Poor manufacturing

While these are wonderful while they work - comfortable with decent audio quality, mine simply stopped working properly after two weeks. Sound became distorted and delivered through only one speaker, and then finally simply breaking off inside my iPod's headphone socket.

Maybe I just got unlucky, but I can't say that shoddy merchandise impresses me.

Excellent DivX/Xvid Player with Excellent Subtitle Support

I'm going to compare this player with a Tevion Xvid player I bought from ALDI a few years ago to illustrate how good this player is.

The Tevion player skipped when playing RW discs, this Philips player does not. This Philips player will play movies that the Tevion player could not - movies that would appear blocky and full of artifacts (bacause of imperfect encoding) on the Tevion play without flaws on the Philips (naturally this is not always the case).

The Philips support for subtitles in DivX/Xvid files is good to excellent: on the Tevion, for example, the letters of .srt subtitles were pure white, and would disappear into a white background making them impossible to read. On the Philips machine, .srt subtitles are transparent white on transparent grey, which means you can read them in dark or light scenes (although they're not perfect and in high-contrast situations, the subs can still be somewhat difficult to read, though not impossible), however, this player also supports .sub files (unlike the Tevion) and they appear like regular DVD subtitles - solid white with a black stroke - in short, perfect.

Also, when playing video files, fast-forwarding and rewinding is perfect (although the rewinding seems to go much faster than when going forward) and the video plays perfectly after resuming play, with no loss of audio/video synchronisation - my Tevion would drop out the image to catch up on the audio on resume of play, this player sometimes has slightly stuttered playback, but image and audio are always present (OK, not perfect, but really of little consequence).

A cool aspect of the player is the ability to create on-the-fly slideshows with music: navigate to the music file you want to play on your USB drive (for example) and start playing it, then navigate to the folder with your images, and start playing them - the player will continue playing the music files in the background. This can also be used to set a single static image while you listen to an mp3 album: play the music folder, then go to the image and play a single image with repeat - result: music with a set image of your choice on your TV screen.

The image slideshow function is adequate, although the transition is set to a downward swipe - I would have preferred a slightly less cheesy fade effect.

I can't comment on the HDMI aspect and I don't have a HD TV.

My only real gripe is the lack of USB 2 support. On a player that supports HDMI I would have thought USB 2 would have been standard. It's a shame and means that the banwidth isn't really high enough to stream video without judder from a USB stick or drive. (Seriously, who uses 1.1 these days?)

Other than that, I have been comntinually impressed with the functions of this machine - from a quick start-up time, smooth Xvid playing, and excellent subtitle support (press the subtitle button to cycle multiple languages, even, on xvid video) with many subtitle formats supported, to good support for any format of DVD disc (+R/RW & -R/RW) this really is an excellent stand alone player that I would have no hesitation on recommending to anyone.

Much Ado About Nothing - no signal was picked up!

I was very impressed by the design of this freview box, however, I was uterly disappointed by the fact that the box could not find a signal. According to the freeview website, I live in an area with good coverage; my neighbour has a box and he told me his works fine. I called the Phillips people, we did all the checks and they ended up suggesting I return the product.

Great Player!

This is a fantastic player, and I agree with all the good reviews it's got here. Just a few v minor things I don't like:

- The DVD drawer is very thin, and feels a bit flimsy.
- It seems to create a lot of interference on Ch 58 (BBC1 for me!) when on. Fine in standby though.
- The player body is silver, not black, which I think would've looked more sleek.

Other than that, I love it - it's played rental DVDs flawlessly that my other players skip on. USB is brilliant, and it's played every file I've tried. I'm very pleased with it!

I feel like the sun is next to me!

1.I feel like the sun is next to me at the morning. It really works.
2.One thing I don't like is the bird sound, it keeps repeating itself and it is very annoning.
3.The wave sound is very good.
4.The Radio works prefect, speaker is reasonable.
5.Others are saying that the 3 buttons are hard to press, but I found it isn't a problem on mine.
Overall: The product is nicely built and it does the job perfectly! I would say 9.5/10.

tv tastic

great tv for your money, definitly recommend it - dont need an expensive indoor ariel either

Brilliant!

This is a superb bit of kit, easily modified to be region free (just input a certain series of numbers on the remote) and is just fantastic to take in the car (and our campervan)

We used it OK with my 80gb 5th Gen ipod and it displayed the videos on the big screen in great quality. BUT it won't play the videos from my son's 80gb 'classic' ipod. (not sure why)

I would still heartily recommend it, especially at this price!

little gem

Well after a lengthy search I came accross this little gem for a bargain price on amazon, and I must say I think it's the bees knees for a 1gb, which is all I wanted,It's easy to use with windows media player sync the sound is amazing. Full marks to philips for this one.

Great if you have large ears!

I must have smaller ears than I ever realised, because I just can't keep these things in place! My daughter has no chance.
The sound is great and for long-haul flights - when you're not moving! they are superb, both for the plane's sound system & your own MP3.
I expected to be able to adjust the hooks, but you can't.
I've given them to my husband & continue to look for something smaller.

good budget phone

Build quality & feel is good, menu reasonably easy to access & sound quality through earpiece good. My only gripe would be that it doesn't seem possible to preset a higher earpiece volume (can only be changed during a call) & the loudspeaker quality is a bit poor. Otherwise, good value for money

Philip's Pet707

I have just got this DVD player and overall I am happy with it,as for the other reviews there are ways of getting round their comments.I googled DVD hacks and now my player is multi region. As for the cables, yes they are a bit untidy but I got round that by inserting the cables into plastic cable tubing, it looks a lot tidier.Don't agree about the brackets being dangerous as when not in use you clip them off but they do make the screens a little closer than they need be and for this reason I only give it 4 stars.

All round good value for price

This model has excellent looks and is great value for money - the best there is for the price, its a reliable make and I will always go back and buy the Philips portable DVD's. Sound quality and picture is good too.
(Previously had the silver 7inch model which withstood 3 years of toddlers and children usage, finally broke when one of my children stood on the screen, otherwise would have kept going!)

Defective from the start...

The unit looks nice, good quality built, good specs.

Unfortunately the tape player was defective from the start, so I had to return it and accepted the refund (at the time they didn't have it in stock anymore).

I agree with the other reviewers, the small display is a bit dissapointing.

good sound

Nice crystal clear balanced sound.

Weirdly, however, I found that the sound degraded when the aerial was raised. Possibly something to do with noise in my area - difficult to say.

A negative point is the very bright light on the display. I have to cover it up with a book sometimes when i sleep. Buttons are a little small and fiddly, and could do with more presets. Would have gotten 4 or 5 stars if not for these points.

Otherwise a very good digital radio, and seems like an excellent price especially when compared to people like Pure.

Great Phone ...but VISTA users BEWARE!!

We've been using Olympia Dual Skype phones for 3 years or more. The problem with them is that after about 6 months of use the display starts to disappear. At the time we first got the Olympia it was the only Cordless Skype phone available. Now there is a wider choice. We thought Philips would be pretty reliable and opted for the 3212 Duo phone set - at just a few pounds more than the 3211 single phone. The package arrived with a small clear instruction booklet - which we followed exactly ... and that was a mistake as the supplied software is designed for Windows XP and does not work with Windows Vista. If you want to use these phones on Vista you will need to download the Vista compatible software from the Philips site 1st - DO NOT use the supplied disk. If in doubt search the Skype forums for VOIP321 - where you may find solutions to the Vista problems. OK so we wasted many hours trying numerous different ways to get the software installed before we finally succeeded - but once we didthe phones themselves are great. Unlike the Olympia - with the Voip321 - you can put your phones anywhere you like in your house - it is only the little base-transmitter-box than needs to plug in to the PC. The sound quality is pretty good. The menus and options on the phones are easy to use - they appear to work happily with both Skype and normal calls, so hopefully we will now have several years of trouble free use.

Not impressed

For anyone thinking of buying this, I would re-consider.
I'm inclined to agree with the"buggy" comment above. Response to the remote control and menu selection is slow and ... well ... unresponsive. I've now erased 2 complete discs by mistake because menu selections didn't happen when I expected them - then did happen when I didn't. It regularly cycles round & round"please insert recordable disc", even when a brand new disc has been inserted. It has twice randomly selected channels to"skip" on the channel list. The most annoying thing is that in disc menu it claims you have 1 hour 20 minutes available recording time ...then it stops recording after 30(or whatever). Don't know for sure, but suspect this is connected to it trying to fit with previously recorded spaces. Whatever the reason it's annoying and wastes time (mine and the disc's).
Given the chance to do-over, I wouldn't buy this again and I'm about to contact Philips about my disatisfaction with the item.
On a slight plus side, picture quality through the unit is good, BUT I think it affects the tuning on one of the terrestrial channels. So not a complete positive.
Hope this helps.

Clear signal but constant retuning

I bought this box a month ago, and on the good points of it being easy to install, clear picture and good now and next feature, the one major drawback it that it needs constantly retuned, almost everytime we switch the T.V on. We have tried just turning the t.v. on and off and leaving the box on all the time, but re-tuning still required.

Philips MCM398D/05 Micro Hi-Fi System

A very god looking system indeed, nice ipod dock to, you can control it from the remote control.

bad point is to much bass, id love just to add a touch of trebble the presets are rock,,jazz,classic,pop, ive tried it with the supplied speakers and some mission 751,s , to much bass !!

Philips VOIP3211 Skype & Cordless Landline Phone

If you are looking for a cordless phone for your home that combines the luxury of sitting at the end of the garden either making a call to your friends and family on the normal landline and, even better, speaking to family and friends overseas via Skype then this is the package for you. . .
MY folks live abroad and combines with this phone and Skype it has brought us closer together. The phone comes with the long life lithium ion rechargeable battery pack so it can recharge when not in use and has a really good battery life. I have used the phone on a 2 hour conversation before and it has still had 3 out of 3 battery icons on the screen. The talk quality is excellent and despite other reviews I feel that the loudspeaker is ample for its purpose. I have a 3 year old and it works fine.

Once connected, which is a simple task, you can walk away from your PC and browse your friends on Skype and simply call them at the end of the garden from Skype.

I have not used any other cordless Skype Phone solutions other than this one but have not felt the need to. I have had this phone for 18 months now and it has been problem free.

I would recommend that it is used with Windows XP. I have found, with Windows VISTA that Skype does tend to hang and not make the call when it should do. With Windows XP It is plain sailing.

I would also recommend the two phone package as One phone downstairs and One phone upstairs is always good. I always leave the phone in the cradle to keep charged up however it is amazing how many times you have to run up stairs to answer the phone. I brought the single phone packageand wished I had brought the second phone. Who knows what Santa will bring me for Christmas.

If you decide to buy this phone to use with Skype, you will not be disappointed.

Regards

Nick Smith