Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips DCP851 8.5-Inch Portable DVD Player with Ipod Dock

I bought this item almost out of spite. Apple under its brand name sells an outrageously expensive ($49), proprietary A/V cable for the iPOD touch in order to output video to an external (larger) display. I would like to have such an accessory cable for my iPOD touch, but not at such a lofty price.

The Philips DCP851 (and slightly larger DCP951) provides this capability, via a simple A/V jack on the side of the case, and it works GREAT! Philips just saved Apple iPOD touch users 50 bucks!

So why not just buy the cable? Because, this product provides the added functionality of an extremely compact, portable DVD player with built-in 8.5" LCD due to its tablet style display. The DVD player itself is built-in underneath the display. There is a pull out "tilt" stand to hold the screen upright on a flat surface, or you can just watch a video holding it in your lap.

You can also use the display to watch and listen to full length movies downloaded and stored in the iPOD's internal flash memory with the latter docked in the popout-hideawy docking port. Slick!

The DCP851 is a multimedia product when docked with an iPOD device. It plays videos stored in the iPOD and a DVD from its optical drive, or from an external A/V source. It plays music just like an MP3, but does not require headphones. It also can display photo album library slideshows as well.

The picture quality of the TFT LCD is certainly not perfect, no where near "HDTV" in quality, but still adequate under most (indoor) ambient lighting conditions. The resolution is as good as standard analog TV.

The audio output (volume) of the built-in, mini stereo speakers is understandably a bit weak, but there are a pair of headphone jacks for listening to the audio. The nice thing about that is TWO people sitting side by side can both enjoy this product at the same time while waiting someplace like a coffee shop, in an airport or while traveling together. For travelers this is basically a self contained, portable entertainment system easy to take with you wherever you go. However, on battery power you'll have about 2.5 hours before a recharge is necessary.

The DCP851 comes with everything you need except an iPOD and a couple of your favorite DVD movies. It has an AC wall plug adapter and a 12Vdc in-car adapter for recharging at home, in the office or on the road. It also has a right/left audio and composite video, TV cable to output your media content and videos externally, or conversely to input an external A/V signal to the DCP851's built-in display and speakers.

As first reviewer, I'm giving this a GOOD review and recommend it to iPOD users looking for an all-in-one accessories solution and a portable DVD player to boot.

The player comes with a neoprene sleeve, a car lighter adapter, a regular plug for the wall, and cords to attach it to your television or VHS/DVD/Stereo/Video Game player.(Basically an AV jack.)

There is a little stand for the DVD Player that almost looks like you will be ejecting the battery so a lot of people miss it. (I've seen complaints in other reviews for this item that said it doesn't have a stand. But it does.)

It plays my DVD's from Britain, Asia, and the U.S. switching easily between the screen formats without distortion. The picture is very clear as well and looks great.

I also put in an SD card from my sister's camera. If you have taken photos and are going through the slide show, be aware that if the photos are vertical, you can turn them but the picture will be cropped and the full photo does not show. Also, it did play some of the MVI videos from the SD card but not all of them for some reason.

It comes with various holders for various iPods. I have a 1G iPod Touch and it works great in the dock. When I bought it I didn't realize that the same dock holds the remote too so if you're traveling with it just pop your remote into the dock and close it and you can carry it along without worrying about losing it. You could do the same with your iPod if you wanted to but it can carry only one or the other -- not both at the same time.

The player allows you to play the youtube features and any videos, music, or photos from your iPod. You just work your iPod from the dock or use the remote and it comes up on the screen.

The plastic isn't super high quality but I think they built it that way to make it lighter.

The one thing I wish it had is a USB port. But otherwise it does the job and does it well.

Pros:
* SD Media slot
* Handy to dock an IPod to

Cons:
* Flimsy plastic construction
* Picture quality is poor with narrow viewing angle
* Battery life is very short compared to other players
* Power button is in a place where it can accidentally be turned on/off and there's no lock to keep that from happening.
* Buttons aren't very responsive so you often have to push a button 2 or 3 times to get it to work.
* If you turn it off or switch modes it doesn't remember where you were in the movie. For some dvds this means you have to go through the annoying process of waiting through the preview trailers again.
* My unit had a dead pixel on the screen.

Because of all these problems I've had with mine I'm returning it and getting the Sony DVP-FX820/P 8-Inch Portable DVD Player

I searched for several months and looked at a variety of different options before finally purchasing a portable dvd player. This works great with my ipod nano (a little small for watching videos, but great for storing videos that I then watch on this dvd player). Also, I've taken it with me on several business trips where I've hooked it up to hotel room televisions to watch videos off of my ipod or DVD's.
I agree with some of the other reviews that the screen quality is less than some similar players and the battery life is less than stellar, but I have yet to find a portable dvd player that had everything I wanted for anywhere close to a reasonable price. I simply picked the one that I felt best met my own needs. The biggest drawback that I hadn't considered before buying is that there is no car-mounting kit. I'm trying to find one that will work, so that my son can watch in the car. I'll update my review if I find one - if anybody else has ideas, please post.

I received this product as a father's day gift and love it. It's a very functional dvd player, but it's best feature is how much it expands the capability of my iPod classic. I use it as a dock to listen to music on a radio, which is enhanced by the larger display and remote control. I've read that the video docking cable sold by Apple for $50 won't play some iPods on standard televisions. I have had no such problems with this product. I can play movies downloaded from itunes on a standard television without any special cables with quality about as good as a standard dvd.

The drawbacks are minimal, really. It comes with a car charger but no way to mount it. The battery life is very short, so you'll have to find other ways to keep your kids entertained on trips longer than 2.5 hours. It won't charge your iPod unless it's plugged into an AC power source, which really isn't a drawback, but you have to make sure you power off the iPod or it will continue to run and drain the battery. The remote is great, but there is no power button on it, so you actually have to get up and turn off the device when you're done with it. The screen quality is very good, but seems to have fairly limited viewing angle.

If you have an iPod, I definitely recommend this product.