Philips DVP3980/05 - DVD Player with True High-Def HDMI 1080p
See it at Amazon.co.uk for £49.99Average Customer Rating
(4.5 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Smart looking DVD player that plays everything
This is the 3rd Philips DVD player I have owned over the years, and I am very happy with this recent purchase.
Firstly, it is a very compact and light unit that makes it easy to transport between rooms or just put away if you dont want your kids watching too many films during the week.
Secondly, it loads up quickly and plays everything from DVD, DivX, XVid and VCD, smoothly and quietly. This was not the case with my previous player, a Philips DVP5960, which was a noisy beast that often froze when loading or while playing many of my home-made DVD-video and DivX discs.
Thirdly, it is very nice on the eye.
I have tried out several DivX movies and so far no problems. The remote control also seems to be better on this unit than on the DVP5960.
This player can be made multi-region by some easy steps.
1. Turn the DVD player on.
2. Open the loading tray.
3. Press the "Setup" button on the remote control.
4. Navigate to the "Preferences" page using the right arrow key.
5. Type 138931.
6. The current region code will be displayed - use the Up/Down arrow buttons to select the region required or "0" for all regions.
7. Press the "Setup" button on the remote control.
8. Press "OK" on the remote control.
Simple!
At £45 this is a bargain.
(5 out of 5)Excellent results
I bought this to go with a new Full HD TV and the results were excellent. It took a few minutes to adjust the DVD player's settings - notably the resolution - to match the TV and when this was done the picture quality was superb - fine definition and rich colours.
A bonus feature was that it responds properly to my multi-device remote control which my old DVD player would barely acknowledge.
(5 out of 5)Superb Value For Money.
Cannot recomend this player enough. Another Philips success. Faultless picture and sound. Region free out of the box. Lovely remote, well laid out with soft touch buttons. Why pay more. Buy it.
(5 out of 5)Fantastic player
Michael Foskett is somewhat correct - this unit does play some non-region 2 DVDs right out of the box without putting in any codes, but not all. See NK's review for help.
Picture on my 720p Samsung is stunning, though beware that this player needs to be set to the actual resolution of your TV, else you might get input dropping problems as I did on the "Auto" resolution setting of this Philips player.
To optimise the picture, I recommend increasing the brightness and the contrast in the setup menu of the DVD player itself (or just choosing one of the presets, Vivid is nice), and then not doing much to your TV video settings (except increasing contrast of course). This will help enhance the blacks on your screen.
Again- picture looks amazing. From my bed about 2 meters away, I'd be hard pressed telling the difference between this and Blu-Ray.
(5 out of 5)Total bargain!
I know this player lacks a couple of bells and whistles, such as USB or memory card inputs, but let us look at what it does have. Picture quality is amazing from the HDMI port on a HD ready TV. Video is handled by a 12bit video DAC and it is truly very nice. Audio is handled by a 24bit Audio DAC and the sound is wonderful too. 1080p and 720p scaled DVD's honestly look very clean, clear and flow well...which is the sign of a very capable scaling chip.
At first I fretted that the DTS logo was nowhere to be seen, and not mentioned in the manual either, but I was quickly relieved when I hooked it up via the coaxial digital output to my separate decoder to find that it passed through the 7.1 / 5.1 DTS bitstream without issue. So it seems that Philips merely cut a corner by not putting a DTS decoder inside...backed up by the fact that switching a disc's audio track to DTS results in muted TV speakers....but hey, DTS is a surround sound mode and if you crave it you will already have a DTS capable amp....so this is no big issue at all.
As regards connections it has: 1x HDMI, 1x Component, 1 RGB SCART, 1 pair of analog audio out sockets (RCA/phono) and 1x coaxial digital out socket. No Toslink/optical I'm afraid....but most amps have coaxial inputs and, at the end of the day, digital audio is digital audio. Philips have also kept the price down by including no free AV cable of any kind, which is commendable, as most people would prefer to buy their own as opposed to using the cheap things that come in the box. So the only accessory in the box is the rather nice looking remote control and 2 AAA batteries.
DivX playback was flawless....and the files were quickly loaded so I could tell that the 'engine' is pretty fast too. I should note that the first thing I did was to find the most beat up/scratched rewritable DVD-RW I could find for the DivX test....if a machine plays files off one of those you will know that it will not bother you in the future by being fussy over media. And I'm pleased to report that all the files played through fine. As did some old/scratched DVD-R and DVD+R discs authored as DVD-VIDEO. It seems this is one of those machines that never complains and spits out a disc over a few lousy marks (I should add that I look after my discs in general, I purposefully scratch a couple up for this test as it is a good way to spot laser over-sensitivity in a player). I should also add that this player is 'DivX Ultra©' certified... so it comes with extra menu, subtitle and audio features with its DivX playback, as opposed to standard DivX certified machines. This is a very nice feature.
Overall Philips have cut all the right cost corners and not sacrificed the important things to place this model as their entry level 1080p DivX DVD player - and to be totally honest it seems more like a midrange machine. If you require USB inputs and extra AV outputs, then look elsewhere....perhaps even Philips models above this one, but if you don't need these extras but still want DivX and upscaled output....you will not go wrong here. I personally have to commend Philips on this machine, as it does all I wanted from it, does it well, and came in at a bargain price. For that I give it five shiny stars.