Philips DVP5140 or Toshiba 3990?

[MedievalMan]

I want to get a new DivX DVD player to replace my Philips 642.

Both are on sale now for $62 Cnd.

My #1 criteria is: XViD/DivX compatibility. From what I've read here, they are both about the same (eg. better than 642 that they can play bVOP, qPEL, custom quantization matrices, etc).
My #2 criteria is: if it has volume control (I know the 3990 doesn't, not sure about the Philips)
DVD and XviD/DivX quality would be next on the list.

Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance,

Matt

[MedievalMan]

Oh, #3 would be DTS capable. I only have red/white RCA connections available to my current speakers, and the DTS is the only one that works over there if the movie happens to have the encoding.

[FulciLives]

I don't know a whole lot about the Toshiba but from what I have heard the Toshiba is very picky about media ... is more picking about the XviD/DivX properties than the Philips DVP-5140 ... and just does not sound like a good solution.

The Philips DVP-5140 sounds like a really good XviD/DivX player from all that I have read about it which has been rather extensive.

The Philips DVP-5140 does have two major drawbacks ... which may or may not affect you ... depends on the person.

1.) It does not support DTS even when hooked up to a DTS capable receiver although I've heard it might work if the receiver has a DTS decoder built-in but hardly any due as they expect the DVD player to do the decoding which the Philips does not do.

2.) The Phlips has composite video and component video outputs but no S-Video output.

If your TV has component video inputs then the second pint is meaningless but some people get real grumpy if they don't have DTS support.

Another option is the Pioneer DV-393-S which pretty much has the same chipset as the Philips but it has S-Video output and supports DTS audio. It cannot be made region free like the Philips but you can buy it pre-modified to be region free ... at a higher than normal cost of course.

All three, the Toshiba, the Philips and the Pioneer will convert PAL DVD discs to NTSC but again the Pioneer must be bought pre-modifed to be region free. The Philips can be easily hacked to be region free by yourself using a simple remote control trick. The Toshiba can be bought pre-modified because again I don't think it is possible to hack it easily yourself, although I'm not sure about that.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[SingSing]

I want to get a new DivX DVD player to replace my Philips 642.
My #1 criteria is: XViD/DivX compatibility.
Matt

What did you guys get xvid/divx material ? Are they bang bang ?

[MedievalMan]

I was wondering, do I even need DTS? Is DTS the one transmitted over the stereo cables? Do typical XVid/DivX files (say with AC3 encoding) even use more than 2 channels?

Thanks.

Matt

[MedievalMan]

Ahhh. I think what I'm thinking of is Dolby Pro Logic (5 channel over stereo cables). Is it used in most DVD's or ac3/mp3 encoded DivX/Xvid files.

[MedievalMan]

I'm also considering another option since I kinda would like a bit better speakers too:

Yamaha DVX C300 (has the same chipset as the Philips 5140, assuming similar compatibility)
or
Yahama DVXS301S, not sure which DiVX chipset it has though.

since their on sale ATM.