Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips DVP5982 1080p Upscaling DVD Player

This player plays almost any possible format on CD/DVD. I could play any DVD from India as well, without having to bother about the region code. The other feature that is really fascinating is, it can play files directly from a USB input.

The HDMI up-conversion works excellent, it is perfectly compatible with my HDTV.

The player in itself is very sleek and light-weight. The black color adds to the classy look.

Its a great player, totally worth the price!

I purchased a DVP5960 3 months ago, then purchased the DVP5982 1 month ago in hopes of the DVP5982's new USB2 would allow faster transfer rates from an external disk connected to it's USB2 port. The DVP5982's USB2 transfer rate is minutely faster than my DVP5960's USB1. I have not found any practical difference between the two units or their USB ports (besides the case color). The DVP5982 is almost identical performance to the DVP5960. The DVP5982 is advertised with USB2 and the older DVP5960 is advertised with USB1 but they work almost identical in performance. I am reposting a review that I had made for my DVP5960, with the slightest of alterations for the DVP5982, (mainly substituted model names and changed the TIVO Best recording bitrate lag time from .5 sec to .2 seconds.) This DVP5982 still cannot play my TIVO "Best" recording "Best=5.8 Mbps" without pausing every 3 seconds. I was hoping the DVP5982 would be better than the DVP5960 to meet my needs to play my .mpg-2 TIVO recordings and DVD backups directly from an external disk and bypassing the need to burn them to a DVD but the DVP5982 USB transfer rate is not fast enough yet. If you save money and purchase a DVP5960, I would do that before buying the DVP5982. If not, then purchase the DVP5982, both are excellent DVD players.

This DVP5982 player plays everything I have thrown at it on a DVD. Backup movie DVDs, mpeg files of various vibrates, jpg, mp3, DVDMP3. I have other DVD players that play "most" everything but for the money, this player is great. Plays back-up copies of DVDs on all brand DVD (&RW) media so far. Perfectly plays grandson's scratched DVDs that other players stopped playing. Picture is great, same as other posts, standard Composite & Component give a great picture and upscale 1080 does work for even a better picture. Hey, it is not a Blu-Ray player but for a sub-$70 unit, this player is well worth the money.

I can use this DVP5982 for my TIVO backed up files. I use Direct Show Utility to change my .tivo files to .mpg files. I found that an external "My Book" western digital 400 gig disk is pre-formatted in Fat32 (plug and play). I copy files from my computer to the "My Book" disk and then I just plug the "My Book" disk into the 5982 USB port and it reads the complete 400 gig. You can move through folders with the remote and select any .mpg or mp3 and play it. (Both DVPmodels filename 8 character length limit can be a challenge when viewing on the TV screen) Video plays exactly as the original recording looked from my Tivo. The only problem is that Tivo can record in 4 different quality settings, Basic. Medium, High and Best. Both DVP players cannot play the BEST recordings from their USB port because the USB ports transfer rate cannot keep up with the higher Bitrate (more data per second)
According to info from Google;------------
TIVO video is recorded at 2/3 D1 (480x480) resolution at 29.97 frames per second with constant-bitrate MPEG-2 at one of four bitrates:
Setting Bitrate
Best 5.8 Mbps
High 3.5 Mbps
Medium 2.6 Mbps
Basic 1.47 Mbps
----------------------
I found that the "My Book" disk connected to the 5982 USB will play all Tivo recorded settings EXCEPT the "BEST" quality. The "Best" recordings play jerky because the 5982 USB cannot keep up with the higher transfer rate. It Plays 3 seconds then pauses .2 seconds while the 5982 buffer catches up to the transfer rate then plays 3 sec, then pauses .2 sec, and so on, not viewable. The 5982 also plays jerky like this if you try to play DVD files directly from the My Book disk. (but the same BEST quality .mpg files play fine if copied to a DVD or DVD RW, then play the DVD in the 5982)
For me, the quality between TIVO's Best and High quality is negligible so I will now set all my future Tivo recordings to High and just put them on the "My Disk" external disk, then move the usb connector to the front usb port on the 5982 to play them on the TV)

I can buy a $1000 HD/BluRay player and I can still find something to grip about but for less than $70, the DVP5982 is well worth it.
Ok, the remote is a little stubborn and you have to slowly-deliberately press the buttons but it works ok.
AND FYI;
I formatted a different external disk but with multiple FAT32 partitions due to XP's maximum 32gig "Fat32" format size limit, the DVP5982 will only recognize one of the partitions. You can format any disk with larger FAT32 partitions with an old Win98 PC or a 3rd party format software (or just use a "My Book" external USB disk)

I have both the Sony and Philips. Both are very good Mediatek-based upscaling players. The Philips has the vertical squeeze problem (about 3 vertical pixels) that is inherent on all Mediatek-chip players. The Sony eliminates that problem through additional software processing. The Philips also exhibited red push, but that's easily remedied by adjusting your tv. I'd say that both players are about equal in picture quality.

I had the Oppo 981HD and happily returned it. Not worth the extra cost (3 times the price) for marginal PQ improvement.

PROS: $$$, DivX, USB, 1080P, region-free capable, batteries for cheap remote, black color, $$$

CONS: vertical compression, no optical output, red push, cheap remote, not many available video adjustments

I was about to buy an Oppo 970HD when I heard about this new Philips player. Found it for $69, so I took a chance. I'm glad I did.

PROS: cheap, upconverts to 1080p, HDMI output, very good picture quality (Mediatek chipset), black finish, slim design, plays everything (including NTSC/PAL), USB 2.0 port (media must be formatted as FAT32/16), plays divx files, supports Dolby-Digital and DTS passthru (even though it isn't mentioned in the manual), adjustable audio sync, easily hackable to be region free, screen saver, firmware upgrades.

CONS: doesn't support long file names, doesn't support HD divx files, no optical audio out (only coax/rca), remote is kind of cheap, menus are a little cludgy, doesn't seem to have an "upconversion-over-component" hack available yet (unlike the DVP5960).

To sum up, if you don't need optical out and can get around the annoyance of short file names, this player is terrific! Who knows, maybe Philips will release a firmware to fix these minor issues (fingers crossed).

BTW, if you add a FAT32 formatted HD, it becomes a pretty decent poor man's home theater PC. A BIG thumbs up from me!!

I bought this machine for myself as a Christmas present. It arrived TWO days after I ordered it (using the free shipping option). The set up was simple - plug in and go (I did read the instructions). It plays DVDs (of course) but it also plays CDs/DVDs with jpegs on them in a slideshow format. It also accepts USB input (from a memory stick) and plays music and jpegs from there as well.

The best bit is that I found a DVD region hack so that it plays all region code DVDs, so I can watch my US and European format DVDs whenever I want to!

Here are the steps I followed:
Hold the Stop key on the remote to Open the DVD tray
press Setup
select Preference
Press 1,3,8,9,3,1
Press up/down key to select "0

Easy - Enjoy!