INTRODUCTION

   As far back as i can remember whenever i rode in the back seat of a car or in a bus i always wanted to be able to watch my favorite movies and series on a rather large screen and not the one from my MP4 player. Naturally not many people can afford to have an 2din in-dash DVD player in their car while even less can afford to have headrest LCD screens plugged into a central DVD console (to be honest with you that seems a bit overkill unless you have kids). So it didn't take long for manufacturers such as Philips, Sony and Panasonic to come up with portable DVD players that also came with 7+ inch screens attached to them. The only problem is that when these devices made their debut the price was so high that it also wasn't easy for everyone to have one. Luckily 5+ years later this is no longer the case and so today we will be taking a look at the latest entry level offering by Philips the PD7030/12 7" Portable DVD Player.

   Royal Philips Electronics of the Netherlands is a diversified Health and Well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through meaningful innovations. As a world leader in healthcare, lifestyle and lighting, Philips integrates technologies and design into people-centric solutions, based on fundamental customer insights and the brand promise of “sense and simplicity”. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips employs over 122,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries worldwide. With sales of EUR 22.6 billion in 2011, the company is a market leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as lifestyle products for personal well-being and pleasure with strong leadership positions in male shaving and grooming, portable entertainment and oral healthcare. Guided by the brand promise of “sense and simplicity” and the consumer insights, Philips Consumer Lifestyle offers rich, new consumer experiences that meet consumers’ desire for relaxation and improving their state of mind. Philips also responds to the consumer's desire for wellness and pleasure by introducing products that meet the individual’s interests in terms of their body and appearance. Philips Consumer Lifestyle employs approximately 17,700 people worldwide.

   Philips makes a wide range of portable DVD players starting with their entry level ones featuring 7" screens and up to their high end ones with 9" screens and even built-in MPEG4 DVB-T decoders. However although all their models where made available to us we had to pick one and so we decided to focus on their entry level model since it will most likely be the preferred choice for most people on a tight budget. So the Philips PD7030 Portable DVD Player combines an 7" 16:9 color LCD screen featuring a resolution of 480x234 pixels and a DVD player compatible with DVDs (DVD+-R/W), SVCD/VCDs and CDs. As expected the device can playback various media formats such as regular DVD video, DivX video, audio CDs, MP3sand JPEG pictures from picture discs. I am well aware that the screen resolution is not impressive but the overall package is quite good so let’s see exactly what you are getting.

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

As always Philips ships the PD7030 inside a white box with a large product picture at the front, the company logo and the main product features.

The product features are also placed on both sides in both English and German.

At the top of the box we see the package contents.

The entire bundle is placed inside a thick piece of cardboard.

Aside the player itself you will also get an AC wall adapter, Car adapter, two manuals, information booklet and a warranty paper.

THE PD7030/12

The PD7030/12 is a small portable DVD player, comes in white color, measures 195mm in width, 37.5mm in height, and 154mm in depth and weighs 624g.

That translates to a portable DVD player slightly larger than a single DVD case (a lot thicker though).

Although the top and bottom of the player feature a leatherette-like coating the middle is glossy/polished plastic.

The power and disc access LEDs are placed at the front.

The drive cover eject switch is placed at the left side.

Over at the right side we see the power on/off switch, volume control knob, USB 2.0 port, composite output, headphones mini-jack and the AC power port.

A large sticker at the bottom of the device informs you of the product factory manufacture date, serial number and barcode and also has several warning paragraphs due to the laser class of the product.

Even with the screen open the PD7030/12 is still quite small, however as you can see the screen can't be rotated left and right as with more expensive models.

Part of the unit’s media compatibility is printed on the drive cover.

The 7" LCD screen is quite sufficient for watching movies while on the road but the resolution of 480x234 pixels may not satisfy the most demanding of users.

The same can be said about the speaker system since although we have two speakers (stereo) the output power of 0.25WRMS may be good enough for use in quiet environments but in someplace noisy it's recommended to use a headset.

On the upper side the media navigation buttons are very conveniently placed and extremely easy to use because of their large size.

USING THE PD7030/12

 
The DVD cover opens with an angle of around 60 degrees and once you turn the device on the power led lights up green.

As expected the low screen resolution doesn't provide the best possible image quality (the OSD is a lot better than i had expected) although color reproduction is quite good.

CONCLUSION

   Philips is amongst the very few manufacturers that I’ve always liked (especially their LCD screens) not only because they are at the forefront of technological achievements and focus on high quality but also because most of the times they offer their products at very reasonable prices compared to the competition. That's also the reason as to why initially i was expecting a bit more from the PD7030/12 portable DVD player in terms of image quality. After considering every single aspect of the product however i think that Philips has hit the sweet spot between performance, quality and price. DVD movies play smoothly, MP3 audio can be reproduced from both CD and USB and the entire player is very small and light. Regarding the battery life Philips claims that the PD7030/12 can last for 3 full hours without charge however with the volume turned all the way up we were unable to hit that much and at best it kept going for 160 minutes (2h/40m). If i could change 1 thing it would be to add a region free capability since our version was only able to playback Region 2 (EU) DVDs and for someone like me who has bought many DVD's from the states over the years (prior to HD-DVD and Blu-Ray) that's not a good thing.

   With a current price tag set at around USD95 inside the USA (model PD700) and 80Euros inside the EU you can't really go wrong with the Philips 7030/12 portable DVD player. Of course as already mentioned a couple of times for really demanding consumers the almost 3 times more expensive Philips PD9005 is their flagship portable DVD player featuring an 9" swivel LCD screen (640x220), MPEG4 DVB-T decoder and offers a battery life of up to 5 hours. Personally even 7" are more than just enough to watch movies on the road and although the image quality and audio levels could be better one can't really complain when the price is right and because of that it comes highly recommended by us. 

PROS

- Build Quality
- Size/Weight
- Design
- 7" LCD Screen
- DVD/CD/MP3/DivX/JPEG Compatible
- Stereo
- Price 

CONS

- Image Quality (480x234)
- Audio Levels
- Battery Life (160m)
- Region Locked