I very very very nearly bought the Shinco. It was in my basket and then I got cold feet. I wanted the Shinco because it said it was multiregion and this one didn't, and I'm fed up of ending up with DVDs I can't play or come out in black and white.

What changed my mind at the last minute was that there seemed to be a hack to make it multiregion. That being so, who wouldn't prefer a Philips to a Shinco? Although many people are happy with their Shincos, all of them will say that they can only get customer service from Amazon and they can't get a response from the UK distributor. In which case, if the machine goes wrong after two years, or you need parts, then you'll just have to throw it away.

Plus, frankly, the fact that some people say their Shinco has a lovely aluminium body, while others swear it is plastic, makes me suspect something rather odd is going on with whomever builds and supplies these things.

So I've just received the player, and am happy to report that it converted straight to multiregion, just as described in the forum below. Phew.

That done with, I'm now delighted to have such a high quality machine for such a reasonable price. It is white on the outside, and black on the insside and although the cover is plastic, it has a nice chunky solid feel to the whole thing.

I was surprised that ther really is no noise really when the disc is running or when it starts up, the buttons seem solid and the sound quality was suprisingly good for such tiny speakers. (You can't really expect too much from small speakers). And the unit was strong and well built. It feels like a quality piece of kit. The screen is good looking and I'm really glad of the extra inch and a half. I think 7 inches is just a bit too small.

The swivel screen is an added bonus, and I was surprised to find it could be swivelled right round and goes flat on top of the DVD unit.

The two headphone sockets are a great idea, the SDD slot will be very useful on holiday for photos and videos from the camera. Although I don't yet own an 80gb ipod video, for me having the ability to use one means that this machine will last longer than the DVD format, and means the unit can become much more like a personal media player in the long term, playing videos from an ipod instead of a DVD when nobody makes anything on DVD any more. In five years time, when DVD is almost extinct, an iPod video 80gb second hand will cost next to nothing and give this thing a new lease of life.

Having not ordered the Shinco, I can't really compare it. But the reason I had a slight innate preference for Philips is that one of its other models came out as a Which best buy in a recent review, and they looked at quite a few DVD players.

The only slight niggles are: the volume control is only on the unit, not the remote, and there is a slight lag between pressing buttons on the remote and something actually happening, oh and the remote is slightly cheap looking.

But these are really minor quibbles. For just over 100 quid, you can have a multiregion, 8.5 inch swivel screen DVD, with ipod video connectivity, and SSD slot and two headphone sockets...and it plays nearly anything you'd care to throw at it, plus has ability to change screen format for letterbox films. If you are willing to spend 100 quid on a DVD player, I can't see that there is better value at the moment.