Event Coverage

Bringing the Cinema Home - Philips' Cinema 21:9 Launch

By Vincent Chang & Andy Sim - 25 Jun 2009

New Blu-ray and DVD Players

New Philips Blu-ray Players

Despite its relatively soft adoption rates, there's only one HD format left standing and that's Blu-ray. Philips too is doing its part to push the boundaries of this segment with new players that have support for BD-Live Profile 2.0 and are able to output 1080p at 24 fps for cinema-like quality. And if it's just plain old DVDs that you have, these players are able to upscale your DVDs to 1080p resolution.

The Philips BDP7300 is its upcoming, flagship Blu-ray player. Besides its BD-Live Profile 2 support (1GB of internal memory and Ethernet functionality), it also supports a variety of formats like WMA, DivX, MP3 and JPG. Its audio capability is very decent too, like decoding of 7.1 channels lossless HD audio formats, including DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD.

The lower end BDP3000 model does support BD-Live but without the internal memory. Instead, you have to make use of the given USB ports and provide your own flash memory as the memory buffer.

Portable DVD Players

Not forgetting the portable DVD player segment, which remains popular for users during those long trips, Philips has a new range, all equipped with support for DivX media besides the usual DVD formats. Prices range from $199 for the lightest, entry level PET712D to $539 for the PET1031 with its mounted stand and 10.2-inch display.

 Philips' new range of portable DVD players for those who enjoy watching their movies on the go.

The high-end PET1031 comes with a 10.2-inch anti-glare swivel screen (180 degrees) and a car mount kit. As you can expect, a wide range of media formats are supported, including DivX and MPEG4. Battery life too is claimed to be up to five hours.

The entry level PET721 just about makes it as a portable DVD player, with only two hours of battery life. It is however very portable, weighing only 0.71kg.

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