Best DVD player iwth USB

[frnd08]

Hmm... not sure what you mean by a digital HT... Most useable inputs of any HT are actually analog inputs. And even analog HT systems have digital optical or coaxial inputs. As for devices, even my 5 year old LG had a digital coax out. So, digital inputs and outputs abound, even in the analog world. What you need for CEC is HDMI, so even if your analog receiver has one HDMI port (which is also digital) - and many do - CEC would work. I don't even have an HT, and I'm in favor of CEC, simply because my DVD player and TV would support it. I don't want my kid or wife fiddling with switches and plugs, so I have ONE switch which controls the power for the whole lot. Devices in standby consume very little power, and they are only on standby while my TV is on (otherwise the whole thing would be switched off from the 'mains'). Of course, no system in the world can power up a device which is 'fully' switched off.

A universal remote is certainly handy here: specially the ones where you can record macros - so one button press can actually send out a series of commands to multiple devices - but remember, they have to be powered on too (but may be on standby).

CEC is a standard that works over HDMI - and it needs a fully-capable HDMI cable. That doesn't refer to the quality or build, but the wiring. Some very cheap manufacturers get away by only including the internal wiring needed for digital AV, but nothing more. However, as I mentioned, the cable I got with my Samsung worked fine, as did some other - cheaper - cables I tried.

Finally, if I may say so, it's a matter of convenience for me, and to a certain extent I feel safer that my family doesn't have to dabble with power cables/switches etc. And all this comes at NO additional cost to me (almost all LCD/Plasma TVs have HDMI and some form of CEC, as do most DVD players with HDMI. You will anyway be using an HDMI cable to connect the two, it's just a question of using it fully.

Well, unfortunately my Phlips 5.1 channel home theatre is analog and it doesnt have a digital input facility. So for me, CEC would be of no use. I am thinking of getting a universal remote. Does a universal remote do everything than a CEC stuff can do?

 

[dirtyBlueJeans]

Well, unfortunately my Phlips 5.1 channel home theatre is analog and it doesnt have a digital input facility. So for me, CEC would be of no use. I am thinking of getting a universal remote. Does a universal remote do everything than a CEC stuff can do?

Sure, if you get one which has macros, then you are more or less covered. Do you happen to have a Philips HTIB, or is your player separate from your reciever/amp?

 

[frnd08]

Sure, if you get one which has macros, then you are more or less covered. Do you happen to have a Philips HTIB, or is your player separate from your reciever/amp?

Nope, I don't have HTIB, I have Philips MMS 5.100. Its a separate speaker system. I have LG DV388 dvd player.

Can't exactly figure out what to say to the shopkeeper guy while buying the remote! I'm not exactly sure if he'll understand macros!

 

[moserw]

Nope, I don't have HTIB, I have Philips MMS 5.100. Its a separate speaker system. I have LG DV388 dvd player.

Can't exactly figure out what to say to the shopkeeper guy while buying the remote! I'm not exactly sure if he'll understand macros!

Better to research and go if you are not sure. What's your budget? Also, if you check what models are available in the shop and make a note of them including model numbers and then come home and Google for their reviews it would be better. You can check out for their "user reviews" from Amazon and other such sites and then make a decision.

 

[dirtyBlueJeans]

Nope, I don't have HTIB, I have Philips MMS 5.100. Its a separate speaker system. I have LG DV388 dvd player.

Can't exactly figure out what to say to the shopkeeper guy while buying the remote! I'm not exactly sure if he'll understand macros!

If you have a budget slightly on the higher side, you might want to check out the Harmony by Logitech, or some cheaper ones by Sony. If you know someone in the US, about to come back, then this is a _great_ time to buy stuff as places like Amazon etc. have Black Friday shopping deals which are really amazing (you can get a good programmable universal remote, branded, for as low as $20). In case you plan to go with Airtel Digital, I believe they also supply a programmable/universal remote with their box.

You could even start another thread on this forum, I'm sure there are people out there with experiences with universal remotes.

 

[nekhrun]

finally i bought the dvp 5996 y'day from ezone, noida at Rs 4590. I connected it with my Samsung C29Z40 TV over component cable, and played one movie (xvid avi over USB). here's my review (with some disappointments):

* the player could not play 2 GB avis. So no ProdJi, UnSeen, DZ0N3 rips . They may play after splitting, but haven't tried that.

* when playing the movie, as soon as i inserted the pen drive (kingston 8 GB), the screen started flickering for some seconds, but became normal. It flickered in between too (random points). I tried different movie files, formatted the pen drive and tried again, but the sudden flickering was there every time.

* the movie (video, not audio) froze for a few seconds many times during a 2.5 hr movie, but regained itself.

* over component cable, there is no way to choose 720p or 1080i. The player is automatically set to 720p.

* surprisingly, the progressive scan is not working. The tv is a 100hz model and my previous player dvp 3046 worked with progressive scan. in 5996, with the progressive scan, the screen went really bad (constant flickr like on a 40Hz computer monitor).


* color production is good, so is clarity/sharpness. no other issues noted.

now can1 tell me he is also facing the same problem (screen freezing and flickering) as i am? what can i do to get it fixed? i've called ezone, they have taken the complaint, but haven't given me a complanit number as "their system is down". I haven't heard a good repo of ezone, but had no choice as the player was not available at any other shop in noida.

 

[frnd08]

finally i bought the dvp 5996 y'day from ezone, noida at Rs 4590. I connected it with my Samsung C29Z40 TV over component cable, and played one movie (xvid avi over USB). here's my review (with some disappointments):

* the player could not play 2 GB avis. So no ProdJi, UnSeen, DZ0N3 rips . They may play after splitting, but haven't tried that.

* when playing the movie, as soon as i inserted the pen drive (kingston 8 GB), the screen started flickering for some seconds, but became normal. It flickered in between too (random points). I tried different movie files, formatted the pen drive and tried again, but the sudden flickering was there every time.

* the movie (video, not audio) froze for a few seconds many times during a 2.5 hr movie, but regained itself.

* over component cable, there is no way to choose 720p or 1080i. The player is automatically set to 720p.

* surprisingly, the progressive scan is not working. The tv is a 100hz model and my previous player dvp 3046 worked with progressive scan. in 5996, with the progressive scan, the screen went really bad (constant flickr like on a 40Hz computer monitor).


* color production is good, so is clarity/sharpness. no other issues noted.

now can1 tell me he is also facing the same problem (screen freezing and flickering) as i am? what can i do to get it fixed? i've called ezone, they have taken the complaint, but haven't given me a complanit number as "their system is down". I haven't heard a good repo of ezone, but had no choice as the player was not available at any other shop in noida.

Look, I had a cheaper model of Philips earlier (DVP 3146, now I have LG DV388) and it played Prodji with panache. So, plz check your player settings, try resetting the player to "factory settings" and see if it works out. Secondly, download updates from the internet of the player software from the philips support page. (and plz dont split prodji files, the entire fun of prodji goes away if you re-rip the files.)

as far as the pen drive is concerned, get some other pen drive from someone and check if its working. the problem may be with your pen drive.

pen drive support in dvd players isnt the best. although, i havent faced any such problems with my LG DV388 so far.

component cable has a max resolution of 720p, its an hdmi cable which allows 1080p resolution. moreover, if u have a CRT tv, the component cable wont be able to upgrade to 1080p.

look, 5996 is tailor made for hdmi viewing. maybe its hdmi and an lcd tv that you need.

try playing a ".wmv" file, 5996 is supposed to play them.

if you still have a problem, then contact e-zone (it is a reliable store, even i got my lg hdmi dvd player from e-zone).

 

[echo77]

component cable has a max resolution of 720p, its an hdmi cable which allows 1080p resolution. moreover, if u have a CRT tv, the component cable wont be able to upgrade to 1080p.

Component video - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Component video is capable of carrying signals such as 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p, although many TVs do not support 1080p through component video.

CRT TVs (PAL) will have a resolution of either 720 x 576 (max) or 360 x 288 (min)

 

[dirtyBlueJeans]

finally i bought the dvp 5996 y'day from ezone, noida at Rs 4590. I connected it with my Samsung C29Z40 TV over component cable, and played one movie (xvid avi over USB). here's my review (with some disappointments):

* the player could not play 2 GB avis. So no ProdJi, UnSeen, DZ0N3 rips . They may play after splitting, but haven't tried that.

* when playing the movie, as soon as i inserted the pen drive (kingston 8 GB), the screen started flickering for some seconds, but became normal. It flickered in between too (random points). I tried different movie files, formatted the pen drive and tried again, but the sudden flickering was there every time.

* the movie (video, not audio) froze for a few seconds many times during a 2.5 hr movie, but regained itself.

* over component cable, there is no way to choose 720p or 1080i. The player is automatically set to 720p.

* surprisingly, the progressive scan is not working. The tv is a 100hz model and my previous player dvp 3046 worked with progressive scan. in 5996, with the progressive scan, the screen went really bad (constant flickr like on a 40Hz computer monitor).


* color production is good, so is clarity/sharpness. no other issues noted.

now can1 tell me he is also facing the same problem (screen freezing and flickering) as i am? what can i do to get it fixed? i've called ezone, they have taken the complaint, but haven't given me a complanit number as "their system is down". I haven't heard a good repo of ezone, but had no choice as the player was not available at any other shop in noida.

Hi nekhrun,

congrats on your purchase, I'm sure it will work out once you get over the glitches. By the way, did you get an HDMI cable with the player?

If your 29"TV is CRT, the best resolution it will support is 576p - for PAL progressive. If progressive video is creating a problem, try lowering your player's output from 720 to 576 (assuming you DO have a progressive-capable TV). Believe me, on a 29" TV, even if it's flat-screen, anything higher will be wasteful unless you have a true HD source (even then, I doubt you will have enough real-estate to justify the resolution). It's quite possible that your player is set up for NTSC progressive (in which case you will need a 120Hz TV, rather than a 100 Hz one). Of course, I'm sure it can be switched to PAL+progressive. Also check if your TV is set up for NTSC or PAL.

Also, higher capacity solid-state drives sometimes have a problem switching memory boundaries. Does the movie skip at the same point every time? Try playing the same movie from a 4GB flash or a USB HDD if you have access to one. You should also try burning it on a DVD, and playing from disc - that may help diagnose a faulty USB port/implementation.

Also, you might want to check if your 8GB pendrive is really USB2.0 or not - sometimes, USB1.x devices in USB2.0 ports seem to choke up, and actually work at even lower speeds.

Hope you are able to get the right settings and get it to work!

 

[nekhrun]

Hi nekhrun,

congrats on your purchase, I'm sure it will work out once you get over the glitches. By the way, did you get an HDMI cable with the player?

If your 29"TV is CRT, the best resolution it will support is 576p - for PAL progressive. If progressive video is creating a problem, try lowering your player's output from 720 to 576 (assuming you DO have a progressive-capable TV). Believe me, on a 29" TV, even if it's flat-screen, anything higher will be wasteful unless you have a true HD source (even then, I doubt you will have enough real-estate to justify the resolution). It's quite possible that your player is set up for NTSC progressive (in which case you will need a 120Hz TV, rather than a 100 Hz one). Of course, I'm sure it can be switched to PAL+progressive. Also check if your TV is set up for NTSC or PAL.

Also, higher capacity solid-state drives sometimes have a problem switching memory boundaries. Does the movie skip at the same point every time? Try playing the same movie from a 4GB flash or a USB HDD if you have access to one. You should also try burning it on a DVD, and playing from disc - that may help diagnose a faulty USB port/implementation.

Also, you might want to check if your 8GB pendrive is really USB2.0 or not - sometimes, USB1.x devices in USB2.0 ports seem to choke up, and actually work at even lower speeds.

Hope you are able to get the right settings and get it to work!

Thanks, i'll check and let you know. The drive is Kingston 8GB, i guess it must be USB 2.0. I have a huge collection of movies. Earlier i used to backup them on DVD-Rs, but the life of a DVD-R (Moser Baer) is not more than 2-3 years. Many of the dvds have started giving CRC error, so now I am backing up on HDDs. To watch a movie, i thought copying to a USB drive and playing over a player would be the easiest and most convenient way.

But i'll do check your suggestions again.

 

[Dushie]

For movie backups moser baer is not good, use Sony dvd's, keep them properly in a Dvd casing with sleeves, their shell life is over 20 years ..., i have sony dvds burnt couple of years ago and they still work fine

 

[moserw]

For movie backups moser baer is not good, use Sony dvd's, keep them properly in a Dvd casing with sleeves, their shell life is over 20 years ..., i have sony dvds burnt couple of years ago and they still work fine

Yup, Sony is much better even though a bit pricey. I have been backing up on Sony for nearly 3 years and all work fine. But to tell the truth even my Moser Baer work just as fine with the same time frame. Also, got a ton of DVDs from the U.S. some company called Dynex that my sister-in-law picked up dirt cheap and even they are doing great after 2-3 years.

 

[frnd08]

Well,I use Lasertras, MoserBaer and Writex (all for 10 bucks!) and they work fine for my videos...

 

[echo77]

Moserbaer. Get an 80 CD album and fit in 40 DVDs (don't use the back side). The early ones have lasted >2 years so far...

 

[illusion]

I have more than 500 movies backed up but its no use. All DVD -R available in the market are the same be it Sony /MoserBaer/ Samsung . They all fail after a point of time (4-5 years tops) . Obviously they will wear out faster if you use a particular DVD to watch your fav videos often.

Solution:-


1)But 1 TB/500GB of HDD for starters. 1 TB is huge and good enough (atleast for now) to dump your movies.

2) Convert all your fav DVD's to 1.36 gb movie size ( with5.1 AC3 sound).

3)Keep only those movies which you like and which you think you would want to watch again in the future. This will prevent unnecessary cluttering.

Optional: 4)Keep the format as FAT 32 of your HDD . I think you get some addl storage space if u format it as FAT 32 . Will confirm on this later today


The above solution may be a bit expensive but is the only way out for us movie lovers. This is also the same reason why I am not selling off my desktop as I would want to add a 1 TB HDD more as soon as the 500GB finishes.

The fact is that when DVD's fail on you when you really want to watch that particular movie, it becomes very depressing/irritating.

For ex you want to watch Butch Cassidy today . You think today is the perfect day with the sun shining and all to watch that movie. You prance up to your collection , spend 10 mins to hunt for that DVD in that huge huge collection of yours , take out that DVD , insert into your DVD player and settle down on the couch. HAPPINESS !!! But whats this oh no, the crappy DVD-R has failed . The movie is either unreadable or keeps getting stuck in between !! FRUSTRATION, ANGER and even more FRUSTRATION !! GRRR.

However if you have a HDD backup , just search the Movie , copy it to your pen drive/DVD-RW and play it in your dvd player. No DVD -R failing no hassles. That is what I do nowadays !!

 

[moserw]

I have 3 HDDs on my system and all 3 are always full. I have had 2 instances of HDDs crashing and ended up losing quite a lot of movies and music. It was then I started backing up on DVDs with the logic that even if a DVD goes you will only lose 4 GB worth of data and not all of it. I have not had any instance of a DVD going bad till now, but I do however back up stuff both on the DVD and also on the HDD (a 4th external one that's not always connected to the system). In my view keeping data safe and backed up forever would be a great solution if it could ever be done. As of now DVDs and HDD both can and do fail and hence I have started backing up on both.

One of my worst experiences with HDD crashing was a friend from the U.S. brining all 9 seasons of Friends on his HDD and it fell down when he opened the suitcase and we lost all the data...

 

[echo77]

I used to backup on both till I started running out of space. Now only the real favorites are on both HDD and DVD.

 

[nekhrun]

i find HDDd more reliable thab a DVD backup.

Can any 5996 user confirm if he is able to play 2GB+ (Prodji/Unseen/TmG/etc) avi rips? Or the video freezes for a couple of seconds but then resumes automatically? Today the ezone guy will come up for checking the issue and 2GB/freezing issue is not a common issue, I'll ask for replacement.

 

[spirovious]

finally i bought the dvp 5996 y'day from ezone, noida at Rs 4590. I connected it with my Samsung C29Z40 TV over component cable, and played one movie (xvid avi over USB). here's my review (with some disappointments):

* the player could not play 2 GB avis. So no ProdJi, UnSeen, DZ0N3 rips . They may play after splitting, but haven't tried that.

* when playing the movie, as soon as i inserted the pen drive (kingston 8 GB), the screen started flickering for some seconds, but became normal. It flickered in between too (random points). I tried different movie files, formatted the pen drive and tried again, but the sudden flickering was there every time.

* the movie (video, not audio) froze for a few seconds many times during a 2.5 hr movie, but regained itself.

* over component cable, there is no way to choose 720p or 1080i. The player is automatically set to 720p.

* surprisingly, the progressive scan is not working. The tv is a 100hz model and my previous player dvp 3046 worked with progressive scan. in 5996, with the progressive scan, the screen went really bad (constant flickr like on a 40Hz computer monitor).


* color production is good, so is clarity/sharpness. no other issues noted.

now can1 tell me he is also facing the same problem (screen freezing and flickering) as i am? what can i do to get it fixed? i've called ezone, they have taken the complaint, but haven't given me a complanit number as "their system is down". I haven't heard a good repo of ezone, but had no choice as the player was not available at any other shop in noida.

My experience is better with Philips 3565 HT.
It has usb 2.0 & it can read Divx,VOB files from kingston 2 GB pen drive.
Its at my sisters place.

 

[nekhrun]

can any 5996 user confirm the 2 GB+ single avi (in XVid) file limit of the player? I need to know this before I ask Philips guy for replacement.

Example of 2GB+ avi files are BRRips from ProdJi, UnSeen, DZ0N3, and sometimes TMG too.