Reliable, Region-free Player
This portable player is compact, well-designed, and well-made. It comes with a number of extras that includes a remote control, an AC adapter, and a car adapter that allows you to plug in and recharge from a 12 volt outlet on your car's dashboard. Another plus are patch cords that allow the player to be connected to a television so that the unit acts not just as a DVD player, but also as a converter from PAL format to NTSC if you’re playing a non-Region 1 DVD.
There is also a cover and “sling” formed by the straps that allows the player to be hung from the back of a car seat for viewing in the backseat of a vehicle.
I’ve played Region 1, Region 2 PAL, Region 0 PAL, and DVD-R disks in this player without any problems, except in the case of one Dutch DVD which turned out to be a bad DVD; the disk in question wouldn’t fully play on my full size Region-free player or on the DVD player in my computer, so the failing was not with this Philips player, but with a defective disk.
The unit does not charge the battery if you’ve got it plugged into an AC source while playing a DVD. I haven’t found this to be an issue or a problem. I simply plug in the player for recharging occasionally when I know I won’t be needing it to keep the battery fully charged.
Accessories included with the DVD player include a cover, an AC adaptor that will also work on 220V European or Asian electric system with the addition of the appropriate plug adaptor, a car charger that will plug into your vehicle’s 12V outlet (formerly known as a cigarette lighter adaptor), a composite plug set that will allow the player to be played through a TV set with the three composite (yellow, red, and white) inputs, and a remote control.
The quality of the display is crisp and the sound quality is good. Listening via earphones is an option through the earphone jacks, but no earbuds or earphones are included in the package.
The only thing I’d change about this player would be to make the on-off switch and volume control on the sides a bit larger. I have small hands, but often have trouble with the on-off switch as it’s difficult to get a good grip on it so my fingers sometimes slip off. A slightly larger volume control would make it easier to find. I would imagine that someone with larger hands would have a bit of trouble with the small size of the controls as well, but could always use the included remote control as an alternative.
Recommended and very handy to have on hand during power outages or when traveling or even hanging out on the deck chairs on a warm day.
Not familiar with DVD Region Codes? You’re not alone.
Region codes are encoded on commercially produced DVDs by the major manufacturers and studios. These codes restrict the playing of encoded DVDs outside of their region unless you have a region-free DVD player.
You won’t find region-free players in your local electronics store, nor on most online websites owned by the big box electronics suppliers.
These region-free players can be found on specialty webstores that cater to international travellers or others needing appliances that are compatible with non-North American standards and electric utilities. Do a search for these types of stores if you are interested in aquiring a region-free player or check out Amazon Marketplace sellers who deal in these types of products.
The Region Codes are also used on Blu-Ray disks. Region-free Blu-Ray players are often available from the same sources that offer region-free DVD players.
Why are these Region Codes in place? Principally for the benefit of the big studios and content providers who want to control the release times and availability of movies and television shows to specific regions. It can also affect pricing since sometimes non-Region 1 DVDs of the same movie are less expensive than the Region 1 versions. As with most things, it’s all about the money.
If you travel outside of the United States and Canada and buy local DVDs that peak your interest, enjoy foreign-produced movies and television shows, or just want DVDs in another language to aid in learning that language, you might want to investigate the region-free player options.
Here’s a quick reference guide to which Region Codes cover what parts of the world:
One other thing to consider is the different television screen scan rates of US and Canadian televisions compared to those used in other countries.
The US and Canadian standard is NTSC which controls the number of lines scanned and the scan rate across the television screen.
The PAL standard that is used in Europe and many other regions of the world uses a different number of scanned lines and scan rate, so be sure the region-free player you are considering is capable of converting the PAL to NTSC if you will be sending the signal from the player to an NTSC-only set.
The portable player reviewed above has this PAL to NTSC conversion capability as do many other brand players. When in doubt, ask the vendor if the unit you are considering purchasing can do the extra step of scan format conversion as well as being region-free.