Philips PET320 Review

Ever since I discovered this player, I have been highly impressed with how much it met both my normal and oddball demands. As a student of Musical Theatre, Opera, Classical vocal and choral literature, and Jazz and Classical piano, small size, convenience, and MP3/WMA/CD-AUDIO are of great importance to me. On the Musical Theatre, Opera, and choral side of things, this player is capable of playing both NTSC (North American) and PAL (European) DVDs on corresponding as well as opposite TVs. For certain titles in these genres, the North American editions are either four percent slower in tempo and picture movement and flatter in pitch than the European editions due to the method of PAL-to-NTSC conversion used by the distributors of such DVDs, or do not include as many bonus features as their original European counterparts. Sometimes, it can be the other way around, except the European editions might be four percent faster and sharper and have less bonus material than their original North American counterparts. On both ends of the spectrum, if the audio pitch is corrected without changing the audio speed to keep the picture and sound in synch, a subaudible breaking-up effect may be noticed as the result of slight artifacts from slightly bending or stretching the pitch in the conversion process. However, because of this player's bicompatibility with DVDs recorded with both color systems, I have the freedom to choose and purchase whatever editions are the best. Although it is not in the manual, this player can be made multi-region compatible. With the DVD player turned off and the disc door opened, while holding OSD, turn on the power. After the configuration menu appears, highlight the REGION line and press PLAY/ENTER/OK. Using the up and down arrow keys, change this option to '0.' (RCE protected DVDs will play as normal with this option selected.) Press PLAY/ENTER/OK. Turn off the player and close the disc door. Now you can play any store-bought DVD-VIDEO without excessive hastle. This player does include a few noticeable annoyances. Its internal speakers can be difficult to hear even when the volume is set to maximum. Also, when attempting to play a DVD's DTS audio stream, the player goes silent, as a result of incompatibility with DTS audio streams. The sad thing about this is this type of audio stream is of better quality than Dolby Digital, and when listening through headphones, it is impossible to take advantage of the few DVDs that use DTS. However, because of this player's small size and convenience, these annoyances in my opinion are easily forgivable. In conclusion, if you are looking for a long-lasting, small-sized, and convenient universal portable DVD player, you have come to the right place!

P.S. In the configuration menu, I understand what most of the selections and options mean, yet I don't know what the 'AGING' selection is. I am aware that it has options including 'F' and '0' to '6.' I am not sure if I accidently changed it. My player still seems to be performing as I desire it to, yet would it be possible to have the 'AGING' selection and its options explained to me? Thank you.

I have no plans on using VCD or SVCD. Therefore, I do not have an answer for that one. Sorry about that.

I appologize for my laziness on this one. According to the documentation, it can play SVCD and VCD. I don't know if those types of files are transferable to DVD. And if they are, I don't know if the PET320 can play them on DVD because I have no plans on using those formats.