Philips MCD702 review: Philips MCD702

Intro
When you think of stylish consumer electronic products, you probably don't think of A/V minisystems--but if more minisystems looked like the Philips MCD702, maybe you would. Its multitiered design, glossy faceplates, and rosewood speakers make it look much classier than its $250 list price would lead you to believe. Once you get past the glitzy aesthetics, however, there's not quite as much punch as its competitors have. While the MCD702 (also known as the MCD702/37) does offer DVD playback and MP3/WMA CD support, it's lacking features such as the USB port, DivX playback, and multidisc changer that we've seen on other similar systems. And while we can live with a dearth of extra features, it was a little bit harder to live with the subpar sound. That said, if style is your No. 1 concern, the Philips MCD702 is up to basic home-theater tasks, and its price--under $200 online--is easy to swallow. If you're looking for a better performing system, check out Philips cheaper, less stylish MCD515, or the more expensive but feature-packed and better-sounding LG LF-D7150. Designwise, the Philips MCD702 is definitely the most attractive shelf system we've seen in this price range. The central unit is actually a two-part system: a single-disc CD/DVD player sits on top of a tiny amplifier, which in turn rests on a clear plastic stand. The stand may be overkill, but it adds to the visual appeal. Both the amp and the disc player sport a glossy mirrored-silver finish, and there's an LCD screen on the disc player for basic readouts: track numbers, times, and so forth. Controls are divided between the two components, and the disc player boasts a gently opening top loader. All together, the central unit and the speakers are about 11 inches deep, 9 inches tall, and 20 inches across--although we'd probably wouldn't group the speakers right next to each other. The overall effect of the MCD702 is that it looks more expensive that it really is and definitely isn't the eyesore that many minisystems are. The only possible downside to the multicomponent design that we could see is that it makes it slightly less portable, since each of the three sections aren't connected--but we had no problem moving it around our testing facilities.

Like the design, the remote looks especially nice considering how little the MCD702 costs. The design is very similar to that of the remotes that come with Philips's TVs; it isn't our favorite, but there aren't too many missteps here. Our biggest complaint is that the volume controls aren't a rocker-style button like the channel is--instead, Philips decided to give the tuner control a rocker-style button. The rest of the buttons are a little on the small side and very similarly sized, but they're not that frequently used. We liked that the remote felt solid in our hands and had a bit more heft than a generic plastic remote. We would have loved backlighting, but--like the other DVD minisystems in this price range--the feature was a no-show. That's too bad, as these smaller systems are ideal for late-night bedroom movie watching.

The two included speakers feature a ribbon tweeter and a 4-inch woofer. They also offer binding-post speaker connections, a nice upgrade over the standard spring-clip connectors. The Philips MCD702 is described as a DVD Micro Theatre, but it has a few additional features beyond DVD. In addition to standard DVD movies and audio CDs, the player also handles home-burned CDs with MP3s and WMAs, as well as those containing JPEGs. There are also tuners for both AM and FM, with included antennas.

Connectivity is pretty decent. You get the standard component, S-Video, and composite-video outputs you'd find on any DVD player, so the MCD702 will connect easily to nearly any TV. And while the all-in-one system is designed to play through its connected stereo speakers, there is some flexibility available: optical and digital coaxial outputs will let you connect to an outboard receiver if you'd like to get true surround from your DVDs. Moreover, the MCD702 includes two sets of analog audio inputs (standard red and white RCA jacks), so you can simultaneously connect a pair of external devices--an iPod and a game console, for instance. Rounding out the back panel is a subwoofer pre-out--though if you're really interested in heavier bass, you'll probably want to invest in the MCD703, which includes a matching stand-alone subwoofer in the box but is otherwise identical to the 702. The only front-panel connection is a standard 1/8-inch headphone jack.

An important note regarding the component-video output is that you must change the "Component" setting in the Video portion of the System menu from "S-Video" to "Component" for it to work properly. We expect component video to work out of the box without any tweaking, and we imagine plenty of people are going to be confused about this.

In terms of disc compatibility, the MCD702 was very good, playing almost all of the discs in our test suite. It did fail on a few of our most badly scratched discs, and--unlike almost all of the other Philips DVD products we've seen--it doesn't play DivX video files. It also had the ability to play DVDs with MP3s on them, which will hold more than enough songs for a party shuffle disc.

While the MCD702 isn't missing any features, it doesn't really have any of the extras features we've seen on competing units. For example, we've seen DivX playback, USB slots, DVD-Audio support, Karaoke-ready microphone inputs, and multiple-disc changers on other units. Although none of the competitors had all those features, they usually had at least one extra, but the MCD702 lacks them all. It's worth noting that the MCD702 doesn't have a cassette player--but we've long since moved on from cassette tapes, so we didn't miss it. Overall video performance for the Philips MCD702 system was subpar compared to that of stand-alone DVD players we've tested. We ran the MCD702 through Silicon Optix's HQV test suite, and it failed most of the tests, with most of those filled with jaggies. The two bright spots were that it successfully passed the full resolution of DVDs, and that it had no problem handling scrolling titles. And although it failed a 2:3 pull-down test on the HQV disc, it did demonstrate its 2:3 pull-down prowess during the opening scene of Star Trek: Insurrection, cleanly rendering the bridge and the hulls of the boats. We decided to see if these shortcomings displayed in actual program material, and we watched the first scenes of the Seabiscuit DVD. Right off the bat, we noticed more jaggies than usual on the old photograph, especially on any of the straight lines on the cars.

Of course, plenty of people--if not most--will find the performance to be perfectly acceptable, especially if they're viewing on smaller (less than 30-inch) TVs. Just don't expect the built-in DVD player to perform as well as more-expensive stand-alone units. Considering how poorly the player handled de-interlacing tests, it may be worth while for HDTV owners to set the component-video output for interlaced instead of progressive (see the Tips and Tricks section for more details).

In terms of audio quality, we were also a little underwhelmed by the performance of the MCD702. We had it stacked up against three similar minisystems--the Philips MCD515, the JVC UX-G70 and the LG LF-D7150--and the MCD702 definitely ended up toward the bottom of our list for audio quality. Thinking this system's style might appeal to the baby-boomer generation, we fired up some classic rock, by way of Jimi Hendrix's Axis: Bold As Love CD. While we wouldn't say the MCD702 sounded bad, it definitely lacked the punch you'd expect to hear from a good set of speakers. We turned up the volume and were sorry we did--the MCD702 got pretty noisy once we started getting near its maximum volume. We toned it down a bit after that and put on Kenny Burrell's mellower Midnight Blue CD. For the most part, it sounded decent but when compared to the other minisystems, we preferred their sound.

We then switched to DVDs and watched a few scenes from King Kong. On the upside, we had no problem with hearing dialogue. In terms of sound quality, though, you could do better. The MCD702 didn't have enough oomph to make Kong come to life, and actor's voices lacked a natural warmth. We flipped over to the MCD515 for comparison and thought it did a much better job of approximating the theater experience. Neither of them compares to a true separates system, of course, but we were definitely more aware that we were listening to a small minisystem with the MCD702.

While we can't recommend this system to those who like to turn up the volume, less-demanding listeners might not mind the audio shortcomings. We can see the MCD702 appealing to those more concerned with style over sound--it'll look great while pumping out background music for a dinner party, for instance. On the other hand, if you're less concerned with style and want a system with a little more muscle, opt for Philips's similarly priced MCD515 instead.