Philips DVD724AT Progressive-Scan DVD Player
Philips DVD724AT
I just purchased this unit a few days ago. My pro's, average and con's follow:<br />PROS:<BR> * The multiformat ability is this unit's best ability by far and the rason to buy. Plays everything you can throw at it inc SVCD, VCD, DVD-R, MP3, JPG's, ETC. (I haven't tried raw mpeg's yet but I saw some comment that it will play em). <br /> * NTSC / PAL capability is built in as is \\"other\\" international disk capability. (see dvd enthusiasts websites to get detail on how to enable). This is another reason to purchase if needed.<br /> * Price is good if you need the ability to play all of the aforementioned formats as few others can do this as well. If not, I'd prob buy a Sony as the picture quality is a hair better (see caveat below). If price is the all important consideration, get an APEX but be warned that multi format capability is hit or miss sometimes, even within same models of APEX(certain s/n ranges and dates of production are the way to be certain before purchase, both of which are on the box - see [...] that picture quality is worse.<br />AVERAGE:<BR>* Picture quality so far is decent. It's certainly not poor but not exceedingly robust either as is my Sony NS-300. (As this unit is brand new, perhaps the few dvd's (3) I've played aren't the most optimum?).<br />* Remote is cheap like 90% of them out there. Don't expect much but I've also seen worse (APEX). The button locations are good and functional, just limited but they are pretty intuitive. No multi unit funcationality from what I can tell. Perhaps other Philips things can be controlled?<br />CON:<br /> * IMHO the styling is poor. It's like a throwback to somthing I had 15 years ago. Some may go for it though, it's monolithic looking, very little texture or anything. Bland! On a scale of 1 to 10 the styling gets a 2 or a 3. It is nondiscrete though! Cool factor: ONE unless your going for that 80's look.