drive mechanism was noisy when firing up a DVD, and when spinning up a hard-to-read mixed media disc. Once up to speed, the noise dissapates.
Can take a while for some larger JPEG images to load.
Weight is more than most other portable DVD players.

Overall

A great portable dvd player option if you can afford it.

Philips DCP850 Portable DVD Player

The Philips DCP850 has plenty of appeal for video iPod users. It's among the first devices to combine an iPod dock with a portable DVD player, plus it offers good connectivity and supports useful media formats.

A unique feature of the Philips DCP850 is that the screen swivels 180 degrees to accommodate different viewing angles.

The DCP850's biggest drawback is its limited iPod integration. iPod menus aren't displayed by the DCP850, and the DCP850's remote basically can't do anything useful for the iPod besides pausing it. That said, these limitations aren't fatal, because you can easily use the iPod's controls and display for navigation and command purposes when the iPod is docked.

In our tests, with its brightness dialed in to a moderately high setting, the DCP850 delivered approximately 2.5 hours of DVD playback from a fully charged battery, which isn't very good. We fared better with the DCP850 playing video from our iPod, getting around 5 hours of playback before the DCP850's battery died. In addition to a standard power adapter, the unit is supplied with a car cigarette lighter adapter for charging on the road. Handily, the DCP850 charges your docked iPod while charging its own battery. On the downside, the DCP850's battery isn't removable, so you can't purchase a spare for long flights.

Overall, the DCP850's performance was good. The unit didn't have any problem playing home-burned discs including DVDs containing DivX files and MP3 CDs. What's more, digital photos we'd shot onto an SD card displayed without issue when we loaded the card into the DCP850, and the image quality was perfectly acceptable. Although the puny built-in speakers performed adequately for watching movies, they sounded too tinny playing music. If you're looking for an iPod dock to play music, you'll be better off with the Altec Lansing inMotion iM600 ($149.95).

Form Factor

Size - 8.3 x 7 x 1.5 inches - no bulkier than a standard portable DVD player
Average size swivel 8.5 inch screen with 16:9 display. [7 inch screen option - Philips DCP750 ]
SD card slot - movie and photo viewing
Video iPod dock - When docked, an iPod is completely flush with the DCP850's casing.
iPod dock doubles as a bay for the unit's remote control, using a locking mechanism.

Features

Connectivity - side-panel jacks include dual headphone outputs as well AV-in and AV-out miniplugs.
Adapter cable to connect to your home entertainment system.
Media Formats Supported - all ipod formats, MPEG-4/DivX video files and MP3 CDs and most home-burned DVD and CD media.

Estimated Cost: $US200 [Philips DCP750 costs about $50 less]

Downside

The remote control doesnt control the docked iPod, and iPod menus are not displayed on the DCP850's screen.
Speakers are too small to listen to music.
Rechargeable battery isn't removable
Battery Life - only around 2.5 hours of DVD playback between charges.

Overall

The appeal of the Philips DCP850 is mostly for video iPod users, being among the first devices to combine an iPod dock with a portable DVD player. In spite of its sound issues, it offers good connectivity and supports most commonly used media formats.

The DCP850 is an all-around solid performer.

Philips PET824/37 Portable DVD Player

The Philips PET824/37 is a stylish portable DVD player with an 8.5-inch widescreen color LCD display.

This player boasts special technology to ensure optimal screen quality.

With up to six hours of video playback via its rechargeable battery, this portable DVD player is elevated to the top contenders in user ratings.

It also offers comprehensive media support - DVD, DVD+/-R and DVD+/-RW, (S)VCD, DivX and MPEG4 movies as well as MP3/WMA-CD, CD and CD-RW music and JPEG image files.

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Philips PET1002 Portable DVD Player