Customer Reviews

Philips DVD825AT DVD Player

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I tried-out a few of the $250-$300 range DVD players (Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer, and the Philips), and the Philips was the best. I have never been a Philips person, so I was surprised that I settled on this as my favorite to fit my needs. The one thing that made my decision, was that it plays my CD-R's. And so far, it has played every DVD that I have put into it. (It skips a bit on the Dreamworks intro, for Saving Private Ryan, but plays the rest just fine) I would recommend this DVD player to anybody. You won't be dissapointed.

After looking at several different models (Sony, Toshiba, RCA,etc...) under the $300.00 price range the Phillips finally won out.My Dad has the Toshiba SD1200 and constantly complained about the difficulty in setting up his DVD but we had the Phillips setup within 5 minutes. The Phillips came with the required audio/video cables(although no S-video cable)so there is no need to buy them. The freeze frame and frame advance quality are superb and this bad boy even plays CDs and CD-Rs as well. There are a couple of downsides if you want to call them that. There is no S-video cable that comes with the Phillips and that is almost a necessity. The controller that comes with the Phillips is small and somewhat akward to use. However those were the only two problems that I noticed with the player itself. We watched several movies over the course of the last couple days and experienced no problems with skipping or any type of sound problems at all. Overall this is a great DVD player and if you have small hands than the controller shouldn't pose any problems.

This DVD Player is THE ABSOLUTE BEST in the price range offering tons of special efffect features. Many reports of "skipping" on this DVD player are true, but they have to do with the disc, not the player. Some DVD discs are recorded in a "duel-layer" format, causing a slight skip, once, at the same place on the disc every time. If the disc is recorded in this format it will say so in the fine print on the back of the cover. This "skipping" should also be prominant on other DVD players as well.

The Philips/Magnavox DVD player is a great bargain because it gives you the features of a high end player for a low price. I first thought of getting a Sony DVD player but I researched and found out that there have been many problems with Sony/Panasonic/Toshiba DVD players concerning certain discs. But this DVD player hasn't given me any problems, it has more features than the other major brands and its price is lower. Also it has dual lasers which can play any CD/DVD out there, compared to the other major brands which only have one laser. So if you want to get more for your money, get this DVD player.

This was my my 3rd DVD purcahse after doing much research. This product is an exceptional value considering all the great features it offers. One unique feature, very rare among DVD players, is that it will play PAL format DVD from Europe. Only one other brand does the same for $500 +. Only drawbacks are noise levels when loading and the remote is small and cheap. Overall this is an excellent product with tremendous picture, controls and sound.

I was concerned about how to integrate a DVD with my existing Pro-Logic sound system, but this player has a Pro-logic set up option so I just plugged it in to my receiver and clicked the option screen. The sound is just tremendous, and the picture maxes out my TV's specs and the player has played every disk I have put in it flawlessly. A great player with advanced features for a bargin price.

This is my first DVD player, and I'm pleasantly surprised at all of the features available at this price. Setup took about two seconds (after I went out for the S video cable which isn't included), and the sound through my stereo speakers is terrific. I chose this unit entirely on the basis of these consumer recommendations, and am very happy with the results.

I would say that I am your average video consumer I basically just wanted a quality unit which would give me the "cd quality" sound and better picture. This is a great player for someone who just wants a good DVD player without a lot of "bells and whistles." Another good aspect is the option to upgrade via a software CD.

I bought this DVD player only because it was a great price and I have a Phillips Magnavox TV at home. I failed to do my research beforehand, and I found out that this DVD player has S-Video and not component video, which has a higher picture quality. This played my 40-some DVD's without any "disc errors," but it will sometimes stop for a second while watching a movie at the same spot every time. If I had the choice of buying this DVD player again, I would save up my money and get one of the Sony DVD players, which is a lot more reliable.

I got this unit mostly because it claims to play CD-R VCDs. Within a week of getting it, I was ripping VHS tapes on my computer and writing VCDs, and it does indeed work. No more tape wear on the kids' favourites, and instant rewind, too!

I have also watched several movies on it, and they all worked fine with quite reasonable video and audio performance for my TV (I don't have an HDTV set and the TV isn't hooked up to the stereo, so the limiting factor isn't the player).

I am somewhat concerned about the claim for 24/96 audio, though; the specifications in the manual claim 48 kHz sampling rate and audio performance more consistent with 16 bit DACs. The sticker on the front says "24 bit digital audio" but I'm willing to bet this just means it if you hook the digital output to a capable decoder. From what I can tell, the built-in codecs are the same kind of 48 kHz 16 bit ones you can find on any computer sound card or cheap portable CD player these days.

This, and the fact that they didn't include an S-Video cable in the box, loses the fifth star.