Samsung DVD-1080P9 1080p Upconverting DVD Player Review

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(More customer reviews)For the price point, this is a feature rich player. What you get:
- a very sleek looking player that loads fast. Compared to the Phillips I bought at a big box store for the same price a year ago, it is greased lightning.
- a functional remote that is comfortable and easy to use.
- a USB port on the front of the player to play .mpg and picture files or to rip music to a flash drive or MP3 player from a CD or DVD.
- easy to navigate controls on the front panel. This is essential for me because my employees, who will not have the instruction manual available, will also be using the machine.
- an HDMI output, as well as the regular RCA type jacks.
- a ton of other features I will not use in my particular application.
Setup was a snap, even without so much as a glance at the instructions. I was even able to do a picture slide show from a flash drive without instructions, it is that intuitive. The only reason I didn't give 5 stars:
- If you want to connect an old school coaxial cable (the one that you screw on - with the little wire in the middle of the cable), you are out of luck
- I don't see any instructions on how to get it to control the volume on my TV (and it does not do it on it's own) even though the remote indicates it has the capability.

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Samsung DVD-1080P9 Upscaling DVD Player DVD-1080P9 DVD Players

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

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(More customer reviews)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.

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DVD, HDMI (1080i Upsampling), DivX Ultra 6 (Mpeg 4 Video), Ultra Slim design, Progressive Scan, Plays CD, MP3, DVD, DVD+/-R/RW, CD-RW, JEPG Pictures,USB Connect to play all your favorite music or digital pictures, Windows Media

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Philips DVP5982 1080p Upscaling DVD Player Review

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(More customer reviews)To go along with my HDTV, I decided that I needed to upgrade my DVD player. While my Insignia DVD Recorder/VCR didn't look awful, it certainly didn't look good. And while the quality of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are definitely impressive, the on-going format war combined with the cost made those players inviable options.
Enter the market of upconverting DVD players. These players, which take your standard 480i DVDs and scale them to high-definition resolutions are as common as regular DVD players these days. Places like Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Circuit City, are full of them. I've actually owned two of them.
I started with the highly-touted Sony DVP-NS75H which is truly a great machine. It has a great design and a super picture quality. Sadly, it only upconverted to 720p or 1080i, not 1080p as my set is capable of. While I'd like to think that I'm not a total videophile, I noticed some of the ghosting and artifacts that interlaced video can expose when put on a big screen. Despite the claim of my HD monitor to do de-interlacing, I was finding that it didn't do an especially good job.
Enter the Philips DVP5982. Based on Philips well-received 5960 the 5982 adds support for 1080p output as well as improved USB compatibility. I returned the Sony, picked this one up, and set it up. Here are some of my observations:
The basics:
The DVP5982 is a basic upconverting player that you can get for around $70. It includes an HDMI output for upconverting along with coaxial digital audio outputs, plus the standard analog outputs (component, s-video, composite, and stereo audio). There is no upconverting over the component outputs however. It supports DivX file playback (as long as they're standard resolution and not too large) over USB from a FAT32 formatted device. The menu system on the 5982 is a bit archaic and hard to read, but it's manageable.
What I Like:
- True 1080p output. I was suspect of whether the 1080p output would make any visible difference over the 1080i of the Sony. I was wrong, the 1080p output made a huge difference in certain troublesome scenes from movies. I had noticed with the Sony that whenever there was a light or white background (such as a white wall or the sky) and there was motion in front of it, there were artifacts left all over the screen. In the same way, motion scenes would blur and leaving ghostly lines on the screen. Those problems are largely gone with the Philips.
- DivX playback. I have a 160GB hard drive attached to the USB and loaded onto their I have various movies that I've captured onto my computer from my cable dvr. Rather than burning all of these onto DVD or having to hook my computer up to the TV to watch them, I can just transfer them onto this hard drive and hook them up to my DVD player and they play. Pretty much every file I've thrown at it has played no problem (but I don't have any DivX HD files). The only exception was some movies that were encoded at incredibly high data rates. Even then, for the occasional really large or really high data rate file you can put it onto a DVD in DivX format and play it from the player.
- Image Quality - although its not as good as the Sony with some adjustment to my tv settings the image quality is still very good. There is some minor pinching
What I don't like
- Audio Output - this machine will either output over the HDMI cable OR the digital coaxial out - but not both at the same time. This really is only a minor problem, but it can make things more complicated than they need to be
- The Disc Tray - The tray feels kind of floppy and cheap
- The Menu System - Simply put, it's awful. Once you figure out the fonts and how it works, it makes sense, but the visual appearance really leaves something to be desired.
- The Image Quality - As I said above, it's not quite on par with the Sony, although the elimination of the ghosting and artifacts make it a worthwhile trade off.
The Summary:
Well, seldom am I so glad I spent $70 on something. Some minor inconveniences aside, for the price you cannot beat this player if you're looking for 1080p (or want to future-proof you DVD player). I feel very comfortable waiting out the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray battle with this player attached to my HDTV - DVDs look fantastic. The DivX playback, while somewhat limited by what USB devices can be attached, is a really nice added feature. But for me it was the combination of price and 1080p playback that convinced me - and I haven't been disappointed.

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Philips DVD player, 1080p Upscaling, DivX Ultra certified, Plays CD, CD-R-RW,MP3/WMA, DVD, DVD-R/+R, DivX to support video downloads from your PC in Mpeg4 format, 1080P upscaling will increase the picture resolution performance from your movie CD's to 1080P resolution similation, plays Jpeg picture CD's, Progressive Scan. Full size 420 mm width

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Philips DVP5990 HDMI 1080p Upscaling DVD Player Review

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(More customer reviews)This DVD player is a great bargain at $55. It works perfectly fine. Here's what you really want to know:
1) Make this DVD player region-free. Press Setup on the remote and go to Preferences. Press 1, 3, 8, 9, 3, 1 on the remote. Use the up and down buttons to select Region 0 (region-free).
2) Go to the General Setup page. Press 1, 3, 7, 9. This will display the firmware information. If the last two digits of Version aren't "31," then go to the Philips website and update to the most recent firmware (31).
3) For US users, the first two digits of Version will be "37." Go to http://vb6rocod.euracks.com/dvp5990_37.php and download "DVP5990_37_vb6_v32_All_Logo.rar" and follow the upgrading instructions (http://vb6rocod.euracks.com/upgrade.html). It really is as simple as it sounds, and it can be done in less than 60 seconds. I recommend the USB method. Upgrading to this firmware will give the USB capabilities of the DVD player increased functionality and usability (there are a couple dozen changes and fixes; I won't list them here).
Random notes: The DVD player will only recognize jump drives and USB hard drives that are formatted in FAT32, so you will need to do that. Now, the manual says there is a limit of 300 folders and 648 files. This is not exactly true. There IS a limit of 648 files PER folder. So what reads as a limit of 648 files is actually a limit of 648 * 300 = 194,400 files. So this is NOT a limiting factor.
I tested a variety of files and the DVD player can read everything I threw at it, with the exception of Quicktime files and Real files. It is equally as capable in the realm of audio files. It also has a slideshow feature for pictures. In case you are curious, it can't read PDF files.
When one video or audio file finishes, it automatically goes on to the next one. It could be great for background music when hosting a party.
The DVD player can access .srt subtitle files that have multiple tracks and you can flip through them while watching a foreign Divx movie. I was extremely pleased by this. The modified firmware I linked will also allow you to change the color, size, and location of the subtitles while you're watching the movie. Extremely nifty.
Watching Divx movies on my TV looks perfectly sharp, and now I don't have to store or swap discs. This DVD player is a sign of the future. Get out and buy one (and a USB hard drive... if you catch a deal they're as cheap as ten cents/GB). $100 can create a total multimedia collection that changes with you.
Also, the remote does feel a little cheap. But who cares? It is cheap.

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Philips HDMI 1080p DVD player with true high definition video upscaling, D/A converter: 12 bit, 108 MHz progressive Scan, High Def (720p, 1080i, 1080p), Video Upscaling(720p, 1080i/p)192kHz/24 bit audio DAC enhances analogue sound input, High definition JPEG playback for images in true resolution, Brings your PC to your living room with Windows Media Video playback, DivX Ultra for enhanced playback of DivX media files, Plays DivX, MP3, WMA and JPEG digital camera photos, Plays CD, (S)VCD, DVD, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, Direct conversion from CD to MP3, USB Direct plays DivX movies, photos and music from USB flash drives

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Philips DVP5992 1080p HDMI Upscaling DVD Player with USB 2.0 and DivX Ultra Review

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(More customer reviews)Just bought 3 of these 5992/37. There is an easy hack found on the internet to upgrade to play all regions dvd's.
Philips DVP 5992
Region Free:
press Setup
select the Preference Tab
Press 1,3,8,9,3,1
Press up/down key to select "0"
and hit menu to exit.
Prior to this I had a 5982/37 which had 1.1 usb and I had some trouble with avi's at high bitrate through the USB 1.1 port but the 2.0 on the 5992 fixed that. Both players play divx (avi) files but the major upgrades to the 5992 are USB 2.0, plays wmv files, now has 14 characters for files on hard drive or memory stick, you can rip music from cd to hard drive in mp format, you can play vob through the usb. The remote is much improved over the 5982 as well. In summary this is a great deal if you need a player that does a good job upconverting to 1080p, supports divx (avi), wmv and has usb 2.0 for connecting a hard drive or memory stick (must be fat 32 - for drives over 32 gb there are several utilities for doing this such as awissknife or fat32.exe - I have a 1 TB WD connected to mine). Also, to sort the fat32 files alphabetically by name there is a freeware FolderSort.exe which you can download to keep your folders and files alphabetically when you play the HD through the USB. The DVD player reads the folders/files in order they were loaded so for convenience you can sort them yourself with FolderSort. Bought mine for $39.99.
There are additional firmware upghrades by a developer Vb6rocod which makes some great changes to the setup options and screens. For example itlets you see file characters much longer than the standard Philips release (at first it was 40 characters from a cd/dvd then upgraded furtherto the length of the bar on the scree; the files through the usb are limited to either 21 or 23 which is a nice improvement), adds font choices to subtitels, colors to subtitles and some other fixes. You can download through rapidshare. See links at http://ryan.com.br/smf/index.php?action=profile;u=1074;sa=showPosts OR http://www.forodvp5100.com.ar/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=1458&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=60 OR http://forum.videohelp.com/topic355675.html#1881495. Many users like these improvements. I tried the firmware upgrade and it is very nice.

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Be impressed with this Philips DVD player with HDMI digital video and audio connection. Step into another home entertainment arena as you immerse yourself with High Definition video (720p / 1080i/1080p). 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. 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.

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OPPO OPDV971H Digital HD-Ready Up-Converting DVD Player Review

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(More customer reviews)I just got this player thru Amazon, and ran two region1 DVD disks: LOTR Return of the King Platinum and Dying Young. The short review: The wife is so impressed with the Oppo's picture quality (that's probably the most important consideration when buying anything like this). I was expecting the quality, since I was able to demo a Samsung earlier that could do DCDI/Faroudja/upconvertion. ADDED: I also tried Star Wars DVD. WOW!! The picture quality really blew me away. I can see details in the movie I have never seen before on a TV.
Our Oppo/HT setup: Panasonic AE700 widescreen lcd projector hdmi, ht=61" x wd=108" diy "blackout" screen (viewing distance=3.5meters), Yamaha RXV2095 receiver, Pioneer DV515 (old non-progressive dvd player via 12meter sVideo, 1.5meter fiber optic audio), Oppo DV971H (via dvi-to-hdmi adapter, 5meter hdmi cable, 3.7meter 75ohm component video cable, 10meter 75ohm coax audio), Speakers: Wharfedale Diamond 8.4 L/R/C and Bose AM10 L/R/C/Surr, Wiring AWG12. Home Theater PC setup (6meter VGA output, 1.5 meter fiber optic audio, Asus Pentium 4-2.67GHz notebook, ATI Radeon 9000-64MB, 512MB, 40GB HDD, ZoomPlayer, FFDShow, PowerStrip, WinDVD6, PowerDVD6). (1meter = 3.28ft)
I have observed a significant video improvement over our old pioneer DVD player. I also tried a 1970's movie (I won't mention the title) that was so poorly transferred to DVD (region3), and I noticed a significant improvement in the video playback over the old player. The noise artifacts were minimized, and the sharpness had a significant improvement. I guess that was the DCDI/Faroudja chip doing its work.
I've tried the 480p,720p,1080i upconvertion using the "dvi" button on the remote and although I couldn't really notice the difference in quality between the three modes even on such a large screen, the lcd projector saw the difference and reported the corresponding "input source signal". I may have to observe some more and change the projector's picture mode, we usually leave it at "Cinema1 mode".
ADDED: okay, I've now looked A LOT closer using Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon region3 DVD. Basically, as I move up the DVI resolution from 480p to 720p to 1080i, I did noticed that less and less horizontal lines were becoming visible (a good thing).
BUT, since our projector uses hdmi, the picture does suffer from hdmi cropping issues (varies with the resolution being used). Using component/analog gives the largest picture that can occupy the screen (unfortunately there is no upconversion using component, only the Oppo's DVI output has the upconversion). At the projector side: Using hdmi input, the picture appears cropped (black bars at the left and right, sometimes at the top and bottom, sometimes a combination of both). I also cannot change aspect ratio using hdmi, while you can using component/analog inputs of the projector.
ADDED: The Oppo I have can play DVD-Audio, something not stated in the manuals or the unit's array of logos. The DVD-Audio sampler disc I used came from Creative Lab's Audigy 2 for the PC.
ADDED: I also compaired the Oppo's component output vs. the dvi-to-hdmi output, basically, there's a big difference in the picture quality, you should connect using the dvi output if possible.
I also noticed that the subtitles on the movies are much easier to read now when compaired to the old dvd player, but on one brief moment the subtitles on Dying Young were garbled -that's never happened before on the Pioneer.
ADDED: Okay, this has now happened to a bunch of other DVDs, sometimes it garbles one single line of subtitle per entire single dvd I watched. That is still an acceptable problem to me.
I also heard no apparent difference in audio quality between the Oppo and the old Pioneer despite the length of the coax. Naturally I set all audio sound effects to off when compairing audio CDs.
I also compaired the Oppo to our HTPC. Basically, the HTPC could output better video than the old Pioneer, but when compairing with Oppo, I prefer the Oppo. I don't want the hassle the HTPC is giving me. I saw no significant video quality difference between the HTPC and the Oppo. So my take on this is if you're happy with your HTPC, stick to it. If you want convenience then Oppo is something to look at. If you can't demo an Oppo, try looking at anything with DCDI/Faroudja.
Bottom line: I am happy with the purchase. Good value for the money. It's region free and can upconvert, and that's what's important to me. I chose Oppo vs. Momitsu V880 because I prefer Faroudja over Sigma Designs. BUT, BUT, here are my Oppo gripes....
1. I don't like the remote's key layout, it also seems flimsy, it could use a backlight.
2. I don't like the el-cheapo plastic disc tray. It looks like it will break easily. It's weird having to insert a disc if the tray doesn't comeout 100% all the way. I just hope this is the design, not a defect.
3. I don't like the bright blue light which is distracting in a completely dark home theater room.
4. The player's buttons are a little hard to press, well, maybe because it's still new. As with other players, not all remote functions can be found on the unit itself. So take care of the remote.
5. I wish the unit was color black instead of silver.
6. I don't like the OSD font, could use a better readable font.
7. The setup menu could be more descriptive, the manual helps but not enough...
8. I wish it was HDMI rather than DVI, but the adapter solved that issue.
ADDED: 9. Subtitle display is sometimes garbled (sometimes happens once on a single line per DVD watched).
ADDED 05/28: Okay, after 3 months and almost 200 hrs of use, I am still happy with this purchase. However, not all DVD titles appeared fantastic thru the DVI upconversion output (hdmi input on our projector), such as Top Gun r1. I had to watch it thru the component output. It appeared too visually noisy via DVI.

Eric Gutierrez
Manila, Philippines

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Improve the picture quality of DVD movies shown on your high-definition television with the versatile OPPO Digital OPDV971H DVD player, which provides 480p/540p/576p/720p/1080i resolutions and can upconvert 480i video from DVDs to the high definition 720p/1080i formats. Featuring a slim and elegant design, it featurs a sleek, silver design that will fit in nicely the rest of your home theater's components. In addition to standard DVD move and CD audio discs, it's also compatible with DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, (S)VCD, HDCD, and CD-R/RW discs as well as WMA and JPEG digital content. It also plays DivX 5, DivX 4, DivX 3, and DivX VOD video content (in compliance with DivX Certified technical requirements).
The OPDV971H features Faroudja's Emmy award-winning DCDi deinterlacing and scaling technology to up-convert standard video in DVDs to HD resolutions. DCDi (Directional Correlational Deinterlacing) technology eliminates the jagginess that conventional upconverters introduced to diagonal edges in video. FaroudjaÕs unique DCDi algorithm identifies all the moving edges in a scene and adjusts the angle of interpolation at each pixel so that the interpolation always follows the edge instead of crossing it, eliminating staircasing or jagged edge artifacts.
Other features include a 108MHz/12bit video D/A converter, super error correction with twin laser and intelligent laser wavelength control, NTSC/PAL output (from both NTSC and PAL formatted discs), multi-angled view capability, virtual surround sound, and built-in Dolby Digital and DTS decoders. Future upgrades to the firmware can be updated to the player via a CD-ROM disc. It offers the following connection options:
DVI Out: 1 (480p, 576p, 540p, 720p, 1080i resolutions)
S-Video Out: 1
Composite AV Out: 1
Component Out
Subwoofer Out: 1
Optical digital audio Out: 1
Coaxial digital audio Out: 1

Tech Talk DivX is a video codec (a piece of software encoding and decoding video) based on the MPEG-4 compression format, that blends good quality video with a low bitrate. This translates to a smaller file size (around 15 percent of a standard DVD's video file), making it easier to transfer to portable devices as well as quicker to create (encode).
HDCD (High Definition Compatible Digital) is a disc encoding format for audio CDs and DVDs. It can encode 20 bits of audio information into a conventional CD 16-bit channel, yielding a greater dynamic range and a more true-to-life sound when decoded. HDCD-equipped players will improve audio quality for even traditionally recorded CDs and DVDs. Conversely, because of the recording process, HDCD-encoded media will also sound better than traditionally CDs and DVDs on players that don't have the HDCD chip.
DVI (Digital Video Interface) provides an uncompressed transfer of high definition video from a digital video source to a digital display device. HDCP (High Bandwidth Digital Content Protection) ensures copy protection of the content. The DVI output is also essential if you want to watch copyrighted DVDÕs at a higher, upconverted resolution (other video connections do not provide upconversion).
What's in the Box DVD player, remote control (with batteries), video cable, RCA L/R audio cable, printed operating instructions

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