By far, this DVD player attracted me with its impressive list of things to diddle with. Sigh. The suggested retail price from the manufacturer should have been about 99.00, then perhaps expectations of performance would be more in tune with the reality.

Three things that I didn't like:

Cheap-feeling plastic
No fast forward-backward, only chapter jumps
Short battery life (about 2 1/2 hours)
I thought that, for the price, the screen resolution should have been much better.
Sound was weenie.... really weenie.
Menu options were scarce, and the displays looked like computers from the 70's.

Sorry.... that's more than three:

Now for the things I liked:

The SD card and USB options, worked better just for average photo slideshow than playing videos, though.

The best part? Amazon accepted the return without any hassle at all.

Now the new Sony DVD player..... try it and you'll see, lol.....

I bought this to take on a long vacation ride for my toddler. First off, the car mount arm is horrible! After 1 day of pre-testing it before our vacation, the screws fell out and the arm collapsed just driving in town!! I fixed it so that we could still use it, but was planning on getting a different car mount. (I am very mechanically inclined)
Then we leave and the unit worked about 4 times on the trip. Then it starts showing "Insert Disc" when the disc was actually in there. We fiddled around with it a bit and it worked maybe one more time and then would not work at all. I am VERY disappointed with this unit. The picture was great though... when it actually worked.
I would not recommend this to anyone.

Unfortunately, not only did Philips mis-advertise this product, but the incorrect advertsing is still on their website and everywhere else. One would think that when caught with a serious error in description, the company would at least correct it as quickly as possible. It is weeks now but it remains in their description.

I wanted to use this player while teaching skills in the gym. It has great resolution, plays not only DVDs, but divx , has a card reader and a USB slot for using other media, which would allow for a wide variety of video to help a student understand a skill. But it lacks a most important function: slow motion. In addition, "fast forward" is the same button as skipping to the next chapter or skill. So depending on your skill at working Philip's buttons you either get to move forward quickly to where you want, or skip over it entirely. After a half hour with Philips tech support, as they very politely tried to find the advertised slow motion, they came to the conclusion that the unit did not have it in spite of it being in the specifications. Amazon provided me with a full RMA that included the shipping as the unit was not as advertised unfortunately. Quite a disappointment,and surprised that Philips continues the incrorect specs in the public eye.

I bought this video player for a LONG trip (over 1000 miles each way) to Colorado and back to pick up a rescue dog. I wanted my 11 year old nephew to have plenty of things to do. Then it turned out he was "on restriction" and didn't get to use it, in fact, I didn't even take it. But, it was literally
1. take out of the box
2. charge it
3. put in the DVD
4. play the movie

Easy to use, low user knowledge required. GREAT picture and sound. Some don't like the "on screen" buttons, but I love them. I hate buttons on the outside where you can accidentally push them when you are moving about.

And I do see where you do have to take care putting disks in and taking them out. It does "grab" em. I had no problem doing this but took note due to other posts. I moved the player around while playing the movie (took it from outside to inside) and didn't exactly keep it level (at all) and there were NO skips or anything, just kept playing the movie without a hitch. Very nice!

Didn't use to in-car set up and haven't yet. I'm sure it works fine.
LOVE the swivel screen and clean white "enamel" looks (white/black)

If I have to DING something about it I would say that, even though it is MARKED, you could miss how to open it. You look for a switch, lock, snap or something. It's a magnet opening and not difficult. Just don' pull on the wrong side, because it won't open.

I didn't have any of that "chapter" issue stuff that other people are talking about. The chapters did not show up on my screen. Hopefully, I'll be able to use it more this coming year.

Oh yeah, GREAT PRICE too..........!

Pros
Slim look, DivX, USB, SD Card, S Video, AV in - Excellent for the price.

Cons
Video Quality. Compared to my earlier player - 8" Magnavox Player(MPD820), the video quality in PET 1030 is very poor with distortion - visible vertical lines equally spaced all over the screen - annoying aspect.

The picture quality in Magnavox(MPD820) is brilliant, virtually without any distortion.