61 of 65 people found the following review helpful:
Better than I expected
I decided to buy a new DVD player when my old XBOX refused to play one of my discs. Thought about Blu-Ray, but the price and lousy user ratings turned me off. For folks like me, who have an HDTV and not a lot of dough, this is a solid option. It makes about a minute to hook up (buy a HDMI cable first!)The picture quality is great, especially with you fiddle with the...
39 of 45 people found the following review helpful:
Had one fatal flaw and then died completely.
Although the unit produces a good picture and generally works well, it has one fatal flaw. Every so often (maybe once a week with light use) it will not read any disc. This can be rectified by unplugging the unit from the electrical power and then plugging it back in. Shutting off the unit will not do, as this puts it in "standby". This is a real pain if your power...
This review is from: Philips DVP3980 Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion DVD Player (Electronics)
I decided to buy a new DVD player when my old XBOX refused to play one of my discs. Thought about Blu-Ray, but the price and lousy user ratings turned me off. For folks like me, who have an HDTV and not a lot of dough, this is a solid option. It makes about a minute to hook up (buy a HDMI cable first!)The picture quality is great, especially with you fiddle with the settings via the menu. As others have mentioned, the remote is kinda cheap, but it works and that downside shouldn't stop anyone from buying this player.
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This review is from: Philips DVP3980 Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion DVD Player (Electronics)
Pro's: Can play both NTSC & PAL DVD's. Region-free can be set by setting the region to 0 in the Preferences menu (see Others below). Excellent pictures from regular DVD's via (1080p upconverted) HDMI. Can be connected to both old and new TV's with composite, component, HDMI ports + stereo analog and coaxial digital audio. Menu has lots of options to set HDMI video/audio and digital & analog video/audio. Firmware is upgradable and can be downloaded from Philips.
Con's: The remote control is the only con I've found so far. It looks cheap and it really is cheap. You must sit directly straight in front of the player to control the player and it takes quite some time for the player to respond after a key on the remote is pressed. I didn't have a chance to test with a universal remote control, which might work better.
Others: I've only had the DVP3980/37 for a few days so I can't tell about its reliability. But from most of the reviews I read online, there were not many complaints about its reliability. Just open the disc tray, press Setup then go to the Preferences menu and enter 138931 on the remote control to magically have access to the Region setting. I'd like to thank Amazon.com for the lowest price I could find and the excellent shipping. With BD players can now be had for around 200 bucks, I don't want to spend more than $50 for a non-BD player and this fits the bill perfectly. BTW, I used a $3 HDMI cable, not a $50 one from some big name company to connect the player to my LCD TV.
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This review is from: Philips DVP3980 Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion DVD Player (Electronics)
So far, very satisfied. Good picture quality through HDMI cables and good sound. Remote control is only OK as far as setup. But, for $45 it works for me.
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This review is from: Philips DVP3980 Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion DVD Player (Electronics)
Although the unit produces a good picture and generally works well, it has one fatal flaw. Every so often (maybe once a week with light use) it will not read any disc. This can be rectified by unplugging the unit from the electrical power and then plugging it back in. Shutting off the unit will not do, as this puts it in "standby". This is a real pain if your power cord is plugged in behind a cabinet, as is mine. I'm in the process of leaving the unit on at all times (by disabling the automatic standby mode) to see if this will solve the problem, although it would waste a little electricity. The unit is probably too inexpensive to return for this problem, but I would recommend customers spend a little more for something else. Several months later,after light to moderate use, the unit completely failed.
Avoid.
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This review is from: Philips DVP3980 Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion DVD Player (Electronics)
My family have been faithful Philips/Magnavox customers for many years & very rarely has there been a dud. Unfortunately, this DVD player was one of those duds. I received this DVD player for Christmas & when I finally got around to hooking it up the DVD door wouldn't open. OK, no big deal. Contacted Amazon & they sent me a new one. Everything was fine for a while; however, a few days ago the player started freezing up & in order to get it working again I had to unplug it. No big deal, until it happened three times in one day. That was it, this DVD player is going back & I'll be choosing a different one.
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This review is from: Philips DVP3980 Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion DVD Player (Electronics)
I also own the prior year's model. The prior year's model is a much better unit. The 3980 just seems cheap. It's so lightweight, my HDMI cable keeps causing it to turn sideways in the cabinet. However, that being said, it does do what a dvd player is supposed to do. It upconverts to 1080p and even though they don't list it, it will bitstream DTS. The bells and whistles make it a real bargain, but I am concerned about reliability. I will update if I start having any problems with it.
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This review is from: Philips DVP3980 Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion DVD Player (Electronics)
I've used this DVD upconverting player on 720p and 1080p televisions, and I can tell you it's an impressive machine.
If you can excuse the austere menu design and the delay with which the player acknowledges user inputs (via the remote) to fast-forward or rewind at varying speeds, you'll be happy with it.
The picture is fantastic. It is true that newer DVD release tend to deliver better results. I tried to play a DVD purchased perhaps 5-6 years ago, and it didn't look very good, but for anything more recent, it will look very good. You can choose between various resolution levels, but after fiddling with them, I found that the Auto setting generally knew what to do. Not once have I had to override the player's automatic decisions.
Please note that I have only used this player with HDMI (as well as component audio).
Also, I found that a 1080p picture on a 1080p capable display was less crisp than a 720p picture on a 720p display, but I imagine that was to be expected. More important was my unfortunate encounter with the occasional stutter of playback via the 1080p setting. This was very occasional, though, maybe once for 2-3 seconds in a three-hour film. I don't know the cause of this issue.
Altogether, it is a good player for the money.
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This review is from: Philips DVP3980 Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion DVD Player (Electronics)
Amazing product! First, I couldn't believe it was real given the price, then when I got it home it was sooooooooooooo easy to connect! I was watching my DVDs within a couple of minutes of opening the box! It's a simple remote, but has all you need to play your DVDs.
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This review is from: Philips DVP3980 Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion DVD Player (Electronics)
I was looking to replace my DVD player with one that would also play my DVDs from the UK. I read some reviews and picked this player up for around $40 at my local super store. I have had this player for 6 months now. I have to say this is a wonderful player that has the same functions as players that cost many times this. I have had no issues with the player at all.
I was very pleased to see that with a setting change (see below), the player is able to play DVDs from any region (region free). It also converts PAL format to NTSC with amazing results. I can watch all my DVDs from the US and the UK with no issues. The upconversion of DVDs to high definition looks great on my 1080p 42" LCD television. The DVD player even supports DivX playback. I am very happy with this player for such a reasonable price.
To make player region free....
1. Open the DVD tray. - The splash screen displays.
2. Press 'Setup' on the remote control. - A menu pops onto the screen.
3. Scroll to 'Preference Page' using the left and right arrow keys to move along the top of the screen.
4. Enter the following number sequence: 1 3 8 9 3 1. - A menu will appear with the current region code displayed in the center of the screen.
5. Use the 'up' and 'down' arrow keys to select 0 for a region-free player or select a specific region from the Basic List of DVD Region Codes below.
6. Press 'OK'.
7. Press 'Setup'.
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This review is from: Philips DVP3980 Hi-Def 1080p Up-Conversion DVD Player (Electronics)
I only bought this DVD player to take the stress of playing DVDs off my Xbox, so of course I opted for the cheapest player I could find. The picture quality is pretty good even though some of my daughter's cartoons can appear really grainy and choppy. It does take a long time to load as others mentioned. Sometimes it can take forever just to spit out the tray. The major problem I have is that every once in a while the screen turns orange and green and the only fix is to unplug the power cord. This can happen a few times a day or go up to a week without happening. It's because of this DVD player that I had to make my power cords easy to reach, and I'm usually the type to have my cables organized and stashed away. Very frustrating. But the price was right and the quality is good enough that I can use it until the price comes down on Bluray.
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