Philips DVP-5990 player - A few questions

[DVantrease]

Hi gang, I am considering buying a new DVD player, the Philips DVP-5990, and I have a few questions. FYI, the primary reason I'm wanting to upgrade is for Divx support, although 'upconverting' and USB are nice bonuses!

1. The player says something like "upconverts to 1080i with HDMI output". My question: is HDMI required for upconverting, or is component ok? I'll only be upconverting to 720p, if that matters.

2. How well does 'upconverting' work? I just got my first HD TV, a 37" LCD which does 720p, and am wondering if I'll see a noticable difference from my old (non-upconverting) DVD player. I've seen technical websites that say in general, upconverting DVD players don't really work, but I've seen users claim that they do see a difference.

3. In another post, someone mentioned that there is a 14-character limit when displaying filenames from a USB flashdrive. Does this same limit apply to DVD-R discs? I like to name TV shows with the episode number and title, for example if I have Heroes season 1 on a disc, I might have episode 23 named:

"123 - How To Stop An Exploding Man"

but if I have a 14-character limit, it would display as:

"123 - How To S"

Is this correct?

Thanks!

[jman98]

1) Probably it will only upconvert non-CSS encoded DVDs (ie. DVD rips or homemade DVDs) via component. HDMI is required if you want to have the player upconvert ALL video sources, even DVDs with CSS. 720p makes no difference.
2) Well, your TV will upconvert if the player doesn't, so you don't have to have an upconverting DVD player. Some TVs do a better job than cheaper DVD players. You need to be the judge of this yourself by testing with your TV by sending it video that the player upconverts and video that is at 480p so the TV upconverts it and see which you like best.
3) Most likely the disc will also have a 14 character limit, but you'll have to test it. It is unlikely, but it could be a limitation only on external devices.

Note that I've seen some posts about some Philips player (don't remember the model) that has some hacked firmware that lets it display more than 14 characters on USB attached devices. You'll have to investigate that one on your own.

[jman98]

You're in luck - the firmware I was talking about is for the 5990. See here:
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic355675.html

[victoriabears]

The 5990 , to my eyes, displays a picture on my Sony Bravia 46 inch, as good (well 90%) as my oppo. Even through composite !, which I used just to make sure it worked fine.

[handyguy]

Dvds are set at 480i. Upconverting to 1080i doesn't do much, you can't create data where there isn't any. It's just like a digital zoom.

[jman98]

Dvds are set at 480i. Upconverting to 1080i doesn't do much, you can't create data where there isn't any. It's just like a digital zoom.

No, DVDs can also be 480p. This is becoming more common in the USA, but in other countries it is still quite rare to find anything but interlaced video on DVD.

I would say that upconverting is overrated for sure, but the fact is that 720p and 1080i/p TVs display video at those
resolutions and they have to upconvert everything that doesn't come in at that resolution. So like I said you can just have the TV do it if you wish, but your post might be taken to imply that you could simply display 480i video on a 720p or 1080i/p TV in 480i and that's not correct.

I would argue that it is not like a digital zoom at all. If you owned a good HDTV I don't think you would be making that statement.

[TBoneit]

Well hooking up the 5990 via HDMI was the only way to get the screen filled with DVDs.

To put it another way Via Component a 16:9 DVD showed a letterboxed video within a 4:3 display on the TV set. a S-Video input to the TV with a 16:9 doesn't fill the screen either.

With the Philips & HDMI that same 16:9 DVD fills the HDTV screen losing the lack bars on all 4 sides.

With the older 5982 via HDMI unless I pressed the upconvert button the screen didn't fill either. So for me upconverting makes my DVD watching much more enjoyable. Thus for me upconverting is a good thing.

YMMV depending on your TV. On mine with the VGA used for Computer display, HDMI, 2 Component, S-Video and Composite video I still ran out of inputs so the 7.1 receiver also doubles as a switcher for my older video equipment.