Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips PET1030 10.2-Inch Portable DVD Player with Car Mount Kit

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.

After doing an extensive search for the best player according to my budget, I finally realized the Philips PET1030 player was the best choice. I have lots of DIVX videos with subtitles and it played them by the first time without problem. Subtitles are rendered over a blue transparent rectangle wich make them very visible. Battery lasts more than 2 hours using USB Flash memory as the video source. Included speakers sound very good and loud, even when traveling by car with road noise around.

Despite the fact that I'm prretty happy with my player, I would suggest some improvements:
- After 40 minutes playing a movie, it gets warm on the back.
- Screen panel buttons could be iluminated for when operating the device at night. Screen ligth flashes your eyes and cannot see what button you are pushing.
- I didnt find power button on the remote control.
- A "subtitles font size" entry would be great In the Options menu for enlarging subtitles.

Regards.

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 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..

I love this DVD player. I returned a different brand because it made to much noise while playing the DVD. This brand runs very quietly. I use it in the car, and have also used it for a slide show for my family using my camera's memory card. I don't mind the notice for a chapter change, as it pops up and goes away very quickly. I like knowing what chapter I'm in if I have to stop the DVD. Great product!