Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips PET824 8.5-Inch Portable DVD / DivX Player

This has got to be the best player within a range of small screen portables.

Can't be happier with it. Took it with me on a trip to Boston, great piece of entertainment and quality. And, folks, please do believe me: the battery life is far above all my wildest expectations. Been running it for 7 hours already (2 hours in stand-by mode), and the battery is still alive! I even had to make sure that I haven't plugged in the power supply by mistake. And no, to my great surprise, it is on the battery!
Quite honestly, I had hard time believing other reviewers who had claimed the same thing, but I do now, it is true.
Also, you can make it region free. Here is how:

Switch player On and Open tray door
Press Setup on the remote control
Move menu selector down to Preferences and press Right arrow
Press 2, 1, 2, 2, 2 and 5
Press Left Arrow
Press Down Arrow
Press 0 when the screen displays region code
Press Setup to exit

Now, the only word of warning:

The remote control has a limited angle range. Sometimes you need to aim it directly at the player. Wish they designed the remote better. But that is the only drawback which does not really bother me much. Considering other great features (DIVX/XVID playback with QPEL and GMC support - yes, it does that!)and awesome video/audio quality (did I mention 2 headphones inputs???), it is very well worth every dollar. Highly recommended to anyone who needs portable entertainment without having carrying a bulky piece of equipment.

I was blown away by the picture on the Phillips PET824 portable DVD player. The LCD screen is "liquid" crystal clear. You lose a little definition as you move side to side (as with most LCD type screens) which only comes into play if you're trying to share the screen in really close quarters (like if three of you are trying to watch in 3 side-by-side coach fare airline seats). But if the PET824 is primarily for personal use you'll love the picture.

The sound is fair without headphones, but I don't think that the idea was to use PET824 without them. Sound is fabulous with a good pair of headphones; your iPod headphones will do just fine (and if you don't have a good pair you'll need to buy one because the PET824 doesn't come with any).

The battery is a bit bulky. You'd think that with today's technology they'd be able to slim it down, but you can't complain about the 6 hours of life you get with it after a full charge. Some portable DVD players give you only 2 hours of life and that just barely gets you through a single movie. The PET824 is good for 2 full length features before charging and that's awesome for long trips where you can't use the DC adapter or car adapter.

The battery fully charges in apx 4 hours. And don't leave the battery attached after shutting down so as to preserve the charge.

The car adapter works great and has a nice long cord. So no need for the battery on car trips.

The PET824 fits in my small briefcase, and it's relatively light. Amazon sells cases for the PET824 that mount on the back of the driver or passenger seats. The one I got also mounts in between the driver and passenger seats. I'd highly recommend a case for your player. I went with the Case Logic Koskin DVD Player Case.

The biggest complaint I have about the PET824 is that the anti-slide pads on the bottom of the player are worthless. The player slides all over the place on a hard surface, and that won't do at all on an airline fold down tray. I put some good sticky anti-slide pads on my PET824 (available at any hardware store for less than a dollar).

Also the remote's a bit busy for kids, but my kids mastered it pretty quickly. For whatever reason the remote includes a bunch of useless number keys (0 - 9) that take up space that could have been used to make the primary function keys bigger. As is, the remote is useless in a dark car.

Finally, the DivX thing is a bit of a mystery to me. I've not tried it out yet, and I'm not clear as to whether or not you can burn DivX movies with just the DivX software or if you need a DVD burner on your home computer system in order to burn and be able to play downloaded DivX video on your Phillips PET824 portable (or DivX compatible home DVD player for that matter). I checked some DivX sites and they're all pretty (deliberately???) ambiguous on how exactly it works with burning a DivX DVD. And all the DivX movie sharing and downloading sites seem to want your email address before they'll even let you see what kind of movies are even available. So I'd welcome a review that is clear and concise on the matter.

All in all....The PET824 was a very satisfying purchase for me. I'm glad it's the one that I chose.

I blind bought it new on ebay for fifty bucks less than on here. I saw it had great reviews on here so I went ahead on it. Part of the problem is that I was spoiled with an AWESOME panasonic portable dvd player. 2 key things this dvd is missing...1) Auto return memory on dvds...if you turn off the player in the middle of movie...once you turn it back on, it will play the dvd from the very beginning...if you just hit stop it will let you return to the movie...I find this extremely annoying since I tend to watch movies over multiple days...so now when I use this I have to remember the chapter I last stopped on (I miss my panasonic). 2) For some caveman reason, there is no soft fast forward or rewind button...all there is a chapter next and previous buttons...so you can't skim or scan through screens...these buttons are on the remote, but not on the unit itself. I have never heard of portable dvd player not having this on the unit...not as annoying as the other thing...but still very cavemanish by Philips. I also want to say the video output is good but not the best on the market Panasonic and Toshiba have better resolution on their screens. Philips is better than the average bear, but if you want the best you gotta get one of the other two. Also, when the battery is attached to the player, it does not lay flat...it lays at an angle...kind of weird...I doesn't really bother me, you can adjust the screen accordingly, but I could see how it might bother some people. Hope this helps.

I bought this player because I wanted something to watch movies with in my room where I have neither a television or a dvd player. The slick look of the casing, the massive battery pack, large clear screen, and enough buttons to control the menus are the best highlights.

Down points:
DOES NOT PLAY DVD-R/+R/-RW/+RW well. If you play a working backup on this machine it will screech and scream through the entire movie. I have no clue where this sound comes from but a regular DVD... quiet as a sleeping baby. And by screech and scream the machine is making these noises. Like some door opening without any grease on the hinges times 10.

The player will also not play ALL backup DVDs either. The DVD may work in one machine, not in another. This is a typical behavior with backups so I'm not worried about it. But for those looking for a pancea to this problem, this is not part of the solution.

The player becomes hot during extended use. The heat is felt on the back, top right corner of the machine and weather the temp continues to go up or stays constant, this maybe of concerned for those who want a robust product that won't fail them when the machine is seated on carpet. Its even written on the back of the device, "The surface of the unit will heat in the case of longtime playback, but it is never a malfunction." True or not, I feel any portable device generating heat, means I'm losing battery life. Heat = energy. Fluorescent lighting doesn't generate a lot of heat and it consumes 1/3 of the electricty than an incandescent bulb for the same or greater lumen output.

I am more of a headphone kind of guy but I do agree that the location of the speakers on the bottom and not by the screen or inside above the buttons is bad design. Sound loudness and quality are good enough to draw attention from several seats in a busy airport.

The remote is what I come to expect from miniturization. It works and does what it does. Some may find that pressing the buttons take a lot of effort.

The software on the machine or "firmware" could use some intuitive programming. However it is as much as I expect from a corporate conglomorate appeasing standards. Things like skipping FBI warnings, trailers, long opening menus, basically complete control over the DVD. Opensource applications like VideoLan for for PCs is a good example.

All in all I am still satisfied with my purchase. I bought the product not just for quality but for brand name. Much like buying a new laptop or car. Are you going to trust a cheap KIA or an expensive Volvo to last you 10+ years. And for those wondering I dropped it once on the side when it slid off my lap and onto the laminant flooring without the movie skipping.

I would have scored this product higher but the noise from playing backup DVDs is just unbearable. No amount of hightech sound system is going to drown out the distinct sound comming from this machine.

I recieved this DVD player in 5 days with super saver shipping, but found that it was unable to function properly (i.e. it was unable to play DivX or MP3 files). I was instructed to send it back to Philips for repair (with charge to me though) and recieved a brand new unit after about 2 weeks. Now working, the player is exceptional, the screen fairly crisp (not to mention well sized) the AV in/out very handy, and the aesthetics pleasing.The player has also taken every type of DivX file I can throw at it, including XviD among the various codecs.However, when starting the unit up, it makes a good deal of noise that dulls to a still noticeable hum during playback. Also, viewable file names are limited to 10 characters or so, making some recognition difficult. Finally, with the battery, the player is a bit bulky, but not egregiously so.
Overall, this is a very good DVD player at a good price point for its screen size and I highly reccomend it.