This player was purchased as the second player in my household to run with a 32" Hitachi wide screen CRT TV. The main player being a Sony DVD 735D running with a Sony 50" wide screen projection unit. Any comparisons were made using the CRT TV.
The player as purchased is region 2 only, but the dealer did a remote hack for me using the RC6 code and the One For All 6 handset. I have chipped the player since. The only differences in operation being that the start-up screen display is now in NTSC format, reverting to PAL (with a pal disc!) when the disc runs, and the "Philips -Magnavox" logo has now reverted to "Philips". Also the option to select NTSC or PAL in the start up menu has been disabled.
The player is well built (in Eastern Europe) and not at all flimsy but seems a little on the bulky side compared with the Sony. The display is bright blue and easy to read but has no dimmer, or off facility. it also lacks any indicators for Dolby Digital, DTS. or sound mode. The machinery is very quiet in operation but for the (small) disc drawer flap closing with a "clunk". The front of the player is the usual black plastic affair with only the minimum amount of disc transport buttons, a sound mode selector, plus the standby button. This makes the use of the remote the only option with most discs, but I like it!
The back panel is well endowed, it has two SCART sockets, one with RGB, the other allows a video recorder to operate with the DVD player (with auto signal fed thru!), an VHS socket, optical and co-axial digital outs, audio phono's and a composite video phono socket.
The facilities provided are usual for machines in this price bracket, RGB SVHS and composite video outputs, Selection for Stereo, 3-D or surround sound on the analogue audio outputs. Dolby Digital and DTS outputs, DVD VCD Super VCD CD + CDR and CDRW playback and (on my machine) multi-region playback playing NTSC discs in pure NTSC. It performs all the usual DVD tricks plus a few extras like zoom and enhanced freeze frame. It can also remember your favourite tracks (DVD and CD), and has a resume function for the last five discs played. It will not play MP3 encoded discs. It seems the region hack disables Macrovision (I have made many good recordings ((for my own use!)) onto VHS without problems). A screensaver is active and reduces the brightness to 25% of normal after a pre-determined time (saves CRT phosphor burns!). No on-board Dolby digital or DTS decoder is fitted but in my experience, the on-board decoders fitted into budget machines are not that good!
On first sight the handset seems very small and the buttons seem badly laid out, but after using it for a few weeks the buttons fell into place and it became a one-handed functional and pleasant handset to use. It has no backlighting or TV control functions and does not have the ability to carry out a region hack (a One For All 6. is required).
Setting up the machine is a doddle, on switching on for the first time you are guided thru the set-up with the help of a good manual, all the usual options are given with a few, surprisingly, omitted. RGB, SVHS and Composite all appear on the sockets all of the time and cant be disabled! What this means in practice is that any RGB compatible TV when connected to SCART No.1. will automatically switch to RGB when the DVD player is active (I like it, some wont!). I like the option to horizontally shift the displayed picture, very handy with my Hitachi wide screen TV! Any of the set-up options can be changed from the screen dropdown menu at any time, as required.
The player, in its multi-region guise, detects the region on inserting the disc, its that easy!, and I have never experienced any glitches in playback playing a wide selection of region 1,.2 and 4 discs - even the notorious ones.
This player is good when it comes to playback quality! Well-defined, rock solid sharp pictures, a nice colour balance with good true black levels using RGB, a good level of contrast and no signs of instability or lip-synch problems. No blocking is visible and edge definition using RGB is sharp. Operation could be a little faster and this shows up sometimes during layer changes and chapter changes. Comparison with the Sony, bearing in mind the £200.00 price difference! shows very few differences in picture quality (throw the image onto the 50 inch projection screen and the differences are more pronounced), indeed the Philips 711 is kinder to badly encoded discs and it plays older damaged, dirty discs without any problems ( I cant say that for the Sony). I can't recall having playback problems over the 3 months of owning this player! (Except for one crash, playing "Chicken Run" region 2) The pictures produced by the Philips machine using RGB seem a little on the dark side compared with Composite (this could be my TV!).
Audio output from DVD is good via the digital outputs. I feed a Sony Home cinema set-up using optical connectors. Dolby Digital and DTS are handled with ease (DTS has the edge!) with good dynamics and a well-balanced frequency range. This machine has more low frequency "punch" than the Sony, this shows on action movies with good soundtracks such as "Saving Private Ryan" (region one import - DTS). No headphone socket is provided (available on the DVD751). The mix down to Dolby Pro Logic seems better than most I have heard and the 3-D sound mode, using "Truesurround (SRS)" gives surprisingly good 3-D effects using 2 speakers, if you like that sort of thing!
CD playback is not bad for a DVD drive! Not up to a good audio player but still very enjoyable! I connect to my amp using the co-ax. Digital output, but the sound is not degraded much when using the usual phono outputs.
I made comparisons with other DVD players in the price range and I found the Philips better in most respects especially Video and audio quality. The Chinese derived players are not really in the same class (plus they are very ugly!). Probably because Philips (and Sony!) have more idea on what the customer wants! I also think that as this machines firmware can be upgraded very easily it protects the owner from suddenly finding that due to the introduction of new DVD encoding methods, his machine has become obsolete overnight!
I can't give any ratings on this player as I don't have enough machines to compare it with. I would recommend this machine to anyone needing a budget machine that performs well, looks good, with a recognised brand name to boot! I believe that, at the price, you wont find a better machine! I would say that this player is very well balanced and very neutral in its picture and sound output.
I would advise any new owner to go for the handset region hack over the chip, the handset hack works as well as the chip and your guarantee stays intact! For information, after shopping around, I paid £186.00 for my machine and I forced the dealer to perform the hack for free! To get his sale. This is well under the recommended retail price!
We all have different ideas of what we want from our home entertainment equipment, this review reflects what I want! I can only advise any potential buyer to audition the player before buying and check out the competition for yourself. If the retailer wont do this for you, go elsewhere!
Just a note for any reader who owns a projection TV! When I play Region 1. discs, I can visibly see the horizontal lines, possibly because of the >100 missing lines? I now try to buy on region 2 or 4 when possible, especially as they are now appearing with DTS encryption!
Colin Marsh
