Philips 5140 v 5960 v 5982

[wanderingsoul]

I've been reading up a lot on the Philips DVD players and a lot of them in my price range I can't find any decent comparisons on.

I'm leaning towards the 5140 since I still have a standard def TV, but I do like having USB support for DIVX/XVID files...

How are these other players in comparison to the 5140, playback-wise? Do they all support QPEL? Do any have problems continuing from a pause on a DivX/XviD file?

Right now, it's
5140 for 60$
5960 for 70$
5982 for 70$
Oppo 970 seems interesting too but it's >2x by budget

Any suggestions? I just find this really confusing, even after reading the Philips side-by-side comparison, these forums, and the player list...

BTW, are there any players in this price range that support MKVs?

[jagabo]

642 vs 5140, 3040, 5960:
http://home.wi.rr.com/ntngod/dvp642_vs_dvp5140/

5960 info:
http://www.phunkyfish.com/article/4/philips-dvp-596012

Some 5982 info later in the thread:
http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic...671775#1671775

[wanderingsoul]

http://home.wi.rr.com/ntngod/dvp642_vs_dvp5140/
http://www.phunkyfish.com/article/4/philips-dvp-596012
http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic...671775#1671775

Thanks, I read all that before.

I see that 5982 is supposed to be just a slightly better version of the 5960, but I'm wary since it's brand new...

There is no direct comparison between the 5140 and the 5960/5982 eg. no comparison of playback quality/range. Is it as good at playback as the 5140? Judging from posts, it seems slightly less reliable, but is it really?

[jagabo]

The 5982 has only hit the streets in the last week or so. It appears to be not much more than a 5960 with 1080p support.

I believe the 5140 has the same chipset as the 5960 so picture quality is similar. The USB port on the 5960 is useful if you sometimes want to just watch a downloaded file. I have a 5960 now and had a 642 a few years ago. The 5960 is much better.

I think your best bet is the 5960 because it's a well know unit and there are firmware hacks for long filenames, packed bitstream etc. It's not perfect but I think it's the best deal out there if you want a Divx/Xvid capable player.

[wanderingsoul]

I would think that 1080p is sort of useless since it doesn't have the bandwidth (or is it processing power ?) to play the files encoded at higher resolution anyway. The 5960 already has 1080i and 720p upconverting. I can't imagine the upconvert difference between 720p and 1080p from a 480p movie is going to look that much different, especially at this price point...

Thanks for the help jagabo! It really helps when someone lays it out so that I can understand it.
I think I was probably just confusing myself over all the info out there.

I think I'll end up going with the 5960, like you suggested. I just picked up a 2GB Sony Micro Vault Tiny (it's about as long as the diameter of a quarter!) and I'd really love to put it to good use

Thanks again!

PS: That remote is ugly

[jagabo]

I would think that 1080p is sort of useless since it doesn't have the bandwidth (or is it processing power ?) to play the files encoded at higher resolution anyway. The 5960 already has 1080i and 720p upconverting. I can't imagine the upconvert difference between 720p and 1080p from a 480p movie is going to look that much different, especially at this price point...

That's probably true for most HDTVs. But some don't have good inverse telecine circuitry to restore 1080p from 1080i so having the player do it can be useful.

One point about the USB port: it's a 1.1 port and has trouble with some high bitrate files. This usually isn't a problem with Divx files but VOB or MPG files ripped of DVDs often exceed what the 5960 can handle.

Yeah, the remote isn't much to look at!