Philips PET1030 10.2-Inch Portable DVD Player with Car Mount Kit

This product overall is pretty good, although, when I was looking at it initially I had chosen a "dual" screen of the exact same variety. Then got to the page where it allows you to chose a refurbished one at a discounted price I went for it. Well i recieved it and it ISN'T a dual screen. So to pay $130 for one screen and have it not be new.....I definitely think I could have done better. They should offer a refurbished item only if it's exactly the same. I DID even review my purchase believing it was exactly what I had wanted initially. Very frustrating!!

Excellent portable dvd player, excellent sound and excellent picture. Would recommend it to any one who want's a larger dvd portable for trips!

I am extremely unhappy with this product. I purchased this as a Christmas gift for my mother. While it worked, it was perfect. Then after 1 year(literally 1 week after) it just stopped working and now makes a weird noise. I called Philips, who reports that they no longer make this product. Amazon was less than helpful as well. After speaking to someone with an extremely thick accent, I was told basically, that I was out of $215. Also, that if it needed to be returned, it would have had to be done within 30 days. So, I guess I am out of this money and I received ZERO support from Amazon and ZERO support from Philips. No more major buys from Amazon!

I owned about 3 portable DVD Players Before, and none of then get close to this one. I really like the picture quality, the USB Port, SD Card slot, and the screen size.
I recomended to anyone to own one.

Had this unit for 5 months. The DVD movie started freezing up (i.e. freezeframe). When it is first turned on it takes about 30 seconds for the movie to start. Very slow. Makes a lot of "clanking" sounds. Like the motor is slipping. Very Noisey. Called Phillips support and they are sending me a replacement unit. I have to mail the old unit back when the new unit gets here. Not sure if the replacement is a refurbished unit. I would not buy this unit again but I have to admit the sound and picture were very good it just has too many glitches for me to handle. I paid 218.00 online at QVC. [Update 12-16-2009-- They did not have a replacement so they returned the full price I paid.] Seems like this unit was a lemon model because all I see is refurbished ones for sale. They stopped making new ones I guess.

Great concept and looks slick but in actuality... not great. We bought this machine for use in the car so that our child could be entertained during long travels. Unfortunately, the screen doesn't stay up-right and we found ourselves constantly having to reach around to lift it back up. Also, after about 4 months of use it stopped working. [...] [...]

This is my second Phillips Portable DVD Player I have purchased. The last one had a built-in dock for an ipod.

I use this player all the time but mainly while traveling (Camping, Car Trips Etc.) .
I'm a media heavy person so any player I use is going to be tested to it's limits.

First a little about the physical aspects of the player. A solid device, It has been dropped several times and is no worse for the wear. The 10.2" screen is a perfect size, bright and clear, the Swivel Screen is just right, not too sloppy and not too tight. Lots of ports available (SD, USB 2.0, AV in and out, headphone jacks). The SD port IS NOT SDHC compliant.. :-( This means that you are limited to 2Gb SD Cards. I have used an 8Gb, 16Gb and now a 32Gb Flash Drive with no problem. I personally find this the easiest way to watch videos, although, depending on the size of the USB Drive you'll have to be careful not to snag the USB Drive on anything or risk damaging the USB Port.

Battery time is good. I have been able to watch one full length movie thorough the DVD Player with no problem even after months of constant use. A word about batteries in ANY portable devices. Don't believe ANY manufacturer when they give you stated battery life. They give you time in "ideal" conditions. That said I can easily watch three sometimes four full-length movies via the SD/USB port on one charge. This will of course vary on how the videos are encoded. I also practice battery cycling to maximize battery life.

I have used the player to watch movies via the DVD Drive, SD Slot, and USB Port.
I have used the player to review pictures and movies taken by my digital camera.
I also like the ability to output the video to a larger TV (via the provided RCA cable) for a larger audience, This is a great way to share pictures with family and friends.

All in all this is a great player.
It has a pleasing design and is easy to use.
It does what it is supposed to do and does it well, which is about all you can ask.

PROS:
Nice Bright and clear Screen
Good Screen Size
Lots of ports
Good Battery Performance
Very good sound

CONS:
No SDHC Support
Wish the Remote could be stored inside the unit.

I purchased this DVD player for my two year old. We take 20 to 25 road trips a year (4 hour plus). The picture quality is very good and has plenty of volume for in car use. We only use it when it is pluged in, so I can't comment on the battery life. We left it mounted full time for about 4 months before the mount broke (they do warn not to mount permanently). A little ingenuty and some super glue fixed that problem. The dampening has worn out from being mounted vertical so much, so it does take some fiddling to get to work most of the time (when mounted vertical). All in all I would buy it again, just wouldn't leave it mounted!

When this DVD player is working I would highly recommend it, excellent picture. But... one week after the warranty expired it stopped playing half of my DVD's, would not read them. I called Philips customer service and was told that since the warranty expired one week earlier I could take it somewhere to have it looked fixed, at my cost!! With all of these companies hurting for business you would think they would try to retain their customers. This player only had approximately 20 hours on it. I will not buy Philips product ever again.

This product is excelent to distract my 2 year old daughter every time we enter the car specially during long trips.

My husband and I bought this DVD player for the car, it came with the car mount system. Everything about this item was great, the quality was terrific, the car mount was great (my husband had to make some adjustments because of the type of car we have). If I had one complaint it would be that while driving the screen would move a little bit but we put some tape on it and it solved the problem. We are really pleased with this product and highly recommend it.

I was looking for a DVD player that had a nice sized screen with a clear picture and played various forms of media, to include USB. It looks like I've found it with this product. So far I am very pleased.

The DVD player is great. The screen is big and the controls are easy to use. The only complaint I have is that the seat mount is a bit flimsy and wobbles during driving a bit.

I purchased this beautiful DVD player because the specifications state that it will play PAL DVDs out of the box. I called Philips 'Customer Care and they confirmed it does NOT!! It is a very attractive NTSC player. But that is not what I wanted. Light weight for what it is and well designed, easy to work with, but I'm not keeping it.

We decided on this product after we a purchased a similar product that did not work. It is for my grandson who has some limitations due to premature birth. My daughter-in-law says he enjoys it very much especially while traveling. She is very pleased with this product!!

This is the best portable dvd player I have tried. It is a more expensive than other models but certainly lasts longer than the cheaper versions. If deciding to purchase one, definately shop around for price. I purchased this from amazon.com along with the portable bag and it was cheaper than at Best Buy, Circuit City etc.

Unfortunately, not only did Philips mis-advertise this product, but the incorrect advertsing is still on their website and everywhere else. One would think that when caught with a serious error in description, the company would at least correct it as quickly as possible. It is weeks now but it remains in their description.

I wanted to use this player while teaching skills in the gym. It has great resolution, plays not only DVDs, but divx , has a card reader and a USB slot for using other media, which would allow for a wide variety of video to help a student understand a skill. But it lacks a most important function: slow motion. In addition, "fast forward" is the same button as skipping to the next chapter or skill. So depending on your skill at working Philip's buttons you either get to move forward quickly to where you want, or skip over it entirely. After a half hour with Philips tech support, as they very politely tried to find the advertised slow motion, they came to the conclusion that the unit did not have it in spite of it being in the specifications. Amazon provided me with a full RMA that included the shipping as the unit was not as advertised unfortunately. Quite a disappointment,and surprised that Philips continues the incrorect specs in the public eye.

I bought this video player for a LONG trip (over 1000 miles each way) to Colorado and back to pick up a rescue dog. I wanted my 11 year old nephew to have plenty of things to do. Then it turned out he was "on restriction" and didn't get to use it, in fact, I didn't even take it. But, it was literally
1. take out of the box
2. charge it
3. put in the DVD
4. play the movie

Easy to use, low user knowledge required. GREAT picture and sound. Some don't like the "on screen" buttons, but I love them. I hate buttons on the outside where you can accidentally push them when you are moving about.

And I do see where you do have to take care putting disks in and taking them out. It does "grab" em. I had no problem doing this but took note due to other posts. I moved the player around while playing the movie (took it from outside to inside) and didn't exactly keep it level (at all) and there were NO skips or anything, just kept playing the movie without a hitch. Very nice!

Didn't use to in-car set up and haven't yet. I'm sure it works fine.
LOVE the swivel screen and clean white "enamel" looks (white/black)

If I have to DING something about it I would say that, even though it is MARKED, you could miss how to open it. You look for a switch, lock, snap or something. It's a magnet opening and not difficult. Just don' pull on the wrong side, because it won't open.

I didn't have any of that "chapter" issue stuff that other people are talking about. The chapters did not show up on my screen. Hopefully, I'll be able to use it more this coming year.

Oh yeah, GREAT PRICE too..........!

Pros
Slim look, DivX, USB, SD Card, S Video, AV in - Excellent for the price.

Cons
Video Quality. Compared to my earlier player - 8" Magnavox Player(MPD820), the video quality in PET 1030 is very poor with distortion - visible vertical lines equally spaced all over the screen - annoying aspect.

The picture quality in Magnavox(MPD820) is brilliant, virtually without any distortion.

Like most reviewers, we bought this product to entertain our toddler on lengthy car trips. We'll be the first to admit that it has really become our toy.

We watch a lot of television shows and movies in the DivX format, so this was a "must-have" in our feature shopping list when searching for a portable DVD player. The fact that this unit accepts such files on DVD, SD memory card, and USB flash drive put this one over the top.

For more permanent files (such as movies-to-keep and children shows), we burn DivX files onto a DVD--allowing up to 6 full-length movies on a single DVD (which is great for in the car or on the go). For temporary files--such as the previous night's "The Office"--we will simply transfer the file(s) from the computer to a memory card or flash drive and then pop it into the player. You can plug it into a television (via s-video or standard yellow/red/white cables--both are included) or, as we usually do, just watch it in bed--the 10.2 inch screen is plenty big.

As far as the firmware, ours was shipped with the newest version--so there should no longer be any need to do the whole upgrade process.

Basic comments:

Car mount - seems pretty solid; has not fallen
Volume - plenty loud
Picture - very good
Battery - around 3-4 hours at normal brightness

Upgraded from a pet1000 to the 1030.
1030 more flexible. can fold screen over and use like a tablet
1030 volume is louder than the 1000. now everyone can hear it.
1030 has usb option. can use with flash drives. will not work with the portable flashdrive you put in a memory card however. sd card reader works with standard sd cards, not SDHC.
(this is still good if you dl'd an avi and want to watch it without putting it on a disk. (to me thats why i bought it. just easier to carry flash memory around than disks that may get scratched.

down side picture now can not be incrementally tweeked. has 3 setting for picture quality. some movies that are older need a color boost that the 1000 could do but the 1030 cant.

Im happy with it and if I had not owned a 1000 I wouldnt even know of the shortcomings of the 1030.
Buy with confidence this is an excellent dvd player.

Phillips PET-1030/37 Review

Pros:

1. Versatility--Plays DVD, DVD+/-R and DVD+/-RW, (S)VCD, DivX® & MPEG4 movies and MP3/WMA-CD, CD and CD-RW and Jpeg pictures
2. Play files from USB flashdrives and SD memory cards.
3. Better than average loudness from built-in speakers.


Cons:

1. No Power Button on the remote control.
2. The Power Button on the player is difficult to access.
3. The built-in SD memory card reader does not accept the new SDHC high capacity (>2Gb) cards.
4. The internal operating system does not support the new Windows disk formats NTFS and exFAT, making it difficult to connect large capacity hard drives via USB 2.0 (See comments below).
5. At times, the Unit has fits of mysterious repeated shutdowns (perhaps a dew sensor? No error msg displayed.)
6. The DVD stepper motor makes loud thrashing noises during power up/pwr down or return to Disk Menu, chapter skip etc.
7. Noticeable light pattern at bottom of screen from LCD backlight during dim/dark scenes.
8. Ultra cheap and incomplete documentation.
9. No advanced playback features such as playlists.
10. When you turn off the LCD, the audio file stops playing as well.

Comments:

One gets the feeling that Phillips rushed this device to market half baked. The single sheet (like a roadmap) user manual was written by the typical English-is-my-second-language Chinese author, which you'd expect from a Chinese branded product but not from an old Dutch/English brand which has been selling products in the USA for some 100 years.

It is likely that this product was entirely conceived, designed and manufactured by a Chinese company and Phillips is merely a re-brander. This would explain the lack of refinement commonly associated with insufficient product testing using real human beings.

It's nice that they added the USB and SD memory card options but regrettable that they didn't bring them up-to-date with current technology.

NOTES:
1. You can still use the new SDHC flash memory cards if you supply your own SDHC reader and plug it into the USB 2.0 port.
2. The FAT32 Disk Format is supported by the PET 1030 and FAT32 supports drives up to 2 terabytes in size, however, Microsoft has artificially limited the size you can format under Win XP & Vista to 32GB. If you want to format a larger drive in FAT32, you can use a free tool called: "HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool v.2.1.8".

This unit came in handy when we used it on a road trip for our 2 year old daughter. It kept her occupied the whole trip. The car kit was very easy to set-up. Mounting and removal of the unit from the car kit was a breeze. The quality of the movies when viewed from the device is nice or even above par from what I've seen at Best Buy and Fry's Electronics. Overall I'm satisfied with this device. The only reason I giving it a 4 star is because the screen kept falling away from the unit. The magnets that keeps the screen and the unit together was not strong enough. I had to use a strip of invisible tape to keep them from falling apart as the car went through some road bumps and potholes.

This is a throw-away. Battery dies, must return for factory replacement. Also no good for planes or camping and other 10" DVD's currently have big prices or dull screens so it's 8" or nothing. I suggest the 8" Sony DVP-FX820. (Not to be confused with the FX810 which is low resolution.)

I bought this for my kids after the Polaroid failed. I use it just as much as they do. The SD and USB are great to have. The picture and sound are top notch. Highly recommended.

I purchased the Philips PET1030 last month before taking a long drive to North Carolina with my wife and 2 year old son. The primary purpose was to keep him entertained while sitting in the car for over 5 hours. The packaging of the unit was excellent in terms of protecting it during shipping. The unit is easy to operate although it can be difficult to see the control button labels in dim light conditions. The picture quality is superb and there is no problem with audio volume even with sigificant road noise above 55 mph. One of the main reasons I purchased this unit, aside from the large screen, was the inclusion of the car mount bracket. The bracket is easy to install and worked fine but it projects the DVD player almost 4" away from the back of seat. If a child is sitting in a car seat, he doesn't have to make to much of an effort to kick the player. Although I knew that the unit did not have the ability to restart a video from the last point viewed after turning it off, this would be a great feature to add. Overall, I would recommend this purchase if you are looking for a quality player at an affordable price.

This DVD player not only looks extremly good - it is actully white from the outside - it has also a very sharp picture.
The screen is also not very reflective so that the picture is still good even with sun coming in from the side of the car. Other players use glossy screen's, which are horrible with any sunlight.
Ideal to use in a car for your kids.
Sure there are portable DVD player with even better resolution but they are missing the car mount. The head rest coming with the player is easy to use and doesn't wobble too much.
Very impressed so far. Battery life could be better and due to the shiny surfaces of all finishes you see finger prints quickly but in the overall picture that is not really worth a complain. All charging cables for car and standard outlet come with the player.
It even plays pictures and mp3's from an SD card. The tiny downside is that you can't choose the source. Everytime you have an SD card in the slot the DVD can't be played. Control buttons are directly below the screen and a remote control comes with it as well. The maximum volume is very high and the sound is very clear.
My rating is 4.5 to 5 overall.

This seems to be a decent player. However, the mount on ours just broke a few days ago. Also, just recently, prior to the mount breaking, the screen would flip down every so often and the disc cover part would eject.

Now I need to find a new mount and perhaps tape the screen down so that it won't keep flipping down.

Hello,

I have purchased Philips PET 1030 player. I am very satisfied with it, however there is one problem. I can't get correct image with movies that have aspect ratio more than 16:9. Image is perfect when aspect ratio is 16:9, but when it's 2,35:1 the image gets stretched (people are slimmer).
Can't find the solution for that. Has anyone find a solution for that?

Thank you,
David

Unit has a good, sharp picture that can be viewed at an angle and the player's controls are easy to use. The headrest mount leaves something to be desired as it would not hold the player in place through a whole movie. Movement of the car as it traveled was enough to cause the mount to suddenly loosen it's grip and drop the player. I tried several different positions to no avail. The kids wound up holding the player on their laps.

I haven't had this device for long, but so far I think I agree with most of the positive reviews here. One thing I have not seen mentioned, however, is that there seems to be no way to have the player adjust the image of anamorphic DVD sources such that the picture fills the screen as much as possible.

If you've got a 16:9 TV, then you're familiar with the various "stretch" viewing modes, and how with many sources the image must be "stretched" in the vertical direction in order for it to fill the screen and (more importantly) for the image to be rendered at the right aspect ratio. In other words, if the movie has a shot of a basketball, the basketball should look like a basketball, not a blunt football.

With this player, the only means I've found to get the aspect ratio right for anamorphic disks is to tell it to use the 4:3 TV setting. That corrects the aspect ratio problem, but it leaves about half the screen unused - that half-screen is more-or-less what I wanted when I paid extra for this thing!

Anamorphic DVDs are not rare, by any means! As I was picking DVDs from my shelf to test the player, I found that the first 5 I picked were anamorphic. It's something I generally don't think about at all, because all my other playback mechanisms are capable of dealing with that format. Apparently, the Philips people decided it wasn't really important for this device. That's really a shame.

We received the dvd player and were happy with quality, picture, and controls. But the car mount is very cheap and broke within the first week.

I bought this DVD player PET 1030/37 and watched one movie than it had no sound, I tried other DVDS and no luck. So I called Philips and they sent me a new one free of charge if you send the original back with prepaid shipping . When I received the replacement the DVD unit was missing from shipping or other?, they didn't TAPE it shut or factory seal it and the box showed what was in it. So I called again they sent another one shipped the same way. But it was there this time. But I used it the first time and the DVDs screen now had a green and white spot in the middle of the screen but i did have sound this time. So I called Philips again and they sent ANOTHER one again Shipped again with no tape in the same BOX showing what was in it!?!? I did get this one and so far so good it is a good unit when the sound and the screen are not messed up!! The only problem is No POWER on the Remote button. I do have concerns on Quality but Philips took care of all and any problems in a timely manner. But their shipping of replacements is really poor you may or may not get your replacement. They must not believe in taping or sealing the boxes shut from Philips Replacement Support. I would love to give this DVD five stars but after 3 replacements of this DVD player it get only 2 STARS.

I was very pleased with this product. The picture quality is great and it is very easy to use. It's also easy to put in and out of the car. I don't love the mounting bracket but found it is most likely the way it fits in my car. My 2 yr old son threw a tantrum in the car and ended up kicking the DVD Player. We have a Jeep and the mounting bracket does not allow the DVD Player to sit flush against the head rest.

This player has played everything that I have put into it. No problems with it whatsoever. I am not thrilled about the car mount kit. It doesnt work in my vehicle. I ended up buying a bag mounting kit for it instead.

In general this seems like the perfect portable DVD player. It has a great screen and it looks like a laptop (very sleek). However, it is missing the ONLY feature I look for on a portable DVD player. It does not have disk resume. This means that if you pause a movie and walk away for more than five minutes you have to start the movie from the beginning and fast forward through the chapters to find the place you were at. Also, if you walk away for more than 15 minutes the system completely shuts down and you have to turn it on and restart everything again. Since I am busy and I like to be able to pause what I am watching and come back to it later, this particular product defeats the purpose for having this type of DVD player for me. Therefore, I regrettably have to return the system. [Posted by Spamiclese's wife.]

After going thru several Portable DVD/MP3 players, I knew I had to get this portable Philips PET 1030 10.2" high resolution portable LCD DVD player to compliment my audio visual center, and for the road.

One of my main reasons for selecting this portable over the others in or in excess of its price line was its full support of compressed MPEG4 files and full DVD support of burned MP3 files... The PET 1030 plays almost all Xvid/Divx files with a few exceptions of extremely high resolution definition MPEG4 which were encoded above its chip resolution capability.

Played MPEG4 movies on 4 Gig Corsair Flash Voyager USB2.0 drive and movies played perfectly and without any stuttering, which is sometimes common in other units. Also attached one of my Free Agent 350 Gig external HD's to the USB 2.0 input and the Philips 1030 played movies perfectly, although I surely would burn out this fine unit if I tried to run the hundreds of MPEG4 movies on the external. Didn't try to play anything using the SD/MMC memory card slot, or play SVCD's or VCD's, External output coaxial and standard jack to TV work well, as does the CAM video input.

All non commercially made MPEG4 subtitles worked flawlessly and were bright and easy to see.

The functional capability of this and future Philips replacement units could pose a major financial headache to Hollywood if future Internet savvy users download more media then they buy commercially. Unit does heat up somewhat after two hours on the right back side as expected, but with only one half of the heat of a laptop with a low heat profile...

To my amazement, this unit plays MPEG2 and MPEG4 right up to the rated 800 (w) x480 (H) x3 if the source media was encoded at higher rates. Unfortunately, I have found other manufacturers to exaggerate or use devious display resolution rating schemes. Tested too many other brand portable DVD players rated at up to 720 or 800 which turned out to be only 480 in display at best in resolution capability.

Up to 32x fast forward and 4x zoom and reverse speed. No carrying case provided, but came with a sturdy plastic travel pouch which will do in a pinch. Came with DC 12V 20A power supply, car mounting kit, car cigarette outlet adapter, s-video cable and AV cable.

Brightness is outstanding. Battery life was over 4 hours. The sound quality for audio CD's, MP3's was better than any IPOD I have ever used. Also supports WMA. I tend to burn 40 or 50 hours of MP3's at 320 bitrate on a single DVD, and this unit plays all my audio files perfectly. It played my 4 and 8 Gig DVD's filled with MP3's effortlessly and with outstanding audio fidelity. Supports MP3 ID3V MP3 tagging, and long file name (I think 14 or more characters) and even indicates date MP3 file created, and size of each folder. Philips is truly ahead of any other company in this regard.

Twin Stereo speakers are a bit better than most portables, but if you want outstanding sound quality you should use a good set of earphones. I was even amazed at the quality of Stereo Dolby 2.0 sound from those Xvid/Divx files which were ripped to Dolby.

Commercial DVD's have sharp and crisp full 720 resolution, and JPEG's which are high definition are so clear they jump out at you. They can be previewed in thumbs and viewed in full unit resolution. Actually never have seen better MPEG4 or JPG support in most standalone DVD players, including the 3 other Philips I own.

The remote does everything except individual playback at one frame at a time. It will only pause, do A-B repeat, fast forward/backward/next. Zoom is great along with pan. This unit has the most intuitive audio video remote control I have used in the last 7 years. Very easy to switch between 16:9 and 4:3 or reduce or zoom screen size to make non commercial videos fit screen perfectly.

The only thing I can say negative about this unit is that I wish I could buy five or six as gifts for all my friends who are really missing out on what a well engineered full featured portable DVD player is all about.

Bulky, no back light on controls makes it very difficult to navigate in a dark room. Screen resolution is standard fare so it does not look very sharp due to the large size.
Sound is ok. Various inputs ok as well. Memory card reader a plus.
Not as portable as it looks in the picture.

I have used other dvd players and they were 'ok'. So far I love this one and no problems. The picture is the best I have seen/used, yet. I hate seeing movies on a 21 inch old tv 10 feet away and we can not afford a new large flat screen. I put this on my lap and it is 'almost' as good as at the movies. It is the best picture I have seen yet and the sound is great!
I am very happy with it. I also bought the Targus DVD001 13 Portable DVD Player Case. (the case holds it well, pockets for all your things and it holds 20 dvd's also.) I use ear buds sometimes and between the very good ear buds and the sound, Anything higher the 1 is to loud. I hope to have this, and be happy with it, for a very long time.

I bought this DVD player recently for my doughter. I find it really cool - large LCD with excellent brightness and contrast, a lot of supported formats - DVD, DivX, MP3. In case of DivX it also supports subtitles (however, it cannot display nation specific characters).
I was also surprised by variety of inputs - you can either play from dvd, SD card, or external USB storage (I haven't tried this one though).
One more nice feature - it is very easy to get rid of DVD region block - I brought some DVD's from Europe and I'm able to play them.

I read lots of the reviews already posted for the player. After thinking really hard and pressed for time I deceided to go ahead and by this player. I can say that I am not disappointed. I used the player several times on the way to and from PA to GA (as anyone may know that this is over a 11 hour trip, with three boys ranging from 10 to 15). My kids all loved the dvd player, and it still works just great. I made sure I downloaded and installed the update for the product before using it and it worked without any problems. I would recommend this product for any one who has kids for long trips.

I recently purchased the PET 1030 after my previous Phillips player, the PET1002, died on me. The 1002 was a great player, but with one critical design flaw - the battery is not designed and/or attached in a manner that can withstand a lot of abuse. As I carry the player with me on my daily commute, the battery eventually broke off. Needless to say, I loved the picture on that one, so I decided to stay with Phillips.

First, the positives:
1. The picture is terrific. I thought the clarity on my old PET1002 was good, this is even better. Not sure anything matches it out on the market, at least from what I looked at in person.
2. Swivel screen - not that I use this all that often, but a nice feature nonetheless.
3. Internal battery - yes, you cannot replace this yourself, and it does not have the charge capacity of external batteries, but I also don't have to worry about it breaking off like I did on my previous model. In addition, the unit is significantly lighter than my previous one. As this comes with me on my daily commute on the train, this was one of the biggest selling points for me.
4. The look - Not sure how much this matters, but it looks pretty cool. Looks like a smaller version of the last generation MacBook.

Now the negatives:
1. Battery life is nowhere near 4 hours. I don't know if I just have a bad unit, but I have yet to get more than 2.5 hours on this thing with the default brightness setting. I used to get 5 hours on my previous model without blinking - very disappointing
2. The controls are the worst I have ever seen. First off, they are mounted on the screen itself. The only way this would be useful is if you are swiveling the screen around, but I never do, so it is a real pain, especially when you have to navigate the menu. Secondly, there are no separate buttons for fast forward/rewind and skip/go back to next/previous chapter - there are only 2 buttons total. You have to hold down the button to get it into fast forward mode then keep hitting it to go from 2X to 4X to 8X, etc... Hit it once without holding it down, and you automatically skip to the next chapter. Again, another major annoyance. Lastly, the Power button horrendous. I never know when it will actually work. I can't believe this design got through quality control. My 1002 had a switch that worked great. Why the moved to an ineffective push button is beyond me.
3. Opening and closing. As another reviewer commented, the magnets that are used to keep the player closed are way too strong. On top of that, the case design barely gives you any leverage or grips to get your fingers in there to open it. I have to be so careful so as not to send the unit flying when the magnets actually do release. Again, how this got past quality control is a mystery.
4. 1 port for headphones. My previous unit had 2, this one has one, with the other replaced with an "AV out" port. This port can accept headphones, but you can't control the volume that goes to them. What good is that?

Overall, I really love the picture clarity, and the fact that the battery is internal, but there are enough significant flaws in the design, that you have to determine whether you can live with them. Other than the external battery, my previous unit, the PET1002, was designed much better. Phillips has seemed to move back in this area..

brilliant screen and crisp sound. fun part is the 180degree screen, perfect to see a movie on the couch, player on your lap. did not use it in the car yet because with 2 kids you need 2 screens in the back or some kit with which you can hang the player between the two front chairs.

The look and feel of the product are good but beware region codes - it will not play disc from other countires (US and region free only). Having just moved to the US my kids were very disappointed when we could not watch any of their favourite movies.

Very good picture but hope you don't need service after the warranty because there is non.
If you need service during the warranty they give you a new one, once the warranty is over buy a new one. They have NO parts for their portable DVD players, not even the drive.

In investigated quite a long time before purchasing this model, and it was worth it. The reviews and other blogs I came across were quite informative. I chose this model and have been very happy with it in every way. It is true the battery charge mode is short, but long enough for at least one normal length movie and perhaps half the next, but this really isn't a problem for me as the wall plug is always near by. If one were taking it camping or other remote area it might be. However, if one is going to a remote back packing area, would you really want to see movies anyway? I really don't use the car mount kit, but am glad that it is included, as well as all the various optional connectors.

I would like to be able to control the sound a little more, but that is only a minor thing and not really a complaint. I wouldn't recommend it for music, but then we have other devices for that. I rate this little machine the best.

OK, first, I did the firmware update immediately upon opening the box my player arrived in and have not had any of the problems some users seem to have had.

Second, this has a stunning picture and when using earphones (I use Klipsch earphones) the sound is very nice.

I've shown this to several friends who have their own personal DVD players and in every instance they were shocked at how good this one was in comparison. I hesitated a bit before paying a bit more for this player rather than some cheaper ones, but I'm really glad I went with the nicer player. The only way right now you could really do better than this would be to use a laptop instead, and frankly I just find a laptop too heavy and hot (I usually have my player in my lap or on my stomach as I watch) for completely comfort.

As I've gotten to know the player better I've come to feel very easy with the controls. Except for the fact that it isn't easy to determine precisely how much time there is left on a particular video I like just about everything in the control array.

I especially like the fact that the player will play just about any kind of video format, including .avi files. I've been able to play files off my camcorder as well as shows I've recorded on TV using my DVD recorder. I've yet to find a disc that I couldn't play on it. And I've used the S video cord to play things on my TV that my normal DVD player is not able to. Finally, I like the fact that you can flip the screen over so that the player will fold up to the size of a hardback book. I'm able to adapt the display screen to just about any situation I'm in.

So, all in all I'm delighted with this player. The battery is great. I've taken the player to coffee shops and played a long string of TV episodes without any difficulty. I give this about as high a recommendation as is possible. Just make sure that you do the firmware update. If you do you'll find this to be pretty much a perfect player.

I bought the Philips PET 1030 player in December 2007 to keep my son & wife occupied during a long days drive to Atlanta from New Jersey.

The player was excellent and my son enjoyed all the movies he had got for the trip. There was never a power problem as one of the accessories is a car charger and he didn't use the seat support preferring to put the player on his knees. Except for an annoying parental lock which kept popping up for PG-13 movies and the password not mentioned anywhere in the manuals - though it wasn't tough to break down the factory set password. (Hint: 9999 will unlock the player). Usage other than while traveling - hard to say as the player has not been touched since the trip to Atlanta.

After reading reviews of portable dvd players for all brands, I was getting ready to accept the fact that portable dvd player picture quality was just about the same for all brands and that quality had a long way to go. Compared to picture quality of a pc/laptop, that might be true, but for a portable, Philips quality is hands down the best on the market. I bought a Panasonic and the colors and sharpness were unimpressive...text looked horrible, so I sent it back. Then I went to a store to demo Sony, Toshiba, etc. and they were about the same quality as Panasonic. Then I purchased a Philips on ebay since I ended up getting a good price on it as it was used, an older 10" version of the PET1030, and the difference was like night and day. But the battery clipped onto the rear of the unit, making it to deep and unwieldy...plus the plastic battery pack clip mechanism looked to fragile, like it would eventually break. So I opted to return it and purchase this one, as the battery is internal. Yes, I will need to have it serviced in order to change the battery eventually, but I don't mind as a unit with smaller dimensions was more important to me. This unit is very stylish and look fantastic. Plus it comes with a remote that the kids can use while in the car. The unit has pretty good sound for a portable, and is loud enough for adequate level of hearing amongst road noise while in travel. The chapter marker icon issue that other reviews have mentioned indeed is true, but the firmware update available on the Philips website solves the problem. You'll just need to be able to burn a CD with the correct format (see Philips website for instructions) and follow their directions and the chapter icons issue is solved. I purchased the Philips travel/car mount case that is supposed to hold the 10" size, and although it fits, it is a tight fit. The case that comes with unit is fine for transporting the unit and does mount to the headrest of a front car seat, but it doesn't mount between seats, which is what I require as I have two kids. It took a bit of work to finally land the best unit, so save yourself the time and go with this unit, you'll be glad you did. The picture quality and color is the best you'll find as of Feb. 9, 2008.

I normally don't write reviews for online retail sites, since I feel that the retailers should compensate people who add useful content to their web sites, however for this DVD player I've made an exception.

I returned this player to Amazon the day after receiving it due to one fatal flaw, and multiple bad usability concerns. I was so surprised at some of the flaws that I got out my old Toshiba SD-P1500 portable DVD player, manufactured Oct. 2001, to see if I was simply remembering the past through rose-colored glasses and similar flaws were present in the Toshiba. Nope.

- The fatal flaw is that the Philips player is noisy. I can deal with stepper motor noise during a chapter seek, but this player makes highly noticeable stepper motor thrashing noises even during regular playback. A steady-state quiet whirring of the player motor would be fine, but this is stepper motor or speed control noise, and it's not whirring, it's more like clunking. It makes me worry for the overall mechanical design of the playback system. On startup it's much worse - it sounds like the stepper motor is trying to shake itself apart. I purchased this portable player for home personal use where I sit near the player and watch the DVD using the internal speakers on the DVD player, so the noise is very conspicuous, particularly during quiet sections of a film. People using headphones, or using the player for car playback, presumably won't notice because good headphones will likely block the player noise, and in a car there's so much background noise anyway that it will drown out any DVD player noise.

When I compared the Philips to my old Toshiba, I found that the Toshiba makes some noise during a chapter seek, but is fairly quiet during regular playback.

- Design flaw: control buttons located on screen panel rather than player base. Philips presumably thought this would be a great idea, to put the control buttons along the bottom of the screen. However the result of this design choice is that to press any button, you now have to press forward horizontally, against your screen -- the typical result is that the entire DVD unit tips over backwards, or just the screen tips backwards. By comparison, with a DVD player that has the buttons mounted on the base of the player, you push buttons DOWN, which doesn't tip your player over. I found that I had to immediately shift to using the remote for the Philips player rather than the control buttons on the player itself. It's rather ridiculous that I should have to find myself using the remote for a player that's sitting in my lap.

- Design flaw: color contrast of control button labels. Philips has chosen to use a dark blue font for the text labels on the control buttons, against a black plastic background. In dim light - such as the light level you're likely to choose when trying to watch a DVD - this text is completely unreadable. When I compare to my old Toshiba player, I see that Toshiba chose to use a high-contrast black text against a silver plastic background. Toshiba appears to understand design for usability, Philips doesn't.

- Design flaw: No power button on the remote. Others have complained about this and it's true. Every single remote control I own for my home stereo has a power button on the remote, so this is something that consumer electronics manufacturers have been doing for at least 10 years, but Philips didn't do it for this player. Ridiculous.

- Design flaw: overly aggressive magnetic clasp closure system. I find this player very difficult to open - it uses two fairly strong magnets and no physical clasp. So to open it, I have to use both hands and stick a thumbnail into the slot between the screen (upper half) and the base (lower half), then pry the pieces apart.

- Design flaw: unattractive cover over the DVD. For whatever reason, Philips chose to make the lid (the plastic piece that covers that DVD while playing) into a full-width 10" by 5.5" piece of plastic, even though they could have designed a lid only half that size. It's also completely smooth on top, with no design elements. The result is that it feels and moves like a piece of plastic that a junior high school student cut on the plastic cutting machine in shop class. It makes the player feel cheap, and when combined with some of the other flaws gives me an overall impression of lousy attention to consumer needs or usability.

- Design flaw: long startup delays. The Philips player suffers from the "creeping long boot time disease" which infected Microsoft a long time ago and now appears to have become acceptable in consumer electronics. The issue here is: how many seconds does it take after power-on for the player to display video played from the actual DVD? I tested this against my old Toshiba and found that for the same DVD, the Philips (manufactured in 2007) takes 21 seconds from power-on to start playing the DVD, while the Toshiba, manufactured in 2001, takes 9 seconds. This isn't progress, this is moving backwards, by over a factor of two.

- NOT a flaw, working just fine: screen pixel count. I've seen various reviews, particularly on Pricegrabber, complaining about how this unit shows images as "pixelated" or how it doesn't have a sufficiently high resolution. These reviewers are uninformed. DVD-Video resolution using the NTSC standard (as vs. PAL) is 720x480 pixels, and this player has a screen resolution of 800x480, so it's able to display every single pixel that's been encoded onto the DVD. A higher resolution on the DVD player screen won't help, since there's no additional pixel information available on the DVD -- 720x480 is as high as you get with non-highdef DVDs at NTSC, unless you play games with upconversion. My speculation is that the reviewers complaining about a "pixel" effect are used to watching movies on a CRT or other screen that provides some natural blurring - they're not accustomed to actually seeing down to the single-pixel resolution, so people perceive the quality as worse when actually the Philips is displaying exactly what it's supposed to. I found the picture quality to be excellent - definitely better than the quality on my aging Toshiba player from 2001, which only has half the screen resolution.

Conclusion: unacceptable for my needs, and contains a number of flaws that make me question whether Philips is doing proper usability or mechanical testing. I returned it, and plan to investigate Toshiba's 10" portable DVD player offering as an alternative.