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"Affordable Upscaler DVD, but not HD DVD" on by passat76
Pros: Good picture, Divx playback, USB port
Cons: very simple remote, doesn't remember last scene
Summary: I think every buyer has the obligation to write a honest review because some of these reviews look more like advertisements to Philips...I bought this DVD player because it was the most affordable DVD player with the best review in CNET as far as DVD upscaling...Also, I would lie if I didn't buy it because of his nice Divx playback and USB port capability where it really deliver...About picture quality, I couldn't really see a difference from my 2 year old Apex DVD player but I noted a big improvement in sound quality when you connect HDMI cable...In all fairness, picture looks good but it's not quite yet HD picture quality...Just one piece of advice about HDMI cables, don't waste your money buying Monster HDMI cables (big ripoff). Because HDMI cables transmit digital signal picture from your DVD to your HDTV, when it comes to cables digital either work or doesn't work, there is not middle point... So any gold plated HDMI cable will work... I bought mine at www.monoprice.com for less than 7 dollars(highly recommended)...Of course, DVD upscaling doesn't work miracles, but it helps if you have a HD TV as far as picture quality...Now, the bad and ugly...Phillips really shouldn't have bothered about shipping a remote with this unit, the remote is so crappy and simple, it looks more like a stereo system remote control...But the major flaw about this DVD player is if I turn the power off or go into standby, the player does not remember what scene I was watching and I have to go through the main menu again to find my place. My 2 years old Apex dvd player remembered my place even if I turn off the unit...As a final note, like the reviewer says, "it is an excellent choice for budget-conscious HDTV owners"...
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"Excellent overall DVD-Play packed with features" on by dveight
Pros: DivX, upconverting, GREAT PRICE!
Cons: No DTS, slow response, remote control
Summary: After reading all of the reviews here on this unit, I decided that it had everything that I needed in a cheap affordable DVD-Player. Now, it was a tough call for me to go with this unit since I had worked in the audio video industry for the past 9 years and would have initially gone with a higher-end unit; but my change in career did not give me the deep discounts that I was use too and had to settle for a more financially saving unit.
The upconverting picture quality is excellent, the 1080i setting looks wonderful on my 50" Samsung DLP. The player gave superior picture quality when watching DVDs over my PS2, Sanyo DVD-player, and my Xbox 360. Don't expect miracles thought, we are still talking about DVD's; but the upconverting to 720p or 1080i is better then the 480p that DVDs normally gives you
DivX Ultra is a hugh plus for the unit and I was surprise to see that the picture quality on the DivX movies were pretty good on my big screen. I would say that it was just slightly worse then regular cable. I wouldn't sugguest watching Star Wars or the the Matrix in DivX, but it was suitible for watching recorded tv shows.
Now to address some of the critism that people have about the unit.
REMOTE CONTROL:
I agree with everyone's accessment that the remote is cheap and pretty crappy. No backlight, and as CNET stated, not the most intuative of remotes. My suggestion; get a universal learning remote and program it and use it instead of the DVD-player's remote.
NO LAST SCENE PLAYBACK:
For everybody who posted that this unit does not have last scene playback, READ THE MANUAL! Specifically page 26 under “Resuming playback from the last stopped point”. Here’s what you do if you don’t want to read the manual:
Press the play/pause button when you want to stop the movie and then turn off the DVD-player. When you turn the DVD-player back on, the display on the DVD-player will show "Loading"; you now press the play/pause button, and it will go to the last scene that you were on. The player will support up to 5 discs this way, so yes, you can even start back up if someone else watches another movie before you can get back to yours. Please verify your information before you post.
NO DTS:
Unfortunately, it does not support DTS. But look at all the other things that you are getting, and also consider that you are only paying about $80 for the unit.
NO 5.1 when using HDMI:
Yep, this was almost a deal breaker for me. I was only able to get 2.0 when I was using HDMI and digital coaxial. 5.1 only worked with the digital coaxial when I unhooked the HDMI. I called and talked to the people at Philips for 45 minutes and no luck; they didn’t know why it was not working and I almost returned the unit. In a last attempt, I called them again and asked if there was a firmware upgrade for the unit and they directed me http://www.p4c.philips.com.
BINGO, there was an update there for this unit which solves the 5.1 surround sound bug. There are instructions there that will walk you through the update. This update will fix the DVD-player so that you will be able to play Dolby Digital 5.1 with either HDMI and digital coaxial; just HDMI; or just digital coaxial . It works, I have done it to my player.
Overall great unit, I only paid about $60 after rebate for my unit, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. It's hard to find a unit at this price with all of these features.
Yeah, I know this is a long review, but I wanted to settle the 2 biggest complaints that people had with the 5.1 surround sound and the last scene playback. Hope this answers everyone's question, now go buy this unit if you were on the fence about it! -
"Nice Picture, yet one ill-fated flaw" on by MikeS3000
Pros: very nice HD upscaling via HDMI, slim and light
Cons: Dolby Digital 5.1 Bug
Summary: The reason that I purchased this player was because it was the cheapest HD upconversion player with the best rating here on CNET. Some may call that the best value player.
I just purchased and installed a new 5.1 sound system in my apartment to compliment my 52" HDTV. I realized that the last step was to buy an upscaling DVD player that would eek every last bit of potential out of those DVDs (afterall, HD DVD and Bluray are too pricey and unfounded at this point).
Perhaps this is a flaw of all players on the market that use HDMI, but for sure there is a bug in this player that has caused me to return it.
Since I wanted to upscale the picture to HD, I was forced to use an HDMI cable. The only HDMI input that I have is on the back of my HDTV. So, I hooked up the HDMI to my TV and got a perfect picture with sound only coming out of my TV's speakers (as expected). Next, I also attached a Digital Coaxial audio cable from the DVD player to my receiver expecting to take advantage of some 5.1 surround sound. To my disappointment, I could only receive 2.0 PCM thru my receiver. When I remove the HDMI cable when the player is running, bam, I get the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio running to my receiver. The conclusion is that after trying every possible setting on the player, one can only achieve 5.1 sound via Digital Coaxial cable when the HDMI cable is not in use. The only way that one can maybe receive an HD upscale image and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound would be via a receiver that has some HDMI inputs (yet I am not familiar enough with HDMI to know if even this would work). The reason that I am skeptical of even this method is that the manual specifically states to set the audio settings on the player to PCM Only if you are using HDMI for audio.
The beautiful picture that this player reproduces is meaningless if I cannot achieve 5.1 surround sound at the same time.Updated
I had purchased this unit at the end of June only to return it one day later with disappointment. Repurchased the unit and decided to try suggestions of firmware upgrade. Pleased to report that the upgrade solved my HDMI and coaxial 5.1 sound bug. I do however have a 2nd small problem. My HDMI port on the player is extremely sensitive to any movement of the cable to the point that the picture will go out if the cable is touched. I do have another HDMI cable on the way from www.monoprice.com that I will try in a day or so to determine if the problem lies in the cable or the port. The first player that i bought in June did not have this problem. My suspicsion is that the port is at fault because I can cause the picture to cut out by wiggling the cable at the back of the player ever so slightly. I will report back with my verdict in a few days. Either way, I love the player now and will probably just swap it out at the store in a few days for a player with a non-defective HDMI port. This was probably just a freak occurence.Updated
After trying 2 different HDMI cables with the same result, I came to the conclusion that I received a player with a faulty HDMI port. It only worked when the cable was in the perfect position with no jiggling. An exchange at the store for a new one seemed to fix my problem. HDMI port is fine now. The firmware upgrade worked again to fix the 5.1 surround sound bug w/ HDMI and coaxial. I think that the player is great for the money and finally does what it should have done all along. -
"Great HDTV picture" on by Quetzalcoatl_666
Pros: Plays everything
Cons: No DTS decoder
Summary: The rumor that the new Philips DVP5960 has corrected the bugs that plagued DVP5900 appears to be true! I've had the DVP5960 for 2 weeks now and have found no problems. Also, the DVP5960 produces a much better picture than the Philips DVP5900 or DVP642. The DVP5960 is "DivX Ultra" certified. I highly recommend this unit!
The DVP5960 uses a 12 bit/108 MHz video system instead of the 10 bit/54 MHz system used in the DVP5900 and DVP642. The 12 bit/108 MHz video system produces visibly sharper images and natural colors. HDMI can carry both video and audio, which cuts down on cables. The picture is equally great whether you use the HDMI or Component Video connection. The quality of the picture on my 42 inch Plasma HDTV is very impressive.
The DVP5960 has a USB connection on the front panel that can accommodate a thumb drive or a flash card reader for viewing digital camera images. You can produce a slide show in SD or HD format. The SD slide show image quality is very good. The HD slide show image quality is excellent but image display is very slow.
Using the "display" button on the remote, you can view the bit rate and other interesting information about the disc being played.
The DVP5960 seems to have replaced the DVP5900 which is no longer listed on the official Philips website. The DVP5960 chipset is MediaTek MT1389. The DVP5900 chipset is Zoran Vaddis 778.
The DVP5960 does not have a decoder for Digital Theater Sound (DTS). If DTS is the default audio format on the disc you are playing, you will need to select a different format. The "audio" button on the remote control can do this selection. DTS is not very common in DVD's.
HDMI might be beneficial on some larger fixed pixel HD displays (50 inch or larger).
HDMI sends the video to your HDTV in digital format. This eliminates the digital to analog video conversion in the DVD player and subsequent conversion back to digital for fixed pixel displays. The benefits of eliminating the analog video stage might be nominally discernable on some larger fixed pixel HD displays (50 inch or larger). Although manufacturers claim otherwise, experts say there's very little difference in image quality using an digital interface as opposed to an analog connection.
HDMI also supports video upscaling. The objective in scaling is to make something out of nothing. Nearly all projectors, flat screen LCD's, plasmas and projection TV's have upscaling video processors. The issue here is quality. Scalers built into HDTV's should perform better than those built into most upscaling DVD players. Scalers built into HDTV's are designed to work with that equipment's native display resolution. 576p scaling should only be used with PAL systems.
Due to legal requirements, it is possible that with certain copy protected PCM audio qualities, your HDTV digital audio output signal will be muted when using HDMI. -
"divx playback is great, but NO DTS" on by wilsotc
Pros: good divx playback and good support for 16:9/4:3
Cons: No DTS support
Summary: Instead of DTS 5.1 48KHz/24bit sampled sound, you're stuck with DD 5.1 48KHz/16bit sound. I have over a dozen movies with DTS sound that I'd like to be able to take advantage of. 50% higher sound quality would be nice.
Philips DVP-5960/37 user reviews
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