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Philips DVP5982 1080p Upscaling DVD Player
See it at Amazon.com for $99.65Average Customer Rating
(4.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Great Choice For A DVD Player
(5 out of 5) by Stuart Williamson on Oct 26, 2007 (Los Angeles, CA, USA)This is indeed a very good DVD player at a surprisingly affordable price. No complaints about performance. Using an HDMI connection it upconverts to 1080p providing an excellent picture and sound on HDTV. It not only plays NTSC (US/Canada) DVD's but flawlessly handles the PAL (Europe, etc.) format. Yes, highly recommended.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Freezes
(3 out of 5) by Andrei Erofeev on Jul 24, 2007 (NJ)Very sharp and clean picture (compared to Toshiba SD-5000) even on a 100" projection screen. Upconverter is better than the one built into Mitsubishi HD1000U projector. Plays DivX like a charm including those Ultra DivX files with built-in bmp subtitles. Would definitely be a keeper, if it didn't pause, choke, freeze on certain titles like "Terminator 2" and "Cars".
Another thing that annoyed me all the time was the player trying to route 5.1 raw audio through HDMI if the HDMI cable was plugged. In my setup HDMI cable was going to projector alone and audio receiver was being fed via coax. Philips for whatever reason by default was trying to send 5.1 audio to HDMI, and coax was getting only PCM. This could easily be fixed via player's menu, but after disconnecting and reconnecting the power, it was going back to this strange behavior.
Another thing that annoyed me all the time was the player trying to route 5.1 raw audio through HDMI if the HDMI cable was plugged. In my setup HDMI cable was going to projector alone and audio receiver was being fed via coax. Philips for whatever reason by default was trying to send 5.1 audio to HDMI, and coax was getting only PCM. This could easily be fixed via player's menu, but after disconnecting and reconnecting the power, it was going back to this strange behavior.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
About the whole PAL/NTSC thing...
(4 out of 5) by M. Andy Mckinney on Jun 26, 2008 (Brodhead, KY United States)If you own a multi-system television (or a PAL television), you should be aware that all current USA Philips DVD players (including the 5982 and any models made thereafter) have the "TV Type" selections disabled in the firmware. The ONLY choice of output system (for U.S. machines) is NTSC, which is fine for most people, but if you have a multi-system TV, this means your PAL discs are going to undergo an unnecessary standards conversion (to NTSC).
All other worldwide versions of Philips machines still have NTSC, PAL and MULTI as choices in the "TV Type" menu. Why was it removed for the USA? My guess was to end calls to customer service for people complaining about black-and-white pictures (MULTI used to be the default choice back when US machines included all three types).
The 5960 is the last US model of this type/price point (including a USB port) to come with changeable TV type options, FYI.
I HAVE DISCOVERED there are work-arounds for SOME 5982s (but not all), however. It all depends on the internal chipset and firmware variation you're running. On mine, you can change the player to multi-system by the following process:
1. open the tray
2. press "3" on the remote. The word "MULTI" should appear in the upper corner of the screen. Now, all NTSC discs will be output as NTSC, and all PAL discs will be output as PAL.
This process does NOT restore the TV type choices to the menu system, though (would take a firmware change to do that). However, if you wish to revert to "NTSC-only" output, simply go back through the menu system, go to TV Type and reselect "NTSC".
I have another 5982 that has a completely different work-around, but it's a bit more complicated. Also, I had a third one that had NO workaround whatsoever.
For the majority of US buyers, you won't need this work-around, but if you have a multi-system TV (whether advertised as such or not), you will want to be able to output a true unconverted PAL signal for PAL discs.
All other worldwide versions of Philips machines still have NTSC, PAL and MULTI as choices in the "TV Type" menu. Why was it removed for the USA? My guess was to end calls to customer service for people complaining about black-and-white pictures (MULTI used to be the default choice back when US machines included all three types).
The 5960 is the last US model of this type/price point (including a USB port) to come with changeable TV type options, FYI.
I HAVE DISCOVERED there are work-arounds for SOME 5982s (but not all), however. It all depends on the internal chipset and firmware variation you're running. On mine, you can change the player to multi-system by the following process:
1. open the tray
2. press "3" on the remote. The word "MULTI" should appear in the upper corner of the screen. Now, all NTSC discs will be output as NTSC, and all PAL discs will be output as PAL.
This process does NOT restore the TV type choices to the menu system, though (would take a firmware change to do that). However, if you wish to revert to "NTSC-only" output, simply go back through the menu system, go to TV Type and reselect "NTSC".
I have another 5982 that has a completely different work-around, but it's a bit more complicated. Also, I had a third one that had NO workaround whatsoever.
For the majority of US buyers, you won't need this work-around, but if you have a multi-system TV (whether advertised as such or not), you will want to be able to output a true unconverted PAL signal for PAL discs.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
A GREAT DVD
(5 out of 5) by Brandon R. BeloteJr on Oct 19, 2007 (Stevensville,MD. USA)The Philips DVP5982 is a great DVD Player. It is easy to setup and plays straight out of the box. The manual is easy to understand and the commands are easy to navigate via a well laid out Remote. The HDMI connection is a dream for both Video & Surround Sound. The picture quality is so good on my old dvd's I felt I was seeing them for the first time. It is awesome, both Video & Surround Sound. It would be nice,to have a button on the Remote to open/close the disc drive. I give the Philips DVP5982 5 stars anyhow.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
New firmware fixed all HDMI issues
(4 out of 5) by Ronald Dsilva on Jun 29, 2007 (Franklin Park, NJ)Got this player for its price and 1080P output. HDMI output used to freeze with Vizio VU42LF 1080P full HD tv. Called up Philips, called up Vizio - no solution. Flashed the player with new firmware (ending with 40) and all problems went away. Still have minor interlace issues with fast moving scenes (noticable by a person with 12 eyes). Divx/xvid output is excellent in 1080P, would have been better with faster GPU. Great value for money, nicely built unit, remote looks cheap. Mediatek is the not the greatest chipset, for this price I will not complain. Good job Philips and Amazon (for its best price/value)