Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, but could be better, 13 Jul 2007
This is my second Philips portable DVD player - the first was a PET810, which still works just fine, despite having been dropped a couple of times and having dents in the aluminium casing, and this is the first noticeable difference with the DCP850 - the case is plastic, and a horrible white plastic at that - it certainly doesn't look like a £200 portable DVD player, and I don't expect it will survive a drop like my PET810 did.
But, it does have an SD card reader and an iPod dock, but lets start this review with the DVD player itself. Playback is fine - exactly what I would expect from a player in this price range, although I would have liked Philips to have impressed and produced a really sharp screen, but at least they guarantee no dead pixels. The screen rotates tablet style, which could be very handy for aeroplanes etc, where space is at a premium.
The remote control docks on the right hand side, and functions well, except when it is actually docked, since it cannot see the IR receiver then. You choose whether to watch DVD, iPod or SD using the 'Source' button on the player.
The mains adapter is the compact transformer/plug type, which makes it a little more portable, and the player has an internal battery, which is great - how many people ever use their portable DVD players without the battery connected anyway? The box comes with an a/v cable, and a car charger, but with no carry case.
Irritatingly, the battery doesn't charge while the player is in use, although it does appear to charge the iPod when it is docked and connected to the mains.
iPod playback - this is where the DCP850 shines - I use my iPod a lot for video, and have waited for a compact unit like this for ages - I was concerned about this, since the American reviews commented on how poor the iPod video quality was, but it seemed fine to me - having output iPod video to similar sized LCD screens, it was exactly what I expected. The iPod dock has a small widget that can be removed to accommodated either a 30/40 or 60/80Gb iPod. If, like me, you have a black iPod, it looks great when docked, although I would have preferred a better docking mechanism, but it works fine. The 'eject' comprised of a small bit of plastic that you lift up to pull the iPod out of the player. Remember when playing video to change the video settings on your iPod to 'TV On', or you won't see anything.
Divx playback is fine - good quality regardless of whether it is stored on a disc or SD card, but I am disappointed that the menu still doesn't support long filenames. It is also a shame that the player doesn't support MP4 files, but divx files at least, look great.
The first DCP850 I bought failed after a few hours, but the second one seems to be just fine.
All in all, I like this player - I'm disappointed that it costs £199 in the UK, compared to $199 in the US - I think the 100% price hike is excessive, but if you have an iPod, and you watch video on your iPod, then it is the best player out there at the moment.
UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!
Since the above review, I have been subjected to Philips 'Customer Support' with this player, and felt I needed to update this review. If I could, I'd reduce the stars to zero based on my recent experience.
The first player failed, and was replaced by the retailer the next day.
The second player failed a few months in, and arrangements were made for Philips to collect and repair, only they didn't bother to collect it. The reason? I hadn't given them the serial number! In fact I had, but that's beside the point, so it was 'collected' again.
The device was returned two months later, "repaired", except that it wasn't, and the job card showed that they had mixed up the faults and hadn't even looked at the reported fault. On top of that, they managed to return it to the completely wrong address. It was returned to Philips immediately.
Weeks went by, and eventually I chased it up, to be told that it was 'out of warranty' - I asked how this could be so when it has only been on sale for six months, and they already had a copy of proof of purchase, but they couldn't explain.
They then told me that it had been fixed, and was now being tested - testing I was told would take 10-14 days, even though I was told it would take only 5-7 days to repair and return it!
This whole process took months - My first call to Philips was in October 2007, we were now in February 2008!
In the meantime, fed up with waiting, I bought my children a new DCP850 from Amazon. That arrived with a fault (wouldn't play DVDs, which is kind of important for a DVD player), and was immediately returned to Amazon.
In the meantime, After making several calls, I received a call from Philips saying that they would replace the device immediately. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, this was obviously some new use of the word 'immediately' that I hadn't previously been aware of, since a month passed by before I started getting cross. In the end, I told Philips I wanted them to return 'my' player, since I needed to now return it to the retailer as 'not fit for the purpose for which it was purchased', only they couldn't seen to do that either. In the end, I managed to get Philips to refund the cost of the player. The whole process took more than six months. In other words, Philips had more time with my DCP850 player than I did!
I'll think very carefully before buying another Philips product.
Don't get me wrong, the DCP850 is still a terrific device, but only if you have a working model.
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36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant, 13 Mar 2008
I very very very nearly bought the Shinco. It was in my basket and then I got cold feet. I wanted the Shinco because it said it was multiregion and this one didn't, and I'm fed up of ending up with DVDs I can't play or come out in black and white.
What changed my mind at the last minute was that there seemed to be a hack to make it multiregion. That being so, who wouldn't prefer a Philips to a Shinco? Although many people are happy with their Shincos, all of them will say that they can only get customer service from Amazon and they can't get a response from the UK distributor. In which case, if the machine goes wrong after two years, or you need parts, then you'll just have to throw it away.
Plus, frankly, the fact that some people say their Shinco has a lovely aluminium body, while others swear it is plastic, makes me suspect something rather odd is going on with whomever builds and supplies these things.
So I've just received the player, and am happy to report that it converted straight to multiregion, just as described in the forum below. Phew.
That done with, I'm now delighted to have such a high quality machine for such a reasonable price. It is white on the outside, and black on the insside and although the cover is plastic, it has a nice chunky solid feel to the whole thing.
I was surprised that ther really is no noise really when the disc is running or when it starts up, the buttons seem solid and the sound quality was suprisingly good for such tiny speakers. (You can't really expect too much from small speakers). And the unit was strong and well built. It feels like a quality piece of kit. The screen is good looking and I'm really glad of the extra inch and a half. I think 7 inches is just a bit too small.
The swivel screen is an added bonus, and I was surprised to find it could be swivelled right round and goes flat on top of the DVD unit.
The two headphone sockets are a great idea, the SDD slot will be very useful on holiday for photos and videos from the camera. Although I don't yet own an 80gb ipod video, for me having the ability to use one means that this machine will last longer than the DVD format, and means the unit can become much more like a personal media player in the long term, playing videos from an ipod instead of a DVD when nobody makes anything on DVD any more. In five years time, when DVD is almost extinct, an iPod video 80gb second hand will cost next to nothing and give this thing a new lease of life.
Having not ordered the Shinco, I can't really compare it. But the reason I had a slight innate preference for Philips is that one of its other models came out as a Which best buy in a recent review, and they looked at quite a few DVD players.
The only slight niggles are: the volume control is only on the unit, not the remote, and there is a slight lag between pressing buttons on the remote and something actually happening, oh and the remote is slightly cheap looking.
But these are really minor quibbles. For just over 100 quid, you can have a multiregion, 8.5 inch swivel screen DVD, with ipod video connectivity, and SSD slot and two headphone sockets...and it plays nearly anything you'd care to throw at it, plus has ability to change screen format for letterbox films. If you are willing to spend 100 quid on a DVD player, I can't see that there is better value at the moment.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant - and what a price!!, 13 Feb 2008
I bought this player in January 2008 and it has performed brilliantly, both on battery or mains power. Although the white outer case does look cheap it does it's job of protecting the vital bits inside perfectly well.
My 80gb 5th Gen video ipod works without problem and the screen quality is great. I've also hooked it up to my tv and again the picture quality is still very good indeed.
For the price, it is an amazing good peice of kit - I'm sure you could spend three times as much and get something that's 1% better, but why would you??
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