Dear Forum members,
At last I foun a forum which has indians discuss Music and Sound am I glad...
I am caught in a dilemma here. I did a lot of research on the net and thought of going in for the Samsung 1080PK, however when I reached the local Samsung dealership which claims to be a company owned retail outlet said that he has been asking for 1080 PK for more than 4 months now and it seems Samsung does not have them. The other HD models were not available either. Something that they call the Pebble which is a neat piece of design with black piano finish was the second option because I have a Samsung 37 inch LCD panel.However, visits to a few more stores also did not find the Samsung HD models.
However, a local store had 2 models in Philips with Full HD upscaling and HDMI Out, USB everything that I was looking for. The model names are
DVP5986K - Rs. 4000
DVP3996 - Rs. 3800
I was not able to gather a lot of info on these models from the outer box so I asked him that can I check the details on the net and come back tommorow.
When I checked the Philips India site both these models were not visible in the presently sold models.
What should I do. Should I keep looking for the 1080PK and buy that for Rs.5000 or just pick up the DVP5986K and be done with it?
Need some opinion here.
Sambit Misra
Hi all, I am back after a long, long time. Was just checking out the forums, when I saw Samson about to commit the same mistake that I did, so here goes:
do NOT consider Samsung 1080PK. I had purchased the same, and it's a terrible player. Before Sammy owners pounce on me, I'll tell you the biggest problems with it:
1) Very finicky with USB drives. Sometimes plays the drive, sometimes doesn't (same drive). Specially if the drive has a number of files.
2) Hangs often. Yes, it actually hangs, and then you can't even switch it off. You have to disconnect the power.
3) The biggest issue I had was that it doesn't handle anamorphic files very well. Most movies that I had that were in 2.35:1 format appeared stretched (while Philips and LGs played them beautifully). The Samsung dealer I threw it back at claimed that it was 'intelligently filling up the screen': there's nothing intelligent about stretching the hell out of video making things look thin and tall. Made the main car in 'Cars' look like a Beetle. It's not a feature you can switch off.
The dealer was then kind enough to get me a LG DV388... he made a bundle, because the LG was way cheaper, and he pocketed the balance, but I was happy that I got a player that plays everything I throw at it. I have used multiple external HDD, including two designer Lacie's that I have, and they all work great (it takes a little time if you have a lot of files on the drive: even 2-3 minutes if you have hundreds of movies, because it browses thru all folders and makes a list first).
The one thing that I miss from the 1080PK was it's HDMI-CEC, which worked well with my PV8, and the LG remote does not control the Panny. I can, however, get a cheapo universal remote for less than 1500 (though the exercise does me good

The Philips 5996 is supposed to be very good, and I waited a long time but it never became available (at least till I bought the LG). The difference between the 5996 and 5986, from what I remember, was that the 5996 had a much better remote (with HDMI CEC as well).
Hope this helps!