philips dvp5990 video cuts to black screen

[kolewrot]

At random times while watching either a burned dvd or something of a zip drive the video cuts out to a black screen. The file will continue to progress but is not seen. Hitting stop does not rectify the problem either. The player must be shut down and restarted. It generally happens after a few hours of viewing. I might also note the exact same thing happened on my older philips 5982. This problem is what prompted me to buy the 5990. Annoying, but not enough to ditch the player. Would love to know why though.

[aedipuss]

i'd guess bad encoding if it happens on both in the same places on the videos. maybe the total bitrate goes too high?

[kolewrot]

I was thinking that but after turning player off and back on you can forward to before it cut out and watch it all the way through. The problem also happens on a large variety of discs and always at a random spot. Never the same place twice.

[MJA]

did u update the firmware on both players? does it happen with retail DVD movies too? I own both players with no issues at all.

It generally happens after a few hours of viewing

that could be a heat/capacitors issue

[jagabo]

Overheating? Don't place the player on top of a 500 watt A/V amp, for example.

[filmboss80]

Before we completely blame the player, it might be a good idea to take a more definitive look at the video that it's trying to process. MJA asked if this was happening with store-bought DVDs or just your home-burned variety. Aedipuss also mentioned bad encoding and/or excessive bitrate. My feeling is that your Philips units are going into overdrive playing whatever it is that you're feeding them. You might want to look at your video files through GSpot before cursing your DVD players. I have 2 Philips DVD players, and they've never given me one second of grief. I just make sure they don't get abused with bad media or files with whacked out bitrates.

Jagabo also mentioned overheating. Is the unit getting proper ventilation?

[jman98]

At random times while watching either a burned dvd or something of a zip drive

Zip drive? Highly dubious. I think you mean "flash drive" which is a completely different animal. It helps to use the right terms around here.

I'd guess it's a heat related issue. Current DVD players require an enormous amount of free space so they can adequately air cool and many home users are not aware of this. Cabinet enclosures, which a ton of people like to use in their homes, rarely allow adequate ventilation, especially when the players are used for a long time. I've known of people who put their players in pause mode for 1 or more hours at a time rather than turn it off and this just adds to the heat buildup. I've seen firsthand what heat damage can do to destroy a working DVD player via a family member who has a cabinet for their TV and DVD players.

filmboss80's suggestion is worth doing, but highly unlikely to be the cause of your problem. If a file has problematic settings, DVD players won't play them at all from the start. Having problem files start to play and then cut out is highly unusual, but I suppose one should not rule out this possibility without checking it. I just find it unlikely that encode options used on your files are to blame here. This has all the hallmarks of a heat issue.

[kolewrot]

Haven't tested it with store bought dvds. Fairly hard to test considering it is a random problem. Heat issue is sounding like a winner since it mostly happens at least a couple hours into viewing. Bitrates probably a no. I have discs with files with nothing but 1200-1600 bitrates and it happens on them. Sorry for saying zip insteada flash drive. I'm not a technical wizard, I just try to squeeze by. Player is not enclosed but it is on top of cable converter box and under ps3(which is rarely on). will invest in one of those cooler pad things and see if that does it.

[cal_tony]

One of my 5990s freezes periodically( once every week or so, maybe less often) when viewing a movie thru a hard disk attached to the USB port. Have to momentarily unplug the unit to unfreeze it and than fast foward past the freeze point or it will refreeze at the same spot no matter how many times I try to play thru the bad spot. Play the same movie a few days later...and no problem.
Small inconvenience for me considering how many other things it does very well.
I wish my PS3 played movies thru the USB port as well as the 5990.

Tony