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Review : Phillips DVD Micro Theater MCD708/05

Last Friday I fell in love with a Phillips DVD Micro Theater stereo system when I saw it at Costco. I was thinking about setting my Samsung DVD player in my girlfriend's room so she can watch her Sex in the City and Alias DVDs in bed before falling asleep. So I was looking at a replacement DVD player for my gaming set up upstairs. This is the first time that I have lived in a proper house for over a decade and my past apartment dwelling has discouraged me from getting an actual stereo system with real speakers. This is a DVD player inside a small sexy stylish stereo with nice and rich gorgeous sounding speakers that looked at me like a puppy in a pet store window. It basically begged for me to take it home and introduce it to my TV and game systems. So I smacked down my 200 bucks a gave the little guy a good home.

Now the speakers and the box is heavier than one would expect. When I was lifting it up to the counter to buy it a woman walked in front of me and I had to stop mid heave and something poped in my lower back and I have been a bit sore ever since then. This the the first time since moving an old 386 server tower in my dad's lab that I have ever hurt myself moving around a piece of electronics.

I have had a good experience with modern Phillips products since my DVD Recorder with a hard drive. It is a shame that since I moved I don't have cable so my DVD recorder is boxed up it my closet waiting for some future date that we have cable and need a PVR but right now Kymberly and I are rocking Netflix and loving it. Watching DVDs and playing games is just about the only "TV" watching that we do these days.

The design of the main unit is split between two separate unit boxes and an late 80s executive desk set stand. I don't really see why they needed to have the DVD player and the amplifier as separate units stacked with a big ribbon cable connecting them but it looks great and it is some what easy to use. When the unit is powered on it glows a blue light from the top of each section in the main unit and it dies down after a few moments but it lights right back up then when you adjust the volume. The design is covered with black and sliver and you can do most basic functions without having to grab the remote control. It visually fits right in with my existing game systems and it looks nice next to my PSTwo and Gamecube.

The DVD player is a nice tray loaded progressive scan DVD player that plays DVDs, DVD+Rs, CDs, MP3s burned to CD, WMAs burned to CD, JPEGs burned to CD and it actually has DIVX and VCD support. There is a powerful sound processing chip that enables dynamic bass boost and a selection of preset equalizer settings. There is an external AM tuner and an external FM tuner wire. There is a nice big volume control so you can crank it up or down by grabbing in the general direction.

There is a plethora of inputs and ports with the notable exception of one. There is no headphone jack. I was actually shocked to find out that there is tons of all kinds of ports but not a simple freaking headphone jack. I do love my headphones and it is quite strange to have to plug them into my TV instead of the stereo. I mean come on.

Now the real meat and potatoes are the speakers. They are heavy wood encased speakers that use old school stereo wires that you have to thread and crimp down when you install them. They have some six-inch wide main speakers and some nice sounding tweeters. They wash the room with sound and engulf you into the music and sound effects. There is a really good range and explosions and bass hits rock the room while whispers and minute sound effects come across perfectly clear.

It is nice to have DVD controls and sound on one remote control. All I need to touch my TV for is to turn it on and off.

I think this is a perfect iPod and video gaming accessory. I have the AV cable for my iPod plugged into the AV cable switchbox for my game systems that then goes into the stereo. Podcasts and video podcasts looks and sound awesome and the iPod cable works great with the Nintendo DS and PSP. Ouendan is a blast to hear on this system.

Right after I got it set up I spend Friday night playing some Katamari Daimacy and Rez. My girlfriend was out of the house so I could crank up Rez as loud as I wanted to. It made the hair stand up on end and almost made me pee my pants. It sounds that good to swim in the sound of a game like Rez. Fear is the mind killer.

I then watch some Beastie Boys and Moby videos on DVD and I imagined The Cheat over at the light switch throwing a light switch rave. I finished off the evening by watching Star Wars IV : A New Hope and it was a totally enjoyable theatrical experience on the comfort of my own home despite the fact that the movie was re-edited to have Greedo fire at Han Solo first. Over all I should have had a decent stereo system like this a long time ago but my decade of apartment dwelling greatly inhabited my ability to rock. I am willing to forgive it for the fact that it does not have a headphone jack. This makes DVDs, iPod and games look and sound great.

Jake at August 22, 2006 Reviews

Comments

Posted by: Shawn L at August 22, 2006 4:15 PM

Posted by: Chad N at November 25, 2006 1:06 PM

Posted by: Jacob Metcalf at November 26, 2006 3:46 PM

Posted by: zoe at September 3, 2007 11:36 AM

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