Great when the thing is working

having to deal with customer-no-service

I also had a big problem getting this Firmware upgraded. First I was told by someone on the phone they would send me a CD and it would flash the BIOS in the DVD. Sounded strange but, hey maybe.. Well it turned out to be a bunch of c--p. After waiting a couple weeks and no response I called to inquire what the problem was. This time I was told a different story. I was told that some chip needed to be replaced. So I sent it to the address they told me. Now after they fixed it they did not deliver it when they said they would so I had to drive 20 miles to pick it up. I feel they should have picked up the tab for the shipping both ways. I have also had a BIG problem with this company honoring a rebate on a CDR I purchased a while back. It seems like they dare you to do business with them

Trying to get this unit upgraded? Try calling Philips Customer Relations, not Customer Support. Their corporate office should be able to help you get in touch.

Inability to play current DVDs and the company will not fix the problem

Ditto on the latest postings. My DVD 850 will not play SHREK or GLADIATOR. Called customer service and they said I could send in my player and for $125 they would send me something from their storeroom. REALLY annoying when I read that some people were able to get their machines upgraded. I complained to several people but to no avail. JUST HOW HARD IS IT TO DO A FIRMWARE UPGRADE ANYWAY! Well, needless to say I won''t be buying a Philips of any kind again.

Dolby digital, DTS support; plays DVDs and CDs using a dual laser pickup

Upgrade path for newer dvds??

I purchased this DVD player in 2/99 from a travel club (points for merchandise). So, the price was good though equivalent to about $400 in real money.

Overall a good player with only a single problem. This unit has 5.1 channel output, coax and optical output. Unlike some Pioneer units I have read about there is no lip-synch problem with the 850. The controls are simple and fairly intuitive, even on the remote. I feel the controls on my Dell laptop's player are as convenient as the remote on the Philips.

The sound is good through my Yamaha receiver; when I run into some $$$ I plan to purchase a good DD/DTS receiver and a capable subwoofer. The unit also has a headphone jack with volume control--handy on occasion.

I own about 25 DVDs and rented just one--Alien. That was to confirm that the player and not the disc was (and is) the problem. Reading another review here says that Philips is not supporting a firmware upgrade. If Philips Magnavox wants me to purchase any additional equipment from them they will support firmware upgrades. Please note that The Matrix and other "new" titles have functioned without incident.

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Only a DVD drive in laptop (Dell)

Picture quality

Freezes up; skips and goes around in circles with the same scenes

It is a disappointing DVD player. I will now think twice before I consider any Philips/Magnavox product.

Dolby Digital decoder. Picture and sound quality when playing movies.

Needs upgrade in order to play newer movies. Playback of audio CDs.

I bought this player in June 1999. I got it cheap through Amazon auctions. It performed flawlessly (apart from a couple of crashes) until late last year when it did not load American Beauty. I tried several copies and finally determined it was the player, not the disk. Since then, I've had this problem with more disks. It seems that if there is a DTS soundtrack on it, it won't play. There may be other features on the disks that also cause it to fail though. I was getting ready to buy a new player when I saw the review below, called Philips and will be shipping the unit to them shortly.

I really like this player. It has good picture and sound quality when playing movies. I use the built in DD decoder since my receiver is only DD ready (NAD T750, a very nice receiver by the way). I had originally hoped I could also use it as a CD player since it comes from Philips (or so I thought, more on that later) who invented the CD technology, but was very disappointed with CD audio quality. I ended up getting a NAD CD player to play music CDs. I have no complaints over the remote like many reviewers below, I especially like the jog wheel. The pause image is very good too.

A friend of mine who once worked at Philips told me that the first generation Philips DVD players were in fact rebranded Toshiba players. Thus the downloadable firmware upgrades and code cracks for Philips players, available on several web sites, do not work with this player. Looking at reviews for the Toshiba SD-3108 I see it has similar problems with playing new DVDs. This leads me to believe the 850 is in fact identical or very similar to the 3108. But at least Philips upgrades the player for free, Toshiba apparently charges you $50 for it.

Good functionality for money (at the time)

"New" movie incompatability, 2 lb. remote.

The remote comment was a bit of a joke, but it is fairly cumbersome. The most troubling thing is the player's inability to play some newer titles. I have had the player for 1.5 years without incident, but recently tried to play Gladiator and MI-2 with no luck. Fortunately, I found this site and it looks like others have had similar problems. I guess this one is going in my bedroom and it's off to purchase a new model.

Would recommend picking this one up used somewhere as a backup model. I HAVE played over 50 titles with no problems until recently.

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None.

Great remote control (jog/shuttle). Nice "zoom" function.

Will not play last disc (PC hybrid) of From The Earth To The Moon. Sometimes need to press keys more than once when viewing The Matrix. No problems with other discs.

Bought it from 800.com in January. This player is a clone of Toshiba's SD3108, not the SD3109 which was released in 1999. It has on-board DD decoding, outputs DTS, and what Toshiba calls ColorStream. ColorStream is just their word for component video out. Have it hooked up to a 32" direct view and it delivers beautiful images. If you find one cheap (

So far I agree with all previous dvd850 reviews posted here, but have one thing to add which may be of interest to some:
I also have a Philips CD Recorder, model CDR765BK, and the DVD850 can read and play a cdrw disc recorded on it. No other cd player that I currently own or have tried one of these cdrw's in has been able to recognize and play it. Neither the cd-rom drive in my computer at home or work, nor the cd player in my car, nor the unit in a rental car, nor my Denon DCM-320 5 disc changer, nor my Sony Laserdisc player, nor a friend's Yamaha 5 disc changer has been able to read/play the cdrw.

Based on what I have read regarding the compatibility of the consumer deck cdrw's, I am not suprised by these findings. I just wanted to share this info with anyone that needs it.

None

To many to list

Well here goes. After numerous phone calls to different Philips service centers and customer service centers I sent the player to the main center in Tenn, just to get it back with a note stating that the firmware upgrade was no longer available, but to contact customer service for an exchange. I did this and they authorized this so I had to send it to the factory in El Paso TX. I got the same model, 850, with a different serial number and a sticker that stated "renewed". Went and tried Gladiator right away. Guess what I found? It didn't play. Short of it, stay away from this model if you can. It's is junk and all of its "features" don't even work.

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cd rom, cd writers, TV's, all philips.