Same as previous review.

Same as previous review with the additions of: - Multi-angle and Zoom icons are annoying and serves no value-added purpose for the viewer. - Philips knows about it but does nothing to fix it.

This is an additional comment to my previous review. I discovered when playing a music DVD with multi-angle that it was not possible to switch the icon off - and that is quite annoying since it a) is quite big and b) serves no real added-value when viewing a video. I got confirmation from Philips support today that there is absolutely no way to switch this icon off. I find this quite strange because my previouw Pioneer DV-360 had an option in the setup to not show this icon. Also there are numerous rants in newsgroups regarding this icon on older Philips DVD players as well. So I think Philips should definitely have listened to the consumers here and fixed it. The same can be said for the Zoom-icon, whic is obtrusively big and also cannot be switched off. Therefore I'm downgrading my general rating of this player from 5 to 4.

Excellent picture Excellent audio with surprisingly good audio decoder Excellent MP3 support and audio quality SACD compatible Progressive scan for both PAL and NTSC DivX compatible Looks stylish!

Navigation of MP3 CD's and especially mp3-DVD's could be improved. Blue light diode Audio setup could be more intuitive. No configurable lower frequency for speakers.

(Product year is june of 2004) Test setup: Philips DVP720SA connected via Coax (Monster cable) and analog 6-channel (standard RCA cables) Yamaha RX-V740 surround receiver Panasonic TV via SCART (a gold plated one instead of the one supplied with the player) Tannoy mX2 and mXC speakers DVD Picture: ---------------- Excellent quality on ordinary TV. I do not have a projector or new enough TV to test progressive PAL/NTSC via component cables. Compared to Pioneer DV-360S which I owned prior to this the picture is better and especially text and menus are rock-steady. Seems more "fluid" and with better contrast than the Pioneer. Audio setup: ------------------ The player has surprisingly good audio capabilities, but be sure to select LARGE speakers in the setup. If you select SMALL, then the frequency is cut at 120 Hz (!). Adjustments are possible to the volume of each speaker in dB as well as distance to speakers (although basic). Sound modes for CD/music include Digital (untreated?), Classic (classical music?), Jazz and Rock Sound modes for DVD include Concert, Drama, Action and Sci-Fi CD upsampling to 2x or 4x or OFF. Subwoofer ON or OFF Sound: ---------- Overall I'm very pleased with the audio capabilities of this player. Actually I prefer the sound directly from the player via the analog outputs connected to the 6 Channel inputs with the Yamaha in 6CH INPUT mode (no processing, only amplification of analog channels). Comparing again to my prior Pioneer player which was actually quite good in the audio department with Burr-Brown DAC, the sound has improved noticeably. The treble is more defined and open, the bass is both tighter and goes deeper. I thought I had a set of new speakers! Especially the deep bass breathed new life into my speakers and simply sound "bigger" and disappear more. Holographic definition of the soundstage - well, I'm no expert but I'd say pretty good. CD upsampling 2x - definitely improved the presence in the treble. CD upsampling 4x - perhaps slightly better than 2x, but I think I need better speaker or ears - or both ;) - to be able to tell. Clearly this is a very, very good audio player in the budget price range. MP3 ------- YESSS! Finally a player that takes MP3 seriously. Each MP3 song is displayed in the players display with Album, Artist and Song title scrolling over the display at the beginning of each song, then it switches to the standard track-number and minutes:seconds. (If you want to see the title again select up and then down or on the remote). I'd say Pioneer has something to learn with their pitiful "only 8 first characters of a song-title, and no scrolling"... I have only tested mp3's made by coding from my own CD's at 192 kbs quality and the sound is then virtually indistinguishable form ordinary CD's. (And yes, I can hear that 128 kbps coded mp3s have that hollow metallic sound in the treble, which is why I think 192 kbps should be minimum quality from online shops, not to mention the CD-protect schemes which often have 64 or 48 kbps songs ...) Load time with a CD with 70 mp3's -> ca 10 seconds MP3 on DVD - this is not officially supported but seems to work quite well (tested on Verbatim DVD-R as well as Traxdata DVD-RW). Load time on DVD with 54 music CD's totalling 700 mp3's -> ca 10 seconds Same audio quality but a couple of snags - you really need the TV on to navigate, and there is no quick-jump to song number 500 that I've found. Also you can select in the setup to either navigate by folders or without folders. With folders the player plays the current folder and then stops. Without folders it plays every mp3 track in sequence, but as mentioned no quick-jump to track number xyz. Still probably ideal for background music type scenarios. Another snag is that if you navigate the folders etc when listening to a mp3 DVD, then there will be momentary stops and noises as it switches folders or views in the navigation. (The same problem is not heard/seen on mp3 CD's) This is not a complete review in any sense, but I leave it to others to fill in the gaps. My conclusion based on picture and audio quality alone is that this player should be highly recommended for anyones "shortlist" in this price-range. Not tested --------------- - SACD playback (need to buy some of those first). - DivX playback - VCD/SVCD playback - etc Annoyances ---------------------- * Blue light diodes (one for Multichannel/SACD and one for Progressive scan) cannot be dimmed like the display can. * Menus for setup of audio options could be more intuitive * Holding the stop-button on the remote acts as open/close but this is not clearly documented. * "Glitches" in playing when navigating mp3 DVD (perhaps a firmware upgrad) and navigation could be quicker.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DV360S