Philips DVP5980 good choice?

[Raithmir]

Hi all,

Been a while since I looked at HW players, I had an old Elta that's died and so am looking for a replacement.

I don't want a recorder, or hard disc, or wireless/network media streaming. I just want a cheap(ish) DVD player that'll play all the xvid TV episodes etc. I can throw at it.

I've seen the Philips DVP5980 for £53 which looks ideal at first glance. I don't have a HD TV (just an old 32" CRT), but guess the HDMI and upscaling might be useful in the future if I do get one. Being able to attach a USB memory stick sounds like a useful feature for quickly transferring something and watching it too.

Is it a good choice, and alternatives in that sort of price range? Thanks in advance :)

[ilovejedd]

That's a relatively cheap device but it's great as long as you don't expect too much. I have the DVP5960 and the main difference between the two is there's no 1080p upscaling on the 5960.

It won't play all your XviD files, but if you encode the files yourself, then it should be no problem using a profile that's compatible with the 5980. Also, hi-def resolutions are not supported. I think the maximum supported resolution is 720x480.

I use the following commandline to encode:
ffmpeg -y -i "movie.avs" -vcodec xvid -vtag XVID -qscale 2 -pass 1 -f NUL
ffmpeg -y -i "movie.avs" -vcodec xvid -vtag XVID -b 1500k -pass 2 -acodec mp3 -ab 128k -f avi "movie.avi"

I always need to unpack the avi afterwards with MPEG4 Modifier. It doesn't play nice with packed bitstream.

USB is limited to 1.1 speed so your bitrate is limited. Files stored on USB devices are displayed using the MS-DOS 8.3 file naming system. Power is low so not all USB-powered drives are supported. It also doesn't support nested folders on USB so you can't really organize your stuff (e.g. files in Z:\Music, Z:\Movies, Z:\TV can be played but those in Z:\Music\Classic, Z:\Movies\Horror, Z:\TV\Simpsons cannot).

Despite the limitations, the USB port is a very useful feature. You are able to test if encodes work properly prior to burning to CD/DVD. I don't even bother with burning to discs anymore (except for backup purposes). I just store all my movies on a USB hard drive with its own power (WD My Book 500GB) and watch from there. It's convenient not having to get up to change discs all the time.

Despite all its shortcomings, it's a pretty good SAP to have, especially when you keep in mind that other DVD/DivX players with USB cost at least twice as much.

Phunkyfish's website (http://www.phunkyfish.com/article/4/philips-dvp-596012) has a lot of info regarding the DVP5960. Most of that also applies to the DVP5980 so I suggest checking it out.

[prOnorama]

I own the 5980 and I'm happy with it (I also don't use upscaling have an old 32" CRT myself as well)

It has played all Xvid files I've thrown at it (including some with Qpel), except for those with a resolution above 720 x 576. But that is a common limitation of the Mediatek chipset so other players can't do this as well.

The player can be made region free as well, so I can play back my region 1 DVD's as well :)

[pia2001slo]

@ilovejedd

my dvp5960 normally plays movies from external 500gb disk - i have like this : n:/Movies/Horror/moviename.avi - plays without problems...however it doesn't play DVD stored files because of too high bitrate - i guess around 3500kb/s max

Jolly