Last November my old DVD player stopped working so my son and daughter-in-law bought me a new one for Xmas just like the one above. I've owned the player for nearly a year now and have used it nearly every evening. After my laptop and MP3 player this little baby is my next favourite appliance. So far nothing has gone wrong - fingers crossed.


Let's take a closer look:

The Philips DVP3111 model looks exactly as it does in the picture above. It is very slim and could possibly fit anywhere. I have it placed in the alcove of a unit underneath the TV and there is still plenty of space to put another appliance on top. I noticed a few days ago that my cat liked to sleep on top of the DVD player so I have blocked him by placing a book on the top. The player is black and picks up a lot of dust probably because the unit is near the window and the radiator. Perhaps one in silver would have been better as silver doesn't pick up the dust so bad.

Packaging:

The DVD player came in a strong cardboard box with the Philips logo at the sides and on the top along with a picture of the DVD player. Inside the box I found a remote control which comes in very useful, an International warranty leaflet written in several languages including English, a user manual which I have not looked at and I think I should have received 2 x AAA batteries but I didn't so don't know what happened to those.

Dimensions:

Dimensions are as follows: width is 360 mm, height 37mm and depth 209 mm. As you can see from the figures it is slim. Much more attractive than those old fashioned bulky players we used to all have. It's also very light and weighs in at 1.3kg. The downside with the low weight is that it easily slides around in the unit especially when I am looking for the remote control when it has fallen behind the player.

Connection/Power supply:

You connect from the back of the player by plugging it in and connecting a Scart lead to the player and TV.The power supply needed is 110-240v, 50/60 Hz. Power consumption is 10W and standby consumption is 1W.

Front Fascia:

The front fascia panel is silver and simple consisting of an on/off button which is on the left. This is black with a red inner circle. Further along the panel there are two miniature glass lights. These turn blue when the black CD/DVD draw is opened and closed by the two separate buttons next to the glass lights. The opening and closing of the draw has a quick and smooth action with a slight clicking noise.

Picture/display:

You can play any disc format on this player including digital photos which I have only done a couple of times. I usually play music DVD's and the odd movie. After 12 months of use I still have no complaints. The picture quality is sharp and looks natural enough to me. Sometimes a certain DVD (has to be my favourite one) jumps but we think this is to do with the SCART lead at the back of the TV because once my husband has hit the TV it stops. Who needs technology?

Sound:

The sound system is Dolby digital. It's very good, clear without distortion and the frequency is just about right for my ears.

Photos:

I haven't used this function often but you are able to rotate pictures, flip, zoom in/out and create a slide show.

My favourite function:

On my old DVD player I didn't have an on-screen language display and couldn't play Polish DVD's and have the opportunity to change the language to English. On this Philips model I do have that function and it makes me very happy because there are a couple of serials I like in Polish and now I can watch them and understand what is actually going on. Other languages are Greek, Hungarian, Spanish, Turkish, Czech and English.

Other function:

Child lock. Easy for parents to be in control of what their children are watching. I don't need this yet but may do as my granddaughter and grandson grow up.

So that's the run down on my DVD player. I have no idea of the price and not sure where my son purchased it from so can't really check with the stores prices. However, the same model is selling on Amazon.co.uk for just under 40 pounds. I think this is a fair price. I have had great value out of it and hope to spend many more years watching my music DVD's. It still looks like brand new apart from the layer of dust on the top. Now where did I put that duster???

*Some of the specifications taken from the box the DVD was packaged in*