Product Description

10.25" Portable DVD, DivX 3.1, Widescreen, Plays MP3, DVD, DVD+/-R/RW, CD-RW, JPEG pictures, Built-in rechargable battery, up to 6 hours play time, Beautiful piano white finish, Car adpater, Slim remote control, Zero Bright Dt screen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28961 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Philips
• Model: PET824/37
• Dimensions: 1.80" h x 8.70" w x 6.10" l, 8.00 pounds
• Display size: 8.5

Features

• DivX 3.1, play Mpeg 4 video
• 8.5" TFT, LCD Widescreen
• Long Play, rechargeable battery, up to 6 hours play time
• Plays virtually all CD and DVD formats
• Come with Car adapter and Slim Remote control

From the Manufacturer
Enjoy highest-quality images that are free from annoying blank spots on the LCD screen. LCD displays commonly have imperfections, termed as 'bright dots' by the LCD industry. A limited number of bright dots were once considered an inevitable side effect of LCD mass production. With Philips' strict quality control procedures used in our Portable DVD Players, our LCD displays are produced with zero tolerance for bright dots. Select Portable DVD Players come with Philips Zero Bright Dot™ Policy to guarantee optimal screen quality.

With DivX® support, you are able to enjoy DivX® encoded videos in the comfort of your living room. The DivX® media format is an MPEG4-based video compression technology that enables you to save large files like movies, trailers and music videos on media like CD-R/RW, memory cards and DVD-video. DivX® CDs can be played back on selected DVD players, DVD Recorders and Home Theater Systems.

Customer Reviews

The second best invention after IPod
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.

Picture Perfect
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.

Would be great if it wasn't for two things
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.