Philips DVP720SA/2 MT1389EE

[Sharro@Home]

Hi Guys!

The below post was in the Digitrex GK-4000 thread: (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=78847)

Originally posted by Sharro@Home
I will get my hand on a MT1389EE tomorrow at night:

Philips DVP-720SA (http://www.consumer.philips.com/global/b2c/ce/catalog/product.jhtml;?divId=0&groupId=VIDEO_GR&catId=DVD_CA&subCatId=DVD_PLAYERS_SU&productId=DVP720SA_02) 179,00 € at MediaMarkt in Portugal

Comments at www.videohelp.com (http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDnameid=4181&Search=Search&#comments) about DVP-720SA

Pioneer DV-575A-S (http://www.pioneer-eur.com/eur/product_detail.jsp?product_id=8533&taxonomy_id=62-84) Not available in Portugal yet.

I'm available for testing.


Zhnujm asked me to test two files:

GMC.avi -> plays with a lot of stops
PACKED.avi -> played well

Subtitles are now centered but they display a strange symbol at beggining of subs, accented characters work ok, font size still the same (whatever you want to call them) midget size.

My Xvid encodes are mostly Animation (Disney's old and new) with:

Default B-Frames,
packed bit. OFF,
AQ OFF
Qpel ON
mpeg or hvs-best quant,
trellis,
chroma optimizer,
cropped and resized to 720 x XXX,
average bitrates from 1.400kbps to 2.250kbps.
Dual AC3 Tracks interleaved with preload 32ms + interleave 32ms

(Yahhh....they look great)

First impression is that on sudden bitrate peaks, where I had problems with my ascomtec 3004 (MT1389DE), things improved a lot. I found improvments also in loading times.

I use mostly DVD+/- R media.

I'm available for testing.

Just don't make me save too much media :D and ask it all at wonce so it deserves a dvd :p but of course I can try a XCD (if I still remember how to save them :cool: )

Oh well.

I wait for you guys.

All the best,


Sharro

[mezzanine]

Hey, i just bought the same player.. I haven't tested much MPEG4 stuff yet but first impressions are promising, very smooth Divx (b,Qpel,GMC) playback.
The question is: How can i skip to a certain point of a divx movie?
(By giving the time like kiss players etc)
Playback buttons available are only Play, Stop, Forward, Backward!

If you find anything please let me know!

thanx
(I really like this player)

[Zhnujm]

Originally posted by Sharro@Home

PACKED.avi -> played well


Thats really good to hear. Thanks for testing.

[Sharro@Home]

I can test mp4 or whatever.

@mezzanine: I heard the player has that ability, just the remote control hasn't got the button. Maybe there is some key combination that might do it or they can implement it in future firmw.

All the best,

Sharro

[Sharro@Home]

VERSION 05.00.01.08
SUB-VER 00.00.00.01
8032 05.00.01.08
SERVO 03.13.05.00
RISC 05.00.01.08
DSP 03.09.00.58

All the best

Sharro

[Zhnujm]

If you could check AR settings:
ftp://zhnujm.dyndns.org/arsettings/11.avi
ftp://zhnujm.dyndns.org/arsettings/169.avi

If AR settings do work both files should play different.
If the player is set to 4:3 then 11.avi should look vertically stretched, 16:9 should look ok.

If the AR setting is not working then both files look vertically stretched.

I have also the same files as .mp4 if you want to try:
ftp://zhnujm.dyndns.org/arsettings/11.mp4
ftp://zhnujm.dyndns.org/arsettings/169.mp4

[Sharro@Home]

Originally posted by Zhnujm
If you could check AR settings:
...
If the AR setting is not working then both files look vertically stretched.
...


:( Definetly not working


If you could check AR settings:
...
I have also the same files as .mp4 if you want to try:


:eek: 100% sure I saved on cd still they didn't show up in DVD file list.

All the best,

Sharro

[m99]

Have just bought this too (bundled with The Return Of The King).
Is there some info about the EE-chip somewhere?

[mezzanine]

Anyone found out the way to skip to a certain timepoint ?
Without it divx playability is totally useless.
:(

[Sharro]

Originally posted by mezzanine
Anyone found out the way to skip to a certain timepoint ?
Without it divx playability is totally useless.
:(

Have a look at http://perso.wanadoo.fr/ablon/dvp720/#astuces (Hope you understand french)

There is a trick to use the goto under DVD mode, I haven't tested if it works with DIVX/XVid.

All the best,

Sharro

[m99]

Is it possible to disable Macrovision on this?
Have found two remote-codes, is there others?

Firmware: Setup 1 3 7 9
Region: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks.php?select=Philips+DVP+720SA

[m99]

Originally posted by Sharro@Home
Subtitles are now centered but they display a strange symbol at beggining of subs, accented characters work ok, font size still the same (whatever you want to call them) midget size.


Subtitles is the wrong name, Midtitles are more correct ;-) Is it possible to move them down?

[Sharro]

Originally posted by m99
... Is it possible to move them down?

For the time being, I don't know of any trick to move them...

All the best,


Sharro

[CruNcher]

@Sharro
i miss you in IRC where are you :(
i also have samples to test for you :D

[Sharro@Home]

Originally posted by CruNcher
@Sharro
i miss you in IRC where are you :(
i also have samples to test for you :D

Cruncher, they cut IRC access at work :( next week I hope to have a "solution".

For the test files just tell me where they are :) and I will be most happy to try them for you.

All the best

And my best regards to everyone at #xvid.

Sharro

[mezzanine]

Hi all,
anyone having problem with the subtitles (DVD) ?
I get horizontal white thin lines (sometimes dots) with some movies!
Anyone found out the key combination for "GOTO" during divx playback ?

[m99]

I see it's much fuzz about the DVP630 now, but isn't the DVP720SA better (not considering SA)? The DVP630 it's a bit cheaper here in Norway, but not much.

[Zhnujm]

I would choose the 720SA even if it costs twice as much and would not support SACD.
But thats only my opinion :)

[m99]

What about a wish-list to Philips?

1. Subtitles, not Midtitles, and get rid of the strange symbol at beggining.
2. MP4-support
3. Display/Info for Divx/MP4
4. Zoom for Divx/MP4
5. Digital out for SACD ;-)
.
.
.


Just add everything I have forgotten.

[Sharro@Home]

GOTO function for AVI, its on the hardware but the remote doesn't have any key combination for it.

Also a better font for subtitles with black border...as it should be.

m99 edit your post and add this one :)

All the best,

Sharro

[m99]

Just tried a Matroska-CD, it didn't work, as suspected. Is there any player that support Matroska?


re: Sharro@Home, and others

Just keep adding suggestion, then we clean this up and mail it to Philips ;-)

[LightningFire]

Xvid with GMC is a slideshow on the DVP720sa, obviously, as many other users said it would be.

3 consecutive B frames is no problem, but as the chip is rumoured to be capable of 6 it would be intresting to test to the extreme and over.

I have not noticed any problems with an AVR MP3 track in a movie with a max bitrate of 320 kbps, but haven't thoroughly tested it.

Sometimes subtitles vanish in course of playing a movie, not really nice, I haven't looked for an explanation to this.

Encodes at following resolutions suffer from a part of the screen that falls of on the left side: 352*240, 640*360, 640*276. It could be my TV (is 4:3 not that that is related to the problem). I am looking into that but like to hear other user-experiences.

Nice to have MP3 digital output.
Shame for the SACD of course, stupid copyright protections, now I will have to run a 6 cable (for those mutlichannel SACDs) wire over 10 metres to the amplifier at the other side of the room on top of the coax-cable.

Also sometimes the player just stops responding for no apparent reason, no incompatible file opened or anything else, it just hangs and requires a "hard reset" ;).

Greetings.

[LightningFire]

I haven't seen any remark on divx subtitles(-lettres) falling off, after a number of characters, so I think people here have already found a good solution for it. But if not, on the platinesdivx-forum there was a link to this SRT_mod software (http://mapage.noos.fr/cguyome/srt_mod/win_srt_mod.zip). For the DVP720SA modify in the params.ini under common the default. Instead of DX3220 it must say DVP720. Thanks to the author Guyome for this great solution.

Greetings

[at_divx]

Hi everyone!

I have this great machine but, i still have this subtitle disapearing problem ( even after runing them on this srt_sub).

Did anyone managed to solve this problem? its really anoing.

See Ya

[len0x]

So to sum up: at the moment there is no macrovision hack, goto for divx and proper subtitle position (and while last can be corrected first two may never appear as its more hardware issues). Very sad. I wonder how Pioneer is compared in this matters...

[LightningFire]

Not only subtitle position, also, in every DIVX/XVID movie I watched at some point the subtitles stopped displaying. They could be reinitialised by pressing "subtitle" on the remote. This worked with 2 subtitle files numbered x.01.srt and x.02.srt. I believe it didn't work with 1 subtitle file. Aproximate timings when the subtitles dissapeared in a movie of 92 minutes: at 48 minutes, at 1 hour and some minutes, at 1 hour and 26 minutes, and at am increasing frequency thereafter. My subtitle button'll get worn out very quickly at this pace :mad:.

Goto in divx/xvid is not that much missed for me, with the excellent working fast-ffw in divx/xvid.

I am planning on testing DTS in an avi someday, will let it know how that turns out, unless someone tells me this test is a waste of time for a certain reason.

Greetings

[len0x]

I did some research on Pioneer 575 and they don't even have subs atm, but have goto. But no region hack though...

[Sharro@Home]

Originally posted by len0x
goto for divx and proper subtitle position (...may never appear as its more hardware issues)....

Wrong! the goto function is available on hardware (people found it using goto of other remote controls) it's just a Remote Control limitation.

The Subs problem is present AFAIK in all MT1389xx. and for the sake of it's users, I hope they solve it in a near future.

Still I have to say that I'm very happy with it's performance compared to my Ascomtec DVD 3004 (MT1389EE).

All the best,

Sharro

[len0x]

Originally posted by Sharro@Home
Wrong! the goto function is available on hardware (people found it using goto of other remote controls) it's just a Remote Control limitation.


remote control is a hardware itself :) seriously - are we expected to buy other remote controls to get it working ? :D

[Sharro]

Originally posted by len0x
... to buy other remote controls to get it working ? :D

Nahhh... just a key combination that would allow us to call the GOTO function...

...I hope...

All the best,


Sharro

[at_divx]

I read that the function (search/mode) of the remote control
of the SEG DVX88 worked like GOTO on the Philips 720.

I have a oneforall universal remote control and i decided to
program this function (went to a store w/ Seg machine and just learned this function w/ the oneforall). It worked, i have now goto on my Philips 720.

The subtitles still disapear. Hope it will be fixed.

See you

[Zhnujm]

@Sharro@Home:
Sorry to ask again, but are you really sure it played the packed bitstream file smooth ?
I now have the Yamaha 550 (seems really identical to the Philips) and the Pioneer 575 at home, both cannot play these file :(

[len0x]

Originally posted by Zhnujm
I now have the Yamaha 550 (seems really identical to the Philips) and the Pioneer 575 at home

Can you comment how does it differ from pioneer (good/bad)?
Is it the same EE chip ?

[Le_Zouave]

Does anyone know what is the "Black Level" option in the video menu?
I also have a little problem, in PAL the video is cristal clear on a Sony KV-21V5 (a 4/3 VCR combo) but when it's NTSC the video is a little parasited like a slash scanning. My Toshiba SD220 didn't got that at all, in PAL or NTSC (I bought the philips for the 108 MHz/12 bit DAC)

[Zhnujm]

Originally posted by len0x
Can you comment how does it differ from pioneer (good/bad)?
Is it the same EE chip ?

It should use the same chip, i cannot open it today as it uses some non-standard screws.
In addition to the Pioneer it has random function with MP3, shows MP3 tags on screen and display (scrolling) and more than one ff/rew speed with avi. But no DD/DTS decoder, no DVD-Audio/SACD.

And it seems the MPEG-4 functionality of both is only at the same level as the first firmware release for the DE based players. (no AR setting, problems with custom matrices)
Until now i cannot get subtitles to work.

[len0x]

@Zhnujm

Thanks for the info. I guess I'll be waiting for sigma 86xx based players then. So far I only know of two: Kiss 600 and Bravo D3. Since I won't buy kiss by religion, I'll be trying to get Bravo one from states (that actually have DVI output - THE most wanted feature for me).

[new_age]

Do anybody also have aspect ratio problems? Typically with ntsc frame rates (23,976; 29,970) the avi is vertically streched too much. So the aspect ratio will be bad on TV.

[Le_Zouave]

Originally posted by new_age
Do anybody also have aspect ratio problems? Typically with ntsc frame rates (23,976; 29,970) the avi is vertically streched too much. So the aspect ratio will be bad on TV.
You set the video standard to PAL so the NTSC signal is converted to PAL and as PAL have more line than NTSC it's stretched a little bit. Select multistandard display if your TV support NTSC, if not it's too bad for you.

[new_age]

Originally posted by Le_Zouave
You set the video standard to PAL so the NTSC signal is converted to PAL and as PAL have more line than NTSC it's stretched a little bit. Select multistandard display if your TV support NTSC, if not it's too bad for you.

That's not the problem. I've already tried (ntsc, pal, multi). All the same result. :( I'm using the SCART output.

[Le_Zouave]

new age, when you select you use a NTSC disc and the output is set to PAL, do the image is more stretched than Multi ou NTSC? If it's the same so I have to know if it happen to every NTSC disc you have (try on at least 10 disc, full screen and wide screen one).

[new_age]

Hello!

NTSC DVDs are OK.

I'm talking about NTSC frame rate avis (23.976; 29.970).
Eg:

VIDEO: XVID
B-VOP: No
S(GMC)-VOP: No
QuarterPixel: No
Frame Size: 640 x 368
Frames Rate: 23.976
Color Depth: 16
Total Frames: 64154
SuggestedBufferSize: 68823

If I do a capture (PAL, 768x576) the movie boundary is 768x500.

640/368 = 1,7391304347826086956521739130435
768/500 = 1,536

As you can see it's not the same AR.

The same result if I choose multi or ntsc tv on the dvdplayer menu.
I've choosed 4:3 letterbox in the dvdplayer menu. If I choose 4:3 panscan or 16:9 the avi is more! streched.

I still don't know what is the problem. And I still suspects the dvp720sa because with dvd737 the playback of this file was correct.

NA

[Zhnujm]

Just flashed my Yamaha 550 to a Philips 720 (now it show subtitles at least)
But no more differences, the resizing seems to buggy, no square pixel correction, no zoom with divx, no stretching to 16:9 if you use 16:9 tv setting.
The stretching if you switch between 4:3 letterbox/pan scan/16:9 also seems to be a bug. No matter what you select, if you switch it during playback the picture gets stretched. If you stop the movie and start again its back to normal.

I think the upcoming firmware will change these things, at least all other mediatek based players i have seen dont have these bugs. (including the also EE based Pioneer)

[m99]

Originally posted by Zhnujm
I think the upcoming firmware will change these things, at least all other mediatek based players i have seen dont have these bugs. (including the also EE based Pioneer)

Do you know if they have done something with the others faults?

[Zhnujm]

Someone posted this in another forum, its all i know about it:


Some of our Dutch forum colleagues, of which one works at Philips, tracked down some contacts within the company. Lucky enough, the actual developer of the firmware came by on their forums (Dutch) and answered about a Firmware Release soon being ready.

Most likely, a couple of weeks.

By MAD Palace 10 August 2004 (Software Architect Philips)
Source: Gathering Tweakers

Released as "Unofficial" information

1) Subtitling:
-a- Subtitling second line sometimes not 100% shown. After a while the complete subtitling might disappear (75%, 50%, 25% etc.).
Quote:

This truncation is known problem and it has been improved with the latest released SW, though for some languages like Hungarian.. it still exists.
The disappearing subtitles is in the priority list to solve.

-b- Subtitling has strange characters at the beginning of each line (sometimes a comma, sometimes a sometimes a block, sometimes "@")
Quote:

This has already been solved.

-c- Font for subtitling is not positioned on the bottom of the screen but a few lines too high (almost in the middle).
Quote:

Another known problem - solution is known, to be in the next running change.

-d- Font for subtitling is white without black borders. This is very hard to read on licht parts of a movie.
Quote:

Tricky problem - Don't think this will be solved in this running change.

-e- Font for subtitling is very small.
Quote:

This has already been solved.

2) Menu:
-a- The multichannel/2-channel setting is not stored. It switches back to multichannel automatically.

-b- The CD-Upsampling settings is not stored. Is back off when player is powered off and on.
Quote:

This is the behaviour as requested, so not sure if the Pdt Manager wants it changed....

3) Audio:
-a- 4x CD-Upsampling gives less low frequencies (bass) and some distorted audio for high frequencies (trebble). 2x CD-Upsampling sounds great.
Quote:

Yeah, this is an IC limitation....maybe some workaround will be done...not too sure. For the later models, x4 upsampling was removed.

-b- Audio volume on audio output is pretty low compared to a Philips CD player (when using stereo output and stereo setting)
Quote:

Really ? Not sure abt this.

4) Questions:
-a- SACDs are automatically played in multichannel. Stereo tracks should be selected manually via a menu on the TV. Is this the way it should, or is this to be improved?

Quote:

This is the behaviour. It is dependent on the SACD disc - if it has both the 6ch and 2ch folders, then it has to be selected manually.

-b- Is it possible to disable the equalizer, or should a user really select settings like jazz, concert etc. I can imagine that no equaliser settings are wanted (normal default audio).
Quote:

Well, the default sound mode is ROCK...we allow the user to have the choice in customising their sound mode...so, if you want cancel all eq setting, you can choose CLASSIC mode.

[m99]

4) Questions:
-a- SACDs are automatically played in multichannel. Stereo tracks should be selected manually via a menu on the TV. Is this the way it should, or is this to be improved?

Quote:

This is the behaviour. It is dependent on the SACD disc - if it has both the 6ch and 2ch folders, then it has to be selected manually.

Since digital out isn't allowed for SACD stereo should be default.

[Sharro]

Just saw that a new firmware for the above has been posted on yahoo groups:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mt13x9/files/Pioneer_Dv575_v1.bin

Text:
"File : /Pioneer_Dv575_v1.bin
Uploaded by : tibrium
Description : NEWS !! New FIRMWARE Mediatek Mt1389FE-2Mb Flash required, Pioneer Dv575 !! new Graphics, new Menu,new Options, new Features . Thank's Stimax By "Tibrium" Attention!! Only for test with MtkTool!! "

All the best,

Sharro

[m99]

Someone dare to try it on the Philips-player ;-)

[Zhnujm]

Does not work with my Yamaha, so i dont think it will work with the Philips.
Even if it would work you would need a Pioneer remote control....

[m99]

Seems like it's all about getting new products on the marked, and forgetting support and updates for "old" products for Philips :-(

[Alexander Maxim]

It seems that the latest 720sa-s do have an upgraded firmware.
http://forum.surdvd.com/viewtopic.php?t=28318&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=250&sid=3cddd3154c904badb1fa31a8bf199dae
In french:
"La dernière version en date du firmware est la V32 (numérotation interne à Philips) qui apporte les corrections suivantes notamment :
- sous titres divx : plus de disparition abrupte
- sous titres divx : plus de caractère étrange en début de ligne
- sous titres divx : police plus grande et positionnement plus bas
- sous titres divx : fond gris transparent à la manière de LG
- SACD : plus de pauses entre les pistes
- DVD : l'icône multi-angles reste toujours présente mais de manière moins visible
Mais toujours pas de mise à jour téléchargeable... il faudra encore patienter icon_frown.gif

En fait toutes ces infos proviennent d'un forum neerlandais, où un gentil salarié de Philips nous donne régulièrement des infos (en interrogeant les bonnes personnes). Il a demandé aux services compétents pkoi une mise à jour n'était pas encore téléchargeable alors que certains lecteurs récents étaient vendus avec une mise à jour intégrée. Pas encore de réponse claire à ce sujet (contrairement à l'indication de septembre que donnait les services clients Philips de différents pays)"
So, there's still hope :D