excellent picture, great output, caution on the price!!!!

This is an excellent dvd player, have had it for 3 months now, no problems except for the very first unit I purchased, which the door latch broke on the second day, quickly returned and has been fine since. I picked this up on clerence for about half of what the low price is now online. The external sound is a little soft, and the unit is a bit noisier than my toshiba, but the picture and output connections make up for this. The large screen and great colors on 480p are great. The Output to my tv if i hook it up works flawless. Also the DIVX and plays all really does play all. Worth a look, but a little on the to high of price if you pay more than 200 bucks for. If you spend the asking 270 or more for this unit, you may as well start looking at low end notebook computers with dvd, more bang for the buck!!

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Five star quality picture and features, caution with the DVD open button

I picked up this player two days ago. Unfortunately, I had to return it once because the latch mechanism on the DVD lid broke. I think it was defective from the start because the replacement one is solid, but make sure you hold the button in as you close the lid and then release it to ensure the same does not happen to you.
Otherwise, I own another philips regular DVD player (dvp-642) and love it to death. As with that player, this player and it's 10.2" screen has a very crisp image that rivals many big LCD/plasma screens, great contrast and clarity for a portable player. Also, this kit comes with every cable you would need. It has A/V cables, Componants cables (yes, this is progressive scan), s-video, lighter adapter, AC adapter, the only thing it doesn't come with is a little set of earbuds and a case. Yes, the battery does take 5-7 hours to charge, and the battery life is only about 2.5-3 hours depending on your contrast settings. The DVD player is quiet during play, and does make some noises on menus and startup, but this is fairly standard with any player. My brother has a toshiba 8.5inch and it is louder during playback. This model does not have a 5-in-1 drive for memory cards like the Toshiba and some other models, but thats ok, It's 10.2 high quality inches. I have seen no problems with the "anamorphic" picture that another reviewer stated. Also, the remote is very small and thin, and the color schemes make it hard to read, especially if low light. I was gunshy to get another player like this one because of the latch mechanism, but one of the big chain stores had this player on clearance for $175, and I just can't even get close to this quality of a product otherwise for that price. You just can't beat the picture quality, it rivals any LVD/plasma tv, and it is a progressive scan player, so you can connect it to an outside TV and see this as well. An outstanding product, one minor flaw to watch.

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4:3/ 16:9 no problem

I read with interest some of the complaints about wide screen (anamorphic) on this unit. It was a simple option in the setup menu to change from 16:9 to 4:3. There is even a setting for Letter Box and non-Letter Box.

After that my first of two complaints is that the contrast ratio, I think, could be better. However, that said, the picture is definitely the best in this class.

I read numerous reviews of this and the Panasonic LS-90 and also compared them side-by-side and the PET 1002 has a superior picture with much better resolution.

The battery issue still needs to be addressed by Phillips. I agree with other reviewers that a unit in this price range should have a longer run time and more substantial attachment points. I'm not an industrial design engineer but it would seem a simple matter to reverse the attachment points so the battery would fit under the unit instead of sticking out behind it where it is subject to shock and possible breakage.

The transport mechanism on my unit I found to be exceptionally loud. I'm not sure if they are all that way or not but this was a bit annoying. However, if the unit were to be used as I would expect to in most cases with headphones this should not be a large issue.

One nice feature is that the unit accepts external video and audio inputs so it can also be used as a monitor. We will be using it in a configuration where this will be very helpful.

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