Philips DVD580M Lifestyle DVD Player

It didn't work. It also didn't come with the power chord like it was supposed to. So, I needed to go buy a power chord to find out it was broken.

In general, this is a very nicely designed unit. But it has one problem that is so serious that I will be returning the unit immediately. Philips clearly states in the manual (verified with customer support) that all Audio functions (volume up/down, treble, bass, mute etc.) only work with a Philips brand Audio Receiver. So your choices are to use use your receiver's volume/mute etc. or attach the Audio through your TVs tiny speakers. In my case my receiver's volume doesn't work with a remote, so I will have no means of controlling the volume of the player.This is a underhanded attempt to force people to buy a Philips receiver to work a very basic function of the player. The entire bottom half of the remote is non-functional with any receiver other than a Philips brand.This may not be a problem if you don't mind using two remotes and have a remote operated receiver. But you still won't be able to control other audio functions like bass/treble/surround effects etc. I have never encountered a similar DVD player that won't control volume without buying a same branded audio comoponent. I'm returning it tomorrow.

This DVD player continues to surprise me more than one year after ownership. The vertical mount is great, it is one of the few players that has the 5.1 multichannel out to use with Dolby Digital Ready receivers. The setup page offers powerful settings such as hi res or no flicker picture modes, angle mark, S video AND component out, you can turn individual audio channels on and off, you can mixdown multiple channels into two, adjust center and rear delay, test tone, it even has a dyanamic range compression which is great for watching movies that have loud explosions and such late at night. The component out gives you near progressive scan quality in my opinion, but the best feature for me is DTS, I am using the DVD580M optical out connected to a Logitech Z-680 speaker system which is DTS, THX, and Dolby Digital ready. Put in a copy of the newly released Apollo 13, disc 2 (the IMAX version), turn on DTS decoding in Languages and you will see and hear what this DVD player can do. WOW. The only issue I have had with this player is there is a delay when switching layers, sometimes and I stress sometimes, the delay exceeds 5 seconds. Other that that, it is awesome, I know this is a discontinued product but I had to write a review in case someone is looking for a used DVD player.

This is the second DVD580M player I own. This little machine plays formats that my $500 Sony didn't and it fits almost anywhere. Easy to use and plays a great picture. For the price, you can't beat it!!

Less than two months after receiving my new PHILLIPS DVD player, it is now sitting in my TRASH CAN! The PHILLIPS DVD player refused to eject the dvd, saying there was no disc inside. I called the 1-800 HELP number (YA RIGHT!) which came with my PHILLIPS DVD player for assistance and received NONE other than to offer to tell me where I could go to have my less than 2 month old PHILLIPS DVD player repaired at MY OWN COST! In my opinion, this shows that PHILLIPS does NOT stand behind their products, and this PHILLIPS DVD player was a piece of JUNK! I guess you get what you pay for.

I previously owned the Coby DVD-224 Compact DVD Player, and for some reason the Progressive Scan outputs on the Coby was not working with my HDTV Flat Panel LCD. So I needed something similar in size with Progressive Scan capabilities. Sadly, most high end Progressive Scan DVD players are large, flat and wide, and also extremely expensive.I saw this one online for only $47.99 and spent some time deciding between this and the Memorex MVD2030 Vertical Progressive-Scan DVD Player ($79.99). I decided on this one since it was cheaper and I wanted something simple and easy.After a week of use this Philips DVD580M Lifestyle DVD Player really impressed me. The sound and image outputs are very crisp, clean and smooth thanks to the progressive scan output. The controls and outputs are numerous and useful.There is a full interactive menu for the player itself that enables the owner to adjust and tweak just about everything from channel output (sound), to color/video output schemes.I thought the menu were a little too much above simplicity for my tastes (most users will only select the best sound and visual output once and never go back to these controls again).The Remote Control was also tactile and easy to use compared to sony remotes. My only complaint was that the remote is almost as big as the player itself. And the remote has an extra 3 inches at the bottom with controls for what seems to be some other "phillips" devices and a Multichannel audio surround sound reciever. Unless you have an appropriate Phillips brand receiver/theater system the controls don't work. Also the extra outputs don't seem to work for anything other than phillips branded receievers. I tried to hook up to my Sony theater box and there was no resulting sound, I also tried my Altec Lansing Computer surround sound/sub woofer system and got the samething.So unless you have a phillips brand or high end multi channel receiver the result is that you'll have a larger remote with extra buttons that do nothing and extra sound outputs on the back of the player that also do nothing. At any rate the normal L and R outputs provided really great sound thru my Samsung Flat panel LCD speakers, then again my TV already has really good speakers.The player also the ability to play music DVD-Rs, CDs and CD-Rs as well as MP3s. You can also view JPEG picture files that are saved on a CD-R/CD-RW on your TV thru the player. It also creates a slideshow for presenting vacation photos, etc...Finally my favorite feature is the way DVDs and CDs load & eject thru the slotted opening on the glass front. It is very cool-looking and easy to do, you'll wonder why DVD makers still make clumsly DVD trays instead of these smoothly functioning slots.The player also came with a solid steel stand and like the player itself everything is built with really great craftmanship and quality (ABSOLUTELY no cheap plastics are used here). This is evident in the weight of the player. It's not heavy, but when you pick it up the firm wieght makes you know it's expensive and built with the best of materials.I would recommend this product, but probably can't because I believe I may have bought the last one for sale anywhere at the moment. But if you see this player for sale get it and you will be very happy.