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| Philips BDP7300/05 Full HD 1080p Blu-Ray Player with HDMI |
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Philips BDP7300/05 Full HD 1080p Blu-Ray Player with HDMI
Philips
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| Product Details |
ISBN/ASIN: B0021T2IEE
Release Date: 2009-05-11
Average Rating: 
Media: Electronics
Audience Rating:
Product Group: CE
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| Customer Reviews: Average Rating: 4.0/5 | | Very Quick to Play Blu Ray, Solid Build: Rating: 4/5 |
I was not born a philips fan. i have no allegiance to them in particular
i bought this player to compliment a philips tv i have purchased, sad i know but more to do with them looking good next to each other than anything else. i had seen good reviews of this model online, although What Hi Fi give it only 4.
so far i have experienced no problems with this product. time it takes to play a BR disc from loading or main menu is very fast, almost as quick as the PS3. player is solidly built, tray on opening is not wobbly, smooth operation. generally impressed.
only reason i have not given it a 5 star rating is i have only had it for a few weeks and thought it best to give an honest review. | | Good player when it worked!: Rating: 2/5 |
Bought this Philips BlueRay player to compliment my new Philips LCD. Worked well for a few weeks then got the dreaded 'HDCP Error' message. After some internet research, I realised this is an industry wide problem; HDCP is copyright management technology which controls how devices talk to each other. Most new devices should be compliant, but you should check before buying. This BlueRay is compliant, so is my Philips LCD.
Naturally, I expected perfect compatibility between the same manufacturers devices. Switched the BluRay on one day however, and it decided it was no longer compliant with the LCD and no amount of effort could restore the connection. Endless online chat and emails with Philips support to discover if it was the BlueRay or the LCD resulted in nothing but frustration. Went online to independent forums and no joy.
Gave up 6 weeks later and contacted Amazon who refunded the BlueRay player straight away. I bought the LCD outside of Amazon, so I hope it doesn't encounter a problem as few retailers are as quick to resolve issues as amazon.
So, Philips support is useless, Amazon is excellent. HDCP is a crap technology that can't be trusted.
By the way, make sure you apply all the latest updates to your LCD, BlueRay..etc, or you could find yourself in the same boat; not that updating mine helped.
| | It can play 4:3 DVDs in 4:3!: Rating: 5/5 |
| Just as an addendum to the previous reviewer who has problems with 4:3 ratio films and programmes on DVD played on this player, the latest update on the Philips website corrects this problem and it can play 4:3 material in 4:3. I find my BDP7300 a marvelous player in both Blu-Ray and DVD, especially upscaled to 1080p. | | WAS NOT COMPATIBLE with 4:3 format of DVD disks. Best CD sound?: Rating: 4/5 |
While all of the greatness of a Blu-ray (and good 19:6 format discs) are there and in gobs, the unit I got from Amazon WAS NOT COMPATIBLE with the "standard" 4:3 disks. It deformed the video picture and stretch is to both sides of a wide-screen TV (mine is top of the line Philips Ambiance-Lights TV). And while the cheaper model, 3000-Philips, accepts every format and get the video proportion right without a problem.
With this 7300 that I bought from Amazon, you will have to spend hours figuring out how to make it work (note that the manual is useless, very scanty, do not go into any detail and certainly does not address this problem at all !!!)
You can however set the player menu to the NATIVE function instead of HDMI "automatic":
This means that you change the HDMI from auto tab into a "native" tab and fix it to that tab.
By so doing you are not watching the disks at the up-scaling with more resolution that the HDMI offer, but you are watching them at the resolution that the Disk was made in; it plays the disk at the same rate as it was recorded.
Meaning: If the disk is of a low resolution it will spear as such, 580i etc...
As for Blu-ray playback, it just plays them at their intended 1080p resolution.
I have spent hours with Philips Help-Desk. As it turned out they could not offer a solution to the HDMI output distortion on normal 4:3 DVD format.
Four times they have sent me a wrong "update" USB sticker which the DVD player could not recognize.
As a last resort I called a Philips shop in another city and found out that I can ship the unit to them (free of charge) - for an in-depth check as to find out what was wrong with the unit I got from Amazon (a second unit already...)
Got the player back after the holidays and the problematic hustle was fixed.
Now, potential buyers read this carefully: The problem with these 7300 sold by Amazon is not the updates via a USB sticker. The problem is that the whole firmware inside has to be changed (not an update problem).
However:
The feel of the machine (the 7300 Player) is of driving a Mercedes !
Mechanically speaking and the feel you get is soundless and smooth (no rubbing sound when the drawer opens or closes) and it does not have the clicks that model 3000 has...)
The 7300 DVD player is much heavier than the cheaper model either the series 3000, or series 7500, and it feels more luxurious.
The Audio Stereo sound is excellent and more than that when playing music CDs.
I was surprised to learn that tete-a-tete with a dedicated CD player of top-name, one that costs five times the price of this Philips 7300 Blu-ray, the CD player had to take a back-sit to this 7300; would it be that the power supply is greater on this blu-ray player (later on I found out that this is actually the case here...See farther).
At any rate I ended dedicating this 7300 to the music-room to play music CDs and got another one (not from Amazon!) to play for the TV.
Few weeks later I had the chance to compare this 7300 model to the Present day Philips 7500 hooked as a CD player in my big stereo system in the music room and to the flag-ship, the top of the Philips line, namely, the 9500 Player.
The differences between those two and the 7300 were "eye-opener" (or rather ear opener...) in a direct compression, the 7500 and the 9500 has pushed the sound-stage slightly forward and the instruments layers within the stage (symphonic and operatic music) became flattened while the dynamic gradations were not "sculptured-out" as precisely as with Model 7300.
Also, Model 7300 had the stage a tad laid-back, more relaxed and more anchored (greater power supply capabilities and a larger margin of overload to the 7300 power-supply.
This all can be attributed to the fact that Model 7300 has a larger Toroidal power transformer and with it more (audio) headroom.
Compare this:
The 7500 weighs 3.7-Kg. while the 7300 weighs 4.3-Kg. That counts -as a beefier Toroidal transformer will no doubt add to the total weight. Also depth of the 7300 is more than that of the 7500 (more spaced components inside?). The 7300 shares the same large toroidal transformer as that found in the real top-top of the Philips line, namely, model 9500. BUT GRASP THIS: shunt away from the top of the line, the 9500 - it has a fan cooling at the back and that fan is awfully audible: no moment of silence and it will deter you form enjoying music soft passages no matter how far away it is from you - the fan is audible (I regard this as a Philips mis-conception, a design that was not thoroughly thought through and a cheap way to cool the component inside the box (the fan is a cheap little Chinese creation - typical of cutting costs; Shame on you Philips...!
As said, I had the chance to audition in my home the Philips TOP of the line the 9500 as a DVD player connected to my Philips 53-inch LCD TV - AND - as mentioned it was used as a CD player connected to the big stereo system in my music room.
As a DVD player it was as good as the somewhat cheaper Philips model 7500 and with the same picture clarity; no much difference or differences that the eye could not detect.
As a CD player compared to the 7300 it sounded a tad veiled (masked) and the sound-stage did not hold as precise and 'sculptured out' as that produced by the 7300; there was more sound-image wonder or uncertainty about the precise location in the depth of the field. In short: the9500 top of the line sounded less than the 7300.
And now to address this to Amazon:
I hope for the buyer's sake that Amazon may have understood by now that the stock needs to be checked out for the latest firmware for model 7300 to be installed BEFORE they offer these for sale.
In closing:
If you can put your hands on an updated Philips model 7300 - do not hesitate, specially if you like to have it as a great CD player.
| | EXCELLENT PLAYER: Rating: 5/5 |
| VERY GOOD PICTURE WITH GOOD BLACKS AND VIVID COLOURS.VERY GOOD AUDIO QUALITY ASWELL COMPARED WITH VARIOUS OTHER PLAYERS IN THE PRICE RANGE.ALSO NICE LOOKING PLAYER.LOAD TIMES ARE THE FASTEST IVE SEEN BAR THE NEW SAMSUNG PLAYERS.PLUS YOU GET TW0 FREE DISCS............ | |
