Price Paid:  $180.00 from elkjop.no

Summary:
This player was a budget choice for me, and I bought it primarily because of fairly good reviews in the press regarding audio quality.

This player has a Burr-Brown DAC which is a 24 bit/192KHz type of chip. Audio quality thus is quite good (but easily surpassed with this years new players).

Picture quality is also good.

Menu-text shows some "pixel creep" and also some aliasing (jaggedness in contours). RGB via the Scart gives the least pixel creep (almost unnoticeable).

Both an older Philips I owned prior to this and the new Philips DVP720SA has much better quality in this area.

SLOW: This player is slow when you put in a CD or DVD. Slow to react to the open button (in fact if you switch the player on and then immediately press the open button the player will switch itself off (!)) Slow when loading CD's with MP3 (30 seconds plus).

Navigation of MP3 CD's via the TV works well. MP3 support in the players display is however pitiful with only 8 characters of the song title showing - and not scrolling.
Sound of MP3's is however quite good, being on the warm side.

VCD/SVCD playing is a bit unreliable if doing fast forward/reverse - otherwise OK.

Pioneer has launced the DV-370S as a successor to this player now, with progressive scan, DivX and much quicker response (in all areas) touted as the main new features.

So I recommend taking a look at the new 370 model first in this price-range.

Strengths:
* Good audio with Burr-Brown DAC
* Good picture quality playing DVDs
* Easy setup

Weaknesses:
* SLOW (read above)
* Menu text aliasing/"pixel creep"
* Lacking MP3 scrolling titles in the display (only shows 8 first characters)
* Lacking analog 6 CH outputs
* Lacking advanced sound configuration options

Similar Products Used:
Older Philips DVD player
Philips DVP720SA (better audio and picture)