Philips BDP2985-F7 Blu-Ray Player Review

Are you thinking about buying this or a similar model? I've put it to the test.

I love electronic gadgets, of any type, and the fancier, the better. So when my old DVD player bit the dust following a lightning strike, I went looking for a new one, and was faced with a bewildering array of choices. This was complicated by the fact that I won a Panasonic HDTV in a raffle, and at the same time, my parents' television set died, so my old television went to them. But in the end, my choice was determined by a set of features that made this model stand out. The bonus of a small footprint and attractive styling is nice, too!

Note: because of certain technological limitations of my equipment, I have not been able to test every single feature of this player, so this review is for the person with average access to technology.

Features

This player includes:

DVD playback
DivX® playback
a USB connector on the front, to which can be attached a flash drive or portable hard drive
Blu-ray playback
3D playback
Playback of home-recorded media
Streaming from Netflix, YouTube, Picasa, and Vudu
Pair with a device such as iPad (find video on internet with iPad, and use Wi-Fi to see on your TV through your DVD player)

I have not yet tested the 3D playback, because my television doesn't support it, but I have tested every other feature.

Philips BDP2985/F7 Blu-Ray/DVD Player with 3D Playback

Philips BDP2985 3D Blu-ray Disc Player - 1080p BDP2985/F7 Blu-ray Disc Players

Philips Peripherals and Accessories / Only $49.99

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I Both Love and Hate . . .

The player is hooked to my TV with an HDMI cable. When the player is on, it automatically switches the input from TV to the DVD player. Or, if I change the input from TV to DVD, the player turns on automatically. Or, if I turn on the DVD player, the TV turns on. Great, that's one less menu for me to go through.

Except if I fall asleep watching a video. The TV automatically shuts off after a time (the "sleep" function). Then, when I turn the TV back on, I have to turn off the player, change the input on the TV remote, and hope I am fast enough to prevent the DVD player from turning back on. Otherwise, it will be two or three cycles of turning off the DVD player, and changing the input on the TV, before I am able to catch the sequencing just right. In order to avoid this hassle, if I'm going to watch a DVD or a Divx file off my USB hard drive, I disable the sleep function on the TV.

Overall

This is my second Philips DVD player (the first one was destroyed by a lightning strike), and I'm very happy with my choice overall. If I had any suggestions for Philips (and I have had excellent luck with almost everything they make) it would be the following:

Wait a little longer before changing the input on the television, or let the user do it
Allow hard drives or flash drives to be read through USB hubs, so that I don't have to switch out the drives
Go to the menu first if a DVD is in the player, so that I have a choice of either loading the DVD (slow) or reading from the USB device
Speed up the remote, or find a better way of typing what you want to watch into the streaming services (this can be avoided by pairing a tablet, as mentioned in the features, above). Otherwise, it can be pretty tedious to find what you want to watch using the Philips remote and typing in your choice (and I'm a great typist).