Customer Reviews

Philips DVP5960 DVD Player with HDMI, 1080i Upscaling, DivX Ultra, USB direct

5 star:		(77)
4 star:		(71)
3 star:		(34)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

I bought this DVD player in mid May and 3 weeks later with very nominal usage my player just died in the middle of a movie. I had it connected to a top of the line surge protector so the problem was not a power surge. I could not even get the disc out. When I took it back to Circuit City they assured me it was probably just a bad one and gave me a new one. I could have got another brand but for the features and price I could not find one I liked in the store. The new player has worked ok for the last month but it shows some jitters while switching from one HDMI set up mode to another and causes a 'green' screen to display on my plasma. Once I switch it off and then on again it has worked fine but I am prepared to have it die on me in just a few months. I did not notice any substantial improvement in picture using the HDMI cable over the component connection. In fact, if you have a progressive DVD player I doubt that you would notice too much difference in the image quality using this upconverting DVD player. I had it set to the 1080i resolution and also to the 720p and 570p. On some DVDs the 1080i performed better than the other resoulutions but on some others it did not seem to make much of a difference which makes me think that the image quality is very DVD dependent.

The good:
Plays all discs - VCDs, CD-RWs, CDs, DVDs, MP3s, Div-X and just about anything that won't play on other DVD players.
It even has a USB connection in the front which you can use to directly plug in a zip drive or another device like a hard drive, although I have not used this feature yet.
The bad:
Remote is not at all user friendly. It is of cheap construction and buttons are not intuitive. I liked my Sony remote much better. Worse, the DVD player is VERY slow to respond to your pressing remote buttons. At times, I have to struggle to get it to respond.
While changing resolutions through DVD player set up it is better not to have a disk playing in the DVD player as that causes errors.

Finally, for the features and price this is a good buy if you have a lot of Div-X, VCD, DVD-RW discs and copies of original DVDs as this player plays them all. However, don't expect this player to be a life-long purchase and cross your fingers and hope you get a good piece when you buy one. In fact, I recommend buying it from a store close to you so that the return is easier.

11/06/06 Update: The player has worked just fine up till now but I hardly use it more than once a week.
11/16/08: This player is still working fine and plays all DVDs and home made movies without any problem. You can also make it region free if you like - just Google it. So I stand by my rating.

I bought this after being incredibly satisfied with its pseudo-predecessor, the Philips DVP642 DVD Player. The reasons I loved that player was that it played just about anything I threw at it. I could take DVD's I bought and convert them to DIVX or XVID and play 6 movies, or twenty TV shows on a single disc. It would also happily play all of my mp3's and jpgs I burned to data DVD's and CD's. I don't use the picture functionality much, but it makes for a great slideshow/screensaver.

Anyway, the DVP5960 has all of that functionality and more. Here are the top three reasons I recommend this DVD player and the reason I gave it 5 out of 5 stars:

#1: like it's predecessor, the DVP5960 is cheap. It makes a great birthday, Christmas or wedding present. I've probably bought 6 or 7 of the DVP642's to give away, and will likely do the same for the DVP5960 over the next couple of years.

#2: this sucker plays just about anything you throw at it. The DVP5960 will happily trudge through scratched or non-standard DVD's that other DVD players would scoff at. (Especially the DRM-happy Sony players)

It plays NTSC, PAL, Burned DVD's and CD's, and even burned *DATA* DVD's and CD's which can hold thousands of pictures, hundreds of mp3s, 15-25 television shows or 4-8 movies per DVD (compressed, like in divx or xvid formats.) There is a slew of software which will convert your legally-bought DVD's to these compressed DIVX formats, as well as all kinds of free content you can download off the internet.

I'ts pretty cool to throw in a DVD and watch an entire season of your favorite show without changing the disc. Also, I found that the DVP642 occasionally had problems rendering certain .avi's. The DVP5960 seems to have improved it's codecs and consequently, every video I used to have a problem with plays beautifully on the DVP5960.

#3: This is the coolest feature to me: The USB port. The product literature suggests the USB port is there to hook up mp3 players and cameras, and play mp3's or display pictures from them. As a test, I threw a few .avi video files on a 2 gig USB stick and plugged it in. I was delighted to see the DVP5960 pick up the videos on the stick with absolutely no problems. In fact, it loaded and played them much faster than it read my DVD's.

Next, I took a little external 80 gigabyte hard drive I had, loaded it up with mp3's, jpg's, mpg's and avi files (divx, xvid, etc) and enthusiastically plugged it in. After a few seconds trying to recognize the drive, it displayed "Disk Type Unsupported" on the screen. Doh!

Demoralized, I wondered why the USB stick worked and the external drive did not. The next day I realized the main difference between my external drive and the USB memory stick was the file structure. USB sticks generally default to either the FAT or FAT32 file system. However, Windows XP likes to format drives to NTFS, a proprietary Microsoft file system. In fact, XP will not allow you to format a drive to FAT or FAT32 through it's GUI. It does provide instructions to do so via the command line (start-->run-->'cmd'), but after four hours of formatting my drive to FAT32, it failed. I did some research and found out that although a common misconception is that FAT32 can only format a disk up to 32 gigabytes or so, it can actually support drives up to 2 terrabytes. (2000 gigabytes.)

Do a search for a free program called "fat32format.exe" and run it from the command line on your external USB hard drive. It formatted my 80 gig drive it in about 30 seconds.

After doing this, I loaded up the drive again with mp3's, jpg's and several dozen movies and television shows, crossed my fingers and plugged it into the DVP5960.

I clicked the USB button, waited a few seconds while it tried to recognize the drive, and much to my delight, displayed the full contents of my 80 gig external drive! As I type this, my DVP5960 has been reading videos off that external drive for about 12 hours now. This alone makes this DVD player worth it to me.

As others have said, these drives do seem to break down after a period of heavy use. With the DVP642, I think I heard of two burning out, each running for about two years before they gave out. If you make sure they don't get to hot (provide ventilation) I think you can limit this. But frankly, I am more than willing to pay $70.00 every two years for the broad compatibility and USB functionality this drive provides. And who knows, maybe this new model will have a longer shelf life. Time will tell.

If you're looking for a drive that will run just about anything you throw at it, this is the drive for you. I have messed with many, many DVD drives, and I simply cannot recommend this drive enough.

USB:
The primary reason I bought this DVD player was because of its ability to play off USB devices. The specs indicate it will read jpegs, MP3s, and WMAs off a USB flash drive. It will also read off a FAT32-formatted external hard drive as long as it is externally powered and it will also play divx/xvid from USB. I'm using a 250GB Seagate HDD inside a (warranty-voided) Maxtor enclosure. The divx/xvid playback works perfectly and no stuttering. The interface for the USB is pretty bad though. It will only give you 8 characters of the filename and only 4 filenames at a time.

DVD Playback:
No issues, but I wouldn't recommend this player if your only using this for DVD Playback. One should take advantage of the divx/xvid and USB capabilities, otherwise, why buy this? Some people have complained about lack of DTS decoding, but the vast majority of the public are fine w/Dolby Digital. It's a $80 machine after all. Like many DVD players, there's a region free hack (google it!) I don't have a very good TV and can only use composite, so I can't comment on the upscaling.

Remote Control:
I need to point the remote directly at the player to get it to work. The buttons you use the most (up,down,left,right,enter) are near the top where your thumb should land. Left/Right double as RW/FF when applicable and run at 2/4/8/16/32x which works on divx/xvid as well as dvd. The "enter" button is a huge 0.5inch diameter circle. Play/Pause/Stop/Next/Back are right underneath and also "thumb accessible". Would have liked a backlight though. There is no volume amplifier, so you will need at least 2-3 remotes (TV/DVD Player/Sound System). Overall, I'm happy with it.

Overall Impressions:
You get alot for $80. It is a steal if you're using the USB to play divx/xvid, something that only a fraction of DVD players can do. And those that do are generally international players. Bad USB interface though. No complaints w/DVD player. Not much to say about it other than you can do a region-free hack. Even though the remote has bad response, I like the fact that all the commonly used buttons are all around the thumb area and the buttons I use the most are bigger.

I love my Philips 642 (which I use with the bedroom TV) and since my Zenith player in the living room was giving me trouble I thought I'd try this model. Sadly, it's gonna go back -

GOOD POINTS

Great picture quality. I haven't tried the upscale feature. My HD set only has DVI and I don't feel like buying an adapter, especially since (supposedly) the HDMI output on the player cuts off the coax digital audio output if you use it. Groovy if you've got a HDMI amp you can snake it to, I don't.

Hackable. Simple to turn off the region code and play PAL discs, and the PAL conversion is the best I've seen, even better than the 642. Very nice if you have import discs.

MP3 playback supports DVD mp3 discs, and sounds GREAT. The menu is a bit crude (like almost every DVD player is when it comes to mp3) but better than most. It at least displays the bitrate and total files in folder. It also allows you (via the "display" button) to select single, shuffle, folder and repeat folder options. That is an EXTREMELY nice option, since most of the time I only want to hear one folder (album) and damn near no other player I've come across features this.

I haven't messed much with the DivX playback, but the little I did worked fine.

CONS

Audio occasionally mutes on my burned DVD-Rs and RWs. BIG drag. This may just be a defect with this particular machine, and I'll try another before giving up on this model. Otherwise it doesn't seem to have any problems reading them.

Biggest complaint - NO DTS OUTPUT. WTF?? Even the cheapest chinese throwaway players offer this. I don't have a HUGE collection of discs with DTS, but enough to make this a BIG drawback (since I happen to prefer DTS when available). Don't know what they were thinking with that one.

Oh, and the remote is pretty lame . . . . not as bad as the 642 but still cheap and awkward.

If the above drawbacks aren't dealbreakers I'd say go for it. For an under $100 player it's got a lot of nice qualities.

When shopping for a new DVD player I felt this Amazon page was lacking some vital information. Here is more information from the Phillips brochure.:

DVD Player with Video Upscaling up to 1080i
HDMI DivX
Picture/Display
*Aspect ratio: 4:3, 16:9
*D/A converter: 12 bit, 108 MHz
*Picture enhancement: High Def (720p, 1080i), Progressive Scan, Smart Picture, Video upsampling, Video upscaling
Sound
*D/A converter: 24 bit, 192 kHz
*Signal to noise ratio: 90
*Distortion and Noise (1kHz): 65 dB
*Crosstalk (1kHz): 70 dB
*Dynamic Range (1kHz): 80 dB
*Sound System: Dolby Digital
*Frequency response: 30-20000 Hz
Video Playback
*Playback Media: CD, CD-R/CD-RW, Video CD/SVCD, DVD, DivX, DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW
*Compression formats: MPEG1, MPEG2, DivX 3.11, DivX 4.x, DivX 5.x, DivX 6.0, DivX Ultra
*Video disc playback system: NTSC, PAL
Audio Playback
*Playback Media: CD, MP3-CD, MP3-DVD, CD-R/RW, WMA-CD
*Compression format: Dolby Digital, MP3, PCM, WMA
*MP3 bit rates: 32 - 256 kbps
Still Picture Playback
*Playback Media: DVD+R/+RW, DVD-R/-RW, CD-R/RW, Picture CD, Kodak Picture CD
*Picture compression format: JPEG
*Picture enhancement: Flip photos, Rotate, Zoom, Slideshow with MP3 playback, High Definition Resolution
Multimedia Applications
*Multimedia connections: USB memory class device
*Playback Formats: DivX, MP3, JPEG Still pictures
Connectivity
*Rear Connections: Analog audio Left/Right out, Composite video (CVBS) output, HDMI output, Digital coaxial out, ComponentVideo out Progressive
Convenience
*Child Protection: Parental Control, Child Lock
*On-Screen Display languages: English, Mexican Spanish, Canadian French
Accessories
*Included Accessories: 2 x AAA Batteries, Audio/Video cable, Quick start guide, Remote Control, World Wide Warranty leaflet, User Manual, Product Registration Card
Dimensions
*Set dimensions (W x H x D): 435 x 37 x 235 mm
*Packaging dimensions (W x H x D): 490 x 82 x 320 mm
Power
*Power supply: 120V, 60Hz
*Power consumption: < 10 W
*Standby power consumption: < 0.8 W
*
HDMI for simple AV connection
HDMI stands for High Definition Multimedia Interface. It is a direct digital connection that can carry digital HD video as well as digital multichannel audio. By eliminating the conversion to analog signals it delivers perfect picture and sound quality, completely free from noise. HDMI is fully backward-compatible with (Digital Video Interface) DVI.
Video Upscaling up to 1080i
With Video Upscaling you can increase the resolution of SD (Standard Definition) video signals that DVD uses to HD (High Definition) so you'll be able to see more details thanks to a sharper, more true-to-life picture.The resulting HD video output signal can be fed to an HD display through HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface).
High definition JPEG playback
With High Resolution JPEG playback, you can show up to 2 Megapixel resolution on your Flat TV (FTV). Now you can view your digital pictures in their true resolution, without loss of quality or details.
Progressive Scan
Progressive Scan doubles the vertical resolution of the image resulting in a noticeably sharper picture. Instead of sending a field comprising the odd lines to the screen first, followed by the field with the even lines, both fields are written at one time. A full image is created instantaneously, using the maximum resolution. At such a speed, your eye perceives a sharper picture with no line structure.
Multi-format Movies with DivX
Multi-format playability allows you to play most disc formats for maximum disc compatibility and viewing pleasure.
DivX Ultra certified
DivX Ultra combines DivX playback with great features like integrated subtitles, multiple audio languages, multiple tracks and menus into one convenient file format.
Music: Windows Media(tm) Audio
Multi-format playability allows you to play most disc formats for maximum disc compatibility and listening pleasure.
Picture CD with MP3 Playback
Picture CD is a CD-R or CD-RW disc on which you can store your MP3 and digital pictures. When inserting a Picture CD in the DVD player, a screen menu will pop up, showing your JPEG's and/or MP3 files on the disc. Just select the music and pictures files you wish to enjoy and press play or OK. You can watch your pictures on TV with your music playing simultaneously.

Rarely has there been a product I so loved and hated at the same time. This device has one MAJOR pro and several MAJOR cons.

Pro: USB port! You can stick a flash memory device or even a hard drive into it and access all the files on that device -- including playing DivX movies off it. This is a HUGE positive and the reason for my purchase. But...

Cons: 1. Long filenames are NOT supported for that flash/hard drive. 2. No S-Video out for those of us who don't yet have a hi-def TV. 3. Horrible little remote -- few buttons, weak signal, just awful. 4. Flimsy-feeling player.

How to rate such a product, with one GREAT feature, several big weaknesses, and a good price? I'll compromise and give it a "3". It may just be the cheapest way to get a hard drive's worth of DivX movies over to your TV. But it could have been so much better.

Philips DVD players are my most favorite for two reasons, 1. they are cheap and 2. they can play DIVX and can be made region free gracefully. I am user of DVP642 for last one year and even though I enjoyed the flexibility of playing all sort of DVD/DivX files thru it, I never liked the picture quality/menu browsing much. Now, with this new model, menu browsing is much faster, discs loads way faster and not too mention picture quality also improved greatly.
To add to my pleasure, there is a nice little USB port in front of the player, so for me, no more burning huge divx movies in CD's/DVD's. I just copy them in a USB thumbdrive and plug them in to my DVD player..voila!
On a not so brighter side, the player does nto support DTS out of the box. But a quick upgrade of firmware fix that problem. Also, lack of S-Video out/Optical out can tick off some users.
Overal, an excellent purchase for the price.

There is no longer any doubt after using this unit for a few days that (within this price range) it is THE DVD player to have if you are a geek who loves movies and don't want technology and movie companies telling you what you can and cannot play on equipment you buy.

Everything others have said so well in other reviews is true: it plays virtually everything you throw at it, especially after the region-free hacks and firmware upgrades (if necessary).

It's so insanely open to what it will play that now with the USB input it doesn't even have to be on disc-based media anymore!

There are only a few points that might reduce my review from 5 stars and might or might not apply to you:

1) whether the lack of USB 2.0 (the player's input) and lack of long filename compatibility will end up being a long-term annoyance. Most videos, especially taken from pen/thumb drives will play without an issue (all is well with mine so far). If you're looking to use USB hard drives, you will have to make some adjustments with no guarantee of success to get things to play well because the port hardly supplies any power (you must supply external power for USB drives), is only compatible with FAT32, and is USB 1.1 which may choke or stutter on some drives or complex, high-bandwidth files. In future players, as the tech gets even less expensive, maybe USB 2.0 and long filenames might be implemented.

2) High-end equipment. For us poor slobs who only still have 4:3 TVs and no high-end home theater setups, we're not going to notice or care if the picture/sound hookups are marginally less good or exact than some high-end Oppo or other "specially modded" region/format free player. Based on how much of an audio/videophile you are, your mileage may vary although many are very happy with it even in a higher-end system.

3) The big reliability question, which is probably a lot of the reason this product doesn't have a higher overall rating. No way to answer this (yet). Be aware that Philips' warranty is only 90 days. If you purchase on certain credit cards, this may be extended automatically. If you are willing to shell out more for some sort of protection plan (caveat emptor on those) this may be an option. Or, if you're not too mad that this inexpensive player doesn't last as long as it should, you can replace it. But it may be destined to live long and give you enjoyment for years. It's a risk.

(EDIT TO ADD: Good news? I just registered the DVD player through Philips' website and when I got my "receipt" it claimed the player was warrantied for 1 YEAR parts and labor. Is this a mistake or true? Not sure when the warranty documentation in the manual says 90 days (perhaps the manual is the one in error?). Legally I wonder if I could hold Philips to this...hopefully never will have to find out.)

I think it's incredible that my first DVD player (still with me!) cost nearly $200 in 1999 and this one, which makes the old one look like a joke in terms of what it can do, ended up being far less than half that amount!

Now, I don't know how I got along without it.

If it lasts, it's one of the best electronics purchases I've ever made.

EDIT: Over a year later, and it's still going strong. Hope I don't jinx it by editing this though (heh heh). Also, it seems to have been eclipsed by the Philips DVP5982 1080p Upscaling DVD Player, and might actually be cheaper.

I bought this to pair with a new Sony SXRD-KDS60XBR2 (full 1080P) television. I'd read good reviews on upscaling, but after seeing so many poorly connected HD TVs in the stores, I wasn't expecting much, even from this. But I wanted to move my current DVD player along with the old TV and decided to give this one a shot. Oh Man! Not only does the upscaling produce a fantastic picture from the DVDs, but it does a pretty good job on DiVX and even VCD (for what's it's worth). As with everything, the quality of the source material has a great effect on the resultant image - DiVX and VCD don't shine like DVD. One note for you - make sure you go through all the options with you first start up the device. It does not default to 1080i upscaling. Also, for the absolute best quality, go with "super-bit" DVDs. An overcompressed movie will still look over compressed, even when on this marvelous peice of hardware. Highly recommended!

I bought 3 of these players mainly so my parents, aunt, and grandmother can watch their weird format Chinese DVDs. I really don't know what kind of format those Chinese soap operas are in, but I know they're not standard MPEG2. All I know is that they're heavily condensed (like 10 hours of shows) and no ordinary DVD players will play them. The issue is NOT because of region code (China-produced movies are always region-0).

Before buying the Philips DVD player, the only other DVD player that I knew for sure can be used to watch them are from the "GIEC" brand (I bought them from yesAsia before). But they're ridiculously expensive now (>$125). So I bought one DVP5960 from a local Bestbuy - it worked for those DVDs! And then I bought 2 more online. It really is true - you throw any piece of crap DVD/CD at the DVP5960 and it'll be played.

The other two features that were useful for me are the Divx and USB. Divx is nice - even more downloaded Chinese movies my folks can watch. USB is used mainly for me. I record shows (with beyondTV) and save them as Divx files on a USB key. I find if you record at a bit rate of 800, the DVP5960's USB 1.1 speed is still fast enough to play the show without hickups. Speaking of USB 1.1, it is definitely a bit slow to display all the JPEGs from the 6+ megapixel cameras these days. It'll take a minimum of 10 seconds between each shot (assuming you're using a problem-free memory card and memory card reader). But it's still bearable.