Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips PET710 Multi Region Portable Widescreen DVD Player with 7" Display

Only had this a few days but very impressed so far. Solid build with brushed aluminium instead of plastic casing giving it a touch of class.
It sounds noisy when a disc first spins up but is silent after a few seconds - judging by reveiews I've read of similar products this is par for the course.
The real reason I'm writing this is because I searched high and low before my purchase trying to find out if it will play DVD-Rs (DVD minus Rs). I couldn't find out and this nearly put me off buying the PET 710. However, I was relieved to find out it does indeed play them, along with everything else I've tried so far.

Doe's everthing it's supposed to do. No problem playing MP3 & JPEG. Solid construction, better build quality than othe brands in same price range. Good picture. Sound OK, but improved with portable speakers or ear phones. Good value for money. Worthy of 5 star rating.

First thing I have to say about this player is that it does *not* have Divx support - this is a real shame, but not the be-all and end all. This is the only reason I have given it four and not five stars.

That aside, it is a smart, small solid aluminium cased player - the sound and video quality is excellent.

The clip-on battery is a solid 2.5 hours, and smaller than most portable DVD player batteries. I suspect the actual battery time is actually closer to 3. Enough for me to watch nearly 4 episodes of 24 on DVD without re-charging.

I still don't know if it charges while playing when connected to the mains - the PET700 didn't.

The controls are clear and solid.

The only downside as I can see is that unlike its PET700 predecessor, it does not come with a carrycase.

I can't stress how good this player is - it oozes quality

Ignore the slightly negative reviews. I received my player today and it's perfect. Great picture quality on the 7 inch screen, and it easily connects to a big TV (cables included) and gives as good a picture as a full size DVD player. No problems with lip-sync either, as stated in one of the other reviews. Good value I'd say.

I bought this as a Christmas present. In the past I had negative experience with Philips DVD players, but decided to give Philips another chance.

This time it all looked OK ... until my kids tried to play a movie that is longer than 90 minutes. The player started to have trouble at around 95th minute and would stop playing altogether after further couple of minutes.

We tried several more DVDs and all experienced similar problem. So it was eventually packed and return to amazon for a refund.

I really have difficulties understanding Philips corporate strategy regarding consumer electronics. Their products are gerenally good looking and offer the best design for money; but the quality of the parts seems to be at the suspiciously low level in order to make it competitive. So it is hit and miss with Philips; which is real shame (given the good design).