Rating: 
Summary: Solid Low-end Player, too flawed for higher end home theatre
Review: After being very scared to purchase a 2nd generation DVD player dure to all the reports of skipping, sych problems etc. I bought this machine after demoing it in a Best Buy.For the first couple of months I owned this machine, I was very pleased with it... until I started purchasing DTS encoded DVDs and a projector. The most glaring issue I have with this player is the lack of black-level controls. I purchased the player the day the Matrix came out on DVD, and on a smaller screen you don't notice (as much) the amount of artifacting that's apparent in shadowy scenes. Let's just say that it's almost un-watchable when projected very large. Although for the most part this only applies to low-contrast scenes or movies that take place in a lot of darkness. When you do notice it, it makes you long for a VHS copy. Secondly, I have to power cycle the player several times in order to get a DTS bitstream (optical) to come out of it. This may be a problem in the DVD authoring process (Saving Private Ryan is the most difficult to get playing correctly) but it's a pretty noticable glitch. Lastly, this player has a habit of freezing and reporting disc errors in the same place on a disc that's perfectly clean and scratch-free. It also puts off a tremendous amount of heat. For the price, it's a fantastic player for a low-end system, but if you're planning on using it in a higher-end home theatre system, you'll likely be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: Great player
Review: After doing some research and reading all of the reviews here on the Amazon site I took a chance and ordered the Philips DVD825AT player. It came to the door within 2 days. Easy to set-up, too. After discovering that an S-connection cable would give better picture clarity and sound I went out and bought the S-connection cable for about $10.00. Phillips/Magnavox should include it in the future, in my opinion, but buying it is only a minor inconvenience. The picture and sound are great. I'm not using any additional speakers with my set-up but my Sony TV has stereo sound so the audio is great. The unit is easy to use. I don't see any reason to purchase a more expensive DVD player when this Phillips model does it all. Probably the best player for the money. I'd definately recommend it or buy it again. Buying it through Amazon was convenient and saved a few dollars as well.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent choice at a great price as well
Review: After looking at several different models (Sony, Toshiba, RCA,etc...) under the $300.00 price range the Phillips finally won out.My Dad has the Toshiba SD1200 and constantly complained about the difficulty in setting up his DVD but we had the Phillips setup within 5 minutes. The Phillips came with the required audio/video cables(although no S-video cable)so there is no need to buy them. The freeze frame and frame advance quality are superb and this bad boy even plays CDs and CD-Rs as well. There are a couple of downsides if you want to call them that. There is no S-video cable that comes with the Phillips and that is almost a necessity. The controller that comes with the Phillips is small and somewhat akward to use. However those were the only two problems that I noticed with the player itself. We watched several movies over the course of the last couple days and experienced no problems with skipping or any type of sound problems at all. Overall this is a great DVD player and if you have small hands than the controller shouldn't pose any problems.
Rating:
Summary: It's all you'll ever need
Review: All I can say about this player is WOW! I'm the kind of person who always has to have the latest technology, and now with this player, I can easily upgrade it's features without buying a new player! If you're smart, buy this, if you are stupid, go buy something else.
Rating:
Summary: No complaints!
Review: For the money, its great. I haven't had any problems yet. I've put in other DVD's that people said they had trouble playing, and this player did not miss a beat. Well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: No complaints!
Review: For the money, its great. I haven't had any problems yet. I've put in other DVD's that people said they had trouble playing, and this player did not miss a beat. Well worth it.
Rating: 
Summary: fading brightness when going through vcr
Review: Great product, but if you don't use a svideo connection and run it through a older vcr input, the brightness fades in and out due to the macrovision filter in some vcr's. Solution is to just run it straight to the tv.
Rating:
Summary: average dvd player...save your money and buy a sony
Review: I bought this DVD player only because it was a great price and I have a Phillips Magnavox TV at home. I failed to do my research beforehand, and I found out that this DVD player has S-Video and not component video, which has a higher picture quality. This played my 40-some DVD's without any "disc errors," but it will sometimes stop for a second while watching a movie at the same spot every time. If I had the choice of buying this DVD player again, I would save up my money and get one of the Sony DVD players, which is a lot more reliable.
Rating:
Summary: Good value for money (and plays CD-R(W) !)
Review: I got this unit mostly because it claims to play CD-R VCDs. Within a week of getting it, I was ripping VHS tapes on my computer and writing VCDs, and it does indeed work. No more tape wear on the kids' favourites, and instant rewind, too! I have also watched several movies on it, and they all worked fine with quite reasonable video and audio performance for my TV (I don't have an HDTV set and the TV isn't hooked up to the stereo, so the limiting factor isn't the player). I am somewhat concerned about the claim for 24/96 audio, though; the specifications in the manual claim 48 kHz sampling rate and audio performance more consistent with 16 bit DACs. The sticker on the front says "24 bit digital audio" but I'm willing to bet this just means it if you hook the digital output to a capable decoder. From what I can tell, the built-in codecs are the same kind of 48 kHz 16 bit ones you can find on any computer sound card or cheap portable CD player these days. This, and the fact that they didn't include an S-Video cable in the box, loses the fifth star.
Rating:
Summary: Great Deal
Review: I just recieved my Philips DVD player in the mail. It's amazing! Not only does it play dvd's, vcd's, audio cd's but unlike the other dvd players in it's price range such as the Sony's and Panasonic's it plays cd-r's. I would recommend any person who wants to buy a DVD player within the price range to buy this one.
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