Philips PET1030/37 10.2 in. Portable DVD Player

We bought this for our 2 year old daughter and absolutely love it. The screen is plenty big enough, picture quality and sound are awesome! Easy to use and carry. She loves it as well and our car rides are much more enjoyable now! Thanks!

It's not easy to figure out how to play a DVD, & I sure tried. Perhaps I will have better luck tomorrow after the battery has fully charged even though I have it plugged into electricity.

I've tried watching 4 DVD's with no luck! There must be something I'm doing wrong, & the instructions that come with it are not for the faint of heart. They're not very intuitive or easy to understand. It's challenging but hopefully I'll figure it out sooner or later for this was not cheap to buy.

I still don't know what to do even after reading their faq's on line. Perhaps I should have started with a cheap throw away model that would have done it's job as long as it lasted.

I'm greatly disappointed in this unit which is my first buy of a portable DVD player. I'll accept any one's help in getting it to play a store bought DVD movie in my lifetime. I won't hold my breath!

If I ever do get it to play a DVD movie, I will be thrilled so I can at least say I got to use it. It should be easier then this!

If you're up to the challenge, & can figure it out, buy it, if not, then save your money!

Update! I called Phillips & found out I had a defective unit. They sent me a new one, & paid for the return shipping of the unit that was defective. The new unit works like a charm & as it's suppose to. Nice to deal with a company that stands behind their product.

When I received my player, neither the wall plug in or the cigarette adapter fit into the unit to charge the unit so that I could play the player. I immediately called Philips and they are sending me a new unit. I hope the new one works. I emailed the seller but have not heard back from him or her. A little disappointed. Unit looked great but didn't work so not that great. Philips was very nice on the phone but still have not received my replacement unit more than a month later.

I liked very much this player.
I was reading some bad reviews about it, but they're all old, as Philips already released a Firmware that fixes the chapter titlle showing all the time on the screen. So the price you'll find it nowadays makes it a pretty good deal!
I always prefered to buy Philips and Magnavox dvd players as they are pretty easy to find on the net, region code unlocks for them. However, for this particular model I could not find it at all and I also read about other owners complaining about the same thing. Nevertheless, I just found it... I am not sure if it is legal to post it here, so if it is not, just advise me that I'll delete it. Here it goes...

Power on player and open the DVD door;
Press [SETUP] by remote control;
In Set Up Menu, select <Audio> and press [OK] Press [2], [1], [2], [2], [2], [5], [<], [v] (push them at the same speed);
Display will show the Region Code;
Press Number Key button by remote control to select the desired region code;
Region code "0" can be used for all regions!
Press [SETUP] to save and exit your setting
Power off and power on again to verify if region code change is done.

My Philips PET 1030 did not function properly from the start. I tested several different store-bought DVDs and CDs that repeatedly failed to play. I was given a message on the screen saying "Bonding Invalid". Approximately one out of ten times that I tried a DVD or CD it did manage to work however. I called Philips technical support and they had absolutely no idea what "Bonding Invalid" meant. The best they could suggest was to use a DVD lense cleaner. Doing so did not make a difference. I called technical support a second time, hoping to talk to a different person who may be more helpful. I was unsuccessful. The tech spoke with a supervisor who did not know what it meant and their trouble-shooting flow chart did not include this problem. The supervisor made a guess that maybe it was a software error, but this was the best they could come up with. Obviously this was something the builders programmed this notice into the device, but it was not a part of their troubleshooting. They offered to exchange it for a new one, but three weeks later I was told the unit was discontinued. When you go to their web site however, it is still featured as their flagship portable DVD player. The unit they offer instead was not comparable. One asspect of the PET 1030 that I specifically liked was the bracket for mounting it to a car headrest. They said I could keep the mounting bracket and use it with the replacement. Unfortunately, the sales rep did not know that the bracket was specifically designed for the PET 1030 and would not work with any other device. I asked if they could just repair my unit instead of replace it. I was told that it was not ecoinomical to fix these units and they don not do it, they only replace them. To summerize, Philips was a disappointment at every level I communicated with them. The techs did not know the technical asspects of their product, the sales department did not know features of this or the replacement product, and nearly a month after I was told the product had been discontinued, it was still a featured product on their web site. After this experience I will stay away from all Philips products in the future. I suspect that if they decide it's not "econimical" to repair a unit and you are not satisfied with the replacement product they offer you may be out of luck. Customer service has an economical aspect to it as well, unfortunately Philips does not seem to be concerned with it and has thus lost my business.

Item condition exceeded my expectations. Although item was sold as used it had very minor scratches and looked like new to me. Prompt responce and fast delivery.

Clear large picture. Audio is plenty loud for a player this size.
Mounting hardware on headrest posts is nice but a little flimsy.
Many connection options.
Battery life is reasonable.
A must for our son on long trips.

I like the portability of the DVD player. It is light enough to carry and the screen size works for watching movies. When compared to other DVD players, it appears to be a bit pricey however the quality justifies the cost.