Customer Reviews
Not worth it 
2007-12-24
We bought this last year for my in-laws and as with many, the DVD player already quit working after less than 10 uses. When we purchased the item, it also did not come with all the parts and when we called customer service, we could not give them the serial number because it had been scratched off with a knife (note to other sellers, only buy from Amazon and not third party seller if you aren't looking for a unit with the numbers scraped off). The surroud sound works pretty well, but it seems useless to have such a terrible quality DVD player with it. I think it would be better to just buy a system without a player built in and buy a player to hook up. We will definitely learn from our mistake with this one.
Outstanding Value and Performance - Complete Package 
2007-12-23
This is truly a complete system. In addition to excellent CD/DVD performance the built-in AM/FM stereo system is excellent.
The surround sound on BOTH DVD's AND Cable broadcasts will surprise you.
The system even simulates surround sound when the source is simple in stereo.
You will love this system.
It is best used in small to medium rooms. It might be inadequate in very large family rooms.
The sound system has adequate power to fill your room and provide impressive sound effects. Planes will fly from front to rear and side to side.
Don't Buy This 
2007-11-08
I bought this home theater system from Philips last year and it worked fine for about 14 months, and then suddenly it wouldn't read discs any more. Any discs. I tried dozens of clean discs but each time the display would read "no disc".
The warranty only lasts one year so I'm out of luck. Don't make the same mistake I did- don't buy this system. Try another, more reliable brand. Philips just doesn't cut it.
Good Value 
2007-06-22
This system is a very good buy. The sound is quite good and with a
simple hack code, this system can be made to play region free.
In dvd mode(without a disc in the tray)press- play 1590 2379 390 play.
This will change the region code to 0.
I have not had any humming problems like other reviewers.
The Hummer (H 4 maybe?) 2007-01-28
Well, I thought I had bought a Home Theater system about a year and half ago. Little did I know that I had also got a Hummer in bargain!!
It's been a little over a month since it started humming on powering up. It is almost like it is a kid with a stomach pain - when I apply pressure on the top it cries cries out louder - as if my pressure just increased the pain that it is going through.
Although the sound quality is about ok for the price, I would not buy it or recommend it. I am not sure if I will even look at Philips for my next Home Theater after this one either dies out or needs to be euthanised because of the intense pain it seems to be undergoing.
Perfect purchase! 2007-01-11
Whether in homes, factories, offices, airports, or on the street, it's hard to imagine a place where Philips is absent. What Philips wants is to make your life and work easier - and more fun! And Philips continuously explores new ways to improve products and to offer innovative products to its consumers. Philips. "Let's Make Things Better".
Very Good, but no way to connect headphones :-( 2007-01-09
Sound quality is amazing, but...
For city dwellers there is a catch - system does not have a plug for headphones - so there is no way to see the movie while child is going to bed in the next room.
Another annoying feature is slowness of DVD drive - it opens/closes/loads disk really slow - much slower then say famous Philips 642 DVD player.
Great System for a Great Price 2007-01-05
This system was very affordable and has a great sound! I have a new audio cd that came doubled with the same cd only in 5.1 surround sound and I was blown away by this systems sound... it was awesome! I highly recomend it.
Great DVD 2007-01-04
I usualy dont review things i dont have a problem with, but this is a great dvd system! Amazon asked me to review so I am. The player plays great, the speakers sound great, and continue to. I havent had a problem since i got it a few months back.
Buy it, you wont regret it.
Just Amazing !!!!! 2006-06-29
The first time I saw this piece was at Wal-mart. I had listened to Sony,Philips, JVC, Panasonic, RCA in that order, the difference was instantly clear. Then I went back to listen to the Philips again and the difference was clear.I recommend that first time buyers should go to a store with several brands on display that they could listen to. I made up my mind that if I wanted a home theater in a box (HTIB)package it will be the Philips brand.This was about 10 months ago. Each time I stopped by the electronic section of any store I would check it out. Finally, I decided to buy one. Next thing was to read expert reviews and consumer reviews. Most reviews rated it high. However, I was concerned about the hissing sound some consumers had experienced.I still went ahead to buy one at Fred Meyer for $179:00 on sale, if I did not like it, I will return it, I reasoned. I bought the black colored piece. Costco and Radioshack had it on sale for the same price but Fred Meyer is closer to my home.
Since adding this piece to our family room, the audio effects in our family room is certainly more welcoming, warmer , richer and entertaining than before.
I will address the concerns of a few reviews here.
1. Hissing sound: I found none, but discovered that if the audio OUT on your TV has one jacket like mine, instead of two or three jackets, then you need to get an extension RCA jacket that will split your one outlet to two or three OUT jackets with the apporpriate color codes (white, red (for two jackets) and yellow for the third jacket) to match the audio IN jacket (white and red) of the DVD player, otherwise you will get either a humming or hissing sound. Please note that the key here is to have the color codes on your TV audio OUT,to match the color codes on your Philips DVD audio IN otherwise you will get a humming or hissing sound.
2. DVD player jumping disc: You are using a defective disc. solution: change your disc.
3. Back speakers not working: They will not work if you do not use the remote control to adjust the surround and sound buttons to the appropriate mode e.g. movie , stereo etc. Sometimes, some movies are not recorded to produce surround sound effect, so change the TV channel or your DVD disc.
4. Speaker wires not long enough:Some consumers had enough length, mine were too short for our large family room (too large for me to bother to measure). One reviewer was able to use banana plugs to make the adaptation,I could not. So I returned the banana plugs, I bought from Home depot. Instead, I bought some digital extension cables. They come in different sizes 14G,16G,18G,20G etc. The smaller the size number, the thicker the cable, the better, to avoid loss of digital signals. I bought size 14G. The risk with attaching extension cables is that since you will have to cut into the original cables that come with the equipment you can not return your equipment to the store nor sell it at ebay for a good price if you wanted to,since it will be considered tampered with. But be reassured you will not need to dispose of this equipment once you have it properly set up.If you decide to use additional extension cable/wire, cut the orginal wire at about 6 inches from the speakers. Attach your extention cable to this cut end and run the attached extension cable from your speaker location to where your equipment is.Then attach the other end of your extension cable to the other end of the original cable, so you can still use the proprietary speaker plugs that came with your equipment to attach to the back of the set.This method makes it cosmetically suitable to have one cable (i.e. the extension) run through your entire room and at the same time use the the proprietary plugs attached to the orginal cable at the other end with your equipment, which by the way is the only plug that fits into the jackets at the back of the DVD player/receiver.REMEMBER to tape over all exposed wires/cables with nonconductive electric tape. Normally, comes in black.
Caution: you need to buy enough length of extension cable though, they come in 25ft, 50ft and 100ft length. Having a large room I bought three 50 feet cables to do the job satisfactorily.The cost for each 50 ft cable was $19:00.
5. Wall mountings:The enclosed wall mountings are fixed. You can not rotate the position of your speakers once mounted. For less than $15:00 at Wal-mart , I bought a set of 5 speakers wall mounts that I can rotate from side to side or move up and down to a suitable head angle.
Speaking of the sound production, it is clear, crisp and true theater realism. The sonics can not be described justily unless you hear it for your self.Do your self a favor and buy one.
But for the proprietary plugs that make it difficult to consider using extension cables , I would have given it 5 stars. Philips should make the plugs universally adaptable, so consumers wil not have second thoughts about adding extension cables, if they needed to. Better still, Philips could add more length to the cables or make provisions for one to order fitting extension cables through them so you do not have to cut into the original cables.
