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

I purchased this DVD player based on the other reviews that said that the owners were able to pop in their European DVD's and that the DVD player worked just fine. However, mine did not work. I put a call in to Philips and they said that the DVD itself has to be a multi region DVD in order for the DVD player to play it. I then found a discussion on Amazon with the access code to get into the setup menu and change the DVD player to any region. Works just fine now.

bought this on sale for $62. AWESOME.



The Good -

1) HD upscale to 1080i on my 720P Viewsonic HDTV and it's incredible. Quality varies per disc. Newer discs - especially Sony releases - play flawlessly. My DVD's I bought in 2005 don't look as nice as a new 2007 DVD release. Near HD quality on new DVD's, seriously. Not tried 1080P so far. WAY better than my 2 year old Sony dvd player w/ component.

2) Regionless. I've played discs from Hong Kong with no problems.

3) Compatible with everything I've thrown at it. DVD-R. DVD+R. DVD+RW.

USB. All played with no problems. Even home movies from my PC.

4) Scratched DVD's play fine. TRust me, some of these would not play on my Sony.

5) USB input is fantastic, but a little slow.

6) HD JPG's are amazing. Watched slideshow of my kid and it was better than my computer monitor. A little slow to load, though.



The So-So Problems -

1) Red Push. I had to adjust the picture in the Picture setttings and take it back several notches. I also adjust the Blue a tiny bit.

2) Detail levels. I really played with these a lot along with the brightness/contrast to get a nice image. I found it best at 1 or 2 with very little change to the brightness or contrast ( use your TV settings instead ).

3) Lock-up. If I have a disc I stopped and started a bunch, it can lock up and the only way to fix it is unplug it ( or use a power strip and just flick the switch once ). Happened twice so far with over 30+ viewings. Not big deal IMO.

4) Remote stinks. Lightweight with tiny buttons. Although my Sony remote was always too long, this one is too short. Good for small hands.

5) Menu is a bit of a mystery at first. You have to read the manual a bit to get the best settings and REALLY play with with Picture settings.

6) Can't output HDMI and Coaxial at the same time. Sort of annoying if you use a stereo only half the time. Just means I have to go to Audio settings before viewing something for the whole family w/ the stereo system.



I plan on buying another for the bedroom when we get a second HDTV.

For the money, it's great. AND buy your HDMI cable at AMAZON! Those $5 cables work exactly the same as the $40 one I returned locally.

My review cannot include a lot of jargon, as I am no technofile. I wanted something easy to set-up and pretty to watch. The DVP5982 is essentially plug and play. I connected the power cord to the wall, plugged in a single HDMI cable to my HDTV, and off it went. Awesome.

The menus and remote docked the player of a full star. They are tough to navigate, and are very confusing. The instructions don't help much. Basically, I figured out how to change the video setting to tell the player that my TV was 16:9, and to do virtual surround for the audio. I also have it doing 1080i all of the time instead of automatically choosing how much to upscale. That's my personal preference.

Thankfully, after this, it has done whatever it needed to do on its own. It automatically scales movies to best fit the screen, which is incredibly cool.

I decided to try out the player for purposes of this review on three standard DVD offerings: Star Wars Episode III, Superman Returns, and the BBC version of Planet Earth, episode one. My findings:

The opening ten minutes of SW 3 are visually taxing, and the player blows the image up to 1080i (my TV's limit) beautifully. Viewing it in both 720p and 1080i, I noticed little difference but preferred the 1080i. In fact, I could find no ghosting at all. Stunning, really.

Superman Returns looked better than on my standard TV, but ultimately lacked the quality of the Star Wars presentation. It wasn't terribly sharp. Good, but not great.

Planet Earth was mind-blowingly beautiful. I could find little to no difference between a true HD signal and the upscaling transfer from the 5982 -- perhaps only the glassiness that true HD brings to the table. Unlike the other two movies, it also fills the screen. Again, the other two are movies, shot in widescreen, and it knows to letterbox them slightly. This, shot for HDTV, completely fills the 16:9. It looks amazing, and worth the price of admission right there.

Recommended, especially at the price.

I bought this dvd player to replace my dvp-642
I was a little scared at first when i switched my hdtv's input to hdmi and the audio stuttered and a green screen came on, but that is the nature of the digital signal and its just checking itself when first switched on. some people say that they don't like the remote control, however I do. This remote is similar in layout compared to my previous philips dvd player.
pros:
inexpensive for what you get
it will upscale to 1080p (whether or not you notice it is up to you)
sleek piano black finish with mirrors
usb input works great and is pretty quick, it's a poorman's media center
remote control fits well in my hand and has easy to use buttons
usb function will play xvids!
HDMI output, need i say more?


cons:
my HDTV's built in upscaler is better or equal to the one in this dvd player, so no improvement was noticed with the upscaling function
you need to dig in a menu to turn on HDMI audio
it will not output HDMI audio and coaxial audio at the same time
philips always seems to make the dvd players too small and a little too wide. it is wider than my series 2 tivo, so the dvd player sits underneath it, however it is not long enough in the back. thats just a nitpick though
it does take a little while to startup, it's especially annoying when you just need to eject the dvd and have to wait about 10 seconds before anything happens.
the buttons on the remote are white and semi-translucent, making me think that they would light up or glow, but they don't
i wish the usb input was also available on the back, it looks bad to have an external drive's cord hanging sticking out of the front all of the time
keep in mind that the usb function will not play hd content or .tivo files

After having gone through 3 name brand DVD players I can say that I am a bit picky. Saying that, I do really like this machine. HDMI makes a wonderful difference. Set up is a breeze and if it isn't defaulted to Region 0, the forums have the answer. This makes it so easy for US users to see other great films from around the world.

The remote is about one-half the size of other remotes. Also the lettering is a miniscule 1 millimeter in height, try that in a dimly lit room. The remote also lacks an 'Eject/Load' button. I am flabbergasted at this oversight. The manual says to keep the 'Stop' button depressed to eject the disc. Go figure. Finally, the recess in the load tray is so shallow that it is rare when you get the DVD correctly aligned prior to loading.

The added features, like USB haven't been used by me, so I can't comment. So, now knowing what to expect, go ahead and purchase this player and explore a world wide variety of movies.