Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

When I first bought this DVD player, I loved it. Yes there are more expensive ones but I couldn't find better a better player, really. After watching a movie, I noticed that every time the chapter changed, it had a little marker in the upper left corner. At first I wasn't bothered with it and after a few weeks, I didn't want to watch a movie on it because it was so bothersome.

I like to write reviews for people and not for myself. So, I do a FAQ.


How's the picture quality?

It's great. Very clear; very bright. It's a standard LCD screen. (Push the screen and you get puddle). The only thing I don't like it that dust and particles always get on the screen. Nothing a little blow on the screen won't fix.


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How's the sound?

Actually, it's the loudest potable DVD player I've heard. What I like is that you can change the volume with the remote. It has the option of volume numbers 1-16. I usually keep it on 12 because it's actually too loud. The bass on it is your normal small speaker quality. It's so so. But nothing to worry about, the sound is still excellent.


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How the quality?

It's good. The CD cover is a little flimsy but nothing that will break too easily. Turning it on is a little tricky. Sometimes it takes a minute to turn it on and off. One time I pushed the power button and it wouldn't turn on. I thought maybe it died after 2 days but it turned on. This is normal. It takes time to boot up.

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How's the screen?

Great size. 10.2. It's the largest you can find for now. I actually watched seasons 1-6 of The Sopranos and The Lord Of The Rings on it and the screen size wasn't bothersome at all. You can actually watch a movie and not worry that maybe the screen is too small.

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How are the accessories?

Nice. It has a controller, cigarette lighter adapter, TV adapter, an option where you can attach the DVD player to the back of a car seat. Great for kids and long trips. The attachment is actually very sturdy. I wouldn't worry about it falling off. I don't like the remote. It's kind of cheap. It's the size of a calculator but a little thinner. The bad thing is that the remote is kind of needed but not necessary. You can do the same functions with the buttons on the DVD player but the remote is a lot easier.

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How's the battery life?

Pretty good. It's about 4 hours. I always have mine plugged in so I can't say if it's 4 hours exactly. The DVD player manual says it's approximately 4 hours.

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What are the options?

It has a lot to set up so you get the picture and sound the way you want. It has the option where if you turn the DVD Player off, it will stat back up at the same place.


General: Language, PBD Setting, Power Save, DIVX VOD, Parental, Set Password, Factory setting.

Video: TV Display, TV Standard, MPEG-4 Subtitles, Brightness, Contrast, Color, Turn off LCD, Battery.

Audio: Dolby, Digital (SPDIF).

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What's on the controller?

Menu/Disk, Set up, Direction arrows, OK button, Display, Options, Vol Up and Down, Play/Pause, Fast Forward, Rewind, Stop, Mute, Number Button 0-9, Subtitles, Audio, Return, A-B, Zoom.

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How's the size?

Very nice. It's the size of a hard cover book. It's not as heavy compared to other DVD players but it's a little heavy. Like I said before, the screen size is great. If you where to take it along with you, pack it as you would a hard cover book.

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What are the features of the DVD player?

Here's the great part.

It has a swivel screen meaning you can turn it half way around. I like this because when I watch a movie, I just see a screen and not the player. For the connections, it has a Headphone jack, AV In/Out, USB connection (the best part) SC/MMC Card. (The memory card slot won't work with a SanDisk. It's too large. You can get an adapter though.) S Video, COAXIAL, The Power Adapter hole. Now for the USB option. You can connect, your iPod and charge the iPod, PSP, Camera anything that has the option of a USB connection. When you connect the USB, you can actually use it as a player for your MP3 player. A picture viewer form your Camera and PSP. It will show all your files that are on your device. Great feature. On the bottom on the DVD player it has the rubber feet so it won't slide around.

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How's the look of it?

Very sleek. It's White and Gray. When opened, it's Black. I like that because it's not distracting.

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So, after all the good stuff, what bad about it?

As before, the remote isn't too good. Dust gets on the screen very easily, sometimes it takes awhile to turn on and of course, the infamous chapter marker which you can get rid of.


It's really the best Portable DVD Player I've ever seen. If you're going to get one, get this.

Here's how to get rid of the marker.

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Go into Google and type in "Philips Portable DVD players".

Click the first link that says "consumer.philips".

Before anything, select your country in the upper right.

Click the link that says Contact & Support on the upper right hand corner.

Next it will say "Find Product".

Copy and Paste " PET1030 " in the Model number or keyword search bar. When the search is found, click the first link that pops up. "1 PET1030/37 Portable DVD Player".

On the left hand side it says "Software & drivers" Click that.

SOFTWARE

+ Firmware Upgrade Readme File

Posted Date: 10/17/2007 Size = 14 KB
+ Firmware Upgrade Software

Posted Date: 10/17/2007 Version = 070911


Now take it from there.

Make sure you read the Readme file before doing anything. You have to follow exactly what it says or it won't work.

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The Readme file.


Software / driver information


Software version v070911 for PET1030/37


Benefits.


Fixing the problem of chapter mark constantly stay on the display when playing back some of the DVD disc


Do I need to upgrade the software.


Software version number smaller than 070911 need to proceed software upgrade
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How to check the software version of your DVD portable


1. Press the SETUP key to enter the setup menu

2. Press RETURN and then press 1->2->3 by remote control

3. The display will show the software version e.g. 070303
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How to download the software to your PC


Click below link to download and save the zip file on your PC
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How to upload the software to your device

1. Unzip the file and then burn this "PHILIPS.BIN" file into CD-ROM using the following setting"

- File System CD-ROM ISO Level 2

- Mode 1/2/XA

- Character set ISO 9660

- Finalized, single session

- Write speed slow (e.g. 2x, 4x)

2. CD-ROM disc name must be "PHILIPS" (otherwise it will not be recognized as a disc for upgrade)

3. Power on the portable DVD player with AC/DC adaptor. (Warning: Do not use the battery alone!)

4. Keep the OSD language setting at "English" (Warning: It's important!!)

5. Play the CD-ROM for upgrade. They player will automatically upgrade after pressing "OK" by remote control
(Warning: Do not unplug the AC/DC adaptor during SW upgrade to prevent flash corrupt of the player!)

6. Once upgrade is completed, the player will restart automatically and you will observe PHILIPS LOGO on the screen

7. Then it is safe to remove the disc from the player

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Need more info or help? Just leave a comment and I will help you out.

I received the PET 1030/37 as a Father's Day gift from my family and have used it for five days per week since then, while riding the bus to and from work (about 40 minutes ride each way). So, keep in mind that I am probably harder on a portable DVD player than most people.

Overall, this has been a very good machine. It has a nice large screen, with very clear picture. Basically that is the most important thing to me since I don't use the sound on the bus - I watch silent movies. On the rare occasion that I have used the sound, I have found it to be sharp and clear. Also, I have found the 180 degree swivel very helpful as it allows me to balance the machine on my lap with the screen tilted back while riding the bus. The brightness control should have a larger range in my opinion since old movies can be too bright or too dark and require adjustment in contrast and brightness more than this machine will do.

I like the buttons that work both as chapter moves and fast forward/rewind. You just touch the button once for chapter advance or hold it down for fast forward. Another feature I like is that it will often return to the previous location of a movie I was watching when I turned the machine off when I reached my bus stop. This feature works sometimes and doesn't work sometimes.

The reason I have given this machine four stars and decided to write a review is because of the problems I have encountered and the results of those problems.

The first machine I had began to have a problem of freezing from time to time in mid-movie as if there were a problem with the disk. During the freeze, it would make a whirring sound inside. I determined that it was a machine malfunction and not a disk problem because it got worse over time and continued on all of my DVD's. I called the technical assistance and they were very helpful. I sent back the defective unit (more than $11 in postage that I paid). They replaced it with a "new" machine in a very short time.

The next unit I used, was a slight upgrade of the returned machine, but was white and came without a carrying case (the first unit was black and had come with a carrying case). So, now I had to buy a carrying case from Amazon.com (Targus DVD001 13 Portable DVD Player Case for $24.68 and worth twice that - 5 stars).

This "new" unit began to have problems from the start. It would work fine for two trips, then on the third trip, it would have problems turning on and off. The button for the power just would refuse to work. So, I called technical support once again, and once again, they were very helpful. Back goes the defective unit and I get another "new" replacement (also, I'm out another $11+ in postage).

Please re-read the previous two paragraphs to see what happened next (except that this "new" machine was not another upgrade, but was identical to the defective machine that I returned).

As you can see, I am now out more than $57 in postage and purchase of a carrying case, and am on my fifth DVD player since June (this is November). On receiving my two latest machines (my fourth and fifth replacement units), I was given the replacement before having to return the defective unit. It also came with a prepaid FedEx label, so I am not out a fourth or fifth round of postage. In all this time, Philips has been very good about sending replacements promptly and have been easy to get a hold of on the phone in order to make the arrangements. I give their customer satisfaction 5 stars. I give 4 stars to the machine due to the hassle it has caused me. I suspect that the previous replacement units were also returns from others, and they could not "duplicate the problem".

I believe that I now have a new DVD player as it so far has worked flawlessly (knock on wood), and it even takes less time to recharge than the others took. If Philips can work out their quality control problems, they will definitely have a 5 star DVD player. Update - this is September 2008 and the latest replacement from November 2007 still works great! I am still using it for about 40 minutes at a time, twice each day, five days each week.

Do note that when turning off the player you can expect the power to go off sometimes immediately and sometimes after a short (3-5 seconds) wait. It's not a problem if you know ahead of time that this eccentricity will happen.

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 in DIVX format. 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 this DVD player about 2 months ago and it's been working great. I was deployed to South East Asia with the military so I wanted a DVD player to keep me entertained while I was away. It's really dirty and dusty over here so I was a little worried about the thing dieing, but so far I have no indications of trouble. The screen looks great. It was the best I could find, and I looked everywhere. I just wasn't satisfied with any other players because of the poor quality in the screen. The swivel feature is neat but I haven't really used it yet since I don't have a car to use it in. The DVD player does make some noise when you first put the DVD in the bay but after a few seconds its dead silent. The little chapter numbers in the top right of the screen is a little distracting but I really don't notice it anymore. The audio is sufficient and clear coming out of the little speakers even in noisy environments. The environment I'm in is very noisy with lots of generators and A/C's running in the background, but I can still hear the dialog just fine. It's even better with headphones on, which I prefer. It doesn't have 2 headphone jacks but it does have a line out jack which is loud enough to listen to through headphones even with another set of headphones hooked up to the phone jack. Battery life is fine. It lasts for about 1 1/2 to 2 DVD's depending on the length of the movie of course. Using the USB is a snap and will increase the battery life by quite a bit. I think I watched about the whole first season of Weeds off my USB drive before the battery died. The biggest grief I have about it is it's hard to find a nice case for it. Most of the 10 in.+ cases for portable DVD players are bulky. I don't want the bulk that most of them have because my space is very limited to store personal things. With the hard to find cases and the chapter numbers being displayed on the screen I give it 4.7 stars. I don't think that the few short comings deserve it to lose a whole star over it. This is a great DVD player and I would highly recommend it, even to my Mom.

I purchased this for my daughter for Christmas after reading Steve "Medical"'s review (thanks for all the information!). I also downloaded the firmware update from Philips to eliminate the chapter pop-up but for now, my daughter likes the pop-up. She and my wife like to know what chapter they're in so if they stop the movie to finish it later, they know exactly what chapter to play. Go figure. The picutre quality is great, sound is fine, very portable, reasonably quick charging and good battery life. It also feels well made.

If it has a fault it's that the battery pack is built in and should be changed by a service center when it finally no longer holds a charge. The older models (we own two others by Philips and packed them all over Europe last summer and LOVED them) have an "external" battery pack which I think is more user friendly, if bulkier.

I should also say the only complaint by my daughter is that it's awkward to open.

In all, I give this player 5 stars especially since Philips has the option to get rid of the chapter pop-up.

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.

This DVD player has a great picture and sound, but beware one little feature you cannot turn off. Every time there is a new DVD chapter, an icon appears in the top left hand corner of the screen with a director's slate and the chapter number for about 5 seconds....VERY annoying!! The movie is playing along nicely, you're enjoying yourself and this icon keeps popping up every few minutes.

I called Phillips support to find out how to turn this off since it didn't say how in the manual. I was told there is no way to turn this off and it was a 'feature'. I laughed and told him calling it a 'feature' was simply covering up a design flaw in the product.

This may not sound like a big deal to you, but try watching a couple movies on this player first before judging. I'll bet you do the same thing I did....get a refund.

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.
*Update Nov. 13, 2009 - after over a year and a half of use, it continues to work flawlessly.*
*Update Mar. 16, 2011 - still continues to work flawlessly after many road trips and plays with the kids.*

Pros: Excellent picture quality, great user interface
Cons: No hole for a security lock to prevent theft

The Philips PET1030 is a great playback device for both video and images. You can use a variety of media video DVDs audio CDs USB memory sticks SD cards and even feed a signal from another source (e.g. digital camera) to it or connect a bigger monitor or projector when needed. The picture quality is excellent. The audio is okay given the small built-in speakers you can connect external ones.

We bought this player for two reasons: (1) playing self-made documentations or slide shows at art exhibitions and galleries and (2) watching documentations or movies while exercising on a treadmill.

For (1) we use a laptop and save PowerPoint slides as JPGs and then use the Philips portable DVD player to run slide shows during public events. We also occasionally make 3-10 minutes documentation videos. The PET1030's USB interface plays the video and audio on DVD or on a USB memory stick without any issues. However when stored on a 1G SD card the audio track of the movie has very noticeable static. Therefore we will store our videos either on a USB stick or burn a DVD and use the SD card only for JPGs from our digital camera. At times we need to leave the player unattended during public events. The 1 4" screw hole on the back is great to connect the car mount kit but not a good solution to deter thieves. We wish the player had an oval hole like laptops in order to attach a Kensington cable lock.

For (2) we put the player on a shelf that is about two feed away from the exercise equipment. The image size and the loudness of the built-in speaker are more than adequate during typical home exercises.

Overall we love this player and are happily using it.

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".