Philips DVDQ35AT DVD Player

The Phillips DVDQ35AT unit is functionally the same as the Phillips DVD724AT. Both are progressive scan units having the capability of playing music CDs and Kodak Picture CDs, as well as computer generated CD-R and CD-RW disks containing Jpeg picture files from your scanner or digital still camera, MP3 music files downloaded from the internet, and VCD or SVCD movie files created, for example, from your digital movie camera.

The DVDQ35AT has a more stylish case with a smaller footprint. I called Phillips to ask if there are other, more meaningful differences to justify the $20 premium asked for the DVDQ35AT over the DVD724AT but, unfortunately the people who can answer such questions are either in the Netherlands or China.

I tested several other units before purchasing the DVDQ35AT at Target - including the Lasonic LS-1300, Apex AD2500, JVC XVS502SL, AKAI DVPS-760, and the DVD725AT.

My requirements were: Progressive Scan for future use with an HDTV, JPEG picture playback, and a $130 budget - which I exceeded.

If you're not interested in JPEG (you don't care about digital photography) but want progressive scan, your choice is a no brainer. Go get the Panasonic DVD-RP62K which has the Sage Fadjouga DcDi chip. You won't find a better priced unit having this chip. See http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_3/dvd-benchmark-progressive-shootout-2-8-2001.html#Philips Q50

If you want to display your digital photos on your TV (beats having to pass the pictures around the room and explain them to each individual) then you've got 2 basic choices.

There seems to be 2 different Jpeg photo chips in use by the DVD manufacturers. The one used by JVC, Toshiba and several others is problematic in that it displays pictures to the screen very slowly (up to 10 to 20 seconds per picture), ignores subdirectory structure making it almost impossible to logically display more than one group of photos from a single disk without establishing an elaborate naming convention beforehand, and is limited as to the size fo the file which can be displayed.

The Phillips, Akai, Apex and others use a chip which displays photos almost instantly, displays a JPEG menu which includes Root, Sub-Directory, and files within,
allowing one to display logically organized groups of pictures within their sub-directories. (Since pictures may be burned to the CD in file name sequence within the sub-directory, simply append a sequence number to the file name of each picture beforehand).

The Phillips allows one to set the duration of pictures displayed in 1 (useless), 2, 5, or 20 second intervals, as well as manually. As a trade-off, others having this chip permit the selection of several picture to picture transition effects but allow only manual control of picture duration.